MOZE THE INVINCIBLE BUTCHER
You. Will. Die.
INTRODUCTION
The Butcher was one of my absolute favourite shotguns in BL2, especially when playing as either Salvador, Maya or Krieg, and I for one am so happy that it was recently buffed. I did briefly use it in my main Bloodletter build but found that I wasn’t getting much use out of it compared to other Hyperion shotguns. And about halfway through formulating and playtesting a build for this one shotgun, I found out that Moxsy had already made such a build. However, his implements Short Fuse which sounds like a solid idea. But then again, the faster a weapon’s fire rate can go, the less optimal things become for the capstone, and The Butcher is THE one weapon in the game where you want to stack as much fire rate as you can get!
Moze the Invincible Butcher is a Shield of Retribution/Bear Mother build dedicated exclusively to the legendary Hyperion shotgun but with a couple of twists: there’s no splash damage involved and we have a primary class mod as well as a secondary one to opt for just for some extra fun. Iron Cub is equipped with Railguns + Capacitive Armature for significant DPS support and is augmented by Efficiency Engine just for an extra smidgeon of gun damage.
Big Surplus + Fired Up are obvious grabs, while Harmonious Havoc I find is best used by equipping 3 other weapons to match the element of The Butcher you are using. If it happens to be in cryo then it can deal extra damage thanks to how Superior Firepower happens to buff cryo damage. Running on Fumes however is not taken because Cub will burn through his fuel tank quickly enough to the point where the capstone has little impact.
Shield of Retribution plays a big role in this build and not just because of gun damage for Moze or Cub’s arsenal but because the shield we’ll be using is important and even bizarre picks such as Behind the Iron Curtain + Force Feedback can have an impact on the shield’s performance and getting it to proc its special effects far more often.
When testing The Butcher more thoroughly, I realised that even though extra magazine size obviously can help, it’s actually Cloud of Lead that is the true unsung hero that boosts its capacity to fire more like a shotgun version of the Infinity and I even tested this without any additional magazine size bonuses to be certain. Redistribution is simply the icing on a generously-sized cake and thanks to that, our progress down Bottomless Mags doesn’t need to go further than tier four. Now to see what equipment we have.
GEAR
Sapper ended up becoming my primary class mod in the most challenging content, not just because of the added survivability but because being able to ADS and reliably land critical hits more often helps mitigate the DPS paper-deficit to the secondary class mod featured in this build. What’s also great is that we don’t give a damn about the bonus skills as they make no real difference. Passive bonuses are the entire focus should you farm this COM. Look out for shotgun damage most of all, followed by weapon damage, Hyperion critical damage or even Hyperion weapon fire rate which would be useful.
Green Monster is for those who want more DPS and a little more fun by ditching the Invincible tag. I did actually start the build with this COM in mind and I still switch to it regularly simply because I love the idea of being able to hose enemies with all five elements. This class mod is also the reason why Rushin’ Offensive is present. Needless to say, the best roll would be the same passive bonuses with Scorching RPMs racking up all the bonus points.
Hyperion Company Man is definitely the best artefact for this build, provided you can acquire the trifecta of 50% gun damage, 50% critical damage and 40% fire rate. That is more important than the passive bonuses, however anything elemental would be great too, especially shock damage considering our shield.
The Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge is great backup in case the main choice is too much of a pain to farm. Magazine size for once isn’t really necessary but a little extra insurance never hurts. You can get bonus fire rate on this artefact.
Re-Volter is an absolute must for this build, for the 50% bonus fire rate as much as the 200% bonus shock damage. And you will see the special effects a lot more often thanks to the shield-related skills we acquired in the red tree. For anointments, you can opt for the shield special effects to trigger on ASS, but I made do with one that gives bonus CDR per kill and still saw the special effects trigger plenty of times regardless.
Mesmer is my go-to grenade for non-splash builds as its ability to create distractions is mega-helpful. Nowhere else in the game does it pay off more than buying Moze some breathing space while tackling the crystals phases of the Guardian takedown. You can either go for 25% OGT or if you’ve got the cooldown rate to justify it, you can add any missing elements with 50% bonus elemental damage for 10 seconds after ASE.
FINAL NOTES
Just to clarify how effective this build is, I managed to beat the Guardian Breach on true takedown difficulty (twice, with a couple of minor alterations to the skill build each time) with my gun being cryo and having radiation damage for the next two magazines after ASE (essentially not bothering to switch and match elements) and by using the Sapper despite its lesser DPS on paper. As for the anointments, my original plan was to fire off all five elements so I could shoot everyone with rainbows which is why 100% elemental damage N2M works well in this build, although you can just as easily use consecutive hits especially when matching elements. But the interesting thing about the class mod when testing it and comparing it to the Green Monster is that because you don’t need to rely on Rushin’ Offensive for sustain, you can face-tank pretty much anything and ADS for more accurate shots, meaning potentially more critical hits in your DPS.
But beware: if you use the Sapper, do not assume that you are 100% invincible. Although I found it was extremely rare, even when landing shots galore, it is still possible to fall into FFYL. But you’re easily churning out enough DPS to get yourself back on your feet should that happen to you. The DPS especially goes into total overdrive when you have both the special effects of the Re-Volter and Big Surplus active at the same time!