Big Willy Style- An Enforcer Build

Hey, everybody! Uncle Sicko here with the first guide in my Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel character series!

Today, I'll be showing you my favorite build for the Enforcer. If you've looked into my previous guides, you already know that I harp on Gunzerker's tankiness, and Commando's ridiculous damage output during Battlefield. Our boy Wilhelm is the sweet, angry lovechild between these two captains of industry, and I am more excited than I ought to be for this cyborg superstar to get his frag on.

Like cyborgs? Like casual references to an actor- turned- rapper- turned- actor- again?

Then read on...

The Problem-

Everyone and their dog thinks you should be using a Celestial Enforcer mod, with Prismatic Bulwark, and four Thorny Ol' Rosie. Granted, this is tried and true, but for me, it got stale quickly, always using basically the same weapon, with the same strategy, every. single time.

The Solution-

Don't use C Enf. Easy as that. We'll be working towards the Chronicler of Elphis mod, which complements my final build. CoE is much more interesting to earn, ie- playing through the Holodome, as opposed to farming and working the grinder for C Enf. This build is mainly for solo play, and is going to focus on being a crit- generating megatank, instead of relying mostly on cover and lasers to get kills.

"But Uncle Sicko", you may say, "Doesn't that mod suck since it has fewer overall point bonuses and blah blah blerg?"

The answer is no, it does not. And I'd just be pleased as punch to explain why. I have everything set up like this because it works best for me, and I'll explain why, but I'm not gonna send the Gestapo after you if you personalize it. Have some fun with it and feel free to respond with any questions, concerns, or tips you may have.

The Build-

A 'hunned proof, raisin' the roof.

Sans a mod-


With the mod-

Hunter- Killer-

Got a Reece's Pieces in your Kit- Kat? Here's the jaw breaker...

At level one we steal Fire support. A flat, unconditional boost to your firepower, while helping Wolf beat up the haters with an extra 25% damage bonus. We ignore Afterburner because we don't really need bullet speed upgrades with our weapons, and I didn't see any relevant difference in Wolf's effectiveness when we modify his speed. The reload boost is also cool, but we'll get that elsewhere without ditching five points.

Next, we'll take Suppression over Venom Bolts. Our choice is basically free fire rate, or occasional corrosive pokes. Even when paired with Cold War, Venom Bolts just doesn't seem to do the same work as mo dakka can.

In the third tree, we happily take Laser Guided. A 25% damage bonus is just the tip of the iceburg, when compared to the synergy that it's bonus duration has with Rolling Thunder. For one point, Willy gonna light up Miami like the fifth of November.

At the fourth tier, Wolf bounces the clubs with Rolling Thunder. Proper management of Laser Guided in prolonged combat will grant 8 at a minimum and upwards of 20 stacks in a prolonged firefight, each granting a 22% bonus, thanks to our CoE mod. I'll let you do the math while Wolf outruns your damage output.

As we near the top, I opt to place four points into Cold War, and one in Escalation. Cold War let's your elemental weapons pretend to be Cryo, even freezing enemies that you're busy unloading crits into. One point into Escalation lets CoE slice your cooldown rate, meaning less down time.

We go for the capstone ability here, Omega Strike. Stack boosted explosives on frozen targets will make you laugh, while you're trying to look all tough.

Cyber Commando-

The bottom of this tree gave me a little trouble. Do I go for a little type- locked damage bonus, or let my Turtle shields get an impressive 15% bonus? After much testing, I realized that, even though 15% can mean a lot with shields that thick, it was never useful, due to constantly cycling shield recharge rates. So, we pop the bubbly on our Excaliboo with a base damage boost for it's crit damage to amp up.

The second tier takes Targeting Scope. The accuracy bonus is handy, but we'll be critting a lot, so a 50% bonus is way more helpful than a lazy, untrustworthy 40% damage bonus from First to Fight, the redheaded step- sister of Interspersed Outburst.

At tier three, we grab Power Fist. I thought it was a gimmick at first, but unlike many other melee overrides, this fist packs a... um... punch. Sorry, I'm not clever. But testing a badass' bum with explosive melee damage when they step out of line is really gratifying. Especially when they're frozen, which they will be, since we're using CoE.

We burn seven points in teir four. Five into Divert Power gives an 80% damage reduction, should something actually have the nerve to break down our Saint- bolstered turtle shield. Pair that with one point (I lied, it's 5 with CoE.) into emergency response, if anyone hits you too hard, you'll punish them with a handful of bonuses, then go mac on they girlfriends. We'll also grab Shock Absorbers. It's one of those abilities that you don't think about until you have it. We'll use our accuracy bonus and fire rate to avoid ADS, in favor of a berserk run n' gun sprint at anyone who makes eye contact. My only gripe with it is it's not an omni- directional sprint, so if you cut an any direction other than straight forward, you break your flow and lose your damage bonus until you start up again.

Dreadnought-

In the spirit of Salvador's Brawn tree, Dreadnought come in like a wrecking ball, making Ol' Willy pretty darn hard to kill. As a point of reference, just spec'ing into this tree lets him tank a level 70 5H4D0W-TP all day while you hit crits and regenerate ammo at your leisure.

At the bottom of the tree, we grab Auxiliary Tanks over Fortify. Longer ability activation and shorter cooldowns means Saint will constantly be up, building a brick wall between their bullets and your face. Since this build calls for the thickest shield in the game, we just don't need Fortify's health buff, or it's token damage boost.

Next, we opt for both Energize and Heatsinks. Energize gives 40% shield restore, a pretty healthy chunk of change for Pangolin shields. It's 3% health regen bonus is lessened because of the health cut from Turtle shields, but it never hurts to have the added insurance. Heatsinks is an absolutely wonderful ability for us, since our thick shields tend to have a somewhat slow recharge rate and delay.

Moving upward, we grab Termination Protocol. It lets you move faster than FFYL, breaks enemy shields, and if your timer runs out, you drop a small nuke that isn't overly reliable, but can kill melee enemies that you've weakened with your last few bullets. Its fun, unique, and really powerful for only costing one point.

At our fourth teir, we pick up Hazmat Containment. Bolstered by our CoE mod, you can basically ignore what would otherwise be fatal DoTs from tougher enemies, like Deadlift, who typically prefer to chip away shields instead of fighting us like a man.

Speaking of ignoring damage, I recommend picking up Hard to Kill. They build pretty fast in an intense combat, and pair well with your other damage reducing abilities, like Hazmat Containment and Divert Power. Just beware that these stacks all disappear, instead of bleeding out like Discord, at once after a few seconds of not taking damage, so hiding in cover to recharge shields can actually be counter- productive. We avoid Rapid Reinforcements because, while it's an impressive kill skill, it just doesn't have good synergy with this build. We also gloss over Zero Hour for two reasons. The first is that it's tricky to find the healing aura during a firefight, and the second is that we just don't care about health after the consideration of shields and damage reduction.

Ol' Willy gets a ton of help from this capstone, Overcharge. For just one point, we get a much beloved ammo regeneration, 75% fire rate and reload bonus, handy move speed buff, and an instantly gratifying feeling of divinity while we muck through the carnival shooting gallery that other players would call, "an intense fire- fight".

The Weapons-

Now we gettin' jiggy with the weapons.

In order-

First, we want a corrosive shotgun. I had a barrel of fun with the Company Man, but I can also recommend multi- barrel shotguns.The company man has such a large mag size that I'm pretty comfortable using it to break shields, just for the sake of expediency. Bigger shotguns have a much smaller magazine, but hit like a truck if you have your positioning right. If you're laser obsessed, try finding a split barrel with all matching parts, so you'll get six laser shots instead of just the usual 3.

In our second slot, we put our obligatory cryo weapon, the Excaliboo. Its stats may only be slightly better than a purple rarity Hyperion rail gun, but it has the neat trick of freezing most enemies that it crits, letting us hit with a 50% damage boosted robo- fist. Pairing explosives damage bonus with our crit bonuses will let you knock out most enemies without burning through your ammo stores.

Our third slot is somewhat situational. I like to keep a my Longnail (Fire) here, since I basically fire it like an assault rifle. Ammo is rarely a concern here, since we have Overcharge up constantly to keep us stocked. Another viable option is a Maliwan or Dahl sniper rifle in electric, so you break shields at range before running in to get your freak on with those weakened, unfortunate enemies.

In our fourth and final slot, I used to prefer my trusty Creamer or Badaboom, but once I found a Kaneda's Laser, these two were quickly retired. It doesn't seem to get our laser damage bonus, but it's fun, fires fast, has efficient rocket usage, won't kill you with AoE, and most importantly, is easy to crit with.

Why did I take that extra second to type, "In order" and then type this entire paragraph to explain it? Why, to help stress its importance, of course. I personally treat this, generally, as a three weapon kit. I have 'boo out and ready to freeze and punch, then shift up to my shotgun or down to a rifle, situation depending. Kanada is generally reserved for last ditch rushes and boss battles not because I don't like it, but because of it's prohibitively low ammo supply.

The Kit-

The Shield-

Shield of Ages
- Easy to acquire, and it has the highest shield capacity that I've come across thus far. You may want to experiment with other shields, such as Black Hole or Avalanche, which are both amazing, but I didn't really need any special abilities once I'd taken nigh immortality into account. You may come across a Fabled Tortoise, but it's harder to find than Shield of Ages, has a lower capacity, higher health cost, and slows you down while it's active. It's speed bonus is cool, but you'll never get to experience it here, since your shields will be recharging so fast.

The Mod-

Chronicler of Elphis
- It's shield bonus is somewhat token when applied to our prior base maximum, but what isn't token is it's cryo bonuses that play well with our elemental weapons and Cold War. Why the devs didn't spring to give Cold war a +4 with this mod, I'll never know. Our perk bonuses mostly go towards survivablilty, but arguably the most important bonus goes to Rolling Thunder. It raises each stack's value to a noteworthy 22%, meaning that with proper Laser Guided management, you can get some serious results. My maximum thus far is 20 stacks, meaning a 440% damage bonus for Wolf. Even Gaige could be proud of that.

The oZ Kit-

Um... Duh? It's gotta be 3DD1.E
- If you have the time to farm for this, I totally recommend it. You just can't beat the utility of a kit that heals your shields, drops care packages, and occasionally tasers enemies, letting Cold War proc for free. The other unique and legendary mods are cool, but somewhat situational. Until I got 3DD1.E, I mostly stuck with Juggernaut mods for survivability, or System Purge for oxygen rich environments.

The Grenade-

Meganade or Quasar
I appreciate the reliability and consistency of Quasar, just toss to group enemies and break shields. Simple, elegant, deadly. The Claptrap DLC gave us a similar grenade, the Meganade, which has two redundant singularities after the initial one, and a high damage blast shortly afterwards. I'd recommend farming for one in Electric, to be used in the same manner as Quasar, as a shield breaker and enemy grouper. An alternative to Electric is Cryo, so you don't have to rely so much on Cold War to freeze enemies that survive the blast, though it may not always break badass or superbadass shields.

Alternative Weapons-

While some of the weapon I recommend are hard to acquire, but there are several completely viable alternatives to use as placeholders until you get them.

Weapon 1-
An armored enemy killer, I prefer corrosive Hyperion shotguns, but anything reasonably accurate and fully automatic should do here. The trick is to find something you can hit with while sprinting and getting your Shock Absorbers bonus.

Weapon 2-
Hyperion Rail Gun, in Cryo. It's effectively the same as Excaliboo, just sans the Cryo crit gimmick. Until you find one, just roll with Cryo Maliwan weapons to help your enemies... Chill out. If you're not into the slow fire rate, check out the Fridgia, Thorny Ol' Rosy (Cryo), or Hail (Cryo) to spice things up.

Weapon 3-
I found myself using the Vibra- Pulse here, more often than not. Since fire has such a steep hill to climb to be helpful, I tend to stick with Electric Maliwan Beams, or anything with high DPS to balance out your build. Honorable mention to Maggie in this slot. Since this build doesn't really need a Moxxi weapon, consider putting her here to melt through mobs like a hot knife through butter.

Weapon 4-
Your, "Get Out of Jail Free" card. The biggest rocket launcher you come across will usually fill this spot, but I've also gotten away with using Ravagers in this spot, since the high spread and AoE of the rockets can get you up if you're panic firing instead of aiming. Honorable mention in this spot is the Cheat Code, a Legendary reward for beating the Claptrap DLC, which is basically just a decent SMG until you go into FFYL, where it sorta goes crazy.

Alternative Kit-

The Shield-
Aside from the Shield of Ages, turtle shields are somewhat underwhelming, so I'd recommend a decent nova shield here. You'll hit your shield's max capacity so often, it'll get some work done. Despite our recharge rate, amp shields are still pretty disappointing, because they reduce your overall defensive capability, for a middling damage boost.

Mods-
The two that fit pretty well with this build are blue rarity Mech and Equalizer mods. The choices here are more defense or more offense, so just go with whatever suits your play style.

oZ Kit-
Aside from the defense provided by a decent Juggarnaut kit, There really is no single unique or purple rarity oZ kit that fit better than any other, just go with personal preference here.

Grenade-
Go for Shock AoE or Singularity grenades, here. The goal is to always have at least one in your back pocket to thin enemy ranks, and weaken badasses. A decent transfusion grenade is also viable here, even with the reduced health from Pangolin shields.

Questions and Answers-

This is the part where I compile good questions, and subsequently answer them, so you don't have to waste time rifling through comments and such.

I have an idea to improve this build. Should I add you to talk about it?
Na bruv, just comment it. If it's cool, I'll add you and we can spitball. If you plan on being insulting, at least be funny. If you make me laugh, I won't delete it.

Why did it take you so long after the games release to start this series?
Long story short? Life just happens, m8. But I'm all caught up now, so no worries.

I'd really like to try this build, but I don't have time to farm all that gear. Would you mind duping for me?
As a matter of principle, I'd rather not, sorry.

How does this build fair against bosses?
Iwajira and Invincible Empyrean Sentinel were pretty easy. Is it just me or are the raid bosses really underwhelming compaired to the ones in Borderlands 2?

Do you have any other guides?
Yes I do, ta very much for asking. A link to them should be in the notes by now. Be sure to leave in the comments which class you'd like me to write about next.

Notes-

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy this build as much as I do.

If you'd like, check out my other guides here: http://steamcommunity.com/id/opheliologist/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides

Feel free to post any questions, tips, or comments below.

Edits-

6.12.2015
- Guide completed
- Various spelling, grammar, and continuity corrections

6.14.2015
- Guide posted
- Several spelling and grammar corrections
- Made friends and influenced people

[Sickologist]

Haha, thank you for the insight, and I'm glad you had fun. Have a great day, friend!

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

many people might not understand the comedy of the boganella shotgun taken from pickles. But dead set, that's what junky aussie women sound like when they cant get their fix.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

FYI ripper = aussie for slang top bloke. I know. i'm aussie.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

PS. i got eddie very early on from a vending machine, i guess that helped with the build alot.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

mate, this build is primo. I had a jones on for borderlands, but i'd take a screwdriver to my ear drum, before having to listen to the cringe calypso twins of BL3.
This build stopped me from the one shot kills i'd been experiencing. Following your build, Also literally following from your text (ie the order you went through each tree). i went through 30-50 and felt i was PLAYING a game, rather than torturing myself, trying to work out the synergy of skills.

By end game i did change up a few points here and there, but ultimately stuck to this build.

Thanks mate. You're a ripper!!!

[Judge_M0rt1s]

Does Hazmat Containment System work with Cold War?

[Matron Malice]

Nice build man. I'm experimenting with he and now Jack. Not sure who I like better. Thus far, Jack but it's just because he has 2 clones. LOL

[parceval]

thanks dude

[Sickologist]

http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Glitch_(rarity)

[parceval]

also what are glitch weapons?
i got like a shit ton by farming eclipse and EOS