R4kk Fl4k survivability in mayhem 4 - how?

Borderlands 3 FL4K the Beastmaster
#1

Hello Vault Hunters,

I’m looking for some tips/experiences from other Fl4k players, this is going to be a long read, so thanks if you take the time.
Also english isn’t my native language, so I don’t know all the skills by english name yet, and sorry if something’s wrong :blush:

I’ll start with some facts about myself as a bl3 player to give you an idea:

  • usually I play siren first, but since they announced the characters I knew this time it’s gonna be Beastmaster (Amara was second though, but I just like Fl4k a tiny bit more overall)
  • I love the skag most and if there’s any way I’ll always use him, even if it means less damage
  • I have a thing for Fl4k with Jakobs guns, so I hardly use anything else
  • my playstyle may not be perfect for Fl4k, cause I’m pretty reckless, don’t use cover much, just rush in - basically I’ve always played every character as if they were Krieg, even before I had even played Krieg, that’s just me and that’s how I enjoy borderlands
  • I don’t like using exploits/glitches, if I can’t achieve something my way I rather don’t do it at all

And that’s my story with Fl4k:

  • started with rakk attack and skag to get used to the game and character
  • played gamma burst and jabber in tvhm, was fun, but the skill is atm my least favourite
  • on m3 finally tried fade away with spiderant

And that’s where my “struggle” begins :joy:

I enjoyed Fade Away a lot, but as I said before, I love my skag Dukino (it also feels like he dies a lot less than the spiderant??), and so I decided to see if we could survive without a full crit build, and went Fade Away with blue tree only. And surprisingly it worked very well (some may remember they helped me optimizing that build).

That was m3 though. Now on m4 I felt that it was getting harder to hold on to that not meta build, I often found the 5 seconds of fade away being wasted for reloading, the cooldown without headcount was way too long, even with as cooldown on my relic…so basically I found myself playing run and hide til I finally had 5 seconds of damage again.

So time for a change it seemed. Since I already had played a full crit build before, and that again would have meant losing my boy Dukino, and with the new class mod just released I looked up R4kk P4k builds and it seemed people found them viable on m4, and it was blue and red tree, which meant at least the option to equip the skag.

I was lucky enough to get the new class mod with 45% Jakobs crit damage.
I could improve my m4 trial of cunning time from like 25 minutes and 17 deaths to 12 minutes and 1 death. I was able to complete the takedown, not solo and only on m3, BUT I never died.

BUT still Fl4k feels very squishy. I guess it’s always been like this, but usually everyone died so fast they could not hurt me. On m4 that’s different now of course.
So where does Fl4k get the survivability from? With Fade away I could get the health regen, plus I had my emergency button, the pet revive. I lack that now completely, and if I take points out of the master tree I guess the pet will die again all the time.

I already use the healing rakks - but I’ve seen people run the additional rakks and I wonder how they can even survive…where does their healing come from? Are they just damn lucky with god rolls on class mod and relic?

For more challenging runs I switch from my skag to the spiderant for health regen and the more elemental damage.

I’m using a stop gap that gives 5% max health regen on ase (which with rakk spam is basically always?), I’m using a Last Stand relic, and still…

Please enlighten me!
Thanks for your time!

#2

Barbaric Yawp + Spiderant and Otto idol is how I do it.

Since you would prefer to stick with the Skag, I would try a Red Fang taunt build. I know you don’t like Gamma Burst, but having enemies focused on your pet would alleviate a lot of your survivability issues.

You could also go for the 1hp build. Using Shared Spirit and hive mind, you can redirect over 50% of the damage you take to your skag at all times. With a Friendbot COM, you can revive the skag every kill, mean you frequently have that damage reduction. You wouldn’t need to use Gamma Burst with this build either.

If you absolutely can’t stand Gamma Burst and need to use Rakk, then you can use the extra rakk with the heal augment, and if you have any terror anointed gear, use the one that gives health regen on terror stack.

Also, look at your grenade slot and shield. Stop Gap is awesome, but so are booster shields. You can also use transfusion grenades or any grenade that heals you.

Hope this helps somehow.

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#3

I’ve even tried gamma burst again, but died more than with any other skill - it would also force me to use the gamma anointed gear, and the few pieces I have aren’t exactly good weapons I enjoy.

As for terror, I tried that too indeed, with a health regen shield and a grenade that applies it, but that didn’t work too well either, and I lack other good gear for it.

So for now, I’d really rather try to get the most out of that rakk pak build, that relies on adding bonus elemental damage to gear. Actually perfect, cause I have a maggie that does shock and one that does radiation, a transfusion grenade that adds corrosion - just need a good shield that does shock now, then my favourite weapon of all games would deal three elements, but only one I got so far is a Frontloader, and I am not a fan of the reserved health.

I already use the healing rakks, otherwise I guess I’d be down all the time, so I wonder how others with that build handle it.

I used an otto idol in m3, but then switched to last stand, seems for that build also everyone uses that, but mayvd they have better rolls on it. Mine has cooldown, which is useful of course for rakk spam, but that’s basically all it has, other perks are of no use for me.
Does a last stand otto idol exist? That’s what I need I guess :joy:

#4

What is in your seccond slot under rakk attack? For a while i was running both the heals and bonus rakks, but since sacrificed those to cryo so i could take back lick the wounds after seeing my spiderant fight 2 annointed militants for 30 minutes

#5

I’m using the healing rakks and the cooldown time/additional charge

#6

You might want to change that then. Cool down kind of sucks for Rakk.

Percentage bonuses become less effective the smaller the base amount is. 21% of an 18 second cool down is far less than 21% of a 40 second cool down. If you have Headcount or Eager to impress, cool down from that COM would be completely unnecessary.

And I’m fairly sure any relic can spawn with any prefix, so a Last Stand Otto Idol exist in someone’s inventory. Time for you to hit the trade section :slight_smile:

#7

I had bad information in this comment.

#8

Last stand is a normal prefix, can be found on green to purple as the end… last stand otto idol def exists (i have 1) I’d show proof but am currently at work.

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#9

Currently youll be earning that new charge of rakks every 15 or so secconds with just cooldown on your artifact, combined with headcount if your decently getting critical hits; you may find 4 rakks being more helpful as each heals you for 7% each… (problem is its got to be preemptive since they have to bring the health back to fl4k)

  • “topped off” guardian rank perk makes cooldown on rakk almost every 6.5 secconds on its own too
    Otherwise if you find that 5% health regen annointment on a brawlers ward (comes with built in health regen too) it could help that little bit more.
#10

Cool, good to know, back to one of my otto idols then! Thanks

And I’ve just made my first post in the trade section earlier :laughing:

#11

Ah, so like Bloodwing? I wondered already why sometimes I heal in time and sometimes just not.

#12

There is still 1 terror effect you can use without terror that works extremely well with rakk =

  • “Heal for 25% after action skill” may aswell forget the “consume terror for 15% more per stack” part;
    As with how often you can use them, that 25% is faster and more reliable than how the rakk work out to be. Adding them together with 4 rakks bringing it back would be getting 53% each time (not sure if that stacks with the mirving effect of the rakk pak com)
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#13

Below I will link my M4 Rakk build. Now keep in mind, I have tested going down the full red tree and blue tree as well. It is very anointed specific, not gear specific.

Rakks cool down is fast enough so you should go for extra healing on Falconers Feast with Flock N Load, extra Rakk count gets bugged too often as well.

Gamma Burst and FA, even though playable, are harder because of Guardian Ranks disabled. Not that it is impossible, but you need cool down mods/skills to proc often and ASE with Rakk Attack is the fastest and can increase dmg 100% after use.

Keeping Furious Attack instead of going to Megavore. My tests concluded that Megavore was not worth it and base damage melted enemies faster even w/o the 5th crit.

Keeping Furious Attack instead of Dominance, this is actually almost a tie. Now Dominance is broken as hell and can sometimes take 5 melee hits to even proc it. However most the time it is 1-2. In M4, it can help get you an easy breather, and you can even Dominate anointed. The down side is the multiple hits, and sometimes the enemy will not do anything and just sit there. If it worked right, this skill would be fantastic in M4. Still wish we could dmg the dominated enemy…

This is what I use:

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#14

Awesome, thank you, I will have a look at it. This is what I use currently

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Dominance was actually the skill I was looking forward to most, but as soon as I had it I respecced again - it was usually everyone dead and have to wait till the effect wears off; guess that could be less the case on m4 if stuff doesn’t die soooo fast, but it was also annoying for my husband, who is my coop partner, he never realized I had an enemy turned.

Edit: I’m using a stop gap with the same anointment, was hoping to get the bonus shock damage on it to get me a triple element maggie <3 (using a grenade with the corrosive anointment, unfortunately the grenade itself isn’t too good, I hardly use it)

Edit2: most happy to read you are using the horned skag too :two_hearts:

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#15

Your build is good, but would just recommend Flock N Load vs Rakkcelerate.

Reason is this:
Flock N Load, 2 charges = 8 rakks total

Rakkcelerate, 3 charges = 6 rakks total

Also do you switch to bounty hunter com vs bosses?

#16

Okay, I thought the cooldown would help.

Didn’t think to switch to hunter, thanks, good tip.
Haven’t done many bosses yet with the new build, but atm farming Tyreen for a better otto idol. Tried it on m4 to see if I can, did it, but I think the more amount of time it takes isn’t worth it, dropped the same crap :joy:

#17

Try it with bounty, should cut your time down with bosses exponentially. Some people will use deadeye until their health drops below 75% then switch.

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#18

Never been a switcher, so never think of it, but for solo that sure makes sense.

Today was a good day though, farmed Tyreen and Killavolt, and didn’t die at all (also they didn’t drop what I wanted at all…)
But one anointed :joy::joy: they are so not normal

#19

Traunt has a good drop rate in Athena’s. Also 5 chests to loot which usually spawn rng legendarys. Typical run is about 4-5 Legendarys on M4, you should be able to drop him in about 10 seconds with a shock and fire weapon with your Rakk Build.

#20

Yeah, I was already thinking it might be faster to rely on world drops. Also Athenas is one of my favourite areas to run - because no anointeds :joy:

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