So this is a little build I concocted to annoy my friends in PvP on Borderlands. For this build to work you have to be at least 40+ against an equal level opponent. Its effectiveness isn't as great against another Siren, but will destroy any other character class. Whenever a cocky Hunter would come along and be all like "Yo dawg I pwn at PvP dawg, I'mma birdy-bird you and snippedy-snip-sniper viper you to deadedness...dawg". You know, as they do...I just setup my little build and show them the what-for! The aim of the build is to destroy your opponent's shield, when entering phasewalk, and then deliver a powerful blow, upon exiting phasewalk, to cause an instant KO. I'll be doing this with the perfect mix of artifact, class mod, and skill tree. Skill Tree First of all, the Skill Tree: Borderlands: Skill Tree Now the things to take note of here are: PhaseStrike - This is part of our "Finishing Blow" recipe. It boosts the melee damage by 800%. This alone is not enough to take down our unshielded opponent though. Hit and Run - This also boosts melee damage, this time by an extra 35%. Every little helps. Venom - Perculiar results turned up when testing this. It seems that you actually do less damage with Venom than without, despite the description saying it boosts melee damage by a further 25%. I have a hypothesis for this: I believe that all characters have an inherent resistance to elemental effects and, because Venom transforms your melee attack into corrosive damage, the opponent partially resists the damage to an extent that it causes less overall damage. Even so, we still include Venom into our build, for reasons that will become clear shortly. That's really it in terms of the necessary skills. All the other skills are just to get down the trees. Dramatic Entrance and Silent Resolve are there as fall-back options. In case you don't insta-KO your opponent (probably because you missed your melee attack) then at least they'll be dazed, and you'll have a high resilience to damage for 7 seconds, hopefully allowing you to finish them off. Class Mod This is the sweet little device that turns our weaksauce Venom into the powerhouse that it should be. Remember I said that Venom transforms your melee attack into corrosive damage? Well, if you equip a Plaguebearer mod, that will add up to 56% extra damage to the overall melee attack (That's a lot!). You can also get one that boosts the Venom skill by a further 4 points (That's also a lot!). So, ideally, you want a Plaguebearer mod with +56% Corrosive damage and +4 Venom Skill to really transform your Phasestrike melee hit into a "Touch of Death"! It may take you a while to find this golden gem of a class mod, but it truly makes all the difference! Artifact The final piece of the puzzle. You want to get a Shocking Artifact (At least Level 5). With this equipped, when you enter Phasewalk close to your opponent it is almost guaranteed to take down all of their shields. A person's shield is the majority of their health in most cases (Save Brick) so this alone is half the battle won. The Game Plan. We're all geared up and specced out, but how do we wield this God-Like power? Well, it's pretty simple really. As soon as the word "Duel" appears on the screen, make sure you're close to your opponent and enter Phasewalk. The resulting blast from your shock artifact will destroy his shields. At this point feel free to run around a bit, enjoying the invincibility and invisibility of inter-dimensional transit (Unless your opponent is a Brick with the "Recharging Shields" Skill). Before Phasewalk has run out, just run up to your opponent and give him a good old punch in the face; the combined effects of all your melee skills and the plaguebearer mod will be enough to obliterate your shieldless foe. There are only two ways you can screw things up: You either get 1-shotted before you have a chance to enter Phasewalk, or you miss with your melee attack when exiting Phasewalk. Other than that, there really is nothing your opponent can do about it. Only another Lilith could stop you, but then that's a fair match, and we know not to accept those
Couldn't agree more. My PvE build is quite similar, although obviously not optimised for PvP. I still run a plaguebearer class mod though, definitely the best choice for an assassin build, and radiance takes down enemy shields instead as I like to take an incendiary artifact to AoE multiple enemies when I exit phasewalk. Nice build man. If I were to suggest any changes it would be to possibly take points out of high velocity and throw 'em into silent resolve, which would help a lot if you missed your melee (more than the extra bullet damage imo). I'd consider maxing out resilience instead of spark too, since high level weapons tend to be dealing pretty huge elemental damage. Both of those are really personal preference though.
Yeah I actually run a different setup entirely for PvE. The one I've demonstrated is purely for PvP. I would have used Silent Resolve instead of Slayer but it doesn't work (Gearbox have finally admitted that it does nothing). Once it's fixed I will probably roll with that instead (which I would also do in my PvE build incidentally). I'd take out Slayer instead of High Velocity because you can't actually get Critical Hits in PvP. High Velocity will help with bullet damage, should you miss the melee. So, if I were you, I'd prob respec and take out Silent Resolve from your build for now, because it isn't doing anything. That is unless you're using the PC version, which I think is the only one with a working Silent Resolve. Phasestrike still doesn't work in the PC version though! So whichever version you're playing there's some skills going to waste in your build. I did test out Radiance as well, but it actually doesn't do anything in PvP. I don't know if this was an intentional decision by Gearbox or another bug, but Radiance only works against the AI, not against human opponents. It's a shame too because I could have rocked out with a Corrosive or Incendiary artifact instead for moar powar. Spark is useful to keep in anyway; it improves the chances of getting the DoT to proc on the Shocking Artifact and on Venom's Corrosion. Also, there's no such thing as "too much" when it comes to Elemental procs on weapons. Elemental DoT's stack, so the more times you can get the DoT to proc the more it can build up for insane amounts of damage. That's why the Hellfire SMG is so godly! I also use Hard To Get and Blackout at the same time on my PvE build. I do love Phasewalk! I guess you do too FYI: This is the PvE build I usually go with. I sometimes Respec in certain situations and I'm always swapping around artifacts, mods, and weapons in different scenarios.
Ooh, some interesting info there, thanks. I'll definitely switch out silent resolve for now... that's a little irritating. I knew spark worked with weapons - I guess since I phasewalk pretty much constantly I don't have as much use for higher weapon damage (although I do rock a hellfire 'o course ) - but I didn't know it affected venom. That changes the way I approach my build quite a lot. I must say Gearbox really nailed the aspects of the game where it matters, for all the little bugs. Not least of which is allowing you to respec, and at a pretty low cost, too. Handy, considering the above... ^.^
NEEEEEEeeeeeerrrrrrddss, but I'm happy that you take something to another level. but seriously, get some sun
I'm from the UK, what is this "Sun" you speak of? The only Sun I'm aware of is a tabloid paper, and I read the Daily Express instead thank-you-very-much. Anyhoo, I just like playing around with game mechanics and experimenting, it's the same thinking process that allows me to come up with things in Forge. I don't think anyone can really call anyone else here a "Nerd" when we all make maps in a video game. I think the ultimate irony was that it came from a Premium Member Also, I took your mother to another level last night
Borderlands wasn't strongly designed for PvP, but there's no reason they couldn't patch in a competitive multilayer mode, or something, unlikely as it is. Nice build idea, although i'm way to laggy to pull of that punch: it always misses by a hair. I go with the Firefly mod, Phoenix +5(+4) and a 4x incendiary SMG that is highly likely to cause an elemental effect. My DPS is insane.
I'm sorry if you think that build can beat my hunter, seriously I am... my hunter build complete with my class mod, artifact and weapons I would use: 5 focus, 3 caliber, 2 smirk, 5 killer, 5 trespass 2 swift strike, 2 swipe (these are useless in combat, as is smirk seeing as im lvl 50) 5 deadly + 3 from class mod, so 8 deadly, 1 lethal strike, 5 riotous remedy, 5 hair trigger, 5 relentless + 3 from class mod, so 8 relentless TMP8 Cold Torment Damage: 196 Accuracy: 74.7 Fire rate: 12.0 Magazine size: 28 -------------- +60% damage +31% fire rate +53% recoil reduction +12 magazine size 50 pistol proficiency: +48% damage +153% accuracy +102% reload speed Gunslinger class mod: +78% pistol fire rate 3 deadly skill 3 relentless skill +15 pistol ammo regen I should also mention that the pistol is a green from playthrough one, near the end of the game. please dont take this as bragging, but I would kill you in less than a second. But I will agree with anyone who says my awesomeness isnt mostly from my talents, its from the gun.
You, sir, miss the point. Had you actually read my post properly you would understand. It doesn't matter how good your Hunter is. It doesn't matter if you can kill me in a single shot, or less than a second. None of it matters. I will be able to kill you without you being able to do any damage to me. As soon as the duel starts, I will be next to you, and I will enter phasewalk straight away. Boom, you just lost your shields, and I'm now invincible and invisible. I now melee attack you and you're dead. At no point are you able to hit me or retaliate; you are dead before you can even hope to damage me. Unfortunately for you, Hunter does not have a "God Mode" button - Siren does
I've just bought the game so i don't know much; does the shield removal effect work also when the siren exits phasewalk and delivers the melee blow? If not, it'll be difficult for a siren to reach melee range unstealthed in a pvp arena
I can't wait to get borderlands in a couple days. It seems so fun. I'm definitely gonna be a siren just for this.
Well the phaseblast effect from an elemental artifact does occur both entering and exiting phasewalk. So, just exiting phasewalk next to your opponent will drop their shields...however...The Phasestrike punch that you're trying to perform, to kill them, happens before exiting phasewalk. So if you haven't already entered phasewalk near them, to drop their shields, then your phasetrike won't finish them off. The resulting phase blast from exiting phasewalk will then only do minimal damage, because the phase strike will have removed their shields, and shock damage doesn't do much to flesh. My build was more about duels than arena. In an arena I find it better to equip a corrosive artifact instead; that way my phasestrike + corrosive artifact, when exiting phasewalk, does considerable damage with the Plaguebearer Class mod equiped. I find that setup 1-shots a lot of level 50's I play against, as long as their shields and health aren't too buffed up. It's easier to avoid a Siren, with this build, in arena though; just jump on a rock and then they can't phasestrike you. So it really is more of a duels only setup.
I do believe our duel proved otherwise good sir! Heh, I hadn't even read your challenge when we duel'd. Had I known, you would have most certainly not heard the end of it!