Supercell-- Tanking Build of the Elemental Persuasion

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Athena the Gladiator
#1

Introducing Supercell, a tanking build of the elemental persuasion and designed for Vault Hunters who believe that defense wins championships. Its offensive potential lies in its ability to maintain constant forward momentum. Defensively, the build focuses on survivability through the use of a large capacity shield, purple Defender class mod, and constant shield regeneration via shock elemental effect and Conduit. Offensively, the focus remains on Maelstrom stack generation through consistent Storm Weaving+Elemental Barrage combined effect, while looking to apply the coup de grace when Unrelenting is active.

I previously wrote about The Perfect Storm, which described an effective method for quickly building and reaching a high number of Maelstrom stacks. While it is a lot of fun to use, it is more or less ideal for bosses or arena fights where mob density can tolerate stack building. Supercell captures some of Perfect Storm’s DPS potential using the same principles for Maelstrom stack generation but adds an extra level of durability at the cost of your potential rate of stacking due to the switch from Storm to Defender. It is fully capable of mobbing or raiding, solo or co-op, and still compatible with Storm should you ever feel it practical to go all out for Maelstrom stack generation.

##The Build:

##Supercell versus:

##Recommended Gears:

###Shield:

-Shield of Ages or Fabled Tortoise or Turtle (Capacity>Rate>Delay), Pangolin or Anshin parts for highest capacity

• I would highly recommend a Shield of Ages or Fabled Tortoise which will give you the greatest shield capacity. Turtle shields will also work incredibly well and also have the potential to come in various elemental immunities if you find one with a Maliwan capacitor.

-Reogenator or Adaptive

•Adaptive shields do not have the capacity of Turtle but they also function really well in this build simply because they need partial charge to have their Elemental Resistance in effect. With Conduit so easily activated and your shield continuously recharging you will have no issues keeping it active.

•Parts and stats are completely up to you. Some players favor greatest elemental resistance and health boost, others recharge rate and delay. I think it’s what you value more. I find Hyperion, Dahl, and Tediore parts to function really well on these shields.

###Weapons:

####Stacker (gaining Maelstrom stacks):

Hyperion Thinking, :zap: or :fire:
-Practicable >Potential>Reactive accessories

OR

Hyperion Bullpup, :zap: or :fire:
-Enforceable>Executive>Streamlined accessories

•This is your main stacking weapon. The two most important characteristics for stacking is pellet count followed by fire rate. For this reason, the Practicable (Enforceable) prefix is most desirable followed by the fire rate boosts that Potential (Executive) then Reactive (Streamlined) offer. Shock is the ideal element but Incendiary can stack also so it is an option.

####Glitched varieties

Consensus is that two options are valuable for your primary stacking shotgun:

OR

####Closer (Storm Weaving+Elemental Barrage+Unrelenting):

Hail :zap: or :fire:
-Rabid>Ferocious>Expansive accessories, NEVER Swift

• This assault rifle has incredible potential and is tailor made for Athena for applying the coup de grace.
â—¦Pellet split (x2 card damage)
â—¦+80% Splash Damage
â—¦+200% Type A crit
â—¦High base fire rate and minimal recoil
â—¦2% life steal

OR

Hyperion Development>Crowdsourcing>Face Time
-Practicable>Critical>Social, :zap: or :fire:

• Multi-barrel Hyperion shotguns are perfect for handling maximum fire rates generated by Unrelenting at high Maelstrom stacks. Much easier to use than the Hail along with better range.
• Glitched varieties are less beneficial for Closer because of Unrelenting+Elemental Barrage combo already in effect but if you can optimize then Yellow and Blue 0404 is ideal (@Ha_Na).

####Other notable Closers:

â—¦Party Line :fire: , Gentle accessory. One of the best Closers in the game for Athena. Flakker-esque but can actually continue to build Maelstrom stacks quickly with Unrelenting active.
â—¦ Shredifier :zap: or :fire:, Ferocious>Swift>Rabid. Not as effective as Hyperion shotties but if you need a good alternative to shotguns this is a very capable AR for generating Maelstrom and taking down bosses.
◦Flakker or Ravager for EXPLOSIONS???. Stack Maelstrom, Flash Freeze then swap. You won’t build stacks but it won’t even matter because things explode.

####Flash Freezer

Fatale :snowflake:

•Rightsizing>Proactive>Social accessories

•This SMG offers you a Cryo critical hit machine that offers excellent accuracy and synergy with high rates of fire and Aspis use. Storm Weaving ensures a high freeze chance on swap.
•One point Flash Freeze is enough to stop the bleed out of Maelstrom stacks when you are exclusively using Fatale for continuous crit damage .

####Other notable utility weapons:

•Taser :zap:, Win Win>Dynamic>Maximizing accessories. Awesome all around stats and especially useful for maintaining shock DoT, Conduit, and Maelstrom.
• Torrent :zap: or :fire:, Flying>Stopping>Deft accessories
•IVF, Hefty>Refill, for elemental reload spamming
•Fridgia, for freeze and swap tactics

####Grenades:

•Quasar for crowd control
•Storm Front for sustained shock DoT

####Oz Kit:

•Strafing Run :boom:, +Fire Rate and +Reload Speed while airborne.
â—¦Immediate boost to fire rate while airborne helps stacking significantly, especially in the early stages.

####Class mod:

-Defender class mod (5/4/4), Benevolent (+United Front), Shielded (+Conduit), Supercharged (+Superconductor), +Shield Capacity

•The shield tanking capability of this class mod because of its synergy with Phalanx-Ceraunic Storm Athena is incredible.

•United Front= significantly increases shield capacity, shield regeneration for you and nearby friends in the sphere of influence.

â—¦10/5= +40% Shield Capacity, Converts 50% of absorbed energy into
shield power
â—¦9/5= +36% Shield Capacity, Converts 45% of absorbed energy into
shield power

•Conduit= shield regeneration based on at least one Shock elemental effect being active and the number of Maelstrom stacks that you currently have.

â—¦10/5= 0.2% of shield capacity per stack per second
:black_medium_small_square:100 stacks= 20% per second
:black_medium_small_square:200 stacks= 40% per second
:black_medium_small_square:300 stacks= 60% per second

â—¦9/5= .18% of shield capacity per stack per second
:black_medium_small_square:100= 18% per second
:black_medium_small_square:200= 36% per second
:black_medium_small_square:300= 54% per second

•Superconductor= Aspis has a chance to shock any enemy that strikes it, generates 5 stacks per activation, can apply Shock elemental effect each time it triggers

â—¦10/5= 100% Shock Chance, +5 Stacks
â—¦9/5= 90% Shock Chance, +5 Stacks

To give an example of just how potent this combination is at shield regeneration. Under my current spec along with level 70 Supercharged Defender (9/5 United Front and +21500 Shield Capacity) and 10.5% Shield Capacity from BAR, the Shield of the Ages has a capacity of 305k. It will regenerate to full from zero in:

•5.56 seconds at 100 stacks (54,900 units per second)
•2.78 seconds at 200 stacks (109,800 units per second)
•1.85 seconds at 300 stacks (164,700 units per second)

Keep in mind this only factors in the regeneration rate that Conduit offers. If your shield regeneration kicks in then that would be added. However, the time to full regeneration is constant across shields. The advantage of running a Turtle Shield however, should be quite obvious. You regenerate a much greater amount of shield capacity in the same amount of time and this enables you to absorb a greater degree of damage, even constant damage from DoT is absorbed. So at a very modest stack count, which is easily achievable within the first magazine of your stacking weapon, you will have enough power to your shield without even the need for your Aspis for the majority of engagements.

One of the drawbacks of running these large capacity shields are their inherently slow recharge rate and long recharge delay. The Aspis, however, makes this a moot point as you can easily recharge your shield within the time that the Aspis is out just from the absorbed power from United Front and Conduit activations from shock weapons and/or Superconductor.

Superconductor at 9/5 or 10/5 is completely badass. Every time the enemy strikes the Aspis you’re generating a Shock discharge which stacks Maelstrom, strips shields, and triggers Conduit. So even if you need to swap to a non-shock weapon, you can still have active Conduit and ensure shield recharge through this skill.

So my fellow Gladiators, the Supercell gathers. Please feel free to drop a comment and share your opinion.

6 Likes
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#2

For Thinking, I recommend the Glitch-rarity ones if you can get them, since they have longer magazines and identical stats otherwise. Error Code O0L4M0A4 is my favorite, since it entirely avoids the glitches that reduce Fire Rate.

None of that really matters for the Development though, because by the time you whip it out, you’re neither reloading (glitch) nor spending the entire magazine (mag size). In that case, a Purple one with a nice Luneshine (Critical Damage or Ignore Shields) is probably better.

#3

Why Stalwart over Return Fire?

#4

Probably the extra health.

#5

Yeah, but the focus is shield tanking with Turtle-type shields. Conduit problably is going to keep your shield up, so Return Fire adds a nice boost to the build’s damage output.
Also, I don’t think that the extra helth is really needed in this spec

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#6

The green code on a thinking gives an extra 12 pellets (from 8 to 20 on practicable) which more than makes up for the slightly reduced fire rate.

Error Code O0L4M4A0 is really good.

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#7

Bro, see u have zero point in Overload, instead 5 points in superconductor. Is overload that less effective in stacking cs, thanks.

#8

I haven’t test Glitched weapons enough to include specific versions in my build. Anything that boosts pellet count and fire rate is going to be very helpful. But as @Sljm pointed out, it’s really a more important characteristic for your primary stacking weapon than it is for your Closer.

Is there a consensus from @Sljm @happyjack @Ha_Na @l_gabrielcruz on the top three Error Codes for Hyperion shotties? Since I’ve only found one (Development Green 04L4M4A4) any information and experience that you guys have with these will help out a lot since it is unlikely that I’ll be able to find all relevant Glitched weapons in a timely fashion.

In terms of Stalwart, I mainly picked it up for the health boost which offsets some of the loss from Turtle’s health reduction, and plays right into the health stacking feature of an Adaptive Shield. I know I stressed Turtle shields in my build but Adaptive are also an excellent choice. Plus, I’m a fan of health stacking and it fits well with the defense first theme. Return Fire is another nice Aspis skill but I felt like I already had the more relevant Aspis skill in Superconductor and wanted to address health.

But it’s five points that could also go into Ephodos, Return Fire, Overload, or Gun Kata if you fancy. Although if you invest in Gun Kata, you might as well take Omega Senshu. I decided to just stay committed to the Phalanx-Ceraunic Storm split.

#9

My experience is that it is slightly less effective at stack generation than Superconductor because it requires a kill from shock or incendiary DoT before it awards you stacks. I wouldn’t say that Superconductor or Overload are enough to really gain a lot of stacks. They keep your momentum going with Maelstrom and help particularly with Conduit, which is really important for Athena’s defense. Their damage also scales with Maelstrom so they can hit hard if you already have a decent amount of Maelstrom stacked already. But you’ll still have to be active with Storm Weaving+Elemental Barrage and a shotty to really build up stacks.

You could easily take 5 points from Stalwart drop them in Overload and also have compatibility with Hologram if you wanted to play exclusively to that and Superconductor for “free” stacks.

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#10

It looks like, anything with O0______, should do the trick.

I still think M_ could go either way, but I haven’t had occasion to test out which way it goes on Thinking in particular.

I’m inclined to think it would really depend on how much Unrelenting you had going when it kicks in.

A_ might actually be problematic due to the shield drain.

The Thinking I’ve been playing around with is O0L4M2A1, which is the Error Code people use on Railguns to get the yellow glitch and thereby the Vengeance Cannon glitch on Willy very often. It’s also got pretty low rates of the mixed bag glitches.

#11

Thanks for clearing it up bro.
Yellow and blue are best glitched for thinking.
Yellow for rof and free ammo and blue for extra amp damage, for athena shield is abundant.
Red sounds big but really it suits sniper or launcher or slow firing pistol and jakobs more. As for green on shotgun, nisha trickshot and Clappy close encounter should be fine, otherwise should avoid it if can.

#12

I’d say 0440 or 0404 on the Thinking, and definitely 0404 on any triple or quad barrels.

#13

Which means my 4444 Development is less than ideal. I tried it on the Sentinel just now and I thought my PS3 was going to blow up. Lagfest.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

#14

I can’t use Ack Ack and Development together on X360 (against EOS) as it locks the game completely :frowning:
Even without Ack Ack, i still get huge frame rate issues with a development and mostly use a thinking.
I’ve even resorted to using a Celestial instead of Storm class mod. Certainly won’t be doing any super quick kills of EOS with Athena on the 360.
btw, I use 0440 code on the thinking.

#15

I haven’t had alot of problems with EOS even with Storm. Invincible Sentinel lags regardless of class mod with 5/5 Unrelenting and max stacks.

#16

Bro tried the build, the shield is a bit overkill. The defender mod weakness vs celestial mod, no immediate recharged.

So decided to move the 5 pts heath skill, one each for kata and clarity (boost health too) to capitalize on the celestial mod and the rest to overload.
Results after a run from the start of dlc to motherlessboard, very tanky, and build cs so fast, about 500 stacks in few thinking reloads against one badass Trojan in 3 people co op, took down 3 Trojans personally without breaking a sweat.
I know you can start the action skill before the fight which I don’t for all my toons.
I like to play without action skill as much as possible, that is only activate when I am near dead. That is why celestial mod shield immediate recharge is important to my play style.
Anyway thanks for shield of ages recommendation, I thought only jack can make good use of it. Now my athena enjoy the shield more. :grinning:

#17

Thanks for the feedback. I can definitely see how Celestial would be helpful with your play style. It is another really good defense-first class mod but I think it’s debatable whether its immediate shield recharge and skill set trumps Defender’s combination of skills when it comes to tanking. For all intents and purposes Defender will also give you instant shield recharge between it’s three skills. The key difference is that you add a much greater depth of continuous shield regen while Aspis is out with Defender’s skillset and it doesn’t require you to be completely active with shock weapons to charge Conduit. Superconductor and United Front both manage your shield leaving you free to match elements to enemy type.

@Sljm uses both class mods in his Battery and Blue Steel builds so I’m sure he could add more to this debate of Defender versus Celestial.

#18

Celestial is more geared toward Health maintenance, while Defender is simply the best Shield maintenance.

#19

Oic, the purpose of using defender is about element choice. This is definitely a good idea as shock is getting stale on athena. BTW for this build to work, Aspis must be out all the time possibly? So I presumed when Aspis is off, shock on everything to regen shield?
I often wait till athena heath gated, jump, activate Aspis, damn that feeling of overcoming near death is just awesome.

#20

You said it better with far less words. Maybe Adaptive with Celestial to play more into health stacking?