ION Moze - M4 Build and Gameplay - Takedown / Slaughter

Borderlands 3 Moze the Gunner
#1

Hello. I’ve been maining Zane for a long time but I used to play Moze and had to stop due to Iron Bear crashes. They’ve since been fixed and I finally got the urge to come back and show Moze some love. The last build I posted for Moze was ‘Terminator Moze’ which was a Terror based Lyuda spam infinite ammo build.

I love making builds around themes or specific weapons and so for this one I chose the ION Cannon. I very much like this weapon and have made a Zane build around it which was a lot of fun. I wanted to do the same thing for Moze. We will be using only the ION Cannon even though I’m sure some people would tell me a Quickie or equivalent would be quicker and easier for some things.

Changelog 1/06/20

CHANGES click arrow to expand

  • Removed excess points from Vampyr - Now run with a total of 3 after +2 from class mod so 1 point spent.

  • Moved points from Grizzled to Deadlines. This is because I’ve been enlightened to the fact that Grizzled had very little impact. Having 3/3 Deadlines will allow me to take some shots from inside Iron Bear at times with very little detrimental impact to the playstyle due to less cooldown being affected from less fuel use per shot.

  • Remove point from Explosive Punctuation due to the same issue being brought to light that Grizzled has.

  • Added 5 points to Armored Infantry for more damage and damage reduction.

  • Playstyle change: Making full use of Click. Click. by fully emptying mag and backpack reserves before engaging content and doing our best to remain as close to 1 rocket in the mag as we can. This has resulted in a lot more consistency in 1-shots in the Slaughter Shaft, and even many more collateral one-shots then I experienced before. It did not slow down the aggressive play-style really at all like I thought it would. So I stand corrected here and am very happy now making use of Click. Click.

New video explaining the changes and showing some SS game-play incorporating them:
https://youtu.be/XKsSf0sJNwE

–end changes 1/06/20

Changelog 1/10/20

CHANGES click arrow to expand

POINTS REMOVED FROM - Security Bear(1), Some for the road(1), Specialist Bear(1), Vampyr(1), AutoBear(1), Pull The Holy Pin(3), Deadlines(3).

POINTS ADDED TO - Scorching RPM’s(5), Drowning in Brass(5), Experimental Munitions(1)

For bossing we now use a Green Monster with +4 Scorching RPMS and +1 to Iron Bank (skills not that important). For mobbing we use Blast Master with +2 Vampyr and +3 PtHP (Vampyr important).

Clip explaining changes and showing Billy the Anointed 1-shot
https://youtu.be/5J0KdY2Y8hY

–End changes 1/10/20

Objectives:

  • Build around the ION Cannon.
  • Build around Blast Master, thus no reloading.
  • Do not use Terror to accomplish the no reloading.
  • Be able to complete M4 content solo such as the Takedown and Slaughter Shaft.
  • Fun.

Gear:

  • Ion Cannon! - We are doing M4 content so make sure it’s anointed. ASE +125% Splash Damage bonus (multiplicative) is going to be the best one. You want high mag sizes for good regen. At least 10+ base mag size is preferred, less then that is difficult to upkeep. X2 is more damage. You need a Normal Damage a Shock and Corrosive variants for optimal play.

  • Blast Master - +splash/aoe/heavy/wpn dmg- at least one of these. +hp regen is nice. +magsize is nice. I prefer Pull The Holy Pin and Vampyr as skills but this is preference. To match the build will need +2 in Vampyr for a total of 3.

  • Snowdrift/Last Stand - Best artifacts to use IMO. +splash/aoe/heavy/wpn dmg- at least one of these. Again +hp regen and magsize are the best extra bonuses. Otto Idol as a suffix is great otherwise just whatever you have.

  • Grenade Mod - I personally use an Epicenter anointed with ‘ASE cryo damage’. You can use On-thrown anoints as well. Use any nade that is quick and reliable damage for reliable Vampyr heals. Have 1 nade for fights like Wotan that is anointed with ‘On action skill start regenerate 1 grenade’.

  • Shield - Good shields for the build are Re-charger, Stopgap, Transformer. These are pretty standard shield choices for Moze. My personal pick is a Re-charger anointed with +75% hp and shield when exiting Iron Bear.

PlayStyle

  • Auto Bear Cancel Spam - This means we get in Iron Bear and get out of it immediately to refund maximum cooldown and proc ASE anointments.

  • Aggressive tactics - Always be shooting, always be positioning, always be mindful of IB cooldown

Important Skill decisions:

  • Forge - I wanted to use Blast Master and I didn’t want to use Terror. I tried a lot of varients that didn’t use Forge because I wanted 11 points in Shield of Ret tree for survivability. They did work but didn’t allow the aggressive game-play I was after. Forced to take Forge to achieve the aggressive style.

  • Security Bear - I made this change because I noticed while doing Takedown during the bridge and Wotan sections, Auto Bear was being killed immediately. I ended up very much liking the versatility and survivability it added to the build and the fact it allows me to be even more aggressive in my game-play (showcased in Slaughter Shaft clip).

  • Matched Set / Iron Bank - Mag size is extremely important for the upkeep of our rocket regeneration. Rockets regenerate very slowly with every single method except for Terror. So because of this we need to take advantage of every edge we can to improve on it. For reference it will take Forge around 7 seconds to give you a single rocket with a 20ish magsize.

  • Pull the Holy Pin / Some for the Road / Redistribution - Honorable mentions, we don’t get a ton of use out of these but they are again extra little nudges for our rocket regeneration and preservation. We need every bit we can take advantage of.

  • Explosive Punctuation / Grizzled - The build is partially focused on ASE and Autobear plays both into our surviving and proccing of regeneration skills so these are very important.

  • Mini-gun with Exploding. Bullets. - Equipping these on both arms gives us the most bang for our buck for proccing Vampyr/Means of Destruction/Explosive Punctuation. This is because it has a high fire rate, fires constantly and Auto Bear will always hit targets with it. It has an especially nice synergy with EP a lot of times giving you Iron Bear back before Auto Bear ends. Taking Specialist Bear also makes these arms do very good damage.

  • Skills not mentioned are either obvious choices or less significant choices.

Skill Build:
Skill Tree Click Here

Game Play and detailed build explanation Videos:

  • First Video has in-depth build explanation and a M4 Takedown run minus the Wotan kill.
  • Second Video is my cleanest Wotan kill at the time of making this topic.
  • Third Video is round 5 of the Slaughter Shaft.

Clip showing build after tweaks made on 1/10/20

Build explanation and Takedown run:

Wotan kill:

Slaughter Shaft:

10 Likes
Who out there is close to beating M4 Woton solo Moze without exploit builds?
#2

Nice!

I can’t help but be nitpicky about your 125% splash annoint choice. I’m not so sure this is the best annointment for you. Would the Moze specific 120% Splash for 18 seconds not help sustain the bonus longer for minimal damage loss?

The other annoint that I think you might actually get the most damage out of is the 100 damage ase one. You’re already stuffed to the gills with splash damage from Blast Master and possible stat rolls, so adding more splash damage through your annoint pushes into diminishing returns. The 100 ase by comparison is only stacking onto click click and possible weapon damage.

Math wise if Blastmaster is your only splash boost and you have a general weapon damage roll (I included Click click ) then the 2 choices are close, however the 100% ase damage still wins by about 10%. This margim only gets better for the 100% ase annoint if you add splash or aoe damage bonuses.

4 Likes
#3

I got bored running the raid last night so pulled out the Ion halfway through and finished the raid with it. Lots of fun. Perfect hits were one shotting pretty much every trash mob. Ion was 2200X2, no element with 100% damage anointment.

2 Likes
#4

I actually forgot about this one. You make a good point. I don’t have it on an ION to test atm as I haven’t farmed them on Moze so I don’t really have Moze specific anoints on them - yet. I am in the middle of doing the DLC with Moze though so hopefully will come up with one soon…

You’re the math wizard so I’ll trust you on this. And it does make sense something I didn’t really think about. I know on it’s own merit the 125% is the strongest one but I didn’t actually consider the diminishing returns as you are right I’m already stacking plenty of splash. I do have a 100% ASE that I believe is comparable as far as base damage goes so I’ll definitely give it a shot.

2 Likes
#5

Blast Master Moze is probably the only class and com situation where the splash annoints aren’t just better. So as a general Splash > all is a good simplification. You’ve just managed to pack every single niche condition in there that makes base damage better and still it’s a difference only a min-max-er should worry about.

2 Likes
#6

Two suggestions:

– Ditch Forge; heavy weapon ammo regens 10 times slower than other ammo types.

– Swap out your nade for an epic Torgue or Atlas nade with MIRV and Bouncy features. This will not only refill you life with Vampyr faster (since it is based on the number of hits, not damage dealt), it will also give you more chances to proc ammo and grenade regen from Means of Destruction.

#7

I’m using what I have annointed. I’m doing M4 content the grenade needs to be anointed imo. Also, I like the Epicenter because it does significant damage with all my boosts to it(I see hits well over 100k many times). Also, it’s super reliable and easy to hit with. Thrown in a group of enemies it gets alot of procs instantly. Just happens to be one of my favorite nades and I’m not a fan of having trackers do the work for me either.

So you know back when they first nerfed Hex I was one of the original people who discovered and spread the word about purple nades replacing their niche. Back then we were promoting clusterfuck exploders though. I threw away my large purple nade collection however as I will replace them with anointed ones eventually.

One hit with my Epicenter fills me from healthgate to full and it’s a quick throw/hit. I don’t see a need for this.

I don’t make the build to rely on MOD for a reason. Because it’s unreliable. It’s fine to have but to hinge the builds survival completely on it is a big no-no for me as I experience long dry spells where it doesn’t proc. It’s a 6% chance to get nades and 10% chance to get a rocket, not very strong odds to base an entire build on IMO.

I went over this in the build explanation text. It regenerates a rocket about once every 7 seconds. 10 times slower is an exaggeration. Forge is just one piece of this puzzle that makes the build tick. As you can see from my videos it’s plenty sufficient to complete Takedown and Slaughter, using an aggressive and fast playstyle, and anything else I want to do in the game so I don’t see a need to do that. I do need to reiterate that you need a base mag of at least 10 extended to around 16-20 to be comfortable with the rate of rocket regen. Since making those clips though I’ve actually gotten new ones. My lowest mag size is now 22 boosted and my shock/normal ones are in the 30’s, very comfortable with the regen on these.

1 Like
#8

I have an Epicenter that will bounce and release a second ring of orbs. I might have to play around with it more.

#9

Spring Epicenter yes. I have one of these that’s Terror anointed. Would love to get one with one of the ASE anoints.

1 Like
#10

I don’t think mine has any anointment on it, can’t remember. But it something I used once and forgot about.

#11

Have you tried Stainless Steel Bear instead of Explosive Punctuation or Grizzled? Since those two skills don’t really do much, I’ve been using Stainless Steel Bear and the increase in max fuel causes me to get more time back on exit since it’s based on fuel.

#12

I haven’t. Though I wouldn’t say Explosive Punctuation doesn’t do much. Agree that Grizzled isn’t very significant though. I could easily move the points from Grizzled into SSB and try that out. EP is underrated, as I mention in the text and videos, Autobear with Explosive. Bullets. can actually get Iron bear back on it’s own with it.

#13

I’m at work so I can’t watch the video right now. Just reading the text. A few days ago someone tested those skills and found they didn’t do much, even at 5/5.

#14

Ok well agree on Grizzled because it diminishes and you only manage to make up a couple seconds if you get kills.

But just with a simple test I got 16 seconds cooldown with just enter/exit immediately with no enemies around. Then enter/exit and let Autobear shoot Chantelle and dropped that to 12 seconds. Thats just Autobear shooting Explosive. Bullets. at 1 single target with 1 single point in EP. So their test was not all inclusive I would imagine.

1 Like
#15

I believe their test was using the full duration of iron bear and only Moze shooting. Neither skill did very much, they also made sure to remove their shield to not proc topped off. Which topped off ended up being way more effective even if you only have a full shield for a few seconds.

#16

Topped off is more effective then any skill in the game :smiley:

In both my numbers that was using Topped off but the shield acted exactly the same in both scenarios. (it’s not full when I exit but fills up on natural regen, due to my shield anoint for 75% increase).

If I wasn’t using Topped off, having all 3 of the skills in question would not be sufficient in my mind and I would then stack Action Skill Cooldown passives.

I don’t think we can look at a skill like that in one single scenario then go “it doesn’t do much”. This game is much more situational then that.

I definitely agree SSB is probably more significant then Grizzled though and I will definitely be checking that out.

1 Like
#17

The other person was isolating each skill and then combined them, analysis shows minimal impact for 5/5 skill investment.

Still do what you do. Just throwing the math out there. Minimal impact is still an impact.

#18

Yeah that’s what I’m trying to point out. By itself maybe it’s not. But combined with everything else it makes a coherent system. What I know is, when I remove the EP point, I don’t get Iron Bear back before Auto Bear ends easily, with it I do. Grizzled wasn’t anything I was actually relying on I just used it to move down the tree and actually never considered SSB but I will now.

#19

Hmm, interesting. When I go down to get Fuse for some of my builds, I end up putting 4 points in Stainless Steel Bear just to progress down the tree. I end up getting Iron Bear back before Auto Bear has ended with out Grizzled or EP.

#20

Yeah now that you’ve brought it up. I’m thinking I will even move a couple points out of Vampyr (I think I’m doing overkill there atm) and 5/5 SSB. It seems like a very strong investment, not just for the cooldown.