I create builds to fulfill purposes, this build was created with the following goals in mind:
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Use my current favourite gun, the Kyb’s Worth.
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Allow fast paced gameplay at Mayhem 4.
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Avoid a style that demands constant grenade throwing.
The results have surprised me, I’ve eaten my own words about the sufferance of momentum gameplay at Mayhem 4. I’ve created a run and gun playstyle that rewards me for intelligent movement.
Before getting started I do want to put a disclaimer that if you’re expecting this build to effortlessly solo MH4 Takedown you’ll be disappointed. I also happen to despise the Shaft so I’ve not tried it there. I have however managed MH4 Slaughter Star first time.
Table of Contents
Skill Allocation
All 3 skill allocations are the same, choose your favourite website to view the build on.
Gear
Kyb’s Worth 
This is the primary mobbing gun. It packs plenty of damage and once you get used to the firing pattern it actually becomes simple to use it to your advantage and nab enemies behind cover.
At a minimum you want this in fire, shock and corrosive. I highly recommend cryo as the fourth if you have options, the utility cryo offers is amazing. I have 2 Kyb’s in my loadout. The first is an x2 fire/cryo version that I use against everything not resistant to Fire and Cryo. I really like the x2 variant here as the mag is easier to maintain and I find it creates less visual pollution. My Shock/Corrosive variant is my defacto badass and boss dispatcher, mine is an x3 variant. When searching Kyb’s I’d advise prioritizing elements and mag sizes of 30+ over the prefix. The difference in damage between x2 and x3 is minimal on this build and really not worth the effort.
Sellout
The true purpose of this slot is to self dot, so any gun can suffice here. The important parts here is that it must be reliable at dotting, have no charge time and have a decent mag size. Once all my boosts are applied this gun becomes a 10 shot for me, that’s really important as you won’t be firing this gun at enemies. You have to maintain this mag through activating Redistribution with either the Kyb’s or your grenade.
The ideal element is corrosive for this slot, corrosive dots last the longest and they do reduced damage verse shields. This is great as we’re going to be using the dot as a way to ensure the field consistently has boosters on it for us to hoover up. I happen to have a Elemental Projector prefix on my artifact which allows me to use the self dot for double duty as a damage boost - however that’s just gravy, the builds damage is fine without the projector.
Recursion
There are certain enemy types that the Kyb’s is just not great on. Primary among these is the badass nog variants, these enemies are hard to crit and have a mountain of health. The Recursion is my answer to this problem, when a nog enters the field I send a recursion shot into them. This has a stun effect and more often than not strips their shield, once their shield is down a bit of cryo can keep them still while I circle round for a volley at their crit spot with my Kyb’s.
I don’t recommend using this gun for general mobbing as this build is not set up to maintain it’s heavy mag consumption and limited critting ability.
Ideally you want your recursion to be shock, however radiation I could see being a passable substitute.
Big Boom Blaster
The crux of our sustain. Through Thin Red Line and our Deathless we’re going to be pushing this shield to near 20k capacity. Boosters are thus going to be restoring around 12k capacity. The keys to making sure we can be consistent with surviving is to keep moving, thus Rushin’ Offensive is crucial and making sure theirs boosters to actually hoover up makes the self dotting really helpful.
Self dotting is really helpful as it maximizes the number of hits that can trigger a new booster. Self dotting is not really required anywhere but CoV area and Maliwan Takedown. CoV are a major threat as they tend to do damage in single hit bursts, these bursts badly affect the rate we proc boosters naturally, So self dotting is really important against CoV as it ensures we get a consistent supply of boosters.
Something to be aware of is the Big Boom Blaster has an internal cooldown. My guess is the cooldown is about 1 second but I’m not sure as it is chance based and I haven’t actually tried testing the exact time.
Ideal Annointment
- After exiting Iron Bear, gain 75% increased shields and health for 25 seconds.
Blast Master
This coms versatility is amazing. There are 2 reasons I am using this com for a build that doesn’t actually spec Demolition Woman. The first reason is that I’m using splash weapons, and 100% damage for not reloading is really hard to pass up.
The second reason is that this com gives me free access to the utility of both Pull the Holy Pin and Vampyr. I actually keep 2 versions on me at all times, both with atleast Redistribution. The main variant I use has + 3 Pull the Holy Pin, this makes the most sense as when I have my Deathless, Vampyr is useless. I then use Pull the Holy Pin as my route to proccing Redistribution against enemies where crits are hard to land. The second Blast Master I carry is a +3 Vampyr version, this I bring out for specific fights where I know the boss is capable of one shotting a 1hp set up regardless of current shields.
Ideal Stat Roles (In order of preference)
- SMG Damage
- Weapon Critical Damage
- Movement Speed
- Weapon Damage
- Damage Reduction
SMG damage is by far the most important stat here, I’d take it over any com that had 2 others. The rest are fairly similar in how much value I’d place in them.
Deathless
The ideal artifact is without a doubt the Deathless. This artifact is what pushes our shield capacity near 20k and makes our Big Boom Blaster boosters restore so much shields. A secondary benefit we get from this artifact is that it allows us to constantly max our Desperate Measures bonus.
Ideally as a suffix you want an Elemental Projector, if we’re already self dotting to survive we may as well take advantage of it to add to our damage too.
I do carry non Deathless artifacts too for fights where health gating is unwise. My recommendation here is a Snowdrift Victory Rush for Wotan and an Elemental Projector Victory Rush for anywhere else. These are however luxury items, I don’t possess either item and have made do with a lesser Snowdrift and Victory Rush.
Ideal Stat Roles (In order of preference)
- Magazine Size
- Area of Effect Damage
- SMG Damage
- Movement Speed
Here Magazine size is by far the most important aspect, I’d even prioritize it over an Elemental Projector prefix. The next 3 are nice to haves and I’ve put them in the order I’d prioritize them. Let me stress that these are not all required stat rolls, if you can get 2 of these 4 you’re in a great spot. I’d settle on the first Deathless I got with Mag size and either an EP prefix or 1 of the other rolls rolls.
Nagata
This slot is very much a thing of personal preference. The important part is it needs lots of explosions. I like the Nagata as it causes minimal visual pollution to the rest of the battle field and is reliable at proccing Pull the Holy Pin. The damage at Mayhem 4 has it’s utility but is by no means an important aspect.
This is probably the only slot I think an annoinment is important for. The +25% Weapon damage is really useful in early combat before Drowning in Brass and Phalanx Doctrine ramp up. We also have easy access to this annointment and don’t need to break combat flow to activate it.
Ideal Annointment
- On Grenade Thrown, Weapon, Grenade, and Action Skill Damage are increased by 25% for 6 seconds.
Skill discussion
I’m not going to discuss skills individually, I’ll group skills that I’ve selected for similar reasons and discuss why. I’ve skipped a lot of the straight damage skills as they’re generally self explanatory, feel free to query any of these choices.
Matched Set (5/5) and Iron Bank (3/5) vs Cloud of Lead (0/5)
At face value these skills should offer similar value from a mag perspective, while Cloud of Lead offers an extra boost to dps. The reason however favour Matched Set is that I need to have the strongest ammo regen possible on my self dot gun. The extra 40% mag is the difference between maintaining my Sellout through an entire map or not. Cloud of Lead is just not reliable enough at maintaining 2 guns in a set up like this.
Iron Bank I avoided sinking more points into as by that point in the tree I had better options. These points I’vd move to scrappy if my class mod had a mag size roll on it.
Scrappy (1/5) and Rushin’ Offensive (1/1)
These are actually 2 of my favourite skills in the tree. I have often head the heretical thought of pulling points from Scorching RPM’s or Iron Bank to get more into Scrappy. These skills earn their keep in this build, Rushin’ Offensive allows me to be far more mobile while dishing out damage and hoovering boosters. Scrappy ensures that I spend as little time as necessary getting to the correct gun and setting.
Specialist Bear (1/1) and Some for the Road (1/1)
Neither of these skills are active very often, however there are times when I want a dps boost or I’d prefer the momentary safety of Iron bear. Some for the Road is a great skill for boss melting and gives me flexibility. Specialist Bear is multiplicative damage to Iron Bear and allows Iron Bear to hit like a truck for the brief moments he’s on the field.
Shield of Retribution vs Demolition Woman
I’m running a build centered on splash damage and Blast Master, so I’m sure some are curious why I’ve elected to skip investment into Demolition Woman. The answer is that Shield of Retribution just offers more of what I need. The shield capacity boosts are what makes 1hp Big Boom Blaster work and the damage boosts are perfect as they significantly boost the damage that Blast Master then multiplies. I’m also able to use Big Boom Blaster to cherry pick the useful skills from the tree. The only skill I feel I’m missing out on is Auto Bear.
Security Bear (1/1) and Full Can of Whoop-Ass (1/1)
These are further utility skills for the times I do use Iron Bear. As I have minimal investment in Vampyr the added defense of Security Bear is really useful. Full Can of Whoop-Ass is useful for when I’m annointment activating and want a bit of extra charge on my shield, the fact it charges uninterrupted is the clincher that makes me take it. They’re each only 1 point so I don’t feel I’ve lost much and the occasional utility is worth it.
Thin Red Line (2/3) and Tenacious Defense (1/1)
Considering I’m running a Deathless this point distribution might seem a bit strange. The reason I skipped maxing Thin Red Line and instead popped a point in Tenacious Defense is to give me the flexibility of switching away from 1hp when I deem no health gate a hindrance.
Fire in the Skag Den (1/5)
This is a utility point that I took from Iron Bank. It adds fire to our self dotting which helps for 2 reasons, 1 it’s another negligible damage tick that can trigger a booster and 2 it allows us to always dot with corrosive which is a longer dot. I like it especially in the new dlc as I can boost myself with the Elemental Projector and not have to re dot myself when I swap elements. COV launcher militants are another example where not having to re dot yourself is an advantage.
Gear Dependence and what’s actually required
I wanted to touch on this as I know the Kyb’s is a painful farm. I also currently have high quality annoints on my guns and shield. A lot of this isn’t required to make the build work. My early play with this build had no annointments and I was still tuning gear and skills. Once I worked out skills I took it through MH4 Slaughter Star with a plain Kyb’s and no relevant annointments on my gear.
The Trevonator is extremely powerful in this set up, I don’t like it as much as you need to get closer which can be a death sentence and the mag is harder to maintain. However it will still mob at a really good pace and can be a hold over.
The Westergun can also excel in this build. The only real down side to it is that it lacks damage comparatively.
The shock Recursion is harder to replace as there are not many Maliwan guns that excel without access to crits. My recommendation when facing enemies like Nog Liches is to use Iron Bear, this set up isn’t Iron Bear focused but the Bear still packs a mighty punch.
Gameplay
My computer dislikes any attempts I’ve ever made to record prolonged gameplay, so I unfortunately can’t show full map clears or Circle of Slaughter Runs. I do however want to leave a small demonstration of the mobbing prowess of this build. So below you’ll find a short clip where I take on a couple CoV and everyones favourite annointed, the militant.
