MINIMALIST MASOCHIST
I’ve always wanted to see if it was possible for Moze to handle and clear all content on Mayhem 11, WITHOUT any legendary or unique items. Literally not a single thing about the build has any line of red text behind it. So can she pull this off? Short answer: yes. Long answer: it proved doable in the end but also required a significant amount of testing over various periods of time across the game’s lifespan to narrow down the options and make it feel and function like a viable build.
Minimalist Masochist is a direct call for the ultimate meta skill build. Because we’re purposefully torturing ourselves on equipment, we can’t afford to leave a single stone unturned when it comes to Moze’s skill trees. Big Surplus is the only thing we want from Bear Mother, while we spend just 15 points in Shield of Retribution to pick up Security Bear, max out Drowning in Brass and have our Railguns equipped with Capacitive Armature & Corrosive Sabot Round.
We are not going any further south because increasing shield capacity for the sake of it is a fruitless endeavour 99% of the time as well as a waste of effort and skill points for this specific build, and trading missing health for gun damage would not yield much in profits compared to other options. Therefore, the build is a hybrid one that chiefly revolves around Demolition Woman + Bottomless Mags. Some for the Road is very welcome considering the shotguns we’re rocking.
SHOTGUNS
Bangstick is renowned for being the Torgue shotgun that can shoot the most sticky projectiles in a single blast, firing up to as many as 18 pellets in one shot with the ‘Double Penetrating’ prefix. This typically makes it great for bossing but it is also versatile enough to apply the same philosophy while mobbing as well. It is surprisingly ammo-efficient because it has an even higher chance to proc Means of Destruction with every shot as well as the sticky chain detonations. Although this weapon has a higher chance to proc Short Fuse with each shot, at the same time it’s not optimal for maximising the capstone’s DPS. This is definitely a weapon to use with either Consecutive Hits or 160% splash for 18 seconds after ASE.
Kielbasa is another non-unique Torgue shotgun that is also worth a mention because with the most optimal parts, it can be the exact polar opposite of the Double-Penetrating Bangstick. With the parts I’m talking about, the Kielbasa feels and shoots more like a grenade launcher than a shotgun. Any non-unique Torgue shotgun can drop with the ability to fire a single high-damage projectile including the Bangstick, but it’s the Kielbasa that trumps them all for base damage. This means that we have a non-unique splash shotgun that’s optimal for Short Fuse and because it’s a single-projectile shotgun with decent base damage, the 150/90 anointment is actually a pretty good choice here as well as Consecutive Hits and 160% splash.
GRENADES
Boosting Moze’s utility with grenades can be done in two ways: either increase the radius and/or implement features that facilitate a single explosion to tag multiple enemies at once, or go for grenade mods that can spawn several grenades from just one. The latter method is always preferable in the sense that it’s not at all dependent on how many enemies are on the field; it will still perform consistently in all situations. That said, there are only two non-unique grenade mods that best adhere to this method than all other options. As for anointments, there is not much point going for anything other than +25% OGT.
Tracker is Atlas-made which means that it can only be kinetic but the homing feature more than compensates for lack of elements. The Tracker is the one non-unique grenade with the most potential for DPS and for extra opportunities to proc Moze’s grenade-relevant skills. It’s also the only grenade where you want it to drop with the ‘Bouncy’ bonus because the homing feature redirects them to your enemies for maximum damage and has far less risk of bouncing towards you and blowing yourself up! I’m sure everyone is familiar with the abbreviation CMT and if you somehow don’t know it then here’s what it stands for. Recommended drop: Cloning Maddening Tracker – x1 DIVIDER, x1 MIRV, x1 BOUNCY
EXPLODER unfortunately lacks the direct homing feature of Atlas grenades and can prove to be easier to blow yourself up with because of that. However, not only does it have the potential to release more explosions than other grenades but it can drop in either kinetic or elemental varieties as well. It’s very simple when it comes to Torgue grenades: you just want more MIRV! Recommended drop: MIRV Cluster-F*ck EXPLODER – x2 MIRV, x1 MINI-MIRV
SHIELDS
In the absence of red text, epic-rarity shields are pretty much all about the parts that they consist of. Truth be told, Moze’s survivability is pretty decent with the way we’ve gone about the skill build which is a good thing because we can think more about using our shields for offence more than defence. Even if you can’t find the recommended drops, just try to get as many of the recommended parts as you can find and it will still suffice. Non-unique shields can sometimes be shared by more than one manufacturer with only the base shield stats making any difference. The anointments in this case are not too important but without Grizzled in the build, I would recommend trying to get the anointment with bonus cooldown rate per kill if you can.
One-Shotter Shield is great here because unlike its legendary cousins, the amp damage can apply to all pellets in shotgun blasts, including the Bangstick! Amp damage occupies its own slot in the damage formula. Although finding the shield itself is incredibly rare, in my experiences I’ve come across plenty of shields with 50% amp damage which is still good enough for the job at hand. Both Anshin and Pangolin make this shield, but Pangolin is the better choice because they lower the capacities of their shields in favour of less recharge delay and faster recharge rate which is exactly what you want when using amp shields! Recommended drop: x3 AMP
Killswitch Shield is the next best alternative as the power charges boost your weapon damage. This is the same as standard gun damage in terms of the damage formula, and the charges only last for about 10 seconds. However, you can stack their effects and the damage cap is set at +300% should you be able to collect so many charges in such a short time frame! Again, this shield is manufactured by both Pangolin and Anshin, but there’s no true discernible difference between both when it comes to getting the most out of it. Recommended drop: x3 POWER CHARGE
CLASS MODS
It’s important to note that unlike their legendary counterparts, epic-rarity class mods only drop with a maximum of two passive bonuses. You should know by now that Moze’s overall DPS works best when we diversify with different types of bonus damage. For example, you can get standard weapon damage on your class mod which counts towards normal gun damage in the formula, but a more specific type of weapon damage creates a separate multipler from every other damage type we’ve accrued so far. Some passives get bigger boosts with class mods, while others get more love from artefacts which is why you don’t want to automatically just stack the same passive bonuses for the hell of it and try to diversify when it makes the most sense. But at the same time, the Short Fuse meta stipulates that it’s totally valid to bolster the splash damage multiplier as much as possible. With all things considered, these are the two best passive bonuses to look for in your epic class mods. Recommended drop: + Splash Damage, + Shotgun Damage
As for the main bodies of the class mods, we want ones that are going to help make a discernible difference to Moze’s total DPS. All of her non-unique class mods have the potential to do that but in the absence of special effects from legendary mods, we want to be certain about our picks so out of the ten non-unique class mods, I’ve narrowed it down to two that are no-brainer options when it comes to making this non-unique build viable in Mayhem 11.
Firewalker was always one of the better non-unique class mods but when Moze was blessed with Mayhem-scaling, this instantly became her #1 non-unique COM overnight. I’ve done a LOT of testing with different Firewalker variations but overall, I arrived at the conclusion I expected from the very beginning: you want as much Fire in the Skag Den as you can get. If you’re struggling to find a drop that gives +5 for it, then any bonus points in Stoke the Embers are totally viable as well. You know a class mod is pretty good when Drowning in Brass is the least-desired bonus skill in its range! Recommended drop: +5 Fire in the Skag Den
Baby Boomer in my honest opinion has always been a sorely underrated class mod and is a no-brainer in the sense that no other non-unique class mod can come close to matching the unique DPS output of the Firewalker so instead of focusing on DPS, why not present a class mod that focuses more on survivability and utility? The #1 bonus skill here is obviously Redistribution because it makes up for not having access to Forge as well as getting extra health regen. But the amount of bonus points that goes into Means of Desruction and/or Torgue Cross-Promotion is a lot more subjective depending on what exactly you want from the class mod. Choose the former if you want to be more economical with ammo and grenades, or the latter for more splash damage. My recommendation is just my personal preference. Recommended drop: + 1 Redistribution, +3 Means of Destruction, +1 Torgue Cross-Promotion
For the record, I took a kinetic DP Bangstick and did several DPS comparison tests between both the Firewalker and Baby Boomer class mods as per the recommended drops. Naturally, the Firewalker with emphasis on FitSD was the clear winner in terms of DPS; you could easily land enough stickies in a single volley (before having to reload the weapon) which would ensure that Graveward would eventually die. However, because (my recommended drop of) the Baby Boomer can essentially double the amount of ammo and grenades you regain, you can lay down a lot more sticky projectiles in a single volley and despite the lack of bonus points for FitSD, the single volley on a kinetic Bangstick is still enough to kill Graveward in some cases, provided you lay down enough of them and correctly time the chain of detonations before the window closes.
ARTEFACTS
After grenades, artefacts are arguably the next best category in terms of Moze possessing power closer to a build comprised of legendaries and unique gear. Like their legendary cousins, purple-rarity artifacts can drop with a maximum of three passives. For Moze, the two biggest priorities in my opinion are + Magazine Size and + AOE Damage because these two in particular are bigger bonuses than what you would get from class mods, as well as the fact that AOE damage does boost the splash damage multiplier.
What you want from the third passive bonus slot is entirely up to you. You could get more movement speed, grenade damage, shotgun damage or even elemental damage. I’m particularly fond of landing corrosive damage – Moze already has Stoke the Embers active in conjunction with Fire in the Skag Den primarily and Big Surplus secondarily, and you’d be hard-pressed to find more effective means of applying huge shock damage than Capacitive Armature x2. But the meatiest enemies in the game tend to wear armour and because we’ve got no legendary or unique gear to speak of, it just makes more sense to activate yet another separate multiplier that is totally relevant against such enemies. Additionally against said enemies, the bonus corrosive damage provides a bigger foundation for extra FitSD damage compared to just getting more incendiary damage. In many ways, the passive bonuses actually matter more than the main body of the artefact. Recommended drop: + Corrosive Damage, + AOE Damage, + Magazine Size
As for the main bodies themselves, the prefixes of the legendary artefacts become the suffixes when it comes to their non-legendary counterparts. There are quite a number of decent artefact choices but some are either more niche or more heavy-maintenance in terms of extracting optimal performance from them. Such an example would be using a low-level Sellout just to profit from Elemental Projector, something you’d have to do every 5-7 seconds to justify wearing it.
Even ones like Ice Breaker are somewhat reliant on legendary gear to really see the benefits from it, and slam artefacts such as Hot Drop demand that you slam more often than usual which is not always practical because you can’t fire your weapons while slamming. I’m also of the opinion that while Last Stand is considered one of the better artefacts for survivability, it’s only active for 5 seconds with a cooldown duration of 40 seconds, in which a LOT can happen! Thus in terms of low-maintenance, intuitive and effective artefacts that require little-to-no effort to utilise to their fullest capabilities, these are my two top picks:
Snowdrift is the slide artefact for you if you favour speed and manoeuvrability above all else, but also if you favour survivability. Moze does feel slow and sluggish without any bonus movement speed to speak of, so this helps you get from A to B a lot quicker and can also help you stay alive in fights where you need to move around and/or take evasive action in order to stay on your feet.
Atom Balm is a tad more reliant on kills as well as your choice of gear and making sure you have at least one shotgun that inflicts radiation damage, but it is definitely the best artefact out there for tackling mobs. Radiation auras and explosions will do more damage, cover more radius and thus spread more easily across the battlefield, not to mention foster even more synergy with Moze’s splash skills including Fire in the Skag Den which can be boosted to 10/5 in this build.
FINAL NOTES
This build has most certainly been a long time coming and on reflection, I’m glad that Moze has sufficient power to be able to tackle the entire game despite the self-imposed restrictions on weapons and gear. On the flip side however, there’s no escaping the elephant in the room that the main source of that power is not only that Fire in the Skag Den is being boosted as much as up to 10/5 but also that with a DP Bangstick in hand, the share of the DPS along with Short Fuse is disproportionately in favour of FitSD when it comes to this particular shotgun.
The DP Bangstick I did the most testing with was kinetic and anointed with Consecutive Hits. I did so much testing with it in fact that I found it to be reasonably sufficient for almost all content, having used it to successfully clear both True Maliwan Takedown and the Guardian Takedown, without bothering to match elements with my Bangstick and with my Guardian Rank disabled. If you’re the type of player who enjoys True Guardian Takedown however, I would strongly recommend you start matching elements by that point if you haven’t already!
One question people might have is where does Iron Bear factor in this build? Well truthfully, you can use him any way you wish. What I do is activate and pilot him until the fuel tank is empty, thus leaving me with maximum cooldown duration for Big Surplus to become more of a factor. Or you can enter/exit repeatedly to see Auto Bear more often.
Or if you’re getting bored of Torgue explosions all over the place and want to hurry things along, you can activate a cheat code by equipping yourself with a Tank Gal class mod with +3 Deadlines and +2 Stainless Steel Bear, perhaps also adding a Hyperion THICC Shield (for +50% max health, ergo extra max armour) to go with it. That way, you get a 100% non-unique Bear pilot build!