Deathtrap durability

[Burusagi]

I'm nearing the end of Normal and it seems like almost any mob will just shred him by just quickly glancing his way. Upshot Robot is fine and all, but the extra duration doesn't help when he gets blown up so fast.

Did I make a mistake by also investing in the Anarchy tree? Should I have rushed Sharing is Caring ASAP?

[MelodramaticPeople]

Anarchy is what makes gaige and investing in it is not a mistake

This is the build i use http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#550055150051500030000000415050151050

[z00t]

Sharing is Caring is used for giving Death Trap an Offensive shield, like a nova or roid shield, not to make him more durable.
Give him something like a Flame of the Firehawk when you launch him and watch him nova enemies quite happily.
Death Trap is mostly a distraction in the later playthroughs, and not so much a death dealing robot like Normal mode.

As far as Anarchy is concerned, it is what defines Gaige. Getting down to Discord so you can control it is a good idea.
This is basically the build I use for my Gaiges, using Legendary Mechromancer or Legendary Anarchist mods. This will work all the way to solo OP8.
http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555150151051550150000000414100151000

Duplicate your build here and post the url if you want some feedback
http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#000000000000000000000000000000000000

[ZarahNeander]

Don't think of DT as an instrument of utter destruction, rather a disposable distraction. He forces mobs into melee, enemies engaged in melee can't shoot their rpg at you. 'Sharing is caring' is prolly Gaige's best capstone, but there's no need to rush it, you're still the main source of damage.

[Nuzzyfuts]

So uh. The other two offer you builds(that miss out a bit because they waste points into abilities you don't need) and then don't explain to you why you want those skills. So I'll link a build, explain why you want those abilities, and then explain why the points they invested in certain abilities are wasted.

http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555150150551550000000000415003150000

Anarchy: This is the skill that gives you ALL your damage. The decrease in accuracy doesn't matter because we will over that later.

Smaller, Lighter, Faster: you need this to go further down the Anarchy tree, but it does help since it increases your fire rate for higher DPS and lowers your mag size to build those stacks faster.

Preshrunk Cyberpunk: More stacks means more damage. Again, accuracy loss will be explain later.

Typecast Iconoclast: Just to make stacking easier and faster.

Discord: to give you some control incase you accidently reload or what the healing it can give you.

Annoyed Android: Just to get DT to you faster. You can honestly invest in this last tho.

----------

Best friend's forever tree: you can get everything in this tree except Potent as a Pony, since later on in the game this build can solo raid bosses fairly well and more health doesn't actually help you in those, and Explosive Clap, DT skills that buff or add to his damage in some way don't matter at higher levels his damage just doesn't scale well.

Close Enough: This is the skill that is the reason why the loss in accuracy with 150+ Anarchy stacks doesn't matter. Just grab your shotguns and SMGs and go to town.

Cooking Up trouble: in case you want to heal in between groups of mobs

The Better Half: again, increased DPS from fire rate.

Buck Up: This is DT's biggest advantage. Him giving you shields can be a life saver.

Fancy Mathmatics: Better shield regen that gets better the lower your health is.

Unstoppable Force: movement speed and shield regen kill skill.

Upshot Robot: Again, the damage buff for DT doesn't matter but the up time does. More time up for DT to give you shields with Buck Up.

Made of Sterner Stuff: Damage resist does matter in modding and regular bosses. Not Raid bosses however.

20% Cooler: self-explanatory. action skill cooldown

Sharing is Caring: to Give DT more up time to use Buck Up more.

More Pep: just for the increased Slag chance really.

Myelin: Shock resist and shield capacity can save you.

Now, honestly, you don't NEED Anarchy in Normal. But you can use it and even still use sniper rifles with 150 stacks. But if you do want to use Anarchy, don't even need the other skills in the tree until UVHM.

[Sirius]

To be fair, the game does a bad job explaining all of this - the skill descriptions and the Action Skill badassery in Normal mode kind of give too much hope for situations in TVHM and beyond.

It's like the complaints about Axton's turret(s). Duh they are not there to faceroll the enemy, they are there for tactical and strategical deployment.

Same with Gaige. Plus her Anarchy thing and such means you have to be up in enemies faces a lot as well, so it's more that DT is a sidekick that does go down in places but can be called again in a couple of seconds.

It's not there to facetank everything for you. That is, it *is* his job, but don't expect it to hold long.

[z00t]

Originally posted by Nuzzyfuts:

So uh. The other two offer you builds(that miss out a bit because they waste points into abilities you don't need) and then don't explain to you why you want those skills. So I'll link a build, explain why you want those abilities, and then explain why the points they invested in certain abilities are wasted.

-- snip --

Opinionated much?

http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555150151051550150000000414100151000

The build I provided works. There are one or two skills that you obviously think worthless, but then you put points into things I don't find that worthwhile. It is all down to personal opinion and preferences.
I did not go into detail of each skill chosen in my build because the OP didn't ask for anything like that.

So let's cover the differences in our builds. They are pretty similar but wih some detail differences.

BFF tree.
You have 5 in Made of Sterner stuff. OK, damage reduction is a nice idea, but 5 points for a whole 5% damage reduction? I am not convinced about that.
I put a point into Explosive Clap - DT can certainly knock enemies back quite successfully using it. As in completely knock an OP8 Captain Flynt out of his arena and down to the ramp below.

OC tree.
You have 5 in Preshrunk, I have 4. I don't personally like the accuracy loss at over 350 stacks so I don't bother with the final point.
I have a point in Robot Rampage because I need to get to the next tier, and really don't like Blood Soaked Shields. I far prefer faster shields compared to things like Turtles with recharge rates that take Days.
Annoyed Android with 3 points, but not a single point in Rational Anarchist? RA lets you build stacks and get up to speed faster, and only one point. Faster bot? not sure you need more than one or two there, if any.

LBT tree
The remaining points after the two outer trees are done need to go somewhere. Myelin is very useful, especially late game. More Pep and Strength of 5 Gorillas because it is boosted by the Legendary Mechromancer, and The Stare because I like watching DT fry annoying spiderlings with it.

[Burusagi]

So I just hit lv42 and unlocked Sharing Is Caring. I'm now kinda wondering about what Shield to get. I "could" go get the Firehawk shield, but maybe I want to "save" that quest on TVHM and get it later or...?

[Nuzzyfuts]

Originally posted by z00t:

Originally posted by Nuzzyfuts:

So uh. The other two offer you builds(that miss out a bit because they waste points into abilities you don't need) and then don't explain to you why you want those skills. So I'll link a build, explain why you want those abilities, and then explain why the points they invested in certain abilities are wasted.

-- snip --

Opinionated much?

http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555150151051550150000000414100151000

The build I provided works. There are one or two skills that you obviously think worthless, but then you put points into things I don't find that worthwhile. It is all down to personal opinion and preferences.
I did not go into detail of each skill chosen in my build because the OP didn't ask for anything like that.

So let's cover the differences in our builds. They are pretty similar but wih some detail differences.

The major point behind the build is that it funcitons entirely in OP8. But, just going over skills is only going over half the build. Regardless, DT's damage is negligable after Normal. So his damage abilities are rather wasted. The only reason we pick up Upshot Robot is for the duration increase, so that he can us Buck Up. This moves into Made of Sterner Stuff, which is more for DT than you, but the little amount is nice. As explained before, DT's damage doesn't scale well into higher levels, which is why Strength of Five Gorillas ends up being a waste of points. That also goes with Explosive Clap and The Stare, but with the added tidbit that they take up time from Buck Up. We take all 400 stacks of Anarchy(before and class mods althought you don't need more than the 400) because you might as well take them all if you're going to get 350. The accuracy doesn't matter because of close enough and the damage from Anarchy stacks. You also don't need Rational Anarchist because... well... it's just 25 stacks. You can build stacks pretty fast, to be honest. And then you take those points into Annoyed Android because it gives DT speed to get to you and use Buck Up.

Now, as for gear. Sham, Norfleet, and Conference Call. Before you get those? Equivalents work. Of course the Sham and Conference Calls are obviously the easiest to get from BNK-3R and the Warrior(or preferably the Handsome Sorreceror).

Now THAT is opinionated.

[HiTmAn]

u use clapy as qicky decoy.. u hide behind something to break aggro from u and sumon clapy let him go first then pop out and quickly kill enemy that is most effective use of him.... he is not tanky that much but doing job as decoy will help u a lot

[MelodramaticPeople]

Originally posted by Nuzzyfuts:

Originally posted by z00t:

Opinionated much?

http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555150151051550150000000414100151000

The build I provided works. There are one or two skills that you obviously think worthless, but then you put points into things I don't find that worthwhile. It is all down to personal opinion and preferences.
I did not go into detail of each skill chosen in my build because the OP didn't ask for anything like that.

So let's cover the differences in our builds. They are pretty similar but wih some detail differences.

The major point behind the build is that it funcitons entirely in OP8. But, just going over skills is only going over half the build. Regardless, DT's damage is negligable after Normal. So his damage abilities are rather wasted. The only reason we pick up Upshot Robot is for the duration increase, so that he can us Buck Up. This moves into Made of Sterner Stuff, which is more for DT than you, but the little amount is nice. As explained before, DT's damage doesn't scale well into higher levels, which is why Strength of Five Gorillas ends up being a waste of points. That also goes with Explosive Clap and The Stare, but with the added tidbit that they take up time from Buck Up. We take all 400 stacks of Anarchy(before and class mods althought you don't need more than the 400) because you might as well take them all if you're going to get 350. The accuracy doesn't matter because of close enough and the damage from Anarchy stacks. You also don't need Rational Anarchist because... well... it's just 25 stacks. You can build stacks pretty fast, to be honest. And then you take those points into Annoyed Android because it gives DT speed to get to you and use Buck Up.

Now, as for gear. Sham, Norfleet, and Conference Call. Before you get those? Equivalents work. Of course the Sham and Conference Calls are obviously the easiest to get from BNK-3R and the Warrior(or preferably the Handsome Sorreceror).

Now THAT is opinionated.

What's the point of getting Fancy mathematics when you can spec into Bloodsoaked shields?

[z00t]

Ah. One of the ShamFleeting Gaige players. Lamest gamestyle in the game and that includes the whole Salvador pantheon. Golly. How did I ever solo the Peak to earn OP8 without using a single one of your three chosen gear items?