It is rather obvious to me from the get-go that the Doppelganger to Jack is both the most useful, and the most disposable man in his employ. Not only does he now look like Jack, the Doppelganger’s entire identity and history has been replaced with Jack’s own, making any great heroic actions performed by him as Jack’s own, while also becoming a scapegoat against any would-be assassins.
(note: I only had a lvl 44 Celestial Doppelganger COM at the time so the highlighted skills are boosted by 4)
The Disposable Man build reflects and projects that disposability onto the Doppelganger’s Action Skill, getting as much as we can from Digi-Jacks dying against the enemy.
Skills:
Hero of the Story:
Best Foot Forward: A no-brainer for the build, the more we (and by we, I mean me,) kill, the longer the Action Skill lasts.
Just Compensation: To be perfectly honest, I only picked this skill because I like throwing my Tediore gun at the enemy to make them explode. Something about using disposable guns on a disposable man just fits.
You Have my Shield: Why are we using this skill on a build that focuses on letting the Digi-jacks die? Because two words: Nova Shields. Those war-hippies and that testosterone poisoned idiot had done something right for once when they started producing these. Just put one on and watch your enemies die in a series of explosions all over the dang place.
Jack’s Cache: This just beautiful with Leadership from the Greater Good tree and Just Compensation by giving us a free grenade every four kills. This doesn’t count towards our max grenade count, so we still can have the full benefits of Just Compensation.
Greater Good:
Integrity: A nice FINISH HIM skill, boosting gun damage when they have less than 40% Health, and even more if somebody else (including our Digi-Jacks,) hits them first.
Collaborate: The more I (and by I, I mean my copies,) die, the more powerful I become.
Synergy: Bonus Critical and Weapon Damage. Do I even need to say more?
Teamwork: The more I (and by I, I mean you,) die, the longer I survive.
Commitment: The more I (and I think you’re getting the picture here by now,) die, the faster I shoot and reload.
Accountability: Same idea as Commitment.
Optimism: When I die (do I even need to say it at this point?), I take you all with me!
Potential: So not only do I explode when I die, I explode when I come back too. Also the ability to use the Action Skill while in FFYL is really good.
Believe: Look, this kill skill boost nearly everything related to guns, why would I not take this skill is the bigger question.
Delegation: While we ourselves would rather not get hit, this helps us when we inevitably do… by having the Digi-Jacks take it instead.
LEADERSHIP: So whenever a Digi-jack dies, it counts as if I killed an enemy. Aka, all of my kill skills are immediately activated (Synergy and Believe) while also adding a stack toward Jack’s Cache. This is probably the simplest and yet best cornerstone skill for this build.
Gear:
Guns: For the most part, we can use any guns we like, but to really excel with this build, we will want;
Non-elemental Tediore SMG/IVF- The IVF is the legendary version of the Tediore SMG, spawning two grenades when it explodes, making it’s potential throw damage even more amazing. However, even a vanilla SMG will work wonders with Just Compensation. We want non-elemental because reload damage will default to explosive, which is boosted if the target is frozen (which will happen VERY often with a Cryo Nova.) Hefty (+damage) or Refill (+reload speed)
Casual Ravager/Torguemada/Flakker- BECAUSE EXPLOSIONS, THAT’S WHY. Tediore isn’t the only manufacturer that gets bonuses from Grenade Damage, and Torgue has MUCH better selection of shotguns.
Shock Tediore Splitter or Railgun- Shock is a really good element to have, with most enemies (especially near end-game) that have shields. In fact, with only 9/5 JC, I can and have two-…shot? Thrown? The Invincible Sentinel’s shields.
Shield:
Cryo Nova/Avalanche- We’re gonna focus on the Damage and Range of the nova shields, so pure Maliwan all the way. With this, we’re gonna make Elsa’s “Eternal Winter” look like a light dusting.
Coms: Like Marcus once said, “a Sniper without a Sniper COM is just a guy with a gun,” so we need a COM that suits us. Thankfully, we have several COMs to choose from;
Unbelievible or Incorruptible Hero (+6 Believe/Integrity, +5 to the other): More Gun damage AND more Fire Rate? Just what a Hero always needs. Boosting Believe is reccommended once we have Leadership, since it will basically turn it into a constant while our Action skill is active, though Integrity is not a bad choice either.
Accented Antagonist (+6 Collaborate, +5 Delegation): This reduces the cooldown of our Action Skill, which is good since it normally clocks in at 40 seconds. Delegation helps our Jacks die faster while keep us up longer, thereby giving us more Collaborate stacks earlier. Originally this build was going to include Winning, but until some of the issues are sorted out with (not restoring shields when kill skill is already active, doesn’t work beyond 6/5?) a blue version with Collaborate as the primary skill is the best.
Praiseworthy or Shrewd Entrepreneur (+6 Synergy/Believe, +5 to the other): All of the skills boosted by this COM are Kill Skills, which isn’t too much of a problem when, again, we have Leadership. These are both fantastic skills that just helps us keep the kills going.
The Best Man (+6 Just Compensation, +5 Lean on Me): This one will take a few skill points shuffling to get, since if you notice, we only have Just Compensation in the base build. However, this not only turns Tediore weapons into monsterous weapons, but most Torgue weapons as well with the bonuses to Grenade damage affecting them as well.
Celestial Doppelganger (+5 to Best Foot Forward, Just Compensation, Collaborate, Teamwork, Incentives, and Marginal Benefits.) This is probably the best COM we can get, and we don’t even need to spec into all 6 skills, just the first four. As a result, our Action Skill lasts longer, we’re harder to kill, and Tediore/Torgue guns are much more awesome. It also gives all brands a lesser version of the Hyperion gimmick.
Oz kit: Bomber: More grenade damage, which works beautifully with our Tediore SMGs and Grenades. The free grenades doesn’t seem to work with Jack, though that isn’t a problem with Jack’s Cache giving us more grenades anyway.
Grenades: Singularities. Maybe we don’t want to move closer to the enemy, but still want them to be hit by novas? Pull them out of cover with Hyperion’s own Singularity grenades. Damage and element aren’t all that important, since it’s only the initial pull that we want, so the best one is Longbow with <1.0 Fuse Time.
Leveling Guide:
Level 17: Collaborate 5/5-> Teamwork 3/5 -> Best Foot Forward 5/5-> You Have My Shield.
Around this point in time, Nova Shields have started to appear from loot sources. I feel that getting a source of healing early on helps a lot when there are no dedicated items easily accessible, so we’re going into the Greater Good tree first to pick up Collaborate and then Teamwork. The reason why I don’t go into Best Foot Forward->Take their Freedom is that TTF doesn’t mesh very well into the whole “Let Digi-Jacks die for you” theme of this build, and TTF is a kill skill at this point so we can’t rely on it in between engagements. Teamwork is a better choice even though it seems it would heal less because it doesn’t rely on kills to heal us up. However, immediately dismissing the Digi-Jacks after deploying them will give you two stacks of Teamwork right off the bat with the Action Skill ready again in less than 5 seconds.
Level 22: Integrity 2/5-> Commitment-> Accountability-> Optimism 1/5.
Hopping back to the Greater Good Tree after getting You Have My Shield, we spec into Integrity, which basically is Omega-Senshu that only boosts guns. In addition, we get the multiplier from our own Jacks doing the damage for us, so anything that deals a lot of damage at once (shotguns, sniper rifles, railguns,) will help you shred weakened enemies apart. Moving on to Commitment and Accountability, which provides us with Fire rate and Reload speed bonus the more our Digi-Jacks/allies die and take damage, respecively. Commitment offers a good amount of Reload Speed for only one point, though the stacks decay faster than Teamwork, so often you will only have 2 stacks of this. Accountability is especially really good in co-op, it being easier for you to get stacks when there are 1-3 other players taking gunfire for you. Finally we put one point in Optimism. The Explosive nova damage from Optimism is not really that much, but it’s the secondary effect of this skil that we’re after, making the Digi-Jacks respawn with less health. This helps us get stacks of Collaborate, Teamwork, and Commitment faster, since the Digi-Jacks will have shorter life spans, as well as set off their novas more often. However, more points in Optimism will not decrease the lifespan of the Jacks, sadly.
Level 31: any combination of 3 points in Integrity or Synergy-> Potential-> Believe OR Delegation 4/5-> Leadership: Now we’re starting to get somewhere! After getting Optimisim, we go back up the Greater Good, either to finish up Integrity like I did, and/or put them into Synergy. Next is Potential, but then we have a choice: Believe or Delegation. Take Believe if you need more DPS rather than tanking, or Delegation for tanking ability with Teamwork. Either combination of 4 points until we have Leadership available. Remember, Digi-Jacks naturally decay over time, so long as their lifespan is shorter than your FFYL time, you’re golden.
Level 32-50: anything you want. With Leadership, the main core of our build is basically complete. Just Compensation is just icing on top, so while recommended, is not completely necessary for this build. In fact, you could move around some points to grab Money is Power, or get everything up to 5/5.
Level 60?: I plan taking a point out of Optimism (down to 2/5 or maybe even down to just 1/5) from this posted build, and then put 1 point in Incentives, 4 in High Frequency Trading, 5 in Marginal Benefits, and then finally get Money is Power.