#1

I want to play as this character on the handsome collection… i am new and need some guidance on a build and what to farm and whats the best for the character for Normal mode and on… I got nothing but time to play the game for grinding and things like that.

#2

Gaige is a pretty fun character. There’s several ways to build her in NVHM. You can find some discussion of early stage skill choices in this build guide:

Lots of other links there for you as well. I wouldn’t stress too much about finding the right gear and a perfect build through NVHM though - just try things out and see what works for you. By the time you’re done NVHM you’ll probably have a better sense of which direction you want to go, and can respec if necessary.

One thing to note: Gaige’s “Smaller Lighter Faster” decreases mag size. This means that a single shot weapon (especially the Infinity) will not work once you throw points in that skill. You need to do this if you want to go up the Ordered Chaos tree for an Anarchy-focussed build.

Most importantly, have fun!

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#3

Outside of linking other content, here are my general rules for Gaige:

Focus on skills from the trees that give you benefits for expending your ammo and not reloading yourself, but instead exhausting the ammo in entirety. I went so far as to unmap the reload button with that in mind.

To help with that, Tediore weapons are great on Gaige for building anarchy stacks. You never have to hit the reload button, when the clip is drained, they just become grenades. This stops you from using tediore reloads offensively like Axton of Krieg, but they don’t get anarchy stacks so it’s a fair trade.

Don’t worry about accuracy with weapons when you have close enough and anarchy active. Critical hit buffs seem cool, but you’re not going to be shooting for criticals with Gaige for the most part so go for damage and weapons with small clips.

I do “low fuss/ low skill” builds to start with characters. There are ways to optimize characters to get make them super powerful with key load outs, but I just like to muck around and try stuff. Here were my builds for the vanilla game before the Community Patch was available.

This is deep into True Vault Hunter Mode. I started Gaige as my very first character and the person who got me into Borderlands new I was a novice at FPS games so the first skills I got were Anarchy and Close Enough.

When I came back to the game later, and Gaige, I spend time actually looking at the skills for what they were and realized the above general rules and built up the Best Friends tree to make the most out of Death Tr4p, especially Sharing Is Caring given the great Melee and Nova Shields you can get as mission rewards, along with the utility of spike shields against animals and some loaders.

This was at level 45 and when I respected I ditched the skill that regens shields because I preferred Death Tr4p be on offense full time .

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By the time I hit level 72 I shifted focus to getting a way to Slag and making the most of elemental damage so Little Big Trouble was my next focus. I didn’t want to worry about doing to much with the Ordered Chaos because once you get too far down it alters your play style beyond what I was willing to deal with.

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In the Love/ Hate Tidal Wave thread that just got posted there is a link to a gameplay video by Bew from the Gamplay Videos Thread that shows Bew playing as Gaige at OP 0 and at a glance his build looked similar to what I use. I didn’t use any guides, I just worked out what I like as I played through the game. So I encourage you do to the same. It’s fun to arrive at your own conclusions through experiences without biases that box in the game and enjoyment. At least that’s how I feel about it.

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#4

Very true - in contrast to Isthiswill’s Deathtrap Gaige approach, I basically ignore Deathtrap (he’s a panic button to distract enemies if she gets in trouble, for me) and focus on Anarchy and LBT.

I’d strongly recommend not putting anything into Preshrunk Cyberpunk until UVHM. You just don’t need the extra damage at all. I also recommend delaying Close Enough until the 40s; again you don’t need it until then, and picking it up early risks getting into lazy “shoot the ground and everything dies” habits. Which works with the Fibber, but anything else is losing 50% damage that way so you should get used to trying to hit things at 150 Anarchy stacks. :slight_smile:

Beelining to Discord is very important unless you have perfect self-discipline about hitting the reload key. :slight_smile:

The most annoying part of Gaige (to me) is losing all Anarchy stacks on death. Solution #1: don’t die! But realistically it will happen now and then, so getting Typecast Iconoclast and Rational Anarchist helps a lot with re-stacking. I’ve found Jakobs shotguns to be ideal stacking weapons, since most are single-shot after Smaller Lighter Faster reduces the mag size. Good synergy with Shock and AAAGGGGHHH! once you get that far, too. Switching to an accurate mid-range gun once she’s near 150 stacks can be a good idea to make it less likely that she takes a knee and starts losing those stacks (or dying).

I did something like this level 22 build to start with. Then start working on one of the other trees, either finish Cooking Up Trouble and get The Better Half, or do Myelin, More Pep/5 Gorillas, Shock and AAAGGGGHHH!, etc.

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#5

How you want to play Gaige will determine what kind of build you make. Do you concentrate on making DT more useful or do you want Gaige to do the heavy lifting? LBT or OC? Capstones or no capstones? You get the idea. :grin: I’ve posted some suggested builds for Gaige in other threads- I’d link them to this post but I’m not sure how. One was in the ‘Strongest Gaige?’ thread and another in a thread titled ‘Best Mechromancer Solo Build’. You can search for them and see if either are to your liking. I’d also like to point out that I’m using neither of those builds for my most recent Gaige, so don’t feel that you have to blindly folow any one build or suggested play style :sunglasses: Have fun and good luck!

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#6

Should I be farming anything for gaige in normal mode?

#7

Not really- pretty much everything works to a large measure. Once you hit TVHM you can keep an eye out for specific gear that suits the style and build you’ve developed. That way once you enter UVHM you’ll have a good idea of what you want, where to get it and whether or not you might want to skip missions that have gear you want until you hit level 72…

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#8

The best piece of advice I can give you is don’t farm until UVHM. It’ll make you railroad your style and you’ll dismiss other weapons that are good because it doesn’t fit with how you’ve decided to play. I recommend you use the first two playthroughs to work out how you want to go with her style-wise, and then farm the gear that is considered most effective after that. Try every weapon out, find out what you like!

Farming early is pointless, Normal is a cakewalk with more or less any weapon.

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#9

As a new person to the game should i play as gaige or maya? If its easier

#10

Personal preference would lead me towards Maya, but actually she’s a better choice for a new player anyway. Great crowd control, some very nice healing options. Not that Gaige is bad, just I prefer Maya.

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#11

Well until just before UVHM to be precise. Cuz you know, you’re going to need a new Jakobs shotty :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:.

To the OP, just before finishing TVHM is time to get a slag ricochet Fibber which is a quest reward for A Real Boy ( from Mal in Eridium Blight ). That’s about the only bit of gear worth farming until UVHM. Save that quest for level 50.

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#12

I agree that Maya is probably easier than Gaige at first. Also since you’re new to the game, may I suggest this resource?

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#13

I can give you one of these if you want, if you aren’t sure what you’re looking for (can be awkward working out which is which if you’ve never farmed it before)

#14

Shock is good too. Despite her lack of swap speed, swapping from Slagga to Fibber still works really well.

I guess going slag can let you just use that as your slag tool throughout UVHM, saving Slagga-farming time at the expense of lower damage when the Fibber is actually a damaging weapon as well.

To the OP: count me as another vote for Maya as a first character. She was technically my second, but my first to 72. :slight_smile:

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#15

Exactly my reasoning. It’s a great damage-only gun that lasts 5+ levels ; then it’s on for slag duty until a Slagga comes up ( level 60? ).

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#16

In theory a level 25 (or whatever it is in NVHM) Slagga would do for what you’re using it for, if you’re using a Fibber as your damage gun. I have a level 49 Slagga I could give you, as well as a level 50 Slag Ricochet Fibber. Obviously both won’t be required but i’d be prepared to farm you a shock Fibber if you need one, have that mission available on all but one of my characters I believe.

#17

You can start farming Slaggas by 55. And thanks to underleveled loot it’s perfectly plausible to have one at 53-54 (my level 55 Gaige is using a level 54 Slagga, in fact).

While paintguns are effective, my preference is to have them also do damage. :slight_smile:

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#18

I was reading up and I think ima go for a shock(electricity) build I’m having fun playing this so yeah what gear and weapons that u can recommend that i should have between 1-30 levels with this build that iam going to go for. Thank you all so much :slight_smile:

#19

In the interest of having more fun and not spending time farming since they are quest reqards I would say:

A Spike shield in shock or fire for animals.

An Absorb shield, preferably with shock immunity. Out of Body Experience is the easiest guaranteed one you can get from Bloodshot Stronghold after you complete A Damn Fine Rescue.

A Storm Front or Quasar Grenade is very good, but the non-unique Tesla grenades will serve you well.

If you do have Anarchy active, guns with fixed patterns will be useful. The easiest ones to get in early game are primarily shotguns:

The Octo: Old Slappy from Hammerlock, comes in all elements. Shock is good, Corrosive is very good towards the end of the main campaign

The Triquerta: Clan War Mission from Ellie (3rd part of the quest line) Non Elemental Jakobs has a pattern so accuracy isn’t as much of a problem

Moxxi’s Ruby is one most people get for healing, but I actually started liking Dahl Snipers, so the Sloth which is a reward for Rakkaholics Anonymous is a recent favorite. You can pick either from that mission’s rewards.

I also like the Heartbreaker a lot, which is a reward for the Safe & Sound Mission if I remember correctly.

The Lasceux is a very useful non-elemental shotgun spread type SMG you can get early game as well, just by going to Frostburn Canyon and finding the pond it spawns it.

The Gwen’s head randomly spawns in The Dust and is a nice burst-fire pistol that comes in all elements and has an ok critical hit bonus.

There are great weapons in the DLCs that you can get for completing quests but for the main quest these are a few of the weapons I use a lot.

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