Thanks to dwlr for the great artwork!
Inspired by Chuck80’s guide to Salvador’s class mods (not posted at the time of my porting this over from the old forum), this guide explores every one of Krieg’s class optimization mods (or COMs for short) in the game, as a supplement to the Top Gear guide.
Wiki Article on COMs in Borderlands 2.
My guide to Krieg’s Skills.
While this provides a concise reason for each COM, do be aware that the ranking is dependent on my opinions/experiences/playstyles, and are liable to be changed. That out of the way, let’s dig into the COMs.
All COMs in the game provide various passive bonuses, as listed on the item card. A sickle mod with +50% melee damage will add +50% melee damage to Krieg right off the bat while it’s equipped. In addition, all COMs above White level rarity increases the rank of a skill or skills and can increase the rank over 5/5 (up to a cap of 11/5 with a Blue COM). However, the bonuses are only applied if you already have a rank in the skill that is boosted. In the above example, you would only get a bonus to silence the voices (scream sickle) if you already have at least 1 point specced into it.
Rarity of COMs are as follows:
White COMs only provide their bonus(es) with no skill boost.
Green COMs will provide the same bonus(es) as white COMs, and will boost one of the 3 skills listed in their entry by a maximum of +5 (starting at level 50).
Blue COMs will have the usual bonus(es), and will boost 2 skills out of the 3 listed, one by +6 and the other by +5. Blue rarity COMs are the only way to get a skill boost of +6.
Purple COMs will also provide the basic COM bonus(es), and will boost all 3 skills listed, one by +5, the other 2 by +4 at maximum.
Legendary COMs will have the usual bonuses(es), but will boost 5 skills @ +5 each with two exceptions: the legendary psycho boosts six skills @ +5 each, and the Slayer of Terramorphous will boost 5 skills @ +4 each.
The ranking system I’ll be using is the same one used in most other guides:
Bad: Unless there are no other options, I would not recommend using these.
Average: These are not terrible COMs but you should look to replace them when you can.
Great: These are excellent COMs and are acceptable replacements for Outstanding COMs if you do not have one for your play style yet.
Outstanding: These are the best COMs you can have for Krieg, with many popular builds centered around these COMs.
While Purple guns are almost invariably better (barring uniques) than Blue guns, the same cannot be said of COMs, the color and skill boosts of the ideal version of each COM will be noted; if there are several variations that depend mostly on personal preference I will list each of them.
Barbarian Average to Great depending on mod and equipment.
The COMs from Tiny Tina’s DLC don’t follow the normal naming convention, but you’ll get two different bonuses depending on the prefixes:
Accuracy: +31% (“Lawful” in the name)
Critical Damage: +45% (“Evil” in the name)
Fire Rate: +31% (“Chaotic” in the name)
Magazine Size: +73% (“True Neutral” in the name) or +45% (“Neutral” in the name)
Reload Speed: +45% (“Good” in the name)
Prefixes:
Chaotic Evil
Chaotic Good
Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil
Lawful Good
Lawful Neutral
Neutral Evil
Neutral Good
True Neutral
Variants of the Barbarian class mod may grant the following bonuses up to:
+6 Blood Trance
+6 Fire Fiend
+6 Salt the Wound
Ideal: Chaotic Evil. Krieg already has skills that boost mag size, reload speed, and gun damage, but none that boost critical hits. This is a great mod for taking on the Dragons and for anybody that likes to be up close and personal with their foes and doing a lot of critical hits. Note that Pain is Power will reduce the damage of said hits.
Derch1981 has posted a great guide about the various COMs and what weapons they compliment well (not posted here as of this post).
Blister Great
+Grenade Capacity, +Kill Skill Duration
Fuel the Blood (Diesel)
Blood Overdrive (Driven)
Blood Bath (Blood)
Ideal: Blood Blister (make sure you have the patch that changes it from boiling blood to BB) if you’re primarily using guns instead of melee. Blood Bath is one of those skills that cannot be overrated. This COM can be surpassed by the Legendary Reaper despite the extra grenades. I prefer the LR, but some prefer a Blister.
Crunch Great.
+Explosive Damage
Taste of Blood (Tasty)
Blood Trance (Dazed)
Strip the Flesh (Flesh)
Ideal: Flesh Crunch. Max out Strip the Flesh, add in a +6 FC mod, and you’re looking at over 35% explosive damage plus what the mod adds. This is the corner stone for a lot of explosive builds and will serve anybody who likes explosions very well. If you’re not using explosive weaponry, this COM won’t do a whole lot for you. Note that explosive centric builds tend to lose effectiveness in the OP levels. Starting around OP 4, you might need to switch over to a Legendary Reaper for the blood bath bonuses or a Legendary Sickle for the melee bonuses.
Meat Great
Health Regeneration, +Shield Recharge Delay
Empty the Rage (Rage)
Embrace the Pain (Pain)
Salt the Wound (Salt)
Ideal: depends on your playstyle. If you like melee, use a Rage. If you like shotguns, go for a Salt. If you want the extra fire rate when your shields are down, use a Pain. This is a great starter melee mod, but the sickle provides so much more. Surpassed by both the legendary psycho and sickle COMs.
Reaper Average
+Team Kill Skill Duration
Blood Twitch (Twitchy)
Blood Overdrive (Driven)
Fuel the Fire (Fuel)
Ideal: the Reaper COM isn’t as great as the Blister. I’d recommend a twitchy if you do a lot of slagging and swapping, but I would drop this in a heartbeat for something else.
Sickle Great
+Melee Damage
Fuel the Blood (Diesel)
Empty the Rage (Rage)
Silence the Voices (Scream)
Ideal: either a rage or scream, with scream edging out rage if you have StV specced. This will likely be your first melee COM and will hold you in great stead until you can get a legendary sickle COM @ 61+. A Scream Sickle is the preferred COM for soloing Hyperious using release the beast, a rapier, and a Hide of Terra. You would use the rapier until RtB was available. Start wailing on him until you go down, stab him in the knee a few times and then turn to one of his minions. Dank Raft has a whole guide on how to take down different raid bosses linked in the community guides sticky on the front page.
Check out the Legendary Sickle COM section for a mathematical comparison between these two mods.
Slab Average
+Max Health
Thrill of the Kill (Gore)
Fuel the Rampage (Rampaging)
Feed the Meat (Beef)
Ideal: Beef. While buffing Krieg’s health is a great idea, a meat COM would serve better when meleeing and Thrill of the Kill doesn’t need more than 1 point to be effective. Fuel the Rampage is next to useless after you spec into Release the Beast except as a safety net if you miss-time RtB. Note that speccing into FtR means that your friends can hurt and even kill you with their guns and action skills.
Toast Great (Piphoff)
+Burn Chance, +Magazine Size
Pain is Power (Power)
Fire Fiend (Burnt)
Elemental Elation (Razed)
Ideal: Razed with +5 to Fire Fiend. Not only does EE increase your mag size, it also increases your fire rate and stacks won’t decay while you’re on fire. Plus Fire Fiend will give you extra accuracy and reload speed, both are helpful in a firefight. If you’re a Hellborn lover, this is a great COM.
Torch Average
+Burn Damage
Burn, Baby, Burn (Blaze)
Fuel the Fire (Fuel)
Flame Flare (Flare)
Ideal: Blaze. Because so many enemies start to become resistant to fire, trying to set them on fire becomes an exercise in futility. Plus the skills it boosts aren’t that great. Flame Flare also starts to become rather dangerous the higher you spec into it. Grab a Toast COM instead.
Wound Bad
+Fire Rate After Kill
Blood Twitch (Twitchy)
Taste of Blood (Tasty)
Boiling Blood (Hot)
Ideal: Twitchy if you slag and swap. Krieg already has skills that increase his fire rate and this COM is next to useless for a melee oriented character. Plus Taste of Blood is only active while rampaging and you cannot fire a weapon while doing so. Grab a sickle or blister instead.
Legendary Pyscho Great
+Burn Damage, +Magazine Size, +Shield Recharge Delay
(All skill bonus are +5)
Blood-Filled Guns
Blood Twitch
Empty the Rage
Feed the Meat
Burn, Baby, Burn
Fuel the Fire
This is an outstanding COM until you can get a Legendary Reaper or Sickle. The bonuses to both melee and gun damage will help in any playstyle. It’s also the first legendary COM you’re likely to come across because it can drop @ 50 instead of 61 like the other three legendary COMs.
Legendary Reaper Outstanding
+Team Kill Skill Duration (up to 99%).
(All skill bonus are +5)
Taste of Blood
Blood Overdrive
Blood Bath
Thrill of the Kill
Fuel the Fire
Unlike the normal Reaper COM, this one boosts Blood Bath, which @ 10/5, will give you a 500% bonus to all of your guns after killing an enemy with explosives. With a max kill skill duration of 99% (unlike the Diesel’s 66%), you’ll also have BB active for much longer. If you’re a run and gun player, this should be your go to COM.
Legendary Sickle Outstanding
+Melee Damage (up to +55%).
(All skill bonus are +5)
Taste of Blood
Fuel the Blood
Empty the Rage
Silence the Voices
Pain is Power
This COM more than rivals a Scream Sickle because of the boosts to both Empty the Rage and Silence the Voices. Plus its melee damage boost can go higher. Add in the damage reduction bonuses of Taste of Blood and you can be nigh unstoppable while rampaging with Release the Beast. A must have for melee-centric players. Don’t waste your points in Pain is Power unless you have some to spare.
The math for anybody interested:
Krieg’s action skill (buzz ax rampage) gives him a boost of 500%.
Empty the Rage gives a base boost of 20%, plus another 50% if your mag is empty or your shields are down for a total of 70%.
Salt the wound adds 7.5% melee damage per stack, up to a max of 20, for a max of 150%.
Silence the Voices gives an extra 250% bonus.
Release the Beast gives an extra 100% bonus.
Pain is Power gives an extra 25% bonus, with an extra 50% bonus when on fire, for a total of 75%.
So, all told, you can have up to 935% melee bonus.
A scream sickle with +6 StV, +5 EtR, and the highest melee bonus (44%) would be an extra 744%, for a total of 1679%. A legendary sickle with the highest melee bonus (56%) would be an extra 856%, for a total of 1792%*. A rage sickle with +6 EtR and +5 StV would give 1641%.
Legendary Torch Great
+Burn Damage
(All skill bonus are +5)
Embrace the Pain
Burn, Baby, Burn
Fuel the Fire
Elemental Elation
Flame Flare
If you’re not using Krieg’s action skill, this COM could come in handy due to its increased fire rate, increased Elemental Elation, and Increased elemental chance on kill (Kailbur). I would recommend a Legendary Reaper over this due to the kill skill time increase, the +5 to Blood Bath and Fuel the Fire, and the resistances of enemies, especially fire, in UVHM.
Slayer of Terramorphous Bad
+Burn Chance, +Burn Damage, +Max Health
(All skill bonus are +4)
Blood Trance
Thrill of the Kill
Strip the Flesh
Burn, Baby, Burn
Flame Flare
This COM is surpassed by the Blister, Toast, and Flesh Crunch COMs, as well as the Legendary Psycho and Reaper COMs. Don’t bother unless you don’t have something better; it’s really not worth the trouble of getting it.
