Meredith Lives: A tribute to MidnightNova

Borderlands 2 Gaige the Mechromancer
#1

l absolutely loved @MidnightNova’s Jakobs build for Gaige and ran it at OP8, and I’ve started using it as my primary build for her at OP10. (Note: I did get Novas permission to post this)

The Spec
https://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555010150121555050000050410152151040

BFFS
CE 5/5 Since l use a bunch of multi pellet guns, this is very useful. Same reason l use Nth Degree
CUT 5/5 Even though l use a mag size relic l will usually have at least one gun fully loaded and with my COM of choice l will heal 4%HP per second
TBH 1/5 l am using the Unforgiven, so a 84% fire rate buff with my COM is awesome
Fancy Math 5/5 Since l’m relying heavily on my shield for survival, and my shield also has long recharge, this helps. Especially against DoTs
Upshot Robot DT is a good distraction and deals OK damage, so l want him out as much as possible
UF 5/5 This is really good for getting around, almost like a mini F0ll0w Thr0ugh that also gives shield
MoSS 1/5 For the 50% :fire: resistance
20% cooler 2/5 Just to get down the tree, you can put the 2 points wherever
SiC This gives Deathtrap the Blockade to let him be tanky

LBT
More Pep 5/5 To get down the tree, and increase slag chance, which helps with lO
Myelin 5/5 For more shield, as well as protection from :zap: damage
Shock Storm 5/5 This is a fun skill, and allows to strip shields of enemies near the :zap: novas
lO 5/5 This is one of my only methods of slag so it’s a must have

OC
Anarchy and SLFare both obvious
BSS 5/5 Since my shield has long recharge, this is a great skill
Typecast 5/5 For better stacking
Discord To prevent from losing stacks, and l like to spam reload the Unforgiven to make it shoot faster
Rational Anarchist For better stacking
The Nth Degree 4/5 l really don’t need 5/5, doesn’t make much of a difference and l want to put the 1 point elsewhere

The Gear

Slot 1:Tumtum/Skookum SkuIImasher with Jakobs grip and Dah or Hyperion stock. This gun hits Iike a TRUCK, even though the Amigo Sincero hits harder, l prefer the Skullmasher because of its synergies with Gaiges ricochet skills, and l find that the pellet count allows me to hit things easier

Slot 2:Boss/Flush Bekah with Jakobs, Bandit, or Torgue grip and Dahl or Torgue stock. This is by far the best AR in the game, and has good synergy with CE and Nth Degree. It also stays fairly accurate with Anarchy

Slot 3:Docs/Rustlers Striker with Jakobs, Bandit, or Tediore grip and Hyperion or Torgue Stock. This Gun was used in the OG Jakobs build, and l can see why. This gun hits like a truck on crit, and is very accurate. And if l miss some pellets, CE and Nth will let them hit other enemies

Slot4: DastardIy/ Two Fer’ Unforgiven with Jakobs or VIadof grip. This gun stays very accurate with anarchy, and hits hard. Since TBH gives almost 100% fire rate, its really good with Gaige

Shield: Blockade with all Pangolin parts. I would use the Rough Rider, but Gaige is the one character that doesn’t have benefits from a downed shield, in fact, her defense relies almost solely on shield. l run all Pangolin for the capacity, Gaige has a lot of ways to recharge her shield, so those parts are ideal. If you prefer better recharge stats, you could replace one part with Hyperion, or have 2 Hyperion and 1 Pangolin

Grenade: Longbow/Lobbed Slag Transfusion Sooo, l would normally say that Longbow is the only good deployment, but my buddy @Vizynz was talking with me about how its easier to aim with a Lobbed deployment while behind cover. This nade is my main healing and slag

Relic: Jakobs Allegience with Accuracy Recovery and Mag, which helps with spamming my faster firing weapons

COM: Prodigy with +6 TBH for the Unforgiven, and CUT for heals

Gameplay video here

8 Likes
#2

Will have to try it based on your post.Good stuff! Thanks!:+1:

1 Like
#3

I knew this was about to happen, and yet I was incredibly surprised to see the ‘@’ in my feed. I am honored to see that this build got enough traction for an OP10 variant to be around. I can only say thank you for that.
I will make sure to watch the video, and that proper credits are given in my own thread as well.

3 Likes
#4

Hey, l can onIy say thank you for making such a bad*ss buiId ^^

2 Likes
#5

MoSS is not as bad as I thought. It is effective against self-damage, especially incendiary and fire damage. Not so sure about hostile damage…

I hit myself (playing as a level 44 Mecromancer) with level 34 incendiary singularity grenades while not wearing a shield and not using any skill points. I compared the results to the damage sustained by a level 35 firing-range dummy.

The blast damage was 8147 with MoSS at 0/5. The dummy took exactly twice that amount (16296). So self-damage appears to multiply the damage resistance denominator by 2.

16296 / 2(1 + 0.00) = 8147

MoSS at 1/5 offered additional protection. I took 8067 damage. I figured the formula to be:

16296 / 2(1 + 0.01) = 8067

That is unexpected. I think Gearbox changed the damage reduction values (1%, 2%, etc) listed in the skill lore. Instead of a 1% reduction, they used 1% resistance as 0.01 in the equation above.

MoSS at 2/5 reduced the damage to 7988.

16296 / 2(1 + 0.02) = 7988

So Gearbox appears to have used exactly 0.02 to represent a damage reduction of 2%. They did not use 0.02041 resistance value derived from a 2% reduction value. The actual damage reduction is 1.96%, a peculiar number to choose.

MoSS at 3/5 reduced the damage to 7910.

16296 / 2(1 + 0.03) = 7910

And so on…

MoSS at 5/5 reduced the damage to 7759.

16296 / 2(1 + 0.05) = 7759

MoSS at 10/5 reduced the damage to 7407.

16296 / 2(1 + 0.10) = 7407

MoSS greatly reduces self-inflicted burn DoTs as reported elsewhere on this forum. My experiment shows similar results.

MoSS at 0/5 results in a self-damaging DoT accumulation of 4932. The dummy takes much more damage, 12836! That’s a 61.6% damage reduction.

MoSS at 1/5 results in a DoT total of 2191. That’s an 82.9% damage reduction.

MoSS at 10/5 is crazy. The DoT total was a mere 1425 points. That’s an 88.8% damage reduction.

I have no evidence that hostile bullets, grenades, or rockets will be so greatly mitigated. Failsafes are not necessarily applied to enemy assaults.

1 Like
#6

thats…a lot of numbers. but i didnt know that it got that high, i thought 11/5 would only give 61

1 Like
#7

Not that I have thought a good deal about where I would put the points, but is the investment in LBT to get IO really worth it over just using magic missile?

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#8

It depends on your weapons and playstyle, and how many points you could throw into IO and More Pep. With 10/5 and 10/5 you pretty much slag everything with 2 or more IO stacks. Invest less in either skill and you need to build up more stacks, which will probably conflict with that “shoot everything as much as possible” style that gaige excels in.

1 Like
#9

how can you spec moss at 0/5. :wink:

#10

Not everyone uses a Magic Missile though.

1 Like
#11

One point in IO is useful for me. If my health is low, one shot with the Grog Nozzle (or maybe a Rubi) can refill the entire health bar. ( Transfusion grenades can take too long to deploy and return health. ) The bonus slag damage from IO is based on character level, so it’s worth millions at 5 stacks of Interpersed Outburst. You will probably not slag an overpowered enemy at 1/5 skill points. But the Grog is good for that function regardless of IO. Slag grenades seem to have a high chance to apply slag.

1 Like
#12

True, but I need transfusions for healing, sometimes its unsafe to run up and claw enemies

#13

Transfusions are too slowing acting for me, which is why prefer claws or just the Grog Nozzle.

If I might suggest one tweak to the overall build — replace the Blockade with an all-Pangolin Antagonist. It is pretty tough against bullets and the seeking slag balls are really useful.

#14

You do realize this is a Jakobs build right?

2 Likes
#15

Jakobs makes the Blockade shield?

#16

It’s the closes thing to one Gaige can use. Gear wise you use Jakobs where possible (and that means no Grog either).

The build uses I/O for a reason.

Also, I will leave this here.

3 Likes
#17

I’m gonna put a video for the new version of the build, not a ton of changes but its worth editing the thread over