[Work in Progress] Raging (Storm)!

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Athena the Gladiator
#1

Hey guys, what’s up?
A little time ago I tried to made a thematic build with the Spadroon and the Star Wars universe. It was funny, but I figured out that the Spadroon can really shine with Athena so I’m trying to max its effectiveness.

The build I’m thinking is this one.

Of all COMs, the Storm looked the best: It gives % damage for the Spadroon in the card, Fire Rate with Unrelenting and Storm Weaving and a way to maintain your stacks between areas. Also, Unrelenting helps with Storm Weaving because of the Swap Speed it adds.

The main goal of this set up, as I said, is to max out the effectiveness of the Bright Spadroon.
I don’t care about the Aspis damage, so I only spec Ephodos on Phalanx. It gives me damage and movement speed and that is enough by now. It’s a lv 50 spec so I don’t have points to go down to Prismatic Aegis.

On Xiphos, I went down all the way to Blood Rush.
Gun Kata, Omega Senshu and Tear help with the damage output while Mercurial and Blood Rush allow me to move faster and close the gap to properly use the Spadroon. Rend makes all work.

Ceraumic Storm is what makes the Spadroon awesome with Athena.
Maelstrom and Storm Weaving are mandatory but helps a lot with the damage output. Malestrom increases shock damage and Storm Weaving allows the others skills to shine.
Conduit gives you a lot of protection because you will be “freezing” your stacks time by time.
Unrelenting let you hit the damage cap of the Spadroon faster and also helps with the Swap Speed. Smite just obliterates things and, because of Blood Rush, you are almost all the time airbone.
Elemental Barrage makes your Spadroon basically a real light saber: you can put the light out almost all the time. The huge magazine size and the free shot chance can make you feel almost a gunzerker, just hold down the trigger. This also allows you to constantly hit with the continous damage cap and slice through the mobs.
Zeus’ Rage is just a stack generator to be honest, it’s just one point at all.
Flash Freeze was ranked bad by many, but is what actually makes this set up exist. Carry a Cryo gun with High chance like the Mining Laser or the Frigda and you can maintain your momentum through the areas while mobing. With a purple Storm you can maintain your stacks for 5 seconds, enough until the next mob spawn.

The best all around Oz Kit is the 3DD1.3: it gives you Laser damage, Air Control and Shield Capacity.
For Grenades, use something to build stacks. Teslas, Storm Front and the Quasar are the best options here.

This is just theory by now, I havent reached 50 with my Athena and dont have the necessary gear to try this out by now but I really need to know what you think about this!
I have a similar build for lv 60 whit the Chronicler of Elpis, but I think Im sticking with this one.

So, any feedback is welcome!
Also, with time Im going to edit this properly :slight_smile:

How would you build a Jedi Athena?
#2

Since Raging Storm is already my main class mod and my 60 build is pretty close to what you’re doing, I’ll go get a Spadroon next I’m on and test it out. But I already like where you’re going with this at 50.

The one skill I feel you may want to take a second look at is Gathering Tempest. Solid DPS skill for a variety of builds but it’s really important for Elemental Barrage when you’re trying to get those deep mags. It’s really easy to blow through standard mag size with Storm Weaving and Unrelenting active especially while you’re building Maelstrom stacks to buff Elemental Barrage.

Also don’t rule out the other purple Oz kits. My preference is for Strafing Run but Precision and Acrobat can be really good also in a hybrid build like this.

#3

I didnt pick Gathering Tempestade because of the already big magazine size of the Spadroon

#4

Right. I picked up a Spadroon and headed off to Holodome Badass Round.

Build

Since you mentioned Prismatic Aegis in your OP I took Hold the Line and Vanguard with the extra points and 1 in Clear for FFYL damage boost.

Gear:
Spadroon, Cutting Fatale, Practicable Thinking (Shock), Impetuous Hellfire, Fabled Tortoise, Eddie, Longbow Quasar, and blue Raging Storm (42% Electrocute Damage +6 Storm Weaving, +5 Unrelenting).

After a bit of an adjustment getting used to the range of the Spadroon since I hadn’t used it in quite some time (very first playthrough), I got going and it proved to be an absolute beast at taking anything down. Just a couple of negatives about it. First, the larger enemies’ crit spots were often out of range unless I was right underneath them. Second, Blood Rush’s knockback will put the enemy out of range of the Spadroon.

What I ended up doing was freezing then Blood Rush to apply bleed and swap to Spadroon. This pretty much was the pattern for the whole of the fight. I used my Practicable Thinking (personal favorite) quite often to keep Maelstrom stacks up as the Spadroon wasn’t very productive on that end. It’s a finishing tool once you’re in it’s range and Tear is active.

Because of this you may want to consider a purple Dominator class mod for this build. It’s much more conducive towards the close-quarters playstyle required of the Spadroon. I can see it outperforming Storm.

Anyways, I hope some of this helps. Badass round was completed easily abusing the Spadroon by the way.

#5

Yeah, I thought about the Dominator but it’s kinda the same.
You trade the damage on card for the Tear damage, and the fire rate plus Fury of the Arena for Unrelenting and Storm Weaving. The thing is that with the Storm you can maintain your stacks for 5 seconds.

Also, for building stacks you can use a low lv Tesla. I thought about using a Bomber Oz Kit for this purpose instead of the 3DD1.3.
Or even the System Purge for more burst damage, but it would be overkill because of Smite.

#6

I tried out Dominator at the Holodome and it seemed more potent than Storm at finishing off enemies with the Spadroon. But one thing that was noticeably affected was the secondary effects of Storm Weaving on the other Ceraunic Storm skills, specifically, Maelstrom stacking and Conduit for defense. I didn’t have Bloodlust but I would probably take it if I used Dominator since Conduit wasn’t as good at keeping my shield topped out.

I’ve never seen the point of low level grenades for stacking purposes and wouldn’t advocate it. At level does just fine and you give up too much damage otherwise.

#7

With the Dominator I would move 4 points of Mercurial to Bloodlust if Conduit wasn’t enough.

I thought about the Chronicler of Elpis with this set up for lv 60.
Bloodlust could help with survivability and Overload with building stacks. Also, you still have Unrelenting and Flash Freeze to maintain your stacks. I have to do some testing, but is 3 seconds enough to maintain your stacks between areas?
Not to mention Tear at 9/5 and the shield boost provided by the COM card.

About the low lv Tesla, it’s because a Tesla at lv would wipe out all the Scavs for you before the Spadroon come out. But I can use it without problem, but only with a Bomber Oz Kit for spaming and building stacks.

#8

Also, I was thinking about one thing: If Blood Rush put the enemy away from the Spadroon’s range wouldnt be better to invest in a Phalanx/Ceraunic Storm setup with Omega-Senshu in Xiphos? Like a 23/10/24 set up with Superconductor taking Elemental Barrage place and adding Overload and Hades’ Shackles to the mix. Due to the in the face playstyle the Spadroon would still be usefull and Overload, Supercondutor and Prepary for Glory could help with building stacks and keeping badies at close range.
Put in the Mix the new Hologram COM and you have both Overload and Superconductor at 90%, not to mention Flash Freeze if you want. And I like Flash Freeze in theory :slight_smile:
Also, you can have something to add to your movespeed besides Ephodos, like the Slammer or a Oz Kit - Even the Acrobatic! So you can run and slam better to get the most of Hades’ Shackles and the Spadroon.
My only Concern is to lose Tear and all the fire rate, but I could put 1 point in Unrelenting and let it there just to help. And I dont know if you can reach the enemy that you Blood Rushed fast enough with Mercurial and Ephodos on, or I could just freeze and then Blood Rush to close the gap for the Spadroon.
What do you think?

#9

@l_gabrielcruz What build were you thinking specifically?

I haven’t tried Hologram. I haven’t been that interested in it but I don’t want to be unfair either. The bonus is nice but that combination of skills is tough to see play out. The skillset that both Storm and Dragon offer are superior imo. I’d really have to try what you were thinking to give you better feedback.

Acrobat is the best Oz kit for melee but I’ll only consider it if I have full Xiphos. Otherwise, Strafing Run for me 90% of the time. I also think a Duality (Shock/Shield Delay) or Oxidizer has good potential with a Hologram build.

#10

I just tested it and the hologram does infact boost fire and shock damage as well as dots

#11

Well I know it says incendiary on the card. Does it say shock or electrocute?

#12

@BookEmDano http://thepresequel.com/Athena/0545101005150050000000410511510511 this is what I thought about with the Hologram COM. Hyperventilator could be a good Oz Kit in theory because of the move speed and fire rate, but I dont know how it works on Atmosphere.

But, tbh, I think Im losing the identity with the Hologram COM. This way, this setup looks more about DoT than about maximizing the effectiveness of the Spadroon what is my goal after all.

I need to know if the added move speed makes up for the loss of Blood Rush in terms of mobility. Im losing my gap close skill after all, and Tear.
Like, now I have Prepare for Glory but Tear is multiplicative!

#13

I managed to get a nice blue Hologram with +6 Overload and +5 Superconductor and tried it out in the Holodome and it was a really impressive class mod. Certainly not lacking in DPS and the passive stacking generation of Overload and Superconductor was really fun. Hologram will at least boost the shock damage of the Spadroon and 40% is still multiplicative, same as Tear so you’re just taking a different approach to it. The Maelstrom stacking will also offset a bit of that because you will have two very good stacking skills maxed out.

#14

I see. Also, what gear do you use with the Hologram COM?

#15

I would recommend at least one alternate shock weapon to the Spadroon for stacking and stripping shields, a good bladed Cryo weapon, and your best incendiary weapon. For the build you posted maybe a good adaptive and a Juggernaut Oz kit to take advantage of the slam bonus on the class mod. Singularity for crowd control.

#16

Yeah, I thought about the Juggernaut because of the synergy it hás with the COM and Hades Shackles. Also, with the loss of Mercurial the resistance is a nice addition - I can only activate the Aspis after the Slam to make use of Prepare for Glory.

Also, what do you think about this spec: http://thepresequel.com/Athena/0505141001050051015000410510500511 ?
I put epicenter in play to save the grenades slot for teslas and went down Phalanx to get only one point into Prepare for Glory for aggro. Also, I got Tear cause I dont know how to build without it haha and we are close enough to melee because of Epicenter, PfG and HS