Description:
This build is what I settled on for dealing the absolute maximum amount of damage in close-range combat, with several parts of the build focusing on healing, and plenty of combat ability at long-range. When surrounded by a mob of multiple enemies, you become a walking tornado of cryo and shock damage. The biggest weakness for this build are unfreezeable enemies, particularly bosses, and Eternals, whose laser status effects render your shield almost useless.
Skills:
The Huntress
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Markswoman (5+/5): Obvious choice for a sniper build. Extra Crit damage and extra aim speed for fast enemies that are hard to follow.
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Only the Best (5/5): This skill is mostly to help with sniping mobile targets, and also to counteract the mag-shrinking effect of Large Caliber.
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Culling the Herd (5+/5): This is useful not only for sniping, but for close range as well. Frozen enemies make easy targets to get easy crits off, especially with high fire rate weapons.
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Long-Range Killer (1/1): Self-explanatory buff to sniping from a long distance.
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Silver Lining (1/1): This skill is useful for all snipers, but when combined with the Plunkett rifle, getting long kill streaks means potentially never having to reload OR running out of ammo.
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I Never Miss (5+5): Racking up these is useful for any situation, but even more useful for large enemies with large crit spots. I like to farm these on Deck 13 1/2 in preparation for a battle like that.
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Magic Bullet (1/1): Health regen is an absolute must on this build, especially when combined with Frigid Touch.
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Large Caliber (5/5): Though the shrunken mag is a big downside, points in Only the Best at least remedies this for sniper rifles. Otherwise, the boost in gun damage is ideal for all the close-range combat situations.
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Prudent Prudence (5/5): If you jump into a mob of enemies with a Tediore shield on, this buff will virtually be constantly active. An already lethal build is made even better by the bonuses this provides.
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Custom Loads (1/1): Incredibly useful already, but combine this with Wintertide and an elemental sniper rifle, and you are making potentially triple-elemental shots. Combine with the Ack-Ack and you can even deal FOUR elements with each shot.
Cold Money
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Bitter Riposte (5+/5): The most important skill of this build. With a Tediore Shield, almost every attack will trigger a spike. When boosted by the appropriate Class Mod, this skill becomes utterly devastating. Most common enemies (even in UVHM) will be taken out by one or two darts. Additionally, with Frigid Touch active, your health will fully restore with every other dart.
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Short Summer (5/5): With this build, expect incredible amounts of stacks with each use of Cold as Ice. You’ll be racking up stats with your Cryo Weapons, Bitter Riposte, Winter’s Veil, Fragment Rain, at the very least.
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Frigid Touch (5/5): This skill, combined with a healing weapon, more than protects your vulnerable health points as your shield constantly goes down.
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Fragment Rain (1/1): Extra cryo damage to every combatant in the area? Yes, please.
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Frostbite (5+/5): Somewhat unremarkable on its own, unless boosted by a Class Mod. But in large groups, a huge number of Frostbitten enemies makes all the cryo damage your putting off all the more devastating.
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Polar Vortex (1/1): Already useful on its own, but if used with the Storm Front grenade, you can annihilate large groups of enemies with ease.
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Cold Advance (5/5): A must for this build. Nearby frozen enemies make easy targets to farm for Critical Hits. A few seconds to the head from the Vibra-Pulse is enough triple the duration of Cold as Ice.
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Winter’s Veil (5+/5): When combined with Bitter Riposte and a fast Tediore Shield, nearby enemies are in for an incredibly bad time.
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Wintertide (1/1): The already crazy amounts of Cryo damage you’ll be giving off with this skill tree become even crazier.
Weapons
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Vibra-Pulse: Your main weapon for large crowds. Its fantastic damage output and accuracy already make for an amazing laser. Then add in its chaining effect AND healing factor, and you have a weapon to both devastate crowds and keep your health up high.
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Hail: My choice weapon for large enemies and big critical hit spots, and for shooting over obstacles. It trades crowd control for raw damage and healing power.
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Nukem: The best FFYL weapon you could ever need. Badasses and status effects can easily frustrate close-range combat, but the Nukem is sure to hit anything nearby.
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Plunkett: My favorite sniper rifle with this build. Critical hits remove ammo straight from your ammo pool, and Silver Lining automatically add that bullet back on a kill. Not only a powerful and accurate sniper, but one with potentially unlimited ammo!
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OR Fremington’s Edge: One of the sniper rifles with the best zoom in the game, not to mention powerful, accurate, and amazing elemental possibilities.
Other Gear
Grenade:
- Storm Front: Any Tesla grenade is amazing with this build due to its crowd-control capability, but this really takes the cake. I choose this over the Quasar, as careful use of Polar Vortex can render the singularity effect redundant.
Shield:
- Purple Tediore shield: The most important gear you can have with this set. You know the one: low capacity, low recharge delay, insanely high recharge rate. With Bitter Riposte and Winter’s Veil, your shield becomes a weapon all by itself.
Oz Kit:
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Juggernaut: For really challenging fights, this focuses on protection. Your shield will constantly be going down, so grab one with Incendiary resistance.
OR - Ack Ack or System Purge: For less challenging crowds, this boosts your raw DPS output. System Purge is constantly useful in atmo, but you will find a surprising amount of utility out of Ack Ack, as your cryo damage will often freeze enemies in midair.
Class Mod:
- Creme de la Creme: This the gear that transforms Bitter Riposte and Winter’s Veil into nightmares. It also improves Tediore shields’ usefulness by a huge amount. For long range fights, though, best to switch to Big Game Hunter.