Rubi or Grog Nozzle? A guide to healing with weapons

This guide covers healing mechanics with weapons and which healing weapons are best for each class.

Health Gate

Health gate is a game mechanic which prevents you from dying to a single hit if you have over 50% health regardless of the strength of the attack (doesn't apply to self damage e.g. rocket launchers).
After being hit you can't be damaged again for about a second which means if you can heal back up over 50% health during the invulnerability window between hits, you will be practically unkillable.
Most classes don't have strong healing in their skills so using Moxxi weapons for healing is important for surviving.

Moxxi Weapons

Moxxi weapons all heal you for a percentage of damage that you deal while holding them; this includes damage from grenades, elemental effects, melee hits and skills (not sure about Axton's turrets and Gaige's deathtrap).

List of Moxxi weapons and healing %

• Good Touch_______2.5%
  
• Bad Touch________2%
  
• Crit______________2.5%
  
• Kitten____________4%
  
• Hail_____________ 3%
  
• Creamer_________ 2%
  
• Chère-amie_______2%*
  
• Heart Breaker_____2%
  
• Slow Hand_______ 3.5%
  
• Rubi____________ 12%
  
• Grog Nozzle______ 65%

*Chère-amie also has a transfusion effect like that of transfusion grenades that spawns life orb things that heal for 15% of damage dealt directly by the gun, these life orbs are unreliable however and won't necessarily reach you depending on the terrain.

The Rubi and Grog Nozzle are the best weapons for healing by far.

Healing tactics

When in need of health you can switch to your switch to your Moxxi weapon (preferable Rubi or Grog Nozzle) and throw a grenade to get healing from it's damage. Longbow grenades with 0.0 fuse time are optimal or homing grenades can be thrown safely from behind cover.
The best grenade for emergency healing is the Chain Lightning grenade dropped from badass sorcerers in Tiny Tina's dlc. The Chain Lightning is good because it always comes with 0.0 fuse, is easy to hit enemies with (even flying surveyors) and also regenerates grenade ammo over time.
A Lightning Bolt grenade is an easier to find alternative.

Another tactic is shooting a weapon with a slow projectile then quickly switching to your Rubi/Grog before the projectile hits; this can easily be done with an Unkempt Harold obtained from torgue vending machines or Savage Lee.

Rubi or Grog Nozzle?

Comparing the top 2 healing weapons

Rubi:
Obtained as reward for 'Rakkaholics anonymous' side quest given by Mordecai, turn in to Moxxi.

Pros:

• Significantly higher gun damage than Grog Nozzle (about 5x higher)
  
• Much easier to get
  
• Can farm for optimal parts/prefix
  
• Comes in any element (except explosive)
  
• Looks cooler imo

Cons:

• Lower healing than Grog Nozzle (but still decent)
  
• Much worse at slagging than Grog Nozzle

Grog Nozzle:
Obtained as a mission weapon during 'The Beard Makes the Man' side quest in Tiny Tina's dlc or as a normal weapon from the Loot Hunt in November 2013.

Pros:

• Much better at slagging than Rubi
  
• Much higher healing than Rubi
  
• +200% Critical hit damage multiplicative
  
• Chance of causing drunk effect which add 5 extra projectiles to your shots (doesn't cost extra ammo)
  
• Mission weapons scale to your level

Cons:

• Mission weapon has random prefix/parts every time you reload your game
  
• Starting a new playthrough means you have to start the side quest again
  
• Mission weapons can't be dropped or traded
  
• Joining someone elses game for co op means you you won't have your grog nozzle if they haven't started the side quest
  
  *Note Grog Nozzles always have 2 more magazine size than listed on their card

Conclusion

If you can get a loot hunt Grog Nozzle with the right prefix from someone else or you already have one, use it. If not:

For Axton, Maya and Gaige Rubi works fine if you can't be bothered going to start that side quest.

For Krieg and Zer0 melee builds Rubi is much better because you can farm for the bladed prefix.

For Salvador the Grog Nozzle is far superior because it slags enemies so much better and the +200% multiplicative crit applies to both weapons while gunzerking,
this means that your crits will do 3 times as much damage! e.g. 300 crit -> 900 crit

Also note that you can use the drunken effect from the Grog Nozzle with the Badaboom rocket launcher for rocket jumping with any class (except Krieg) see my other guide for more info on this.

If you have any questions leave them in the comments below.

[bdookz]

you can use bl2fix (mod) to get a grog as a mission reward, i recommend it, just makes the game a whole lot easier with qol

[Gaming]

@TukeNuke yes, that is typically reffered to as a glass tank build, as you have very low hp and can constantly healthgate.

[Crazy]

Correction it is a bad idea to get a bladed weapon on Kreig besides Law and Rapier since Kreigs melee has a higher damage then just a 50% increase and it overrides Kreig base melee so dont use 50% melee on Kreig

[TukeNuke]

this is either real smart or real stupid, and i do plan on trying it: with OP pangolin shields you can lower your health significantly, to the point that you almost have none. what if i took a shield that put me down to around 5000 hp, and wore the legendary nurse class mod, which heals (if perfect at op-8) ~11,000 hp. wouldn't it work with health gate to make me invulnerable? and since its team healing, i suppose that would mean the rest of the team could do the same.

[Lajkonik]

Ok, so I am pretty much unixperienced here: how do I farm mission reward items (in this case Rubi)?

[parasocial catgirl]

If you have Gibbed, get yourself a nozzle.

[Kreavill]

Can someone give me an Chain lighting?

[Mclovin]

Gunzerking A Grog Nozzle with lyuda or unkempt harold

[Stabhack]

I like the stormfront... i alway throw it near me on actident XD so my shield keeps going down xD
(i play op8 with a siren... and it sucks .. i keep dying CONSTANTLY XD its kinda fun but challenging)

[blackshadowwind]

Stormfront is very good for healing but will take a much longer time to farm a good one (longbow + low fuse time) . Chain lightning always has 0.0 fuse and it is much easier to aim because it chains to nearby enemies, it also regenerates your grenade ammo over time.