So. I was listening to Derch’s Gaige tree videos today (because I decided that what I like doing is absorbing as much info as I can while driving for work), and he made a couple of points, that I think a lot of people echo. And to an extent they’re not wrong. But I think they’re wrong because we have had a massive oversight in how we view The Anarchist. So. What he mentioned was that With Claws doesn’t fit as a Capstone on Anarchy, and that the Legendary Anarchist COM doesn’t make a lot of sense.
So, to review, the LegAnarch COM gives plus five to:
Myelin: shield capacity and Shock resist.
Strength of Five Gorillas: melee damage for Gaige and DT.
Unstoppable Force: kill skill with movement speed and instant recharge delay.
Smaller Lighter Faster: quicker reload, less magazine.
Typecast Iconoclast: chance of Bonus anarchy stacks.
Passives are: auto-anarchy. More Gun damage and less accuracy, it’s like having a bonus 20-40 stacks? I didn’t do the fancy mathematics here.
So. What am I getting at, because I’m very bad at getting to a point. I’m getting to the idea that I don’t thing these are unrelated at all. So. A Legendary COM assumes you are past Level 62. This means you most likely have a Capstone, and are heavily invested in multiple trees.
When we look at “Anarchist” in this game, I think a lot of times, we just see it as “the gun damage goes crazy, but you miss a lot”. But this game has never really been about penalizing us with skills, it’s been about using skill “penalties” to push us towards certain playstyles. Nisha is pushed towards Jakobs guns by words like “non-elemental” and buffs to the bottom 6 bullets and top one bullet in the mag. This makes us go “hey. I should use a gun with 6 or less bullets so I can always use these skills!”
On top of this, melee wasn’t designed to be a full build…maybe with Krieg…post original game, who knows. But. Melee was designed to be an “oh crap” button. That’s why roid shields are “when depleted”. You get kicked, and you flail and kill an enemy to proc skills to get back on your feet. This is why I don’t like the “why put a melee skill on a non-melee character” argument. Because every character should have some cool melee thing. As much as this is a first person shooter, it’s an RPG. And part of the RPG Experience is that you respond to situations as they come and sometimes, you gotta swing.
Word of warning. I LOVE With Claws. Do I think it’s a Terrible Capstone? Yeah. It would have been a better mid tree skill attached to Robot Rampage, which a Capstone should have then Buffed. But that’s just my dream. But I love the thematics of With Claws. She created a monster bot…and then the monster bot made her. With Claws is such a character defining moment, that I want it regardless of my build. (Though my Sniper AoE Gaige will not have it because that one will be the antithesis of anarchy.)
So, back to defining The Anarchist. We keep looking at Anarchy Gaige as “you miss a lot, but when you hit, you hit hard. That’s the chaos of it. But close enough can balance it out”. And sure. Close Enough does synergize nicely with Anarchy. There’s a certain number of stacks where your new damage means missed shots still can do full original gun damage. But Close Enough isn’t part of the Anarchist build. And Anarchy isn’t designed to “make you miss”. It’s designed to push you into close quarters, where you stick a gun right into a psychos mouth and fire. DFA is an AoE attack that’s SUPPOSED to proc as you jump over an enemy to get to a squishy-er one and make everything fall apart in the process. Yeah, it’s bugged so it barely works that way, but they had a hope for it.
Now, you build up anarchy stacks. Move in super close. And you’re landing every bullet because the barrel is IN the enemies. You’re reloading fast and often. Shock novas. Shock DoTs. Stuff dying…but then something big gets at you and you’re not ready. It breaks your shield, and your ammo ran out and a reload will get you killed. SWING. If you’re wearing a melee shield, you take that damage, bonus that up with your Anarclaws, and you take out the big bad guy. Your shield recharges. Your health is up.
So. The Anarchist is a close combat warrior who knows that sometimes she has to get her claws dirty. She’s ready to tear things up with a gun, but sometimes, being up close means doing things with your bare hands.
But an Anarchist is also a mess maker. Chaos aficionado. So we loves our grenades. A Storm front. Or a Moxxi slow hand. And since shock can break your grenade and these things can’t hit you…we’ve got myelin. To increase the shield capacity and block some of that shock we’re surely gonna get on ourselves. But that shock can break our shield. Which then gives us a roid. Which then kills an enemy. Which pops Unstoppable Force, which let’s us either move to the next target, or get out, all while keeping a DoT away for 7 seconds as our shield keeps regenerating.
And so. I think that covers all the skills on the LegAnarch COM. I’m not sure if this had a point or if it matters, but it’s just something I couldn’t stop thinking about for the past two hours, and felt like sharing. So. Thanks.
-blood and metal
(Edit. Up there I said something about melee not being a full thing. I realize and recognize that Zer0 is a very very good sword killer and that is a very legit and actually designed build. I am running on having worked a month of 17 hour days and just made a very weird sweeping generalization that I…vaguely stand behind? But also know I’m wrong? Like. I think melee was designed to be blended in to your tool kit. I think even with melee Zer0, that melee wasn’t INTENDED to be the full focus. And I think that’s what I’m getting at? Idk. My blood is mostly caffeine and I can see noises)