[Build] Antisocialism - Sniperless Solo Shenanigans!

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Lady Hammerlock the Baroness
#1

#Antisocialism

Antisocialism is an economic system characterized by antisocial ownership of the means of production and uncooperative management of the economy. The antonym of socialism.

The GOP platform is basically right-wing antisocialism.
##Foreword

Goal: To create a non-co-op build without Sniper Rifles. So that basically means it’s gotta be Cold Money. I’m okay with that, because this tree is very cool (get it?).

##Final Loadout

###Guns

  • Flying Fridgia
  • 9/5 Quality Not Quantity means Flying flies just over 10 Fire Rate, while Stopping stops short.
    • Dahl Grip because fashion
  • Casual Torguemada
  • Switch to this when you to unwind after a long couple of milliseconds of shooting Flying Fridgia. Relaxation and satisfaction sure to follow. If you do it right, you can achieve multiple explosions.
    • Torgue Grip because fashion
  • Casual Flakker
  • For when you really need to relax. One shot is good. Two shots is better. Three shots ought to be goddamned illegal. Do it anyway.
    • Torgue Grip because FASHION
  • fwap a Nukem
  • Everybody does it, even ladies. Perfectly natural. Just not in public. If you must fwap a Nukem in public, please use caution and discretion. And leave no survivors.
    • Torgue Grip and Exhaust because FASHION
    • Tediore Sight because function (see, I’m not entirely shallow)

###Accessories

  • Asteroid Belt Shield
  • Naturally you’ll have the entire set of these if you’re sufficiently posh. One for every season, of course!
    • Priority: Grounded > Alkaline > Warming > Inflammable
  • Bomber Oz Kit (Explosive :boom:)
  • Throw like a girl.
  • Longbow Sticky Singularity (Explosive :boom:) or Longbow Cryo Grenade
  • You want to mix up your workout or you risk muscle plateau. Start with a few repetitions of Explosive workout, then you’ll want to cool down for a bit with Cryo. Unless you’re like the Elpisian equivalent of Chuck Norris. Either way, soon you’ll be able to go on as long as this metaphor.
  • Chronicler of Elpis Class Mod
  • You might say that two of the skill bonuses here are “wasted.” You’re right, of course, because waste is simply a nice way to say garbage. Filthy, disgusting, garbage. Good riddance. Fortunately, the rest of this class mod is practically made of cheesecake, which is not garbage and also delicious.
    • Cryo Damage, Freeze Chance, Shield Capacity
    • +4 Large Caliber
    • +4 I Never Miss
    • +4 Cold Advance
    • +4 Frostbite
    • +4 Quality Not Quantity

##Skill Details


###Cold Money

  • 5/5 Avalanche
  • Increased Cryo Damage and Freeze Chance for each individual enemy damaged with Cryo. I believe “Yo, Dawg” is the proper meme to apply to this skill. If you’re a toddler.
  • 1/5 Bitter Riposte
  • Taking damage while your shield is fully charged fires an Ice Dart. Worth a point for the function, but our damage increase skills will also raise our effectiveness without investing more into this specifically. I believe my accountant says this is called “portfolio diversification.” He may be a peasant, but he talks like a real person, at least.
  • 5/5 Short Summer
  • Dealing Cryo Damage during Cold as Ice builds stacks of Short Summer, which give Cooldown Rate and Shield Recharge Delay bonuses. Stacks start to decay after Cold as Ice ends. I like this for the Recharge Delay, mostly. Cold Advance increases duration, which should result in more stacks. If stacks were diamonds, you might end up with almost as much as me by the end of Cold as Ice! Sadly for you, they’re not. Also, you wouldn’t even be close. Heh.
  • 1/1 Winter’s Fury
  • Activating or re-targeting Cold as Ice knocks enemies back. About as useful as an umbrella with a knife in it. If this needs further explanation, enjoy your knifeless umbrella, and being mugged in the rain.
  • 5/5 Frigid Touch
  • Gain a percentage of Cryo Damage as life steal for a few seconds after a kill. It should go without saying, but… Actually, no. It will go without saying.
  • 1/1 Fragment Rain
  • When your Frost Shard attaches to an enemy, it has a chance to send out damaging fragments towards nearby enemies. The first one is guaranteed. Unlike the carpetbaggers who say such things, this skill actually does something.
  • 5/5 Frostbite
  • Any enemy damaged by your Frost Shard takes increased Cryo Damage and further increased Cryo Damage against its Shield for a few seconds. If you weren’t using your Ice Shard as a way to tag priority targets, now would be a great time to start.
  • 1/1 Polar Vortex
  • When your Frost Shard attaches to an enemy, it has a chance to create a Singularity, pulling enemies toward it. The first one is guaranteed. Déjà vu, non? Une poussée n’est pas une traction. :3
  • 5/5 Cold Advance
  • Increases Critical Damage, and Critical Hits extend Cold as Ice duration. Or, to put it another way, “increases potency and stamina.” If this were a vitamin supplement, you’d want the biggest bottle you could get.
  • 5/5 Whiteout
  • While Cold as Ice is active, enemies near you deal reduced damage. Remember the umbrella with a knife in it? Consider this your kevlar raincoat.
  • 1/5 Winter’s Veil
  • When your shield is depleted or you are struck with a melee attack, you release a Cryo Nova with a high freeze chance. Shield must recharge fully between Novas. Like Bitter Riposte, this is worth a point for the effect, but other damage increases take priority. As for the witty banter portion of this description… Your kevlar raincoat can now explode. I guess.
  • 1/1 Wintertide
  • All guns (regardless of element) deal additional Cryo Damage for a few seconds after a kill. If you’ve ever wanted to freeze something with an Explosive Shotgun, now you can.

###The Huntress

  • 5/5 Markswoman
  • Increased Critical Damage and Aim Speed with all weapons. One of few non-Sniper-specific skills in the tree, and it’s useful. Only the Best has unfortunately negative effects on Torguemada and Flakker, so this is the other option. Works just fine for Fridgia.
  • 5/5 Culling the Herd
  • Scoring a Critical Hit increases Gun Damage for a few seconds. This spec has very little in the way of damage increases for non-Cryo weapons, so this is a welcome boost for our Explosive options.
  • 1/1 Long-Range Killer
  • Your shots deal bonus damage based on distance to the target. More distance, more damage. This is a percentage of your final damage, so it can be very powerful.

###Contractual Aristocracy

  • 2/2 Duchess
  • Kills give you Duchess stacks, which give Accuracy, up to 100 stacks. You lose them when you or your servant dies. Neither of which should happen because you’re awesome and you have no servant. Free accuracy!
  • 1/1 Contractual Obligations
  • Useless. You need no servant. This is merely to get to Quality Not Quantity.
  • 2/2 Valet
  • Ditto.
  • 5/5 Quality Not Quantity
  • Fire Rate and Gun Damage bonus on weapons of blue or higher rarity (decrease on green or lower). Worth the 3 wasted points into CO and Valet, because our Class Mod boosts this.

Suggestions welcome. This is still a work in progress.

3 Likes
#2

Full Cold Money seems awesome. Just two notes:

  • Long-Range Killer is currently bugged and rarely triggers.
  • In your second build Only the Best with the boost from the Celestial COM messes up the Flakker and the Torguemada.
  • Torguemada: The grenades spawned upon impact by the Torguemada spread across a whole area with just 6/5 in that skill. I’d love to use that gun on Aurelia but a Ravager is far more effective in a spec with OtB.
  • Flakker: The range of the flak is insane you can kill Iwajira from the other end of the room. In some cases that’s an advantage, in others it’s the opposite.
#3

Thanks for the feedback. I think I’ll still keep Long-Range Killer in the hopes they fix it and since there’s not really anywhere else I care to put the point. I’ll definitely make a note of the bug in my final writeup.

Chronicler might be easier to control as a QNQ source, if the effect of Only the Best is that pronounced.

It also gives Frostbite and Cold Advance, which appeal to me more than Avalanche and Bitter Riposte. Not to mention the COM bonuses themselves. With 9/5 Frostbite, Cryo weapons will do 79.6% damage to affected shields, which is practically the same modifier as Explosive (80%).

Technically Chronicler over Celestial makes me miss out on some of the Markswoman boost, but the value of Type A Critical Damage when the Freeze effect gives +200% of it already is dubious.

Question about Frostbite:
Does it restart its timer after each tick of the Shard, or does it stop at some point after the initial application?

EDIT:
Adjusted spec for Chronicler of Elpis

#4

I am definitely going to try this out! but I plan to swap a point out of whiteout into magic bullet for between major fight healing. (just grab sniper out of bag, heal up a bit, back to business) Mostly bc I think the 6% loss at 4/5 whiteout seems minimal.

#5

That’s certainly an effective option. There are several skills in that tree I’d be inclined to take if I were more impressed with Snipers generally in TPS. That’s part of the reason I wanted to make a no-sniper build. I prefer Shotguns and Fridgia (which is in a class of its own in my opinion). And I usually play solo, so that informed the other half of the restrictions to this build.

Once you’ve held a Pimpernel, and learned how to handle it, no other Sniper really feels as good. Or more accurately, no other Sniper feels as interesting. Sniper bullets: apply directly to the forehead. Sniper bullets: apply directly to the forehead.

If the Volcano (or whatever it’s called in TPS) and Storm had continued the trend of BL2 redecos as Cryo weapons, maybe I’d be more enthusiastic. Or, you know. If there were a Cryo Pimpernel. Or a proper Explosive Sniper.

2 Likes
#6

About Frostbite, I can’t answer 100%, but it seems to last a pretty long time, even after the shard is long gone in some cases. Might be an idea to try and time it to find out, not super easy without everything dying though. Out of the two I would hazard a guess at every tick? Either way they stay “tagged” as I like to call it for a fairly long time.

#7

From what your’re saying, it certainly sounds like the timer for Frostbite is being refreshed each tick, which is what I was hoping for.

Thanks for the prompt response, I’m looking forward to (ab)using this skill even more…

Also, build is now called Antisocialism because fake words are funny. #dealwiddit

And the description is more descriptive: it describes more descriptively how I would describe the build.

#8

Yeah, I feel you there. I love the pitchfork for those rare multi-headshot moments but I sorely want a cobra and pimpernel :frowning:

#9

As part of my due diligence with the character, I’ll be trying a lot of Snipers (she does have an entire tree for them…). But I think this build should remain a solo, sniperless build for those people who enjoy such things.

I’m hoping we’ll get something really cool in the campaign DLC in the way of Snipers… But for that, I’d probably just use one of the other really good Sniper builds.

Aside:
Did a formatting pass on the OP, added some sophomoric (maybe even freshmanic) humor. Enjoy or vomit as you see fit.

Will work on expanding the foreword and skill descriptions in the near future.

1 Like
#10

I’ve had the same issue with this game, pimp spoiled me but also snipers like the longbow, cobra, etc…

TPS is lacking interesting snipers so far.

#11

Sooooo the flakker hates me… would you recommend I replace that with something like a pounder or what about another type of splody gun like pistol for ammo reasons? Also, how do I get the most out of the torguemada? should I be firing from above, aiming for crits, hitting their feet or what? not sure how the extra spawns are best utilized there.

1 Like
#12

I got the best results while aiming the top projectile for the head to get a crit and let the other two projectiles hit the body, at least on humanoid enemies. The grenades will do the rest. It doesn’t really matter that much whether you’re above, on the same level or below an enemy. The trajectory of the spawned grenades is most of the times the same.

1 Like
#13

Ok thank you very much!

#14

Just a small note. I absolutely do not like Large Caliber.

In case you were wondering if that would end up in the build since the class mod boosts it.

#15

at 2/2 it’s 100 stacks

#16

It’s only good on snipers and only good on those if you have Only the Best which can cancel it out on most snipers, Silver Lining also helps.

#17

If you’re talking about vs. generic enemies I have to disagree. If you pair Large Caliber, Prudent Prudence and a Tediore shield Prudent Prudence will be active nearly permanent, enemies will die within one mag and afterwards you reload fast enough to instantly start shooting another enemy once in sight. I often run that kind of setup with a Fatale and Bullpup and the latter will kill enemies with one or two shots so there isn’t much need for reloading.

#18

In order to get to Large Caliber, I have to invest in pointless Sniper skills (pointless for me, since I use none) or Only The Best, which breaks the two highest DPS Explosive Shotguns available, which means I’d be using less-damaging options… to get a Gun Damage boost and a mag size decrease. Keep in mind I already have 3 wasted points to get QNQ.

I think I do more damage overall with Torguemada without these skills than I would with a Stalker, Bangstick, or Pounder with them.

It would also cost me certain options in Cold Money I’d rather not do without, like Whiteout and Cold Advance.

I wish the bonus damage from Frostbite against shields were a special multiplier (it’s simply more Cryo Damage, additive to the rest that she has)… I think that would completely solve the issues with boss shields people are having.

EDIT:
So I got power-leveled to 60 (sue me), and transferred gear from Nisha/Athena. I began my UVHM playthrough yesterday with a modified spec that included Only the Best and Large Caliber and various non-Torguemada shotties. Hit a wall at Deadlift today.

Spec’d back to the OP, used Torguemada and Flakker. It was slow, but the damage was so much higher it was not a chore to take potshots while hiding. I was using Cryo nades to ensure the status for Flakker/Torguemada. This is why I decided not to bother with Large Caliber.

I’m going to transfer Storm Front/Quasar over and see if that helps, but at the very least you can be sure I don’t think Only The Best is nearly as productive as simply using the best Explosive guns (Flakker and Torguemada, in case you were wondering), which are the only ones that skill breaks.

#19

I don’t want to convince you of Large Caliber. Your setup is probably the best for Torguemada and Flakker usage. My previous post was just meant as an opposing point of view regarding Derch’s statement which sounded a bit too generalizing.

#20

Fair enough.

Plus, there wouldn’t be much point if our non-sniper, non-co-op specs were identical.

1 Like