Alright, so if you’re reading/watching this, you probably know the new Maliwan sniper, the Root, will BETRAY THE F*** OUTTA YOU with its crazy splash damage and extra projectile shenanigans. But if you strip down your build like I do here, add a Transformer and a Shock variant of the Root, everything dies in an electrical storm rave, and you’re immune.
In-depth explanation:
-If you didn’t know it before (like I didn’t until recently, because it’s been awhile since I tried a shock/transformer build), bonus shock ASE anointments go right through the Transformer. I didn’t test this with a next 2 mags shock variant because I don’t have one on a Root, but there’s a couple other anointments you can use, like bonus splash, consecutive hits, or the 200% damage I have (which is just all I had in my bank when I set this build up to test), for instance. So I use a transformer with cooldown rate ASE, but any anointment which isn’t bonus ASE elemental damage is fine.
.-Forceful Expression, even in shock, will go right through the transformer, IIRC. You don’t need it.
-The Root is powerful, but this setup works because of 3 different boosts (on the COM, artifact, and Arms Deal) to splash/AoE damage, PLUS a boost to Splash Radius. You can probably get away with a COM which only boosts splash radius, but I happened to have 2 different COMs with a roll of splash damage and splash radius (phasezerker and a nimbus - both worked great, you could use a driver or anything else you have, really). It’s easy enough to kill yourself with the Root without all this, but stacking these plus splash radius literally seems to fill the game stage.
-An elemental projector isn’t required, but it makes a big difference. All those shock DoT’s still count, even if they’re not doing any damage to you.
-This build and gear is by no means optimized, and as such this isn’t really a speedrun either. If you got a good Driver, and like to play with Speed Demon, knock yourself out. You’ll certainly kick my time to the curb. This is just a good way to sleepwalk through True Takedown mode, like I did.
-Speaking of modifiers, it’s pretty flexible. I normally hate playing with Death, but the ridiculous AoE going everywhere almost entirely nullifies it, so I used it here.
That’s pretty much it. There’s no cooldown glitch shenanigans, modded gear, etc. I threw this together with gear I happened to already have from other builds. Getting a splash/splash radius roll on a COM is probably the only thing you might have real trouble farming if you don’t have one, but again, you can use any COM.
Anyway, enjoy.
-Squirrelly Dan.
Definitely the easiest Guardian Takedown run I’ve ever done.