This thread is intended to crowdsource an idea for a melee Nisha build centered around Thunder Crackdown.
Core question: Have you guys found any successful builds that really take advantage of Thunder Crackdown and Nisha’s melee skills? I’d like to believe that our capstone skill has a use.
I spent most of today trying out various Nisha builds and gear around the idea above.
…none of them worked that well.
For the build (and its previous iterations) below, I measured my own definition of “success” as relative to Iwajira and BA Holodome rounds. I really wanted to be more excited by the build. Even with full Order stacks + Third Degree + Avalanche/Big Thumperr roid damage + Cryo, I was consistently underwhelmed by Thunder Crackdown’s damage–in Holodome, for instance, it often didn’t get through shields, let alone one shot dudes.
Skill choices: I won’t go into a huge amount of explanation for the skills, as so few of Nisha’s skills really synergize with Thunder Crackdown. Glad for your thoughts, though–I could be missing something obvious.
Gear:
Cryo Weapon: Skirmish Fridgia
Explosive Weapon Casual Torguemada
Cryo and Melee: Excalibastard
FFYL: Nukem
Shield: Avalanche or Big Thumperr (Anyone know what max 'roid damage is? I was able to get a 31k Big Thumperr, and got tired of waiting for a Shooting Star that was better.)
Oz Kit: I ended up using 3DD1.E because I had one, but I’m wondering if Acrobat (airborne melee damage) or Systems Purge might be better.
Grenade Mod: Quasar
COM: Celestial Lawbringer. This was dictated by survivability with the 'Roid shields. I’ve been on the lookup for a Brutal Law Enforcer (+melee damage, +Law, +Third Degree, +Due Process)
Anyway, wanted to throw some rough thoughts out there to get things going.
You might want to have a look at @Afro_Samurai’s Whippersnaper melee build for inspiration.
Personally, I think Nisha is best suited to hybrid melee builds: her 2 best melee skills require either stacks you get with kills or a pretty long cooldown.
I would suggest you try to get a cryo pistol with a blade, and get OFEOY to get twice the melee bonus from the blades. (the T4s-R is perfect for that)
When you use TC, you might notice that the cooldown is more like 10 seconds rather than 15. I have not come around to moving it onto the new forums yet, but you should see it ported over here soon.
thunder crackdown is a beast. Took this screenie last month, says it all. It’s twice as much as my explosive claptrap can do with a full ravager shot to a frozen face, although less consistently obviously. Juggling all the order stacks and 3rd degree kills and roid shield down and dual bladed pistols is way more work than just firing a ravager, but hey, it’s rewarding too.
I just need a good gun for showdown now, to get all those 3rd degree stacks. (BAR were on with about 18% extra melee damage)
In my fairly limited testing since my last post, I’ve been finding this build a little harder to play than expected for the reasons you outlined–managing the Roid shield + Order stacks + 3rd Degree + Dual bladed isn’t super easy when a lot is going on. Now, also have to remember to jump. (I didn’t have an Acrobat oz kit until recently.)
I had some fairly miserable failures against Iwajira–definitely seems better for mobbing or Holodome.
What 'roid shield are you using? Shooting Star? And what’s the 'roid damage? I haven’t been able to find anything greater than ~31k, so wondering if I’m unlucky or if it doesn’t exist.
For Showdown, I’ve been starting out spraying Fridgia and then swapping to dual bladed Maggies, as its one less thing to worry about and the DPS seems good. Interested to hear what you’re using, though.
The Avalanche, something 39k roid damage. The brutal law enforcer COM gives another 46% melee damage, and +6 in 3rd degree, so that each stack gives 220% extra melee damage.
My loadout is usually
Bladed probe if it spawns, or bladed taser
frigida
fragnum
rosie
avalanche shield / brutal law enforcer COM
longbow stormfront / acrobat oz kit
The cryo explosive combo of frigida and fragnum work okay for mobbing and building up 3rd deg stacks, even in the dome. The rosie is currently my showdown weapon. I’d try not to rely too much on pistols, since that will eat through your ammo in no time.
For boss fights, this setup is garbage due to all that juggling in order to get in one good TC, so it’s back to celestial com, buwark, eddie and rosie most of the time for me.
