"Rolling Thunder" - A Commando Build

"Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin',
Rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin',
Rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin',
Rollin, rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin'..."

-Limpy Biscuits, "Keep Rolling" (Probably)

Introduction

No caption snarking this time around. Instead, I wanna say thanks to everyone who's read these guides I've made, even when they haven't exactly been that good. With that out of the way, here's the guide.

I think it's kinda fitting that Axton is the last class I made a guide for. He was the very first character I played as, all the way back when BL2 was just released, as well as the first character I ever got to Level 50 with. Then, after about a month, I began playing the other classes (starting with Mechro) and, after a while, he kinda got left in the dust.

So after at least a couple hundred hours spent playing as a cybernetic teen genius, a spanish midget with gunlust, an incredibly cryptic ninja, a siren, and a badass psycho (And all the crazy skills associated with each of them), all that was left was a kinda generic-sounding commando with a turret. Axton basically became, for lack of a better term, my last great challenge.

You might be thinking with the way I'm wording this that I don't really like Axton.

Well, not really. As it turns out, after playing around with stuff like psychic powers, killer robots, and holographic decoys, playing as a guy who really doesn't have much for flashiness is actually kinda nice! I'd say the guy has a lot of personality, if nothing else. (See here)[borderlands.wikia.com]

Of course, most might look at him and ignore him for the lack of super-high DPS skills (In the veins of Anarchy, Money Shot, etc) - they're half-right, in a way.

He does, however, have a bunch of skills that boost grenade damage.

Grenade bonuses makes anything with splash damage better, like Torgue guns.

...

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Main Gear

Our main set of gear. Note that an explosive Axton tends to use similar gear to an explosive Krieg, so be prepared for a case of deja vu.


SLOT ONE: Ogre

Drops from the King of Orc in Murderlin's Temple
Preferred Prefixes: Slippery (+Bullet Speed), Wild (+Damage, +Fire Rate, -Accuracy)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip, Dahl stock.
“Ogres chew their food.” - +100% splash damage bonus. Can fire two shots in rapid succession (An effect also seen on others of its model, the Spitter). There is a chance that fire rate and reload speed will increase for a short time.
The Ogre is to Axton what the Hail is to Gaige, what the Rapier is to Zer0, and what the Harold is to pretty much everyone - arguably one of the best weapons they can use. Discounting how it’s basically a minigun that shoots explosions, it's just a great all-around gun to use. Good damage, good fire rate, good reload (Particularly for a Torgue weapon) - I probably couldn't ask for much more.

Well, outside being easier to farm anyways (Seriously, f**k Magic Slaughter).


SLOT TWO: SWORDSPLOSION!!!

Mission Reward for “The Sword in the Stoner”
Preferred Prefix: Casual (+Projectile Count)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip and stock.
"Because Mr. Torgue said so." – Fires a sword-shaped projectile in an arc. On impact, it splits into three smaller swords that also explode. Uses two ammo per shot.
It’s basically a grenade launcher. A grenade launcher where the grenades look like swords, but a grenade launcher nonetheless. Note that it’s possible to get the child swords to explode instantly if you hit an enemy right, possibly killing some of the strongest enemies in the game with one hit.

That’s just with one sword – the Casual prefix adds two more into the mix, resulting in a shotgun that beats even the Ravager to the title of “Best Explosive Shotgun.”


SLOT THREE: Florentine

Bought from Flamerock Seraph Vendor for 120 Crystals
Preferred Prefix: Impetuous (+Fire Rate/Bullet Speed)
Ideal Parts: Maliwan grip, Dahl stock
"Double Trouble." - Deals both shock and slag damage at the same time. Increased ammo cost and reduced bullet speed, due to being a Plasma Caster.
This is basically what happens when one lets the Chulainn climb up the evolutionary tree of weaponry - it decides to stop slaggin you and becomes a Plasma Caster. Asides from being one of our main slagging tools, it great for dispatching those few guys that resist explosive damage.

And as it turns out, PCs also gain from grenade bonuses...


SLOT FOUR: Badaboom

Drops from King Mong in the Eridium Blight
Preferred Prefixes: Big (+Damage), fast actons (+reload)
Ideal Parts: Bandit grip and exhaust, Tediore scope.
“Multi-kill.” – Fires 6 mini-rockets instead of the usual three. Noticeably reduced accuracy.
Pretty much the single-handed most powerful rocket launcher you can get without having to go on raids. It’s also the most ammo-efficient, dealing more damage with one rocket than its closest competitor (The Nukem) does with two. Mainly used for emergencies and putting down stubborn enemies like Badasses, Super Badasses, Ultimate Badasses, Ironclad Lunatics, and the dreaded Rabid Stalkers.


SHIELD: Big Boom Blaster

Drops from Pete the Invincible in Pete's Bar
"For all your big boom-blasting needs!" - Higher-than-usual capacity. Boosters also restore grenade and rocket ammo when picked up.
This little beauty lets us keep our shields up in heavy combat and lets us use our rockets and grenades a lot more often. And people say Booster shields are bad...


GRENADE: Slag Crossfire

Bought from Torgue Seraph Vendor for 120 Crystals
Preferred Deliveries: Longbow, Lobbed
“Find, fix, flank, finish!” – Drops child grenades with every bounce. Increased blast radius and damage.
I've noted this as an amazing grenade for spreading slag around your enemies a lot in the past. And not without reason, either - it has a rather large range with spewing out the children, and with them it can pretty much carpet-bomb entire rooms with slag. Chuck these at will/whenever there's more than two people in front of you.

You'll want a low-level version of this - at max level, the child grenades can really hurt you quite a bit.


CLASS MOD: Leg. Soldier

Drops from Vermivorus the Invincible (Wherever Varkids spawn)
"It's like Christmas..." - Provides skill bonuses to 6 different skills.
Much like Axton himself, this COM is proof that sometimes you don't need to be flashy to be great. It's mostly bonuses to some basic stuff, but generalness (That's probably a word now) isn't a bad thing either.


RELIC: Explosive Relic

Drops from Anywhere
It's a build about explosives; it's kind of a given.

Optional Gear

Because it pays to be flexible in terms of gear.


Unkempt Harold

Drops from Savage Lee, Three Horns Divide/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Double Penetrating (2x Projectiles)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip.
“Did I fire six shots, or only five? Three? Seven. Whatever.” – Shots split into seven over a horizontal spread. Consumes three ammo per shot.
A beast of a hand-cannon that may just be the best gun in the game (In terms of sheer versatility, at least). No further introduction is needed.


Flakker

Drops from The Warrior in Vault of the Warrior/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Casual (+Pellet Count)
Ideal Parts: Hyperion grip, Torgue Stock
“Flak the World.” – Increased damage. Consumes 4 ammo per shot. Has an extremely large spread, with rounds detonating after reaching a certain distance.
This may just be one of the most underrated weapons in the game.

…No, I’m serious. It turns out that, if you manage to hit your enemies within the Flakker’s range, you can deal serious damage with it. The only catch with this all is that it has a VERY steep learning curve. As in, absurdly steep (Even steeper than the Interfacer, if you can believe it). But if you stick with it, it’ll be a beast.

That, or you could just Flakkerhab with the Badaboom. But where's the fun in that?


Kerblaster

Drops from Midgemong in the Southern Shelf Bay/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Plump (+Mag Size), Slippery (+Bullet Speed)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip, Dahl stock.
“Torgue got mo’ BOOM!” – Consumes 4 ammo per shot. Shots are fired in a straight trajectory, and drop a grenade on impact (Which explodes after 3 seconds). Incapable of crits.
Before the Ogre came along, there was the Kerblaster. While Ogre tends to be the better option nowadays, the Kerblaster is still a great weapon in its own right; excelling at crowd control and hitting those behind cover (Thanks to the child grenade). Ammo consumption is rather high, however, keep this mind.


Ravagers/Hulks

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Prefixes: Casual (+Pellet Count), Sinewy (General Boost)
Ideal Parts: Hyperion grip, Torgue stock.
These two are both great options if SWORDSPLOSION!!! isn’t an option for you; and if it IS an option, are great weapons to use while you wait for one. For reference, Ravagers use four ammo per shot, while Hulks use three (Also, Ravagers use the Torgue barrel, Hulks use the Bandit barrel).


Slagga

Drops from Jimbo and Tector Hodunk
Preferred Prefixes: Murderers (+Damage), Agresive (+Reload Speed)
Ideal Parts: Bandit/Maliwan grip, Dahl stock.
“blagga” - Always spawns in Slag. Fires three bullets at once with no extra cost, though with reduced damage per projectile. Increased chance to slag.
It doesn’t gain any grenade bonuses, but it’s just a really reliable slagging device – assuming all three bullets hit, you have a roughly 72-80% of slagging your enemy. That alone should put it on this list.


Tediore Plasma Casters

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Prefixes: Hefty (+Damage), Refill (+Reload Speed)
Ideal Parts: Tediore grip, Dahl stock.
A thrown Tediore weapon is apperently considered to be a grenade by the game, since it also benefits from the various grenade bonuses. Unlike the most of the other weapons mentioned here, this one can only come in elements, so you'll want to farm a pair in fire and acid.

Unlike most Tediores, this stuff actually deals great damage, thanks to being a PC and grenade bonuses and whatnot.


Expert Grenadier COM

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Boosts: +6 Steady, +5 Impact
If you happen to be the type who cares more about DPS than survivability, this might be the COM for you. You may not have the large maximum health or quite as much health regen out of combat, but this is the only way (To my knowledge) to get over 100% grenade damage.


Fastball

Drops from Loot Midgets/Possibly Boll? (Unconfirmed)
Preferred Elements: Explosive
“Forget the curveball Ricky, give him the heater.” – Always spawns with 0.0 fuse time. Greatly increased damage and travel speed with dramatically decreased blast radius. Thrown like a baseball.
During the Loot Hunt, this grenade received a +500% damage buff, giving it more damage than even most rocket launchers (Even the Nukem and Ahab). Since then, people have chucking this around either to escape FFYL or ripping through most enemies' health in one blow.

Seriously, just look at it. The thing's underleveled, but already dealing nearly 2 million damage per throw. This is all before we throw in Axton's skills...


Stockpile Relic

Drops from Anywhere
Sometimes, you’ll be in a fight that goes on for a while and only hands you so much ammo. For those cases, you can put this on so you can go longer without worrying about ammo. Ideally, you'll want one that boosts ARs, SMGs, and shotguns.

Skill Tree

Any skills with their names in BOLD are considered to be cornerstone skills.

Lvl 50 Version



Lvl 61 Version

GUERILLA

• Sentry - Also increases the time Battlefront is active.
  
• Ready - For some reason, I've noticed a lot of people only throwing in one point for a COM bonus. This actually affects your overall DPS by quite a bit, so go head and max it if you would.
  
• Willing - This might be one of the strongest shield skills in the game. The bonuses here make pretty much any shield useable (Emphasis on "Most"), and there isn't any catch to any of it either. It's entirely possible to do a good face-tanking between this and the BBB's boosters.
  
• Onslaught - Mainly in for the movement speed, which helps you KEEP ROLLING ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN. The gun bonus is nice too.
  
• Scorched Earth - The only thing better than one rocket is an entire barrage of them.
  
• Able - Let's you stay in the fight longer without having to retreat.
  
• Double-Up - With this, the missus starts acting as a dedicated slagger. It's like slag-on-a-stick, and arguably Axton's best capstone.

GUNPOWDER

• Impact - Straight-up damage increases are hard to argue with.
  
• Expertise - Mostly in here to help us move further down the tree.Weapon swap speed is kinda OK, though.
  
• Metal Storm - Most Torgue guns seem to suffer from a few issues in terms of fire rate and recoil. With those in mind, this skill is pretty much fixes both of their issues for a short while.
  
• Steady - Since grenade bonuses are part of the reason explosives are so great with Axton, it would be a good idea to have a bonus that's on all the time.
  
• Longbow - Putting some Longbow tech on board? Great. Doubling the turret's health? Even better!
  
• Battlefront - If you're gonna have the missus out often, a bit of extra DPS for yourself shouldn't hurt too much, right?
  
  No, it won't. Or EVER, for that matter.
  
• Do or Die - Because when you're bleeding to death, you don't have the time to bother with swicthing weapons.
  
• Nuke - For some strange reason, the explosion in question only causes fire damage (And not a particularly weak one at that). It's great for stunning mooks, though. May cause framerate issues on some computers.
  
  ...Don't ask how you can survive a nuke going off about 5 feet in front of you; it's a video game.

SURVIVAL

• Healthy -We're mainly throwing a point in for the COM bonus here.
  
• Preparation - See above.

SKILLS TO AVOID

• Laser Sight - Somehow makes your turret less accurate. I don't even...
  
• Grenadier - Not a bad skill, just really redundant in the face of the Big Boom Blaster. Could be useful prior to aquiring one, though.
  
• Crisis Management - Between the BBB and Willing, our shields won't be down enough to be worth the points.
  
• Ranger - I once read somewhere that this skill is like having a batch of Badass Tokens. Not a bad comparison, IMO. Of course, you should have sizable bonuses in most of the areas covered after enough playtime, so any points put in here are best spent elsewhere.

Special Section: Grenade Bonuses

I feel as if someone will eventually ask me why I went with so many grenade skills when our main grenade isn't even for damage. Well, as it turns out, any weapon that deals splash damage gets to benefit from grenade buffs. To be specific...




This was the gun used during the tests. It should be noted before we move on, though, that the damage displayed on the card of any Torgue weapon is actually the amount done by spash damage. The damage from direct hits is acutally about twice that (In this case, the actual damage before any bonuses is roughly 90K).






After this, I removed my COM and relic to begin testing.


No Grenade Bonuses



+25% Grenade Damage (5/5 Steady)



+65% Grenade Damage (5/5 Steady, Do or Die, 5/5 Battlefront)

As you can see,

It gets even more ridiculous with a proper Grenadier COM.



+130 Grenade Damage (11/5 Steady, Do or Die, 5/5 Battlefront, COM bonus)


As you can see, grenades bonuses are a major part of why Explosive Axton is a viable build; and this is all BEFORE we add in bonuses from gun damage...

Leveling Guide

(AKA, *Insert How-To Book Title Parody Here*)

NORMAL MODE - Of all the characters, I'd say Axton has the easiest time early on, since he can drop his turret to help with FFYL situations and ties with Gaige in best health regen early on. Since we'll be focusing on the turret first, you'll want to have it out as often as you can.

• Level 5 - Sabre Turret, because you litterally have no other options.
  
• Lvls 6-11 - 1/5 Preperation, 5/5 Ready
  
• Lvls 12-17 - 5/5 Willing, Scorched Earth
  
• Lvls 18-22 - 5/5 Able
  
• Lvls 23-27 - 5/5 Sentry
  
• Lvls 28-32 - 4/5 Onslaught, Double Up

TRUE VAULT HUNTER MODE - By the time you enter here, your turret should have shooting slag bullets or very close to doing so. Meanwhile, this would be a good time to practice slagging for the next playthrough...

• Lvls 33-37 - 4/5 Impact, 1/5 Expertise
  
• Lvls 38-42 - 5/5 Metal Storm
  
• Lvls 43-48 - Longbow, 5/5 Steady (I would suggest switching over to explosives around the time you begin investment in Steady.)
  
• Lvls 49-50 - Do or Die, 1/5 Healthy

ULTIMATE VAULT HUNTER MODE - Before heading off into here, try and grab a good slag Betty. After that, drop your turret often, toss grenades where possible, and you should be able to get by.

• Lvls 50-55 - 5/5 Battlefront
  
• Lvls 56-59 - 5/5 Impact, 3/5 Expertise, Nuke
  
• Lvls 60-61 - These last two are entirely your call. I normally put them into Expertise and Onslaught.

And as a bonus, here's some gear to look out for while you level:

• To save us time, anything made by Torgue.
  
• Or Tediore, for that matter.
  
• Nova Shields
  
• Spike Shields
  
• MIRVs
  
• Bouncing Betties
  
• Roaster (“Note for Self-Person”)
  
• Kiss of Death (“Hell Hath No Fury”)
  
• Jakobs/Hyperion Shotguns
  
• Fuster Cluck (“The Pretty Good Train Robbery”)
  
• Bandit Launchers/Shotguns
  
• Chulainn ("Clan War: Zafords vs. Hodunks" - Side with Zafords)

Q&A

Title, I suppose. Questions will be added as time goes on.

Will there be a Level 72/OP8 Version?

I can now confirm that there definetly won't be a Lvl 72 version, with the Pre-Sequel coming out next month and probably taking over BL2's position from there. For those going there, I would suggest putting points into Survival for Pressure and Quick Charge (Or something along those lines).

How many times have you mentioned grenade bonuses?!

I counted about ten. Suprised I didn't mention it more often.

Credits

And so ends the last of my BL2 Guides. I hope you've enjoyed these things, and thank you for reading. Here's some related stuff:

Resources

• Lootology 101, for finding out more about the gear to get.[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]
  
• The Borderlands Wiki, for general reference.[borderlands.wikia.com]

Credits

• All screenshots taken by Edo the 309th
  
• Guide Format belongs to CDTRim
  
• Guide thumbnail belongs to ProjectENDO of DA[projectendo.deviantart.com]
  
• Intro Picture belongs to bended, also of DA[bended.deviantart.com]
  
• Axton and Borderlands 2 belong to Gearbox Software
  
• Steam Guides belong to Valve

My Other BL2 Guides

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136317058
The first guide I ever submitted to here. Only being listed for historical purposes.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=200011418
My main Mechro build, which mixes together BFF and OC for the purpose of throwing around comical amounts of lead.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=218173282
SPOILERS: Everything explodes.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=261970629
I dunno how it took this long for a build about Grog-Harold to pop up.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=289326572
So I tried making a Zer0 guide. It didn't end well.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=309364928
I love me muh Smigs...






So, will I be doing stuff for the Presequel? Well, it looks like I can run it...

[Serg]

Even though operation Rolling Thunder was a failure for many factors, atleast it makes a decent build.

[pustboxer]

keep roland roland roland

[Karsk]

Hey OP I was wondering if you or anyone else might be willing to help me get to level cap? My Axton is about 35 atm and I really want to get through TVHM and UVHM to get to level cap so I can start finally getting into endgame. I can't find anyone willing to help with the powerleveling :(

Great Guide! Up rated and favorited!

[euψychius]

ok that`s impressive to make 125% mo damage

[󠀡󠀡]

Doing the build right now. Loving it so far. And if you don't like it it's really easy just change the build path or do another axton build.

[󠀡󠀡]

Loving the build, gonna start with it directly. Simple and fun build it sound like.

[Jet]

if this build is called rolling thunder shouldn't you use the rolling thunder grenade mod?

[ken japones]

Works fine in lvl 72/OP8, just invest in Preparation and in the Gunpower Tree with the remaining 11 points

[green milk]

Nice! This is basically the build I use (including the extra skills you mentioned for 72/OP8 + Phalanx Shield), except that I use the Magic Missile instead of the Crossfire, as well as a Grog if I'm really that desperate.

[Faptain Hook]

Met Fred Durst once. Told him to turn around and keep going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going...