"Sal the Invincible" - A Zerker Build

Because nobody made a guide about Grog-Harold up until now, for some reason.

The Introdump

"Aww, F#CK YEAH!" -Mr. Torgue

After spending a good amount of time playing the game and/or browsing the various places that make up the fandom, you can get a pretty good idea of just how powerful some classes can be. Maya can kick @ss with elemental SMGs and crowd control; Gaige can stack Anarchy/shock damage/both to pour out huge damage; Axton can stack his grenade bonuses to make many explosive guns into monsters; Krieg can Bloodsplode just about everything; Zer0 can snipe things into oblivion from afar; and both can use melee to hit like freight trains. Essentially, each and every class is capable of ridiculous damage output by whatever means they were designed around; and anyone tells you otherwise, then by all means ignore them.

…Notice how I left Salvador out of that description thing. Care to guess why?

Well, as it turns out, if you give a properly specced Salvador the right pieces of gear, he can put out so much damage it’s not even funny. As in, you could possibly kill certain raids within a minute if the circumstances are right, and within 3 when they aren’t. He is in his own category of powerful, one I’ll call “Stupidly Powerful.” This guide, in turn, is a tutorial on how to achieve such levels of damage.

Moving on...

Main Gear

The gear we're going to be using regularly, of course.

SLOTS ONE & THREE: Unkempt Harold

Drops from Savage Lee, Three Hrons Divide/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Double Penetrating (2x Projectiles)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip
Pairs With: Slot One goes with Grog; Slot Three goes with Lady Fist.
“Did I fire six shots, or only five? Three? Seven. Whatever.” – Shots split into seven over a horizontal spread. Consumes three/six ammo per shot, depending on accessory.
The Harold isn’t just one of the best pistols in the game, it’s arguably one of the best weapons in the game, PERIOD. And despite being in such a high position, it’s also one of the easiest to obtain, thanks to the Torgue Vendors.

...What else could you want to know about it?


SLOT TWO: Grog Nozzle

Mission Item for "The Beard Makes the Man" (DO NOT TURN THE MISSION IN)
Preferred Prefixes: Irrelevant.
Ideal Parts: Also irrelevant.
Pairs With: The Harold in Slot One.
“Hand over the keys, Sugar…” – Always slag. Highly reduced damage, with increased crit damage (+200%) and slag chances. Heals the user at a rate of 65% of damage done. Has a chance to make the user “drunk.” When active, projectile count will be multiplied by six, at the cost of fire rate and accuracy. This effect can be applied to other weapons.
Imagine, if you will, taking an ideal Rubi, then putting it on steroids. Then, after that, giving it a giatn crit bonus, and a free chance to multiply your shot count by 6 for a short time by just having it out.

That would be the Grog. It's used for keeping things slagged while healing yourself all the while.

Its usefulness goes beyond just slagging and heals, though – thanks to the general oddness surrounding offhand weapons (Any weapon in your left hand while Gunzerking), the Harold gains the Grog’s crit bonuses whenever you Gunzerk. Considering how powerful it already was…


SLOT FOUR: Slag Lady Fist

Mission Reward for "Uncle Teddy" (Turn in to Una Baha)
Preferred Prefixes: Dynamic (+Fire Rate), Win-Win (+Damage)
Ideal Parts: Hyperion grip
Pairs With:The Harold in Slot 3.
“Love is a Lady Finger. True love is a Lady Fist.” – +800% critical hit damage, improved magazine size, projectile speed and reduced accuracy loss.
...Then imagine how powerful it would be with an even bigger crit bonus! This pairs up with your second Harold, so swap between weapon pairs depending on whether damage or health is more important at the moment.


So your weapon loadout should look something like what's to the right - It's nothing but pistols, with a pair of DP Harolds present. Some of you may be thinking of using both the Harolds at the same time instead of with different weapons...

Well, you would be wrong. While we could do that, we'll only be dealing about twice the damage it would deal on their own, and expending ammo at a much faster rate. With a slag weapon, however, you can deal three times the normal damage while preserving ammo for a longer period. Besides, Sal's the only one who can use two weapons at once, so you might as well take advantage of it.


SHIELD: Rough Rider

Drops from the Bulwark in Hunter's Grove
“It takes more than that to kill a bull moose.” – No capacity. At all. Increases maximum health and provides damage resistance.
With this shield, you’re essentially running around naked. On other characters, this would be a very high-risk thing to do. With the sort of health regen offered by Grog-Harold, though, the lack of any real shields becomes an asset, giving us a chance to proc Inconceivable at all times (And with it, be able to chain Money Shots).

The health boost and damage resistance isn’t bad either.


GRENADE: Crossfire

Bought from Torgue Seraph Vendor
Preferred Deliveries: Longbow, Sticky Lobbed
“Find, fix, flank, finish!” – Drops child grenades with every bounce. Increased blast radius and damage.
For when we need to get everything slagged, or when fighting raids that throw off slag really fast (Like Terra and Hyperius). A low level version is suggested, to minimize any damage you take from the child grenades that it spawns.


CLASS MOD: Unstoppable Berserker

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Boosts: +6 Yippee Ki Yay, +5 Last Longer
You should be Gunzerking as often as possible, and the only time you shouldn't be is if you just can’t help it/no enemies are around. In that case, anything that extends the time you can duel-wield is your best option overall.


RELIC: Sheriff's Badge

Drops from the Sheriff of Lynchwood, Lynchwood
“Take turns and play nice.” – Boosts pistol damage and fire rate, along with increasing FFYL time and max health for every Deputy’s Badge equipped in the party.
The kingpin of pistol-related relics, which boosts our DPS even further while giving us a bonus that grows with every person wearing the Badge. It's nice and dandy.

Honorable Mentions

These things aren’t used as often as what’s been listed previously, but usually have enough utility to warrant being kept around.

Rubi

Mission Reward from “Rakkaholics Anonymous”
Preferred Prefixes: Potent (+Damage), Expeditious (+Fire Rate)
Ideal Parts: Maliwan grip.
“Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried.” – Any damage dealt by the player while wielding the weapon heals them, at a rate of 12% of the damage inflicted.
The main reason Rubi is here is for historical context – in the time before Dragon Keep was released, Rubi was the best weapon for healing yourself. Post-DK, Grog is superior in almost every way.

…Almost. While you’re leveling, a Rubi of ANY level will be enough to handle healing duties until you hit the cap. And since the Grog’s “Drunk” effect will reduce your fire rate severely, Rubi can be used if you want to maintain as high a fire rate as possible. Otherwise, Grog all the way.


Interfacer

Drops from Voracidous the Invincible, Candlerakk’s Crag
Preferred Prefixes: Practicable (+Pellet Count)
Ideal Parts: Hyperion grip and stock.
“Because it enters your face. GET IT? IT ENTERS YOUR FACE!” – Shots produce extra projectiles that shoot out to the side, then return to the main bullets. Consumes 2 ammo per shot. +60% crit modifier. Cannot spawn with a scope.
The highest-DPS shotgun in the entire game, full stop. It's also has one of the steepest learning curves, since the highest damage comes from hitting enemies at a very specific range. If you DO hit while at this range, the damage will go through the roof.

Due to this difficulty curve, the Harold is generally preferred due to ease of use. Do try it out, though.


Topneaa x2

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Prefixes: Rugged (+Damage), Turbulent (+Fire Rate)
Ideal Parts: Vladof sights and grip, Torgue exhausts
Think of these as miniature Norfleets, only made by Vladof and with every third shot not using any ammo. If you would rather have a pair of launchers on hand instead of a second set of Harolds, consider using two of these (In which case, make sure at least one of them is in slag).


Norfleet x2

Drops from Vermivorus the Invincible/Hyperius the Invincible, Washburne Refinery
Preferred Prefixes: Pussiant (+Damage), Prudential (+Reload)
Ideal Parts: Vladof/Tediore sight, Torgue/Bandit exhaust
“Blows Up Everything!” – Fires three energy balls similar to those found on other E-Tech launchers. Each projectile moves slowly and erratically, dealing massive damage on hitting anything. Consumes three ammo per shot.
Dual Norfleets. Need I say more?


Monk COMs

Drops from Dragon Keep Chests
Preferred Traits: +Fire Rate, +Crit Damage (Chaotic Evil)
Preferred Boosts: +6 Money Shot, the other skill is irrelevant.
For when you really need to kill raids fast, look no further. Can spawn with any number of traits, but the CE Monk always spawns with +Fire Rate and +Critical Damage. So long as you get maximum Money Shot out of it, the other skills can be ignored for the most part.


Legendary Gunzerker
Drops from Tubbies (Lvl 62+ Only)
“Nobody puts this baby in a corner.” – Adds 5 points into five skills. Higher-than average bonus to cooldown rate.
The only reason I didn’t make this our main COM is because of how grindy my time leveling through UVHM was (That, and my first time through it was a real clusterf#ck). Because of that, I’ve decided to not get Digi-Peak. Since I imagine that most people reading this do have it, though, I would suggest using this over the blue version where possible.

(Side Note: The picture seen here is actually something I just pulled of the internet, since nobody here seems to have made a screenshot of one in the style of the others seen here. Not to my knowledge, anyways.)


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, it’s been used across the community for creating NKLO fodder.

Seriously, just look at it. The thing's underleveled, but already dealing nearly 2 million damage per throw. it only gets more fun from there.


Any Decent Singularity Grenades

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Elements: Slag, Shock
Preferred Deliveries: Longbow, Lobbed
This is mainly for the fight against Hyperius, though they can be great at keeping crowds under control while mobbing and possibly for interrupting Pete’s novas.

It doesn't have to be a Quasar, though - any of them work, though Quasar is the most well-known.

Skill Tree

"THE SCREENSHOT TO END ALL SCREENSHOTS." -Someone

Skills with the name written in bold are considered cornerstones.

GUNLUST

• Locked and Loaded - The faster the bullets come out, the higher the DPS goes.
  
• I'm Your Huckleberry - Naturally.
  
• Divergent Likeness – Either boost damage or boost accuracy. Regardless of whether you’re using Grog-Harold or dual Topneaas, you’re going to get more damage.
  
• Money Shot – One of the most powerful skills in the game. And if that wasn’t enough, you can chain them together with Inconceivable for ridiculous amounts of damage! (Note that the minimum mag size for the full bonus is actually 12, not 10.)
  
• Down, Not Out – This is a skill I feel no Gunzerker should go without, no matter what build or gear they run with. Yes, seriously. You’ll thank yourself for it at some point.
  
• Keep It Piping Hot – A bonus that’s only active when cooling down sounds contradictory to what we’re doing (Constant Gunzerking). However, the game considers having Get Some active as cooling down, meaning this skill can be triggered as many times as you want, so long as the next Gunzerk hasn’t already been fully cooled.
  
• No Kill Like Overkill – AKA, the proto-Bloodsplosion. The idea is to stack damage on a weak enemy before killing them, then let the bonus add up to the point where you can one-shot a Badass Constructor without any Money Shot involed.

RAMPAGE

• Inconceivable – Depending on how much health and shields you have, you have a chance to fire a free shot. Aside from being great at conserving ammo, this also allows you to chain together Money Shots.
  
• All in the Reflexes – Improves reload speed, and better reload speed means less time where you aren’t firing a gun, and more time firing a gun means higher DPS. The melee bonus is irrelevant.
  
• Last Longer – If Gunzerking = good, then longer Gunzerking = better.
  
• Yippe Ki Yay – Between this, Last Longer, and Get Some, it’s entirely possible to have your cooldown completely reset.
  
• Double Your Fun – This can be used to all sorts of ends. While you’re leveling, this means you could toss two Transfusion grenades at once to stay alive. Or a pair of Bonus Packages for a hurricane of explosions. Or Fastballs for maximum overkill. Or, in the case of our Crossfire, ensure things like Terra and Hyperius stay slagged.
  
• Get Some – With this skill, cooldown should effectively be reduced to zero. It also activates Keep It Piping Hot when active, which boosts your Harold’s damage while you go around.
  
• Keep Firing – It near doubles your fire rate! It boosts your reload speed! IT’S FRIGGIN’ AWESOME AND YOU SHOULDN’T MISS IT.

BRAWN

• Incite - A good skill for backing, shooting, and speeding around like a sailor-mouthed gun-obsessed Speedy Gonzalez. Shame you can't max it out all the way at Lvl 61...

Skills That Didn't Make It (And Why)

• Autoloader – Don’t get me wrong, I like this skill as much as the next guy. But our weapons usually have a reload speed between 2-5 seconds, while Autoloader works best on weapons with reloads of more than 6 seconds (Most launchers, essentially). It’s worth using while leveling though, since you won’t have the time to go farm for the better rockets.
  
• I’m Ready Already – Our COM already gives us the equivalent about 7/5 in this skill without any skill points spent.
  
• Steady As She Goes – The main draw to this skill (Each shot has a chance to increase the accuracy of the next one) sounds nice at first. But whenever that effect procs, the next shot pretty much reverses it back to how it was before. Also, I haven’t noticed the recoil reduction that much, and it can keep Hyperion weapons from reaching peak accuracy faster.
  
• Rest of Brawn – Not enough skill points, most of them aren’t that great past TVHM (See here for details[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]), and the regen from Grog-Harold pretty much renders the whole tree obsolete at the level cap.

Leveling Guide

(AKA, How to Make a Dwarf Grow)

Normal Mode – While you won’t have it as hard as Krieg or Zer0 early on, you’re still going to have a hard time up until you can get bigger ammo reserves and/or a Rubi. After that, you should have a somewhat easy time.

• Level 5 – Gunzerking, of course.
  
• Levels 6-10 – Inconceivable 5/5
  
• Levels 11-15 – Last Longer 5/5
  
• Levels 16-21 – All in the Reflexes 5/5, Double Your Fun
  
• Levels 22-25 – Yippie Ki Yay 4/5
  
• Levels 26-31 – Get Some 5/5, Keep Firing

True Vault Hunter Mode - By the time you hit here, you should start looking for the best pistols you can find; particularly when you start investing in I'm Your Huckleberry. Keep holding onto that Rubi if you still have it, it's gonna help you a bunch here.

• Levels 32-36 – Locked and Loaded 5/5
  
• Levels 36-41 – I’m Your Huckleberry 5/5. By this point you start investing in this, you should have a reasonably large ammo pool and be using pistols for the most part. If not, do so as soon as possible.
  
• Levels 41-47 – Money Shot 5/5, Down Not Out
  
• Levels 48-50 – Incite 3/5.

Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode - Leveling through this mode is generally going to put you through hell and back without proper preperation beforehand. If you have not done so before this point, farm up a slag Rubi in TVHM before making the journey into here. You'll thank yourself later on for that.

After that, it's largely the same as TVHM outside the Rubi thing - keep looking for the best pistol you can get you hands on, and you should get by alright.

• Levels 51-54 – Divergent Likeness 4/5
  
• Levels 55-59 – Keep it Piping Hot 5/5
  
• Level 60-61 – No Kill Like Overkill, 4/5 Incite

...And as a bonus, here's a list of things to look out for while you level:

• ANY pistol that’s not Jakobs or Bandit is worth a look into.
  Bandit/Hyperion Shotguns
  
• Vladof/Bandit Rocket Launchers
  
• Bandit/Maliwan SMGs
  
• Absorb Shields
  
• Flame of the Firehawk (“Cult Following: The Enkindling”)
  
• Roaster (“Note For Self-Person”)
  
• Transfusion Grenades
  
• Bouncing Betties
  
• Kiss of Death (“Hell Hat No Fury”)
  
• Heartbreaker (“Safe and Sound”)
  
• RokSalt (“Splinter Group”)
  
• Deadly Bloom (“The Overlooked: This is Just a Test” – Though it’s entirely possible to get it as a drop, if incredibly unlikely).

The Raid Guide

Between Money Shot chains, NKLO, and his ability to boost fire rate to ridiculous extremes, Sal is the best at raiding by a good distance. While the tactics are largely the same through the various fights (Money Shot EVERYTHING), some notes need to be made on each one. In order from easiest to hardest:

Pyro(-Caustic) Pete - Pete is basically a giant mountain of health for the most part, since the only dangerous attack he has is his melee. Not even the never-ending DoTs are much of a problem as long as you keep hitting him. If you want, you can speed up the fight by summoning some spiderants and killing them for some NKLO.

• Estimated Fight Time: 1-3 Minutes
  
• Notable Drops: Big Boom Blaster (Shield), Hoplite (Shields), O-Negative (Grenade mod)

Hyperius - Hyperius has a batch of Loader minions that, unless interrupted, will give him a shield that reduces and reflects all damage dealt. Gather the minions with a Singularity grenade, then shoot them with an acid launcher (Like a Topneaa or Norfleet) to send them into repair mode, which will cause Hyperius to lose his shields for a bit. Whale on him before the shield returns, then rinse and repeat until he’s dead.

• Estimated Fight Time: Approx 4-6 Minutes
  
• Notable Drops: Retcher (Shotgun), Tattler (SMG), and Evolution (shield)

Master Gee - Infamous as that puzzling raid boss from back when Pirate's Booty was first released, Gee's ways have largely been found out by now. While Gee takes no damage from your weapons, you’ll still be healed if you shoot him. You can take advantage of this as you lure him through the acid pools. After enough time and acid pools, he’ll completely refill his health and shields; but will then start taking damage normally. You can keep shooting him from there. Interestingly, you can also absorb the acid pools to increase your damage, but also inflict a constant health drain.

• Estimated Fight Time: 8-12 Minutes
  
• Notable Drops: Ahab (Rocket Launcher), Patriot (Sniper Rifle), Devastator (Pistol)

Terramorphous - The golden rule of Terra is “Always keep your back to the cliff.” It’s not a pleasant feeling to have him down to less than 10% of his health then die because you went out and get bumped off the cliff. Terra himself doesn’t attack often enough to be a serious threat, but you can kill his tentacles to revive yourself from FFYL or to get some NKLO. Just kill him fast enough before he deals the Black Hole card.

• Estimated Fight Time: 3-5 Minutes
  
• Notable Drops: Hide of Terra (Shield), Teeth of Terra (Shotgun), Breath of Terra (Grenade mod), Blood of Terra (Relic), Pitchfork (Sniper Rifle)

Dragons of Destruction - Sal’s power as a solo character is enough that the order you kill them in doesn’t really matter. But for the sake of time, I’d suggest killing Healianth first, then Incinerator, Brood, and Boost. Try to bring them down with your Harold, because if they have an elemental effect on them when they land, they will become immune to ALL status effects (No, really).

• Estimated Fight Time: 4-5 Minutes
  
• Notable Drops: Stinger (Pistol), Blockade (Shield), Omen (Shotgun)

Voracidous - I would personally suggest bringing a Trespasser (Mission reward from “Animal Rights”) to this fight, since it can help save a lot of time. Once the fight starts, you should see the Chief come out – when you do, snipe him as soon as possible. Normally, the Chief has low health but also a massive shield he’ll give to Vora if you damage him enough. But since the Trespasser ignores shields and the Chief has low health, you can kill him before he ever donates his shield.

But even with the Chief out of the way, Vora is still the hardest of the Invincibles, thanks to frequent nova attacks and generally being in your face all the time. So for your own sake, try your best to keep some of the midgets that spawn alive (Either to revive yourself from FFYL or as NKLO fodder). Just keep railing him, and he’ll die soon.

• Estimated Fight Time: 2-4 Minutes
  
• Notable Drops: Interfacer (Shotgun), Hawkeye (Sniper Rifle)

(Note that time predictions are based on personal times; your actual time will likely be different, depending on your skill as a player and if you get a particularly long chain of Money Shots.)

Q&A

Title, I guess. This will be added to as the questions come in.

• Q: Will you make a Level 72/OP8 Version of this build?
  A: As previously stated a number of times, NOPE. However, since I imagine most that read this are at 72, I would suggest putting the extra 11 points into maxing out Incite, Asbestos, and Out of Bubblegum.
  
  
• Q: Why no rockets this time?
  A: Grog/Lady-Harold is so powerful in the hands of Sal that you even regular shots deal damage comparable to most high-end launchers. For those who would prefer to have a launcher or two on hand, consult the Honorable Mentions section for two to consider.
  
  
• Q: Wouldn't all those pistols drain your ammo really fast?
  A: In theory, yes. In actuality, it’s been proven that the game adjusts ammo drops for a weapon type depending on how much ammo you currently have for it and how many of it you have currently equipped. Since we have 4 pistols at once, we’ll be getting mainly pistol drops all the time.

Credits and Other Things?

So this is the end of another guide...

...Well, I got nothing, so here's some related things:

Resources

• The GBX Forums' List of Zerker Builds, in case this didn't turn out for you.[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]
  
• Lootology 101, for finding out more about the gear to get.[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]
  
• The Borderlands Wiki, for general reference.[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• A Sharable Skill Calculator, great for getting advice![www.bl2skills.com]
  
• A more detailed look at the weirdness surronding Sal's Offhand guns.[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]

Credits

• All Screenshots (Except that one of the Leg. Gunzerker COM) taken by Edo the 309th
  
• Screenshot of that Leg. Gunzerker COM belongs to whoever took it
  
• Guide Format belongs to CTDRim
  
• Guide Thumbnail belongs to ImmaculateProbate of DA[immaculatereprobate.deviantart.com]
  
• Intro Picture belongs to Bended, also of DA[bended.deviantart.com]

Other Guides I've Made

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136317058
The first guide I ever submitted to here. I may/may not give it a serious overhaul at some point or another...

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=200011418
My main Mechro build nowadays. Abuses the OC and BFF trees for the sake of high damage.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=218173282
Why's everything exploding...?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=289326572
You can never have enough Zer0 guides.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=309364928
Pardon the awful pun in the title.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=314985568
Keep rolling, son. KEEP ROLLIN'.



Really guys, what took us so long to make a guide about Grog/Harold?

[Freeze]

No Torgue grip, I'm disapointed..

[Wrazy]

Amazing guide! I felt like a gunpowder god

[Earth]

Don't forget Maliwan parts on the Rough Rider adds extra HP.

[NotaVoltorb]

for when you want the game to play itself

[󠀡󠀡]

You don't even need half the shit.

[bugz]

You actually are using Jakob's over Torgue grip on your harold.

[Sion]

Legendary Gunzerker will be better then the Unstopable berzerker most times as that +1 point isnt really needed. Also, you realise you can just not have a second harold and drop the ladyfist in slot 4 with slot 3 open, and youll just switch out the ladyfist for the grog. Look up Bahroo's build. Nice job on the guide though.

[ZHDRA]

To be honest, any Rubi will do the job of keeping Sal alive when combined with Harold. You can slag enemies with Magic Missiles when you need to kill them quick.

[Cash]

For anyone with the second level cap, I recomend getting 5/5 Yippe Ki Yay, 5/5 Divergent Likeness, 5/5 Incite, 5/5 Hard to Kill, 3/5 Ain't Got Time to Bleed

[󠁳⁧⁧ Sandwich²]

alot of this gear you dont need...