Elemental Projector and Mindfulness Questions + Others

Borderlands 3 Amara the Siren
#1

Greetings!

I’m working on a build for Amara, but I don’t have a Transformer, nor do I have a low level Sellout, or a Hyperion Grenade Launcher Shotgun in the Shock element, all of which I’m looking for. So I’m hoping some people can help me out in terms of answering a few questions:

  1. When using an elemental projector (+damage with an element when suffering from it):
  • Does it work even if the DOT is Gaining shields (due to transformer), or when taking no damage (such as with the Radiation Suit), or does it only work if it’s Inflicting damage?
  • Does the increased damage amount apply only to the bullet damage, or does it also apply to splash damage / the DOT effects, such as with the aforementioned Hyperion weapons?
  • Does the effect occur when standing in (for example) an electrified puddle, or a shock barrel as it’s going off, or other continual shock damage effects, or only when the actual DOT is applied to you?
  1. Regarding Mindfulness:
  • Can you gain stacks from DOT effects, or only from incremental damage effects (like bullets)?
  • Does harming yourself generate stacks, or must it come from enemies / environmental effects?
  • Similar to the Elemental Projector, does it trigger when taking damage, even if that damage is converted to shields or negated (ala the Transformer or Radiation Suit), or must it actually deal damage to trigger stacks?

As you can guess, the concept for the build is to have investment in the Brawl and Fist of the Elements trees, get a +5 Mindfulness Rabbit mod, with an elemental projector artifact, the transformer shield, and shock weapons all over the place, especially those which deal massive splash damage and DOT effects like those Hyperion weapons, and to run around at hyperspeed while constantly self healing due to the transformer. It’s not a build which is great for killing bosses (though between the elemental projector, and the +50% damage from Tempest it should be decent at minimum) it should in theory be a lot of fun in terms of running around mobbing.

So how much of it works? If the answer is “not a lot”, any way to tweak it such that it does work? Low investment in Infusion with Fire or Corrosive as the element, for example, so as to trigger relatively weak DOT effects which are being generally counteracted by the healing from the shock DOTs, but which actually count towards mindfulness et all being one idea, but regardless, experts, help me out!

#2

I wouldn’t rely on that specific artefact. Gearbox will most likely nerf it as they did with other items that vastly outperform others or don’t work as intended. They’ll most likely never intended users to apply DOTs to themselves and then crush all existing lifeforms and the whole universe in the process.

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#3

Transformer is a quest reward. Do the side quests from Typhon’s helper robots on Nekrofatayo.

And yeah, I’m able to gain stacks by shooting the ground with my shock setting on my Trevornator even though technically I’m healing myself.

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#4

Ah nice great to know, thanks! My buddy got one from a gold key chest so I assumed they were a world drop. I’ll do some testing myself as soon as I can and will report back the findings

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#5

i have seen this build before, gameplay looks like a Backdraft Maya build. I want to try it as well.

#6

You cant selfshock yourself with transformer, sadly. Rocking transformer for atleast a week now and never dotted or got dotted with shock. at least didnt notice it.

Since you cant selfdot yourself you cant gain the damage buff on shockelement, therefor not boost your shieldregen.

Not sure about the puddle but blowing up a shock barrel next to yourself will give you shield, but wont give you a dot.

Ive seen ppl selfignite and gain stacks on streams before. Never did it myself though.

Since selfigniting does, splash damage/nades should do the same.

Not tested but i assume it needs to deal damage. As a tidbit to this i can report from a test i did today with a trevonator (RIP) i dropped. This was done with a Transformer shield.
If the travonator was set to corrosive to selfharm myself i would be able to gain shotgun ammo due to the bulletabsorbing effect of the Transformer. This basically gave me infinite ammo. (40% chance to absorb * 10(?) pellets). When i switched to shock i was hoping for the same effect to effectively infinitely regen my shield, so i can replace the kill-o-wisp i currently use for it. But since there was no shock dmg hitting me, it didnt absorb any bullets.

If they never thought about selfigniting during designing this artifact they are dumber than dumb and wouldnt work at their job. Thats the first idea that comes to mind thinking about the artifact. They might change the number (183% is nuts) but to gain the buff you take tradeoffs. Particularly halting your shield regen and losing your Topped off and other fullshield buffs.
Those is stuff that severly impacts your mobbing capability.

The biggest issue with the artifact is not that it is strong, but bosses being pushovers and burstable within 10seconds. Most of them die before getting a serious attack off, therefor the downsides do not matter. This makes those artifacts somewhat situational which might allow them to keep existing but they are in a pickle designwise alrdy.
Increasing numbers makes bosses either oneshotmachines or bulletsponges, which punishes ■■■■■■ geared/unoptimal builds more then well geared characters. But i should not be able to waste graveward before he even gets to slam his massive critspot into the wall. And thats without any selfigniting shenanigans and running a loaded dice on tvhm m3.
On the other hand does lowering our damage heavily impact the mobbing. Slaughter shaft is depending on modifiers a challenge and needs you to adjust gear or think creatively.

@GiantOctopodes If you want, i should have a spare transformer on PC.

#7

I disagree with this statement simply for the fact that pain is power and embrace the pain exist

#8

That’s what I mean. The amount of additional damage you get in a somewhat easy and reliable way is probably too much. While mobbing you don’t need it because trash mobs die easily enough anyway and bosses die so fast that the tradeoff is basically non-existent.

#9

I know I was specced into infusion with shock as my action skill element. Once I was specced into infusion, the Trevornator started giving me a shock DoT when shooting at close range. Removing infusion spec removed the Trevornator from giving me a shock DoT.

#10

For clarity, are you indicating with infusion you were getting a shock DOT, while using a Transformer? Or was this with a different shield? The post you’re replying to was just indicating the shock DOT was unable to be applied, and thus no bullet regen was obtained, when using the Transformer, not in general. Just want to make sure we’re on the same page :slight_smile:

#11

Okay, i had an idea today and went ahead to do some testing. My idea was to put 1 point into infusion and tune it to fire to a) selfignite and b) proc the bulletabsorption of the transformer with a shock Trevonator. As expected with fire infusion it ignites us and returns ammo. And due to its pelletcount/ammo it basically never runs out.
Another interaction i noticed:
Freshly specced i didnt even need to change the element from shock, i was hurting myself and therefor absorbing bullets. It also seems to apply a shock effect on you. At least the visuals for being shocked appear, but you are not gaining health over time.
After relogging this went away. But i could just retrigger that state by putting one fire for a second and turning back to shock without shooting any bullet.

Only downside i found was that doing that you are interfering with your shield recharge delay.
Ohh and sth i didnt mention last time. Even though you are not dealing damage to yourself with shock, it somehow still does trigger sustainment and recharges your shield and gives you the lifesteal of it.

Edit:
A quick test shows it indeed does shock you and trigger the elemental projector effect.

Question about interaction of Transformer, Elemental Projector, and Infusion [Answered]