Gun chucking build synergy question [Answered]

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Claptrap the Fragtrap
#1

I am confused! I know that Drop the Hammer and Lode n Splode have synergies with a Tediore build but are there any other skills that work? What about Start With a Bang and One Last Thing? Does Coincidental Combustion not work because you’re throwing and not shooting? Also, are there any restrictions on the element type of gun?

My friends always loved Tediore but I could never get into it until a purple Tediore corrosive laser - with added electric damage when thrown (!!) - changed my mind. I got it at level 12 and I’m still using it on level 24 bosses I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! Tell me this gun would work with Clappy’s gun chucking skills and I’ll start farming machines tonight. :smile:

#2

Here you go.

##H_N’s quick and dirty Claptrap Tediore guide
###Skills

  • Drop the Hammer
    boosts reload speed after a reload ⇒ Faster Tediore throws

  • Killbot
    Health regain on kill (good)
    Damage to shield on kill ⇒ Synergy with Living near the Edge

  • Load’n’Splode
    boosts Explosive damage with each reload ⇒increasing damage on Non-Elemental Tediore throws

  • Start with a Bang
    explode after each reload ⇒ additional Novas with each Tediore reload
    Damage to self ⇒ synergy with Living near the Edge

  • Living near the Edge
    boosts reload speed with low health/shields ⇒ faster Tediore Reloads

  • You’re … going to love me
    Gun Wizard action package:

    • Double Mag size ⇒ bigger damage per Tediore Reload
    • Instant Ammo refill!

  • Organized Guns:
    Extra mag size ⇒ bigger damage per Tediore Reload

  • Grenade Vent:
    Straight Grenade damage ⇒ more damage per Tediore Reload
    ###COMs
    As for COMs for exclusively Gun Chucking, I suggest:

  • Explodifying or Foolhardy Sapper
    % Explosive Damage / % Explosive Resistance
    Killbot / Start with a Bang
    Good for chucking NE guns, increased damage output, increased survivability and increased novas.

  • **Gratuitous Loose Cannon**
    % Pistol Damage / % Pistol Fire Rate
    Load’n’Splode / Drop the Hammer
    Good skill boosts, the Pistol boosts are kinda unuseful. Tediore Pistols are not so great for chucking.

  • Chronicler of Elpis
    % Freeze Chance / % Freeze Damage / + Shield Capacity
    Load 'n Splode / Start with a Bang / Wax Off, Wax On / Grenade Vent / Death Machine
    Boosts 3 Useful Skills, the Freeze chance helps with applying cryo before chucking NE guns for the 3x multiplier.

  • Spamming Overclocker
    % Cooldown rate
    Grenade Vent / Through Thick and Thin or Death Machine
    Only boosts 1 useful skill, but both secondary skills can be helpful in either recharging the action skill faster for more chances at Gun Wiz or for plain awesomeness with movement speed and gun damage. A purple version with all 3 might be a good lvling COM if you can’t find anything else.
    ###Tediore Guns
    As for guns, my tediore gun type rankings are

  1. SMGs - largest Mag size = largest reload damage (ideally the IVF)
  2. Lasers - second largest Mag size, big base damage. Only problem: they don’t come in NE and can’t take advantage of all the explosive boosts. I’d not recommend the Min Min Lighter, but some purple Railgun instead.
  3. Pistols - similar Mag size as Lasers, slightly lower damage. Might work as ammo diversity fallback, but I’d rather have a cryo pistol such as the :snowflake: T4s-R to apply cryo before chucking NE SMGs.
    If you insist on Tediore Pistols, do NOT use the Shooterang since it doesn’t do the Reload throw explosion. I’d rather use a purple pistol with Vladof Barrel and Scav Grip for maximized mag size.
  4. Shotguns - ugh. No. Small mag size, reload damage based on single pellet damage. Just plain bad. Then again, the Octo does come in NE, and can be a viable close to med range Gun with the Tediore reload as bonus.
  5. Launchers - Say good bye to your rocket ammo and to your money. Waaay too small mag size to pack a good punch, and way too small ammo pool to last through extended fights.

Prefixes and Parts:

  • Prefix aka Accessory
    Mag size prefix = biggest damage. Reload prefix where Magsize prefixes are not available (SMGs). Refill (SMG), Jam Packed (Pistols), Extra Large (Shotguns), Bonus (Rocket Launchers). Lasers get no Prefix.
  • Grip
    Scav where possible for even bigger mag sizes. Maliwan grip only for lasers to max out the base damage and get 1.5% extra elemental effect chance.
  • Other Parts
    • purple Pistols
      as mentioned above, Vladof Barrel and Scav grip to max out the mag size
    • purple SMGs
      Stay away from Hyperion Barrels, they decrease Mag size. Go for Bandit (+ base damage) or Tediore (+ reload speed, -damage) barrels
    • purple Shotguns
      Scav or Torgue Barrel to max mag size.
    • purple and blue Rocket launchers
      Torgue or Scav Barrel for extra base damage. Bandit exhaust for extra Mag size. Tediore Sight for faster reload speed.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

H_N

1 Like
#3

It totally helps! You’re the best… as usual!

Soooo… The explosive damage doesn’t apply to elemental weapons, then. Sadness! I LOVE Maniacal Laughter. And my purple Tediore laser. :sob: And I’m guessing that chucked guns are treated as grenades, hence the lack of synergy with CC and OLT.

I’m curious about Grenade Vent, though. Being in the FF tree you’re going to need to take All the Guns to get to it - do the bonuses (and penalties) apply then? Or not, because they’re considered grenades?

#4

I usually hate the right tree. But since tediore reloads are treated as pure grenade damage, none of the subroutine bonuses and penalties apply, which makes it okay to go down the tree to get grenade vent.

Here’s the tediore damage formula:

Damage = base damage x (remaining bullets) x (1 + grenade bonuses*) / 2 x (1 + elemBonus**) x cryo bonus

* grenade vent and bomber Oz kit bonuses go here.
** load’n’splode and sapper com bonus go here
Cryo bonus is 3x on frozen targets.

If you need ML, I suggest elemental grenades such as aoe cryo or corrosive grenades or one weapon slot with a cryo gun, which serves the dual purpose of boosting your NE tediore reloads as well as triggering ML

Read some more about why mag size boosts and bomber Oz kits max out the tediore reloads damage in [this thread about the IVF] 1

Edit: pretty colors will be added when I’m back home. Not doing markup on my phone.

#5

I’m gonna try that! I just hate giving up ML since it’s saved my bacon so often. Getting to GV seems rather painful - all those points! - but the boost to grenade damage just looks too tasty to pass up. I think I’m going to play around with a build that looks like this.

#6

Build looks okay. Just be aware that blue she’ll only works when shooting your gun in FFYL.

Anyways, good job in avoiding triple clocked. That one wonder can seriously mess up tediore reloads.

You do need to be aware that a pure dedicated gun chucking build will have some serious trouble fighting long distance as well as flying enemies. Throwing guns at rk5 just won’t work. And with the gun subroutines of the right tree, it’s hard to have a single reliable fallback option for that fight.
Normal flying enemies should be doable with a frigida to being them down before feeding them some reloads. Cryo resistant flyers will be your bane.

I suggest a quasar, pandemic or stormfront grenade as well as a cryo or corrosive Oz kit for your ML needs. They won’t do much damage, but will stack dots quite nicely

#7

@Ha_Na –

So, now I’m confused! Does Load’n’Splode only increase explosive damage on reloading explosive guns or – any gun, elemental or not? Description says “… whenever you reload your gun, gain increased explosive damage.” Makes sense it’d be only explosive guns – if your gun has zero explosive damage then there’s no damage there to increase?

Anyway, a non-elemental Tediore is NOT explosive, either, right? So why the synergy here?

#8

L’n’S triggers with every reload on ANY gun. It gives you max. 5 stacks of max 40% explosive damage per stack.

The Explosive damage boost affects explosive guns, explosive (non-elemental) oz kits, Novas and explosive (non-elemental) grenades.

The reload throw of Tediore guns is Grenade damage.

Elemental Tediore reloads = elemental grenade damage.
Non-elemental Tediore reloads = explosive grenade damage, thus they get boosted by L’n’S.

Clear now?

#9

I just ran some calcs on using lvl 60 :zap: and :boom: Refill IVFs with Scav grip and Reload prefix on the Sentinel small stage as Claptrap, assuming Load’n’Splode and Organized Guns are maxed, and Grenade Vent is 0, because that’s my own build. Only the last calc has Grenade Vent maxed, in order to have a comparison with a dedicated gun chucking build (Btw, the :no_entry_sign: IVF + Loose Cannon combined with 5/5 Grenade Vent is at about 530k).
As for gear, I’ve ran the calcs with different COMs, and a bomber oz kit.

If the formula is unclear, it’s

dmg = element matching bonus x base dmg x remaining bullets x (1 + grenade bonuses) / 2 x elemental boosts

The final numbers don’t necessarily reflect the actual damage on the Sentinel, but they allow for a ranking that shows which combination gives more damage per throw.

So, I’m off to find me a +6 load’n’splode Loose Cannon com for the first stage of the sentinel.

@CitizenJayne
For the Chronicler COM, I’d suggest this capstone-less build. Not having the left Cap stone means you’ve got slightly higher chances to roll Gun Wizard when you’re low on ammo. Once the lvl cap raise is out, you can easily max out SWAB, Organized guns, Grenade Vent, and all other skills boosted by the COM (except for Wax On Wax Off maybe) AND have 3 capstones.

1 Like
#10

OMG, GV + Chronicler mod: WANT!! Thanks so much - the build looks awesome! Imma definitely try that. And the videos in your build are hilarious! “Freeze! Boom! Dead!” :smile:

#11

Details, please? I didn’t know about this.

Edit: Nevermind… you are saying One Shot Wonder screws up Tediore reloads. Yes, I agree. I still end up taking the point though. Of course, I also take I Am Rubber… even though Torgue Fiesta. It often seems like I roll Gun Wizard when I’m low on IVF ammo anyway, so I think there’s SOME logic built-in to what is picked.

#12

When going with a gun chucking build, keep in mind the Cradle is a chucked shield. It would work well with this type of build, especially if you can get a Blast Proof Cradle.

#13

the cradle’s damage is pretty low though. Not sure if it’s considered grenade damage. If not, then I’d rather go with a deadly bloom, whose explosive novas do get boosted by L’n’S.

Also I corrected some facts about Tediore Lasers in my earlier post. For gun chucking, a Tediore Railgun with Maliwan grip is the best choice, because grip matching won’t increase mag size any further, so instead we’d have to go for the max base damage.

#14

[quote=“Ha_Na, post:8, topic:127448, full:true”]… Elemental Tediore reloads = elemental grenade damage.
Non-elemental Tediore reloads = explosive grenade damage, thus they get boosted by L’n’S.

Clear now?[/quote]
I guess the confusion comes in equating non-elemental with explosive. AFAIK --> elemental = (corrosive, shock, fire, cryo, & explosive) & non-elemental are things like Jakobs pistols & shotguns. Have a vague recollection reading in a post somewhere that this only happens in a few instances (or maybe only in the case of grenade damage from non-elemental Tediore chucking?)

Plus, in your calculations table the NE IVF has lower damage than the shock IVF (315k vs. 370k)?

#15

Yeah, it’s only the grenade damage from Tediore guns that become explosive when the Tediore gun itself has no element.

As for my calcs, they were about throwing NE and shock IVFs at the sentinel’s shields. Explosive gets at 0.8 penalty on shields, shock gets a 2.75 bonus. And I was simply calcing out what it takes to boost explosive IVF throws high enough to surpass the element matching bonus for that encounter.

#16

Whaaaat?! That’s awesome! Yeah, it looks like the damage is kind of low, especially at higher levels, but it might be fun to try out on my low level coop Clappy just for the giggles. :smile:

#17

Hey, I have a question, does a explosive resistance shield reduce damage from Star with a Bang?