Tips for playing as Krieg?

[BenjiG98]

I've never been able to really get into him because of how different his playstyle is from everyone else, but I want that to change. My Krieg is at level 34 right now and I want him to have a melee-focused build using skills from primarily Mania and Bloodlust. This is what I have right now (UCP installed): http://bl2skills.com/patch/psycho.html#030000000000050005500055100000000000

Am I on the right track or should I refocus my build? I have a melee relic and class mod equipped too.

[I Kinda Fail]

I might be wrong, but I don't think melee relics are good for Krieg due to the damage multiplier. If he's getting 500% from one source, and 250% from another, will a 43% relic make a big difference? I personally prefer either explosive or max health class mods. +50% max health is huge when you're refilling health to full constantly. Explosive damage boosts will boost the damage of throwing your buzzaxe, which you should get in the habit of using when taking Silence the Voices. Lots of melee users look for a Scream Sickle class mod, for the +500% damage boost it gets from Silence the Voices.

Because of the explosive buzzaxe, personally I recommend speccing out of Salt the Wound and into Strip the Flesh. At least from my experience, I rarely if ever go above 10 stacks of StW before all the enemies are dead, so at most I'm only getting half of its bonus, which seems lackluster to begin with. And if you're using the UCP, you might want Pull the Pin, for the +10% damage to your exploding buzzaxe. (If you're wondering - the exploding buzzaxe hits twice. Melee damage and explosive damage are two separate hits. The explosion has a larger hit radius, so the enemy can still take damage even if you miss the target.)

EDIT: Also, you have literally no reason to take Fuel the Rampage after you get Release the Beast. Put those 5 points into boosting your max health by 50%. Also consider putting a point into Redeem the Soul at some point, for the extended FFYL time.

[West Dragon]

You don't need to max out Thrill of the Kill. 1 point is 50% of overkill damage returned as health. Additional points only increase the healing by an additional 10% of overkill damage.

Redeem the Soul is more than just instantly reviving allies at the cost of going into FFYL. It also increases your FFYL time. Additionallly, being revived by allies will place you at critical health for RtB.

Fuel the Rampage is useless as long as you time RtB correctly. So, that's another 5 points wasted.

Feed the Meat and Embrace the Pain are Mania skills I use. Feed the Meat for bonus health makes managing RtB easier. Embrace the Pain is great for FFYL and it's especially good if you've a Rough Rider equipped.

As for class mods. The best options for Krieg are Blood of the Ancients with bonus Incendiary Damage or Bone of the Ancients with bonus shotgun ammo capacity. They can be farmed easily off the loot midgets that spawn from the cardboard boxes in the Preserve during the quest Doctor's Orders so long as you do not collect any of the quest items. I recommend Moxxi's Endowment as well for grinding levels, which is a quest reward from the Good the Bad and the Mordecai quest....a quest that you also need to complete if you wish to farm Gettle for the Lyuda sniper or Mobley for the Veruc AR.

[Minar 🦄]

Originally posted by Handsome Jack:

I've never been able to really get into him because of how different his playstyle is from everyone else, but I want that to change. My Krieg is at level 34 right now and I want him to have a melee-focused build using skills from primarily Mania and Bloodlust. This is what I have right now (UCP installed): http://bl2skills.com/patch/psycho.html#030000000000050005500055100000000000

Am I on the right track or should I refocus my build? I have a melee relic and class mod equipped too.

I would get rid of Silence the Voices because you don't need it. I would also get rid of Fuel the Rampage because you don't need it with Release the Beast and because it blows in multiplayer. And get rid of Blood Twitch because melee is all you need.

Also, my tips for Kreig is to learn to throw your melee weapon if you don't know how to because it counts as melee. Also, up close jump on the guys heads when you meleeing them...it confuses them and gives you free hits. Plus, if you go down then ur on their head for an easy kill. ;)

[Martyboi]

storm front, antagonist and max level, he a tank.

[Martyboi]

or at least that's one way, i'm sure there was a beasty shield krieg can use to maxemize his effectiveness though, some dude was doing this. his shield, when out. was power-muking everything, and he was using the storm front nade mod. it was just pure moneterous. everything just well.......dies.

[West Dragon]

Originally posted by -CheezWarrior-:

storm front, antagonist and max level, he a tank.

While the Antagonist is one of the strongest shields in the game, it doesn't really synergize with Krieg.

IMO, the top 5 shields for Krieg are...

5. Captain Blade's Shield, a quest reward from the Message in a Bottle: Wurmwater quest in the Scarlett DLC. The shield is a roid shield that operates differently from other roid shields. It does not require being depleted to activate its effect. All melee attacks dealt to enemies generate explosions for bonus AoE damage.

4. Love Thumper, a quest reward from the mother's day quest you receive from killing stalkers (i usually get it from Fridge stalkers). The shield features a long recharge delay with a powerful Roid effect.

3. Hide of Terramorphus,a legendary shield that combines incendiary spike and incendiary roid effects. An optimal shield for both Hellborn and Mania Krieg or a combination of the two. The difficulty involved in obtaining this shield legitimately is what prevents me from placing it any higher as you have to defeat Terramorphus the Invincible and hope it drops and hope that it drops a shield with optimal parts.

2. Flame of the Firehawk, a quest reward from completing the Cult Following quest line. A legendary nova shield that generates fire novas constantly while depleted. I'd place this shield at number 1 for Krieg if not for the fact that it cannot be obtained outside of being awarded through quest completion, making it one-of-a-kind per toon per difficulty. So, you cannot really enjoy its full benefits until after unlocking OP8.

1. Rough Rider, a 0 capacity shield that increases maximum health as well as provides 20% damage reduction to all damage types. It compliments many of Krieg's skill sets and is easily obtained by farming the Bulwark, a bullymong in Hunter's Grotto you may farm after completing the quest Palling Around, a quest received from Hammerlock after completing the quest, Professor Nakiyama I presume. The Bulwark is easy to defeat, the Rough Rider is commonly dropped, and the shield itself is perfect for Krieg. I recommend farming a new one every 2-3 levels in UVHM.

[Sattori]

Yes, I'm going to necro this thread since.. you know.. it's what I do, and it's relatively new compared to the other threads on the subject of how to play Krieg.

Been OP10 for the last week or so with Krieg and here are some things that I've noticed. First off at OP10 flame of the firehawk is only viably effective against flesh mobs. Try that tactic on a constructor and even with a grog in hand you will go to ffyl. A rough rider shield is the way to go. In fact, the RR is the only shield that seem to be viable at OP10 since a lot of Krieg's skill perks requires the shield to be down.

Fire-based and explosive-based attacks appear to be Krieg's forte, so against fleshies he's great. Plows through sawtooth cauldron easily with any build. But going through OP10 digistruct, a melee build Krieg falls short. Release the Beast in digistruct peak is great... for insta health to 100% and running away. In RtB mode you can't slag or throw grenades, and you can't viably melee anything less than a maurader, even with slag on them. And this is with Silence the Voices at +10.

Bloodlust stacks decay way too fast imo. Not sure why it cannot be like Gaige's anarchy stacks which doesn't expire.

A bloodsplosion/gun build is more viable, but be prepared to run out of ammo. A blood of the ancients is a must for health stacking (since with RR you don't have a shield) and additional ammo. And here's the most valuable tip imo for Krieg, which I found through playing... learn to jump shoot. I've played with Maya and Sal and never had to jump shoot as much as I have to do with Krieg.

[isick]

without reading other posts and looking at your setup if you want to be melle start with mania and the wokrk on hellborn and then switch to the third green one so you can live thru and still do damage before you can do all that cool crazy sutf