How to keep a Melee Assassin's shield depleted.

[R2-D2 Mk2]

My prime character is a lv 44 zer0 who has just re-attributed all his talent from pure sniping into melee-sniping hybrid.
Gears: Law revolver, Rapier AR, Slag Rubi with bayonet, Order Shield, Ninja Mod, Bone of Ancient Relic with electrocute damaga booster.
I am defintely going to in the Ultimate Vault Hunter difficulity and even the OP8 level with this build after acquiring the love thumper and the hide of terramorphous. Even though the latter one has the most insane roid damage bonus, it only have a 3~4 second recharge delay,like most malay shields, it can't keep the bonus in effect for long like love thumper without taking a "damage over time".
Any good suggestions?

[dontu_worry]

There are melee shields with delays up to 6 seconds or more. Look around. Use transfusion grenades with the thumper, preferably slag ones with little or no fuse.

[Goblingoyim]

It wont have the same effect as the love thumper, but the rough rider shield (drops from the bulwark in sir hammerlocks big game hunt) has a capacity of 0. Sounds ♥♥♥♥♥♥ at first, but it increases your max health by quite a good amount and gives a flat damage resistance to everything of 20%. I use it and I'm a level 61 melee krieg, good luck!

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Originally posted by dontu_worry:

There are melee shields with delays up to 6 seconds or more. Look around. Use transfusion grenades with the thumper, preferably slag ones with little or no fuse.

not to mention, using the Chain Lightning grenade mod as well (if one can manage to get one)

[F3]

use chain lighting What ever your delay is will tell you how much time you can burn before it sttarts recharging with this in mind with practice you will know when to always strip your sheild a hide of terramorupous has a delay up to 3.50 which is easy to count in your head

[HiTmAn]

u farm love thumper... and get chain lightning...lair of infinite agony... from sorceres..

[R2-D2 Mk2]

Originally posted by Jacko➏➒:

It wont have the same effect as the love thumper, but the rough rider shield (drops from the bulwark in sir hammerlocks big game hunt) has a capacity of 0. Sounds ♥♥♥♥♥♥ at first, but it increases your max health by quite a good amount and gives a flat damage resistance to everything of 20%. I use it and I'm a level 61 melee krieg, good luck!

I dont think that rider shield is a meta gear for Zer0: only fearless with benefits from it and since it is not a roid shield there aint any attack power increment.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Rough Rider is no good for a Melee Zer0: A lot of Melee Zer0's potential damage comes from the Roid Damage stat on maylay shields.

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

melee-sniping hybrid.

This is not a good idea and I can absolutely guarantee that this will not work well at OP levels. There are simply insufficient points to make this worthwhile, since maxing out the Cunning tree for Death Blossom is a must for any and every Zer0 build.

Also, mobbing as melee without Many Must Fall is tedious and not worth it at end game.

That's 53 points gone. You now have 15 points to build a useful sniper.

(I don't even level my melee Zer0s as melee only; I start with a rush from Headshot - Killer - B0re and just level as a sniper or gun zer0 until 31, then respec to full on melee. This is subjective, but I feel that melee zer0 isnt even worthwhile without Many Must Fall.)

Most of Melee Zer0's damage comes from: Backstab, Ambush, Roid damage from (stripped shield), and Melee damage from class mod. These pieces are a must to make melee worthwhile.

The primary reason why this will not work is how Melee Zer0 functons: You are running around with no shields in a world full of enemies that shoot at you. In higher OP levels, where you can be down in 2 shots, this is suicidal.

Shooting takes you out of deception. That's something you don't want to do while stalking your melee target. You need to execute things in single hits to proc Many Must Fall, otherwise you get killed in UVHM (and OP levels).

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

Bone of Ancient Relic with electrocute damaga booster.

What?! This is like the last Bone you want equipped as a melee Zer0. Do you want to go to FFYL?!

You need to reevaluate this idea. It is terrible for many many reasons. The biggest one being that Hybrid Zer0s just do not work and are ALWAYS sub-optimal.

Specialize in either Snipers or Melee but not both.

In answer to your original question, I use a chain lightning grenade to strip my Hide of Terra. I keep my BAR off so the shield recharge doesn't come into play. Chain lightning grenades regen over time. Use this, and grenade drops (including picking up grenade mods) to keep your grenade count up.

[Lord Cyphre]

As has been mentioned, use a Chain lightning/lightning bolt to strip your shield. If you´re worried about self-inflicted DOTs, tesla grenades will strip your shields without inflicting DOTs.
The Stormfront ofxourse happens to be a superior tesla grenade and is farmable but you really want a fuse time as close to 0 as possible and the longbow prefix to use them efficiently.
Another option to prevent you from DOTs are Roid shields with elemental resistances (Grounded,Alkaline,Inflammable variants).

Wielding a Moxxi gun while stripping your shield will grant you damage resistance equal to the amount of life steal, helping in minimizing self-inflicted damage/DOTs.

The Love Thumper is alot easier to manage and available with every resistance. However, it makes you alot more vulnerable and damages/kills any coop partners.
You should learn how to manage your roid shields if you wish to play coop and of course to maximize your damage while using a Hide of Terra.
The LT is still a great roid shield to have in certain situations while playing solo.

While the Hide of Terra is the strongest Roid shield available, it´s not an easy to farm for a good one because of Terras crowded lootpool (well, and because he might be difficult to defeat efficiently for inexperienced players, I suppose).
Therefore looking for a viable substitute easily farmable is strongly recommended, if you want to save time.
Max roid Love Thumpers and Punchees have just as much Roid Damage as a regular purple Maylay shield consisting of the same parts but are much easier to farm, especially if you´re looking for resistances (and grounded is almost mandatory at OP levels).
The Order as a unique Maylay shield has much higher higher Roid damage dann other blues, about as much as purple ones and isn´t really a keeper for the endgame. Easy to farm as a quest reward, pick it up while levelling up/going through the Peak if you need a replacement.

[R2-D2 Mk2]

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

Bone of Ancient Relic with electrocute damaga booster.

What?! This is like the last Bone you want equipped as a melee Zer0. Do you want to go to FFYL?!

You need to reevaluate this idea. It is terrible for many many reasons. The biggest one being that Hybrid Zer0s just do not work and are ALWAYS sub-optimal.

Specialize in either Snipers or Melee but not both.

In answer to your original question, I use a chain lightning grenade to strip my Hide of Terra. I keep my BAR off so the shield recharge doesn't come into play. Chain lightning grenades regen over time. Use this, and grenade drops (including picking up grenade mods) to keep your grenade count up. [/quote]


I use that relic mainly because of its Cooldown reduction and to boost the damage of Unf0rseen. There's a strength relic drop to switch to in some situation.
Sometimes i put some skill point into the sniping tree from the cunning tree, just to get the B0re, since i can't have 2 tier 6 skills at the same time at this point and critical ascensi0n sucks, Slag-Sigurarity and B0re shot is my meta. IK having Blossom &Many must fall at the same time is a great moment, before which playing a zero after the late TVHM is painful.

[Lord Cyphre]

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

I use that relic mainly because of its Cooldown reduction and to boost the damage of Unf0rseen. There's a strength relic drop to switch to in some situation.

Cooldown reduction is great (and pretty much a must) for Zer0, so the BoTA works great.
Point is: You don´t want to have a shock one, because it boosts damage you inflict to yourself while stripping your shield with 'nades, risking to put yourself into FFYL.
Use a Bone with fire or corrosive damage boosts.

Melee relics are useless. They don´t add much damage and most of your damage comes out of your action skill anyway (Easy Backstab+ Ambush for example and the possibility for Many Must Fall-chains).
You really want to get into Deception as much as possible, no matter what the situation.

[F3]

Originally posted by Lord Cyphre:

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

I use that relic mainly because of its Cooldown reduction and to boost the damage of Unf0rseen. There's a strength relic drop to switch to in some situation.

Cooldown reduction is great (and pretty much a must) for Zer0, so the BoTA works great.
Point is: You don´t want to have a shock one, because it boosts damage you inflict to yourself while stripping your shield with 'nades, risking to put yourself into FFYL.
Use a Bone with fire or corrosive damage boosts.

Melee relics are useless. They don´t add much damage and most of your damage comes out of your action skill anyway (Easy Backstab+ Ambush for example and the possibility for Many Must Fall-chains).
You really want to get into Deception as much as possible, no matter what the situation.

Having a shock relic is really dangerous as well i went to test this myself and even though I don't get down the first time I strip my sheild when I need to strip it again and hers the thing if your sheild is not at 100 percent even if it's a grounded one you will get down the 2nd strip of your sheild I even tested this myself and it is really frustrating constantly getting down

[SunDrippedDevil]

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

I use that relic mainly because of its Cooldown reduction and to boost the damage of Unf0rseen. There's a strength relic drop to switch to in some situation.
Sometimes i put some skill point into the sniping tree from the cunning tree, just to get the B0re, since i can't have 2 tier 6 skills at the same time at this point and critical ascensi0n sucks, Slag-Sigurarity and B0re shot is my meta. IK having Blossom &Many must fall at the same time is a great moment, before which playing a zero after the late TVHM is painful.

Unforseen is not very good, even after the Oct 2015 patch. It is not worth 5 points and running a shock bone especially when you are running a melee based build stripping your own shields. You are asking for trouble.

Critical ascension is a great skill. I use it to end raid bosses all the time solo (some under 2 min) as a sniper zer0. It is insanely powerful, and synergizes very well with all of Zer0s other skills.

Slag singularity and B0re is not really a build. This will not work very well at end game. Where will you get all the grenades? What will you do against the Badassusaurus Rex, or Piston's Blimp, or even the Leviathan. What will do you against Double Saturn at the Peak, or Dukino's Mom?!

As a player who has spent hundreds of hours playing Zer0 at the highest levels of this game soloing everything, I highly advise that you rethink this plan of yours.

Spend more time learning what Zer0 can do instead of trying to mold him into something that he is not.

If you would like some advice on how to be a more effective Zer0 at your level, I will be very happy to help you. I can help you make a mockery of this game, if you want.

Honestly speaking, (I am not being condescending): You should just play the game and focus on levelling, and building around your skill synergies and the drops that you get. Spend time learning Zer0. Learning all his strengths, and all his weaknesses. Worrying too much about specific end game gear is bad: You will suffer from tunnel vision, and try and pigeonhole yourself into certain things instead of exploring what's possible and discovering what is most effective for you in an organic manner.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Op, out of curiosity, do you understand how Deception fully works?

[R2-D2 Mk2]

Originally posted by SunDrippedDevil:

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

I
Critical ascension is a great skill. I use it to end raid bosses all the time solo (some under 2 min) as a sniper zer0. It is insanely powerful, and synergizes very well with all of Zer0s other skills.

Slag singularity and B0re is not really a build. This will not work very well at end game. Where will you get all the grenades? What will you do against the Badassusaurus Rex, or Piston's Blimp, or even the Leviathan. What will do you against Double Saturn at the Peak, or Dukino's Mom?!

As a player who has spent hundreds of hours playing Zer0 at the highest levels of this game soloing everything, I highly advise that you rethink this plan of yours.

I am lucky enough to farm a long bow qusar with .9 fuse time & combine with b0re shot it helps me kills most foes when they are more than 8 levels higher than my weapons. Once i have reach 72 i will spend my extra points just to keep this skill after having DB and many must fall.
As for critical Ascensi0n, it will be a great skill if you are non losing all the stacks AT ONCE (but rather at a x2 rate of ordinary lost ) upon switching to a non sniper weapon or stacks 20% for every hit up to 250 times.

Originally posted by SunDrippedDevil:

Op, out of curiosity, do you understand how Deception fully works?

I use it mainly to execute lesser foeas in beginning and bad ass at the last second after deploying a magic missle on them. In boss batches, throwing the holographic decoy in walls and keep jumping mess bosses'acquisition ai. i even beat Voracidous the Invincible on my own at my 49 with it.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Originally posted by LandMegalodon:

I use it mainly to execute lesser foeas in beginning and bad ass at the last second after deploying a magic missle on them. In boss batches, throwing the holographic decoy in walls and keep jumping mess bosses'acquisition ai. i even beat Voracidous the Invincible on my own at my 49 with it.

No. Do you understand the relationship between the timer and damage?