What is the best MOD to use with Fearsome Bessie?

[Geomason (- He who dares wins!)]

Hi there loot hunters,
I found my first Bessie last night and was wondering what is the best set up for using this rifle?
Because what I read on WIKI is quote:

"The Bessie gets all of its effects from its scope, the sight4_Jakobs_Bessie. Not only does it provide substantial stats boosts (Damage, Critical Damage, Projectile speed), it is also superior to the corresponding sight4 and even sight5, in terms of zoom in zoom.

From a strict mechanical point of view, the Bessie is a normal sniper rifle with a base +200% Critical Hit Damage bonus. The scope itself gives a multiplicative +150% Bonus, which makes the total critical hit damage of:

+200% × (1 + 150%) = +500% 

This subtle aspect of the Bessie means that when combined with a Sniper or Ranger class mod, the bonus will not be applied to the full +500%, but rather to the base +200%.

any tips?

[billthebetta (band)]

I never was a hardcore Sniper-only player, nor did I use the Bessie very extensively.

But.
I think the usual logic on these calculations, getting the most out of high-crit weapons, is to stack on as much damage as possible. If you want to see bigger damage numbers, stacking on raw damage will get you further than piling on more critical bonuses.

I don’t have the math behind that, but all that^ sounds familiar from BL2 Zero topics and etc.

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

If it works like it does in BL2, then that’s a good thing.

• How the card makes you think it works with a sniper com.
  • 2*(1+(5+1)) = 14x
• How it will work with multiplicative crit.
  • 2*(1+((2+1)*(1+(1.5))) = 17x

So you get more damage. And it becomes even more since a lot of certain enemies take increased additive critical damage, unlike the majority of BL2.

IIRC Knoxx takes +500% damage on a critical hit. Given (almost) all crit modifiers work additively in this game and Mord has Deadly, a UF would deal x920% on a critical hit while a regular masher would deal x820%. Still a decent difference, but not as great as compared to most flesh type enemies. Speed of kill is probably more down to RNG of GC procs.

Hopefully darrel can correct me if this isn’t how it works.

---

And I like to use the Bessie with the Specter COM. More times than not Lilith is my dedicated sniper, with Mordecai sticking to revolvers and repeaters.

But in terms of focusing on COMs that primarily boost damage instead of crit, you don’t have to do that for the Bessie I assume.

[darreltan2004]

Hmm, because the oldforums is gone, I’m not 100% certain on the calculations, but I am fairly certain that is not how its calculated.

IIRC, the +150% on the Bessie is additive to the critical bonus on the Sniper/Ranger class mod (which multiplies the bonus on your sniper rifle).

Hence, with a Sniper class mod, the calculations would go like:
2*(1+1.5+1) =7
as opposed to a Jakobs Thunder
2*(1+1) = 4

When calculated in conjunct with Mordecai’s other skills on a bandit enemy:
Bessie Critical Hit = 1 + 1.5 (EnemyZoneBonus) + 0.75 (Deadly) + 7 (Sniper Critical Hit) = 10.25
as opposed to a Purple Thunder
Thunder Critical Hit = 1 + 1.5 (EnemyZoneBonus) + 0.75 (Deadly) + 4 (Sniper Critical Hit) = 7.25

Of course on a Lance Enemy, the difference is even more indistinguishable
Bessie Critical Hit = 1 + 5 (EnemyZoneBonus) + 0.75 (Deadly) + 7 (Sniper Critical Hit) = 13.75
Thunder Critical Hit = 1 + 5 (EnemyZoneBonus) + 0.75 (Deadly) + 4 (Sniper Critical Hit) = 10.75

That said, the Bessie will still be the best Pump-Action Sniper Rifle because its Legendary Effect means it will still exceed a purple Thunder in base damage by a little bit and that additional crit means it will always win in calculations.

For Mordecai:
If using the Bessie against Bandit enemies (which you should), by calculations, the Sniper class mod should still win out against the Gunfighter and Ranger. IIRC, the Sniper still won by a tiny bit against Lance. I wouldn’t use the Bessie against Lance though. Any decent corrosive sniper should outperform it when utilizing an Assassin class mod.

In general, I would think that for per shot efficacy, Mordecai would win whenever Relentless procced, but Lilith with a Spectre class mod would perform better passively because of her BulletDamage buffs from High Velocity and Enforcer. A Warmonger Brick with +4 Revenge should be superior on kill if Relentless does not proc for the same reason as well. Loaded, Fast Hands and Killer do give Mordecai an advantage in utilizing a 3 shot version though.

[odiscordia]

maybe that. Bessie is 100 acc. Scoped but this would hip fire well also. I’ll bust her out and run some tests.