Today I have something that I believe to be pretty interesting. A Gaige build that can get you through the peak, all the way up to OP 10 that does not require pre-stacking, bee + fibber, sham and Norfleet, the Grog, etc. Of course, you can still do those things and clear the peak very quickly but being a purist myself I decided to share how I managed to get through it. For now I will leave the video which explains the Deathtrap focused build that I use to get through the peak and of course the gameplay of me going through. I will probably edit this post later with a full text write up explaining my tactics and how to conquer the peak with Gaige. For now, I just wanted to share the video! There are timestamps in the description for each major Peak boss. Thanks for checking it out and I hope it helps you!
Here is the text write up!
Hello there, I hope you are all doing well today! I am here to present a Gaige guide for taking down Digistruct peak (through OP 10) that requires no pre-stacking of Anarchy, no Norfleet, Sham, Grog, Bee-Hawk, and so on. Important to note that I used this build on the Unofficial Community Patch but the advice, gear, and build should translate relatively well to the Vanilla game as well.
Section 1: Build
Anarchy (1/1): Obvious choice that helps boost Gaige’s DPS significantly.
Smaller Lighter Faster (4/4): We have to take this to progress down the tree but Reload Speed never hurts and mag size reduction is nice for generating more anarchy.
Robot Rampage (1/1): This is Deathtrap’s primary way of dishing out DPS. He hits like a freight train with this skill. In the UCP you also get 20% Gun Damage… doesn’t hurt.
Blood Soaked Shields (5/5): This is your primary form of survivability. Fully recharging your shield with a kill is absolutely fantastic. You lose some health but a Moxxi weapon can easily offset that. Has amazing synergy with high capacity shields with a long delay or slow recharge (like the Blockade).
Discord (1/1): We take this so we don’t accidentally lose all of our anarchy. The active effect is actually quite good though and you can run around using it often. Accuracy, Fire Rate, and Health Regen are very welcome and useful in many situations.
Annoyed Android (2/5): The Roboteer com boosts this skill by 5 so we may as well take it for the boost. The movement speed actually helps more than you would think. It translates to more DPS since DT can get to enemies much faster and move to new targets much faster. Also harder to hit as a result. Nice skill and debatably worth more points.
Moving onto the middle tree we take Myelin (5/5): Extra shield capacity and shock damage resistance are very nice. You will absolutely be hitting yourself with shock on accident with this build at some point. Furthermore, it helps protect you from those nasty shock DoT’s that can quickly ruin you by destroying your shield. Nice skill.
More Pep (5/5): This skill’s values are doubled in the UCP and alongside the scaling of elemental damage added it becomes much more useful. Very easy to apply status with this skill and that comes in very handy with a build that puts out high elemental damage (vanilla people you may want to skip this one).
Strength of Five Gorillas (5/5): This skill is boosted by the Roboteer com and is also buffed in the UCP. It still gives Deathtrap melee damage but also gives you gun damage. 30% extra melee damage for DT with the com is the primary reason we want this. Gun dmg is a nice cherry on top for UCP users.
Electrical Burn (5/5): Synergizes really well with More Pep, you have a very high chance of applying the electrical burn. It does respectable damage and can you keep healed up with a Moxxi weapon.
Evil Enchantress (5/5): Increasing our elemental damage is absolutely fantastic for a build that incorporates lots of elemental gear and damage. Scaling of DoT makes this skill so much better in the UCP.
Wire’s Don’t Talk (5/5): More elemental damage. Nice. Continuing with the elemental theme. Big reason we want to use shock damage weapons so much with this build is because of this skill and the others that synergize with it of course.
Make it Sparkle (1/1): In the UCP Make it Sparkle gives us 30% Elemental Effect Chance and Damage. That is absolutely great. I still think it is good on Vanilla. The ability to imbue DT with an element is really nice and helps increase his DPS. Plus it just looks badass so yea…
Lastly, we have the BFF tree and we will take Close Enough (5/5): Ricocheting bullets have fantastic synergy with Anarchy. Greatly increases your DPS and synergy with certain weapons (Fibber for example). We need to progress the tree anyways and Cooking Up Trouble is often underwhelming.
The Better Half (5/5): 60% fire rate when our mag is half-empty is really really good. Helps us build more anarchy but also allows our DPS to skyrocket. Great skill.
Upshot Robot (1/1): The cornerstone of any DT focused build. Each kill you or DT gets while he is out increases his duration and melee damage. This is really self-explanatory. Longer uptime and more DPS. What is not to like?
Potent as a Pony (5/5): Boosted by the com and helps increase your survivability as well as DT’s. This is a really nice boost to both of you and becomes a rather large amount when it is boosted to 10 (40% health for you and 20% for DT). The health is not bad on you but I take this skill for DT. You could throw one point into this skill if you just want the value from the com, not necessary to max but I like it.
Unstoppable Force (5/5): Movement Speed and Shield Regen after a kill. Essentially this increases your DPS and survivability. I can’t even count how many times this skill has saved me from a nasty DoT or heavy damage.
Made of Sterner Stuff (5/5): This skill is so much better on the UCP imo. 10/5 on Vanilla this skill gives 10% Damage Reduction (all) and 30% Melee damage for DT. This is not terrible but not super impressive, you could reconsider the points here for Vanilla game. However, on the UCP with 10/5 it gives 40% damage reduction to all types of damage and still keeps the 30% melee damage. That is a massive increase and has a serious impact on your survivability. Take this skill!
Explosive Clap (1/1): You can take this skill on Vanilla or the UCP. I primarily like it because it provides some CC and “stuns” the enemies for a few seconds. It does very respectable damage on the UCP but not so much on Vanilla. However, the stun is more valuable in my opinion.
20% Cooler (1/5): This gets boosted to 6 points with the Roboteer com and I think any more than 1 is redundant. It gives about 36% CDR with 1 point + Com and you also have CDR from Bone of the Ancients and the Com itself. I don’t notice much of a difference when I get the 10 points as opposed to the 6. Obviously we do want the CDR though so take the skill. More uptime for DT is necessary for a build focused around him.
Sharing is Caring (1/1): This skill is really awesome and on the UCP it also gives shield capacity and recharge rate (25%). This is what allows DT to be such a threat. We give him the Hide of Terra and let him go to work. His melee damage and survivability with this skill increases exponentially. MUST HAVE!
Here is a link to the skill build (some skills do not reflect the UCP changes): https://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#500055151511550055150501410152100000
Section 2: Gear
Weapon 1 (Slag): Slagga, Slag Slowhand, and Florentine are all great slaggign choices on Gaige and this mostly comes down to preference. You can really use whatever Slag weapon you prefer for this slot but these give me the best results. The easiest to use is certainly the Slagga, it has wonderful synergy with Close Enough and allows you to spray bullets everywhere and slag them all quite easily with Gaige’s high elemental effect chances.
Weapon 2 (Jack of All Trades): Shock Hail (Damage Prefix), Shock Kitten, Shock Veruc, Peak Opener are all great choices for a weapon that performs well in a variety of situations. For this slot I generally like to use the Hail or the Kitten, you do need a Moxxi weapon, and the Hail or Kitten both excel at dishing damage and also keeping you alive. However, If you decide to run the Slag Slowhand for your Moxxi needs then this slot is flexible. The Veruc is great, high damage, and high fire rate assault rifle on Gaige. The pellets and spread also have nice synergy with Close Enough and Anarchy. The Peak Opener is just a disgusting weapon on many characters and Gaige is no exception it synergizes very nicely with her Shock Tree and can put out some serious damage. The main issue with this weapon is its ridiculous level of ammo consumption which can become a real issue in the peak.
Weapon 3 (Range): The Storm, Shock and Corrosive Pimpernel, Shock and Corrosive Conference Call. For the third weapon slot, I always prefer to run with something that can help me deal with enemies from a distance. Surveyors, turrets, spider tanks, and certain enemies in the peak are best approached from a distance. The Storm received some major buffs on the UCP and is an incredibly strong weapon on Gaige. With the buffs to DoT, Gaige’s blue tree, and flat out buffs to the weapon it becomes a huge DPS dealer. It is truly great from any range but it is mostly used as my surveyor weapon and can also come in handy if I just want to let Deathtrap aggro and I can help him with supporting fire. If you are on the vanilla game the Pimpernel is always a great option and superior to the Storm (just don’t get like 200+ anarchy with it). It is also good on the UCP but I believe the Storm will give you more bang for your buck. Lastly, the Conference call is a very solid weapon from range or anywhere for that matter. This is a universally accepted and appreciated weapon for Gaige so I do not think I need to explain it much. Lots of pellets, high fire rate, high damage + anarchy = nice.
Weapon 4 (Flex or Fight For Your Life Weapon): The Twister. This slot is probably the most open for debate but I pretty much never swap out the twister. It is absolutely incredible with Gaige’s kit (always being shock, lots of pellets, low mag size, high fire rate, very high damage…). This thing will shred any enemy that gets close to you and has phenomenal synergy with Anarchy and Close Enough. It also performs very well as an FFYL weapon and has saved my skin many times. If you don’t want to use the Twister or can’t obtain it then I would just recommend a very high damage weapon in case you go down. For example, the Badaboom, Norfleet (I don’t use this but doesn’t mean you can’t!), Topneaa, Hive (with really high anarchy), and so on. There are obviously tons of other great weapons on Gaige that I have not listed here but I really enjoy using these weapons and they give me great results. For some other options please refer to this: Top Gear for Gaige!
Shield: For this build, we will be swapping between the Hide of Terramorphous (summon DT with this on and then swap to other), the Blockade, and the Bee for Saturn, Dukino’s Mom, and OMGWTF. The Blockade is just a very high capacity shield with fantastic Damage Reduction. Has great synergy with Blood Soaked Shields. Hide of Terra will bring out the full potential of Deathtrap and it allows him to hit like a truck while still maintaining tankiness. The Bee is pretty much here to speed up the killing of the super tanky mini-bosses of the Peak (Saturn, Dukino’s Mom, and OMGWTF). You don’t have to use it but I use it for the sake of time preservation. With a low focused Anarchy build it will simply take too long to kill these bosses. Of course, you can do it without the Bee… but I hope you are patient.
Class Mod: Legendary Roboteer and Chaotic Good Necromancer. The com gives cooldown rate and melee damage, the cooldown rate is very welcome and the melee damage is obviously not very useful for you but that’s okay. We are mainly using this com for the skills it boosts: Strength of Five Gorillas, Potent as a Pony, Made of Sterner Stuff, 20% Cooler, and Annoyed Android. All of these skills drastically boost DT’s survivability (and yours). Annoyed Android and Strength of Five Gorillas also drastically boost his DPS. However, the main benefit of this com and build is the very high uptime of DT. He will be back very soon after death or expiration which is very important for the peak. Deathtrap is very strong with the UCP fixes to scaling (his damage scales with level) and buffs to skills like Made of Sterner Stuff, Strength of Five Gorillas, All one-point skills, and so on (I will leave a link to the changes for those of you interested in the specifics). In specific scenarios such as Dukino’s Mom, Saturn(s), and OMGWTF I will typically use the Chaotic Good Necromancer com. This is because it is one of the highest DPS boosts a COM can give to Gaige, boosting Fire Rate and Reload Speed by a large amount. It boosts the skills: Wire’s Don’t Talk, Strength of Five Gorillas, and Made of Sterner Stuff (how much it boosts it by will vary). These skills are by no means bad but It is not why we are using it. It is simply for the massive DPS boost from the Fire Rate and Reload Speed it gives.
Grenade: Chain Lightning, Storm Front, Electric Chair, Quasar, and the O-Negative are my most commonly used grenades. I generally run the Chain lightning to strip shields and provide high shock damage. The fact that it regenerates grenades is also very handy in general but especially for the peak where your resources are limited. Storm Front and Electric Chair are great for bursting down beefy targets like Scorch, Dukino’s Mom, Black Queens, etc. The electric chair is superior to the Stormfront but often crashes my game so I usually do not use it. Quasar is good for mobbing, crowd control, and it helps set up Deathtrap. You can easily pull enemies towards him and let him go to work. (Slag) O-Negative is a nice alternative if you feel like you are having trouble surviving and want a little bit of extra slagging. I don’t usually use this one but it is there just in case.
Relic: Bone of the Ancients (particularly shock) is easily the best choice for this build. The cooldown rate and extra shock damage are fantastic. Really not much else to say. I usually carry around the fire and corrosive but I rarely use them. The Corrosive one can be quite useful for taking down Saturn and OMGWTF. I pretty much never use the fire one unless I am using the Hellfire, Seraphim, or other fire restricted unique weapons.
Section 3: Peak Tips
Generally, with the peak, you want to play safely and cautiously. Don’t rush things and make sure that DT is ready every time you go into a new room. Don’t be afraid to play passive and kite if he dies when you need him. Lean heavily on the Hail, it will carry you through the majority of the peak. It is an exceptional weapon in terms of damage, fire rate, reload speed, etc. plus it gives you the healing from the Moxxi property. Can’t complain about that.
Use ammo and grenades liberally on tough bosses and especially if there will be an ammo vendor right after that boss (Ex: Scorch).
Tips for Dukino’s Mom: Use the Hail, Chaotic Good Necromancer Com, and the Bee. You will deal some serious damage even on low anarchy. Summon DT and have him soak up damage for you while you unload. This one can be scary but if you hold the Hail tight you should be fine.
Tips for Saturn: I generally use the Corrosive Bone, Bee, Chaotic Good Necromancer Com, Corrosive Conference Call, and the Pimpernel (keep a Moxxi weapon on hand too). It will take you a while to kill them both so play safe and find proper cover. It is difficult to describe the best spots to fight him from but you can see what I do in the video (Timestamps included).
Tips for Assassins: This one can be really tough if they all spawn at once. Use everything you have (Ammo Vendor right after) on Rouf and Reeth immediately. These two are the most dangerous. Rouf deals insane damage and is really slippery. Reeth can apply a fire DoT to you… at this high of a level, you might just flat out die to it. Blow this guy up immediately! The other two are not very scary so don’t worry about them much. DT is very helpful for this area and will probably save your ass.
I think that is enough text writing for today, I hope it helps you guys out! Let me know what you think and feel free to give me some feedback or ask questions if you are confused about something!
UCP Change Log: https://github.com/BLCM/BLCMods/blob/master/Borderlands%202%20mods/Community%20Patch%20Team/Full%20UCP%20Changelog.txt