[Build] Shocking Anarchist (lvl 72 & OP8)

Borderlands 2 Gaige the Mechromancer
#1

It has been nearly 3 years since release of this game, so it is about time I share the build I run, maybe not optimal but it works well on LVL72 & OP8 when it comes to mobbing. No pre-stacking needed, and only 2 sources for Slag are used.

First things first:
Do you like doing shock damage, tons of it?
Do you think that accuracy can “suck it”?
Don’t mind some help from a somewhat derpy robot that can dish quite a bit of damage?
A Gaige build that does not require pre-stacking?

If the answer to all 4 is yes, you’re at the right place.

The build

BFF:

Close Enough 5/5: Compensating for the accuracy loss, mainly on the main weapon.
The Better Half 5/5: Pretty large firerate bonus, which is hugely beneficial for half the load out.
Upshot Robot 1/1: More DT to help in the field, nice little bonus to melee damage aswell, benefits both DT and WC.
Unstoppable Force 8/5: Excellent shield related skill when BSS doesn’t cut it, nice movement boost aswell to get in someone’s face and proc BSS again.

LBT:

More Pep 3/5: Bugged but every bit counts to proc things more often, everything over 3 points is redundant.
Myelin 10/5: By far my personaly favorite defensive skill, shield cap does not do that much but the 60% shock resistance is a huge help.
Strength Of 5 Gorillas 7/5: DT scales with the Op levels so more than 2 points are redundant with the COM we’ll be using
Shock and Agh! 1/1: Act as a Tesla grenade!
Electrical Burn 5/5: Free burn damage by doing what this build is made for, not the biggest damage boost but it does help.
Wires Don’t Talk 5/5: More shock damage and it benefits from Anarchy.
Interspersed Outburst 5/5: Free slag, too much RNG behind it but when it kicks it it’ll allow you to hit harder, the reason why MP has 3 points.
Make It Sparkle 1/1: Imbuing DT with the power of the elements? Why not, cuts down on shields really fast.

OC:

Smaller, Lighter Faster 9/4: Essential to go deeper into this tree, but still something that comes in handy.
Anarchy 1/1: Main damage dealer.
Preshrunk Cyberpunk: 2/5: Getting the ideal stack cap of 250 (~300% damage boost without the accuracy loss being too bad).
Robot Rampage 1/1: New toy for DT, increases his melee damage in bursts.
Blood Soaked Shields 5/5: Another defensive skill, 5% health loss on kill gets easily compensated.
Discord 1/1: Emergency health regen and getting a huge firerate boost when it is nescecary.
Typecast Iconoclast 10/5: Faster anarchy stack gain.
Rational Anarchist 1/1: Bit of a damage boost on our first reload/kill, every bit helps.
Nth Degree 5/5: Hugely beneficial for multi-pellet weapons, CE and high firerate guns.
With Claws 1/1: Only occasionally used, but gives decent damage on slagged enemies, and it provides some health regen.

The gear:

Lots of multipellet gear, to increase the benefits of CE and Nth degree:

Emperor, the SMG that wants to be an AR, stable 5 round burst and good DPS when handled correctly.
Kitten: Another source for healing, but without losing to much DPS.
-Alternative: Hail, where the Kitten is more of a shotgun, the Hail shoots in a arc, giving it a steeper learning curve. The extra crit damage is hugely beneficial for CE once again.
Twister: Jakobs quad that does shock damage, best from both worlds. Fixed spread negates the downside of Anarchy.
-Alternative: Conference Call, more DPS, and the CC spits so much lead that Nth degree has a field day. Arguebly easier to get your hands on than a Twister.
Veruc: The AR that wants to be a shotgun, where for other VH’s it would be better to have the Minigun, Gaige gets exceptional use out of this purple-coloured assault rifle.
-Alternative:Tattler: Closest thing to a Anarchy this game has, W/C benefits from the blade, BH likes the huge mag. Or:
Bone Shredder (not guarantied bladed, less ammo effecient).

Backpack gear (stuff that gets occasionally used for specific encounters):
Pimpernel/Pitchfork : For some bosses, (large) flying enemies and all Constructors. Both benefit from Nth degree (one more than the other), making it a hard hitter against bosses. Pimpernel requires knowing the sweetspot (which Anarchy makes it harder to do so), Pitchfork eats ammo for breakfast.
Bekah: The weapon for ranged encounters, arguably one of the most powerfull rifles in the game, downside is that it cannot be elemental. But works well against the occasional enemy that resist shock damage, which negates the weakpoint of this build.

Shield: Blockade, the Anshin that takes damage reduction in a diffirent way. Over 30% DR makes sure that Gaige can tank damage. Combined with BSS you will be sure to last long.
-Alternative: Black Hole, not nescecarely used for it’s damage, rather for the fact that it brings enemies in range. Makes Gaige more fragile but it allows enemies to be within optimal range.
Grenade: Your prefered method to slag enemies: Crossfire, Magic Missile, etc.
Class Mod: Legendary Anarchist, the almost ideal combination of skills in one single lunchbox, only COM that boosts Myelin.
Relic: Shock Bone Of The Ancients: More shock damage and a nice cut to the cooldown rate, which means more DT

Usefull links (might happen that more will be added in the future):
List of prefixes, and what grips do
DDD: Min-maxing your gear
-Personal note: on Gaige I would personally recommend sights that don’t zoom in that much, I.E. Vladof, Dahl, Torgue, or none where possible.

Gameplay:


Notes/To do:
-Not sure how well it works against raids, but feel free to give it a shot. However, for this purpose there are better builds.

Anyway, wanted to share how I’ve been running the Mechromancer on OP8, and show that LBT is a viable skilltree, even on OP8.

.

12 Likes
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#2

Fixed that for you.

I seldom use builds which don’t incorporate SiC for expedience and hilarity, and I have an inbuilt aversion to spec:ing CE, but a build similar to this has been a lot of fun as well.
It’s unfortunate that With Claws suffers so much from enemy knockback (something addressed with Krieg) but when it works it’s wonderful.
I don’t give likes because I dislike that system, but please have one in spirit.

#3

Don’t mind if I use the fixed sentence in the OP when I update it!

CuT hardly gets any use in a frantic build like this, and while I’m not a fan of CE, it is the lesser of 2 evils and both the Kitten and Tattler/Bone Shredder benefit from it.

As for SiC, while it is hugely beneficial to DT, he still knows how to dish out alot of hurt without getting a shield. With this build (or any build that does not use SiC) it is not uncommon to hit atleast 20 stacks.

WC goes severely underrated on the Op levels, hardly see builds that still use it on OP8. I agree on this part, still works great when enemies are distracted by DT.

Thank you, appreciate it. And it shows that I should’ve never hesitate to post my build in the first place.

#4

Hmm. Shame I never got to play with you. :/.

#5

I’ve never pre-stacked with Gaige- I’m always of the opinion that by the time I get to where I want to go, enough enemies will have died that I’ll have all the stacks I need… :sunglasses:

#6

Indeed my friend.

Some do, some don’t. In this build the only factor that changes is the amount of slag you need based on the stacks of Anarchy. Which is why there are only 2 sources for slag used. In fact, might ad that slag grenades are hardly nescecary when not using this on OP8.

#7

True, but there’s a trade-off since you spec for With Claws. Since you can easily get 120-180 stacks if you give him a nice roid shield, your own melee damage is going to become pretty impressive for a non-melee character.
Given that you want N:th degree and and a heavy LBT focus it won’t be an option, but if you feel like a melee rampage it can be a fun variant to try (^ ω~)

(I dislike the forum emoticons as well; at least that lets me get a bit of practice on some basic kaomoji.)

#8

There’s actually a pure melee Mechromancer build around, but I can’t remember the username of the person who made said build (shame on me, I suppose). It is definetly a build I should give a shot someday, maybe when I own THC. I’ll keep it in mind.

Same here, forum smiley’s are either uncanny or just ugly in general.

#9

Are you thinking of Bake’s Twinclaws build? It’s in the resources sticky here. Neff made a couple of vids demonstrating it. It’s fun, but going 5/5 BSS makes it something other than a pure melee build, so maybe you were thinking of something else? Essentially you’ll be stripping your shield like Zer0 (or have it stripped for you by mobs) but you’ll be cycling that with every kill.
Obviously you can back off BSS a bit (or entirely), but that’s a bit…risky.
It’s a shame that UF (which would be amazing for a melee build) doesn’t simply skip the shield regen component if you spec With Claws, but GBX probably didn’t think that far ahead.

〣( ºΔº )〣 They freak me out completely.

#10

That was it! Must’ve missed it when I was browsing the resources sticky. I would swear it as a ‘pure’ one. Anyway, that’s not the topic of this thread. I’ll gladly discuss it further with you, but through PM’s or something.

#11

Nice setup, 0taku! I like this mix of LBT, Legendary Anarchist and the Black Hole.

#12

Thank you, fellow Mechromancer enthousiast. :D.

1 Like
#13

:dukecheese:

#14

Done. :).

1 Like
#15

Thanks. :dukeaffirmative:

1 Like
#16

Hey, you started putting periods at the end of emoticons now xD

#17

Learned it from a master ;p
Seriously though, better than those awfull smiley’s Discourse ships with.

1 Like
#18

If you use BlackHole Shield , how about ChainLightning?

You can always break down BlackHole manually(by ChainLightning) , you can generate BlackHole effect actively.
This way is effective in middle range.
(*It is needed to tweak Myelin and Shield Capacity)

#19

Actually didn’t thought about that, I’d love to give that a try someday. Whenever I can bother playing TTOADK that is.
On lvl72 it is something that can be done without dramatically changing the build, but on OP8 I’m not too sure.

#20

Update to the build.
Some gear changes. Hope to gett some gameplay video’s out soon.

1 Like