Kleese is a Golem Killing Machine!

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#21

The spec needed is really only the Level 2 one - add current shield to bonus damage. The trade-off obviously being that Kleese without Shields is very dangerous. You need to wait until Level 7 to take the skill that refills your shield if you get a blue-balls kill. The combo ends up being really useful in PvE and a death sentence in most PvP matches. What I found was that, in PvP, the slow was actually more useful than the super-risky damage.

Also, I really like the bouncing balls helix choice. Itā€™s pretty terrible compared to the ā€œall at onceā€ option, but it just looks really cool :slight_smile: Maybe itā€™ll become worthwhile at some point. The answer might be that the balls do more damage the more things they hit (like Isicā€™s dash upgrade).

#22

if looking for an alternative to kleese, ambra is also a golem killing machine. Once you get her lore legendary and grab the level 7 mutation which allows her to shoot fire combined with her sunspots and ultimate you can melt the sentinel bosses in seconds.

#23

Thanks, need to give her a try. When well played she puts up great numbers in PVE I just havenā€™t gotten around to her yet.

Iā€™ll bet sheā€™s sparse in PVP because of the lore requirements. lol.

#24

same as ambra.

#25

Idk about you, but itā€™s amazing for me. It can kill entire mobs without the plus 4 mortars.

#26

Those mortars are beyond amazing. For my team, anyway. I choose the shield healing mortars, shield sacrifice bonus damage, and +4 mortars. These babies will grant your allies emergency maximum shields! If your aim is true, of course.

#27

Yeah, thatā€™s not what I was saying. I was just talking about the difference between its effectiveness in PvE vs PvP.

For PvE, itā€™s definitely amazing, and I agree - I donā€™t think the +4 mortars is necessary. I think the +4 mortars option is actually bad, unless you plan on landing every single one, all the time. The math works out something like this -

Assume 25 damage per mortar, Kleese has 720 shield:

8 Mortars - Each does 25 Dmg Base, +(720/8=90) Shield Damage, for 115 Dmg Per Mortar, or 920 Total
12 Mortars - Each does 25 Dmg Base +(720/12=60) Shield Damage, for 85 Dmg Per Mortar, or 1,020 Total

So, when you get 4 more mortars, you do get more damage overall, but each mortar individually hits for significantly less. I can never hit with every mortar, so Iā€™d rather have more damage per mortar. The difference between 920 and 1,020 isnā€™t that great even in the event you do hit with all of them. And since the tradeoff is +1 Rift or Rift Cooldown, itā€™s a hefty tradeoff. I almost always take +1 Rift in PvE and Rift Cooldown in PvP.

If you wanna optimize damage, taking ā€œTampered Mortarsā€ makes it easier to hit with all or most of the mortars, but then your shield doesnā€™t refill. With Kleeseā€™s new HP pool, this is less risky, but it was super risky before the change. I havenā€™t played much Kleese post-change (Chair heal down to +38 made me cry).

In PvP, pre-change, draining Kleeseā€™s shield was super risky. I found myself using it in very few instances because of how risky it was. It did land me a few kills, but when I switched to +slow, my team as a whole started doing better because I could use it more often and it more often helped the team instead of just nabbing me the odd kill every now and again.

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#28

Yep I always use Ambra on Sentinel map she absolutely demolishes golems in seconds, including the bosses. Iā€™ll have to try out Kleese, heā€™s usually my Renegade star.

#29

Kleese does indeed nail them nicely (as per thread title). Iā€™ve only played Ambra a couple of times, but having done Saboteur in a three-man with a really good Ambra player last night, I can understand why she would also be highly effective!

#30

Yeah, Iā€™m not good on getting the mortars to strike a single target. My console aim isnā€™t that great. Maybe on PC iā€™ll give it a shot. Not worth giving up the increases in what is essentially consistent passive damage.