Yeah, this should be my final build:
And, I really do want to take Clarity Of Purpose for the COM boost, but I’m afraid I need Tear more. I just don’t like Blood Rushing a bleeding enemy, and they end up not dying and Blood Rush going into cooldown.
Also, I checked the Top Gear thread, and I’m going to try out weapons like the Flakker, Fragnum, Kerboom, and Quasar.
Go ahead and move 1 point from Vanguard to Clarity.
And take 1 point from Conduit for Smite.
Why Vanguard? I’d suggest taking a point from Return Fire and use that for Clarity of Purpose. And then maybe skip Zeus’ Rage and put that point in Smite.
Because the difference between 9 Vanguard and 9 Conduit and 10 in each is not nearly as significant as your suggestion.
9 Vanguard is plenty.
9 Conduit is plenty.
That gives you 2 points to put into the only 2 things missing: Smite and COM-boosted Clarity.
Well, I don’t use Smite very well, since I don’t do well with cooldown skills. And, I’ll probably move a point from Return Fire to Clarity of Purpose. I’m not too comfortable with skills that rely on chance, unless the effect is significant. And so far, reflecting enemy bullets hasn’t been very effective imo. I’m thinking of ditching Return Fire for United Front. A question about UF: does it continue to power a shield after the Aspis has reached its max energy? And, I really wish Vanguard’s health regen was a flat rate like Wilhelm’s Energize.
Also, I’m wondering, should I ditch Tear for Mercurial? +20% damage resistance is what Krieg gets with Rough Rider, right?
Krieg has so much more resistances working then only the RR. But yeah, I think the RR has 20%.
I would not ditch Tear. Ever. But you have to take into account how you play.
Personally I don’t like to keep enemies alive. I want them dead, and I want them dead fast.
So I usually bloodrush, and blast. For me it makes more sense to skip omega senchu for mercurial then tear for mercurial.
But if you like to keep bleeding targets around, you might benefit more from added resistance and OS.
As for Smite. Just take it. It will activate very often even if you don’t manage it at all. And the damage and added stacks are well worth 1 point.
Also, Return Fire procs Smite. It’s a sweet combo
I’ve just entered Pity’s Fall. I, personally, haven’t encountered too much trouble with my current build, and if I do go down, Clear and Omega-Senshu give me the boost I need to get a second wind. Also, I didn’t like using any of the legendary Torgue guns, so I just went with a purple Nasty Lance (damage acc, Jakobs grip, Jakos barrel). This AR, combined with the Fridgia has been quite useful for getting me second winds. And, altho I have the Quasar equipped, I have not used it so far.
In UVHM, it’s a bit of a struggle for melee Athena. She needs enemies alive to get boosts like Bloodlust and Conduit. But at the same time keeping too many enemies alive can also lead to death, due to enemies’ buffed damage. I think Mercurial allows me to switch priorities when necessary, and provides just enough balance between reducing damage and Bloodlust/Vanguard health regen.
Why not take both? http://thepresequel.com/Athena/0515141000051551505001414110010000/celgladiator,auto
And swap that silly explosive Lance for a good shock weapon. You need DoT’s for Conduit to work.
I disagree.
Quasar (general) or Storm Front (boss) are sufficient for that.
If only someone had a build thread with all these things already…
Well, videos will be more helpful to show how effective various builds can be. I’ll try to make a couple of videos as soon as I’m done with the main quest.
Just because a build works, doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
Just because they are sufficient, doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
How do you get a better grenade than a stormfront for stacks or conduit?
You don’t, I was refering to his choice of using a Torgue Lance as main over a shock/fire weapon.
Might just be me personally who likes playing to the characters strengths, otherwise every character can just use Vladof Cryo grenades, Fridgia + flakker/ravager. Athena might not have the skillset to boost any of theese… but they are still insanely powerful without a single skillpoint.
I always try to put the bleed on multiple enemies at once for the stacked health leeching and I avoid rushing the same enemy twice in a row, because if he doesn’t die on the 2nd rush you will trigger the cool-down timer and have to wait before you can rush again.
That’s correct.
So when you find something that’s better at building stacks and maintaining Conduit than Storm Front, or more useful generally at crowd control (with some stack building on the side) than Quasar please let me know.
Because from where I’m sitting, these are the two best grenades for CS Athena.
Meanwhile, there are melee builds that work, and there are melee builds that play specifically to Athena’s strengths.
Typically, the ones that focus on Roid Shields and Probe, are the former.
Or, ones that ignore key gamechangers simply to put another point into a skill they already have 9/5 in…
As for Cryo grenades and Flakker… These are a beautiful combination that work well on any character. Aside from Claptrap, Athena is the strongest with this combo. Did you know you it’s possible to kill Iwajira in one shot at level 50 using these? With 0 Maelstrom Stacks. It wouldn’t be possible without a few key Athena skills. So I would say she does have some skills that boost these: the few Gun Damage skills she has access to, Blood Rush (gap closer), and Omega-Senshu.
And of course Gathering Tempest and Storm Weaving are useful on practically any gun. Even Explosive ones.
All that being said, Torguemada is my choice for Explosive weaponry without the learning curve of Flakker. It pairs well with Party Line, as they have similar shooting styles. Aim low.
I don’t care for Lace either. Sorry if it looked like I was endorsing it. I was merely commenting that Tesla-class grenades and Quasar are more reliable than most Shock weapons at applying DOT and building stacks.
Wielding a bladed Cryo weapon and using a Tesla is more often than not more effective than wielding Cryo grenades and a Shock gun, when Conduit is a concern.
I’m sorry if it came of as if I was arguing with you on that. I definately wasn’t theese are indeed the best grenades for stacks.
Completely forgot that maelstrom boosts explosive aswell, my bad. She does indeed have good synergy with the freeze 'n 'splode style gameplay.
And yeah, I’ve seen your Video of the Iwa 1 shot kill in THVM (it’s not still possible at 60 is it?) and I’ve replicated it myself aswell. It just slipped my mind. I apologize, you are right she is great with explosives : )
I haven’t tried it yet, but my initial expectation is that it will be a very close 2-shot at best, unless they didn’t actually buff his health relative to TVHM, which is unlikely.
It was already really close to being a 2-shot at 50.