User blog:Lavisdragoon/Gaige - Plasma Anarchist



Credit for this build goes entirely to Atroization. I started using this build shortly after reaching level 50 with my Mechromancer and I've been a dominant solo player ever since. This is a very aggressive build and the most effective one for Gaige that I've ever seen. Assuming you play it right, you wont be sitting back waiting for your shields to recharge. You burn bright and fast, keep up your momentum and you will rarely lose a battle.

Skill Distribution
LBT

Myelin: 5/5, this is your only other option other than the broken More Prep.

More Pep: 0/5, this skill is glitched and should be fixed in the future. Regardless, it has very little effect on your damage output. Don't try to argue with me about this, I fully tested the skill and it was found to have very little effect.

Shock Storm: 5/5, our class mod boosts this as well, giving us pretty decent bonuses for the skill. Although, the main reason we're taking this is just to move up through the tree. It's a decent skill, so try to utilize it when you can.

Evil Enchantress: 1/5, this skill only affects DoT and is therefore not too important. We put one point in though, as the mod in use boosts this skill and we don't want to waste that.

Shock and "AAAGGGGHHH!": 1/1, simply helps spread a decent amount of DoT and it's only one point. The damage for this skill out-performs Shock Storm even when SS is at 5/5. Why not?

Electrical Burn: 3/5, this is a different skill. Initially I thought it would be a 20% chance at 5/5 for every time you actually put the electrocute effect on an enemy. Instead what this does is give a 20% chance for every time the DoT takes effect, which can happen as many as 10 time per proc. I took it down to 3/5 as DoT isn't too important compared to strict damage.

Wires Don't Talk: 5/5, pretty simple here. More shock and electrocute damage = more DPS and more dead enemies. Very important skill. Boosted by our class mod.

OC

Smaller, Lighter, Faster/Anarchy: ALL, simply because it's necessary to continue down the OC tree. Plus, Anarchy is one of the cornerstones of this build.

Blood Soaked Shields: 5/5, this skill is OP to say the least. But, we're abusing it. With the high damage of our weapons, we can keep this proc'ing almost constantly and stay alive no matter what as long as we don't stop firing.

Discord: 1/1, again a necessity for this build. You should have discord active over 90% of the time you're in combat.

Typecast Iconoclast: 4/5, this will increase the amount of time that we can keep discord active by proc'ing while discord is draining our stacks. Plus, we've got nothing else to put points in to work up to Rational Anarchist which is essential for this build.

Rational Anarchist: 1/1, again a necessity. Burn through your 25 stacks then go and do it again with this skill.

BFF

Close enough: 5/5, just a useful skill in general, and it's better to have this than Cooking Up Trouble. We're really only in this tree to get access to The Better Half.

The Better Half: 4/5, unfortunately we don't have enough points to go all the way to 5/5 in this, but this is a very good skill to have.

Use of Anarchy
What sets this build apart from most is how it utilizes Anarchy stacks. You will never want to exceed 30 stacks of Anarchy, and the reason is that the cornerstone of this build is actually Discord. The objective behind this is to get your 25 initial stacks quickly from Rational Anarchist, then activate Discord and burn through them in combat. This will give you the benefit of the Anarchy stacks, a good fire rate bonus, as well as a huge accuracy bonus to offset what's lost from Anarchy and some health regeneration to help out with Blood Soaked Shields. After you've run dry, Rational Anarchist will kick in again and you'll have 25 new stacks to fuel Discord. This will keep Discord running almost constantly in battle, and when you've mastered it all enemies will lie dead in the dirt in front of you.

Equipment
This build relies on Deathtrap very little, and focuses heavily on shock damage. Almost all weapons should be shock element, with one powerful normal or slag weapon for enemies that resist shock. To use this build to the fullest, you need these items or something similar:

Shield: Anything with a capacity of 40-50,000 will do. There is no better shield for this build, however, than the Black Hole. Its singularity effect and extreme shock nova damage compliment the damage buffs you'll be working on perfectly, and with Blood-Soaked Shields you may find yourself the center of the battlefield quite often.

Grenade Mod: A matter of preference. The Storm Front is a powerful choice, but ultimately this build won't be using grenades too heavily anyways.

Class Mod: Catalyst. Enhancing team DoT damage by 40%, while giving +6 to Shock Storm (insignificant), Wires Don't Talk (extremely useful) and Evil Enchantress (pretty useful). All in all, the perfect mod for this. When looking for a Catalyst mod for this, in order of importance, look for Wires Don't Talk, Team DoT, Evil Enchantress. Shock Storm is mostly filler to reach the lower skills and has little use in combat.

Relic: Again, this is your choice. A Shock damage relic is advised, but Seraph or Stockpile relics work well too.

Weapons: E-Tech weapons typically have very high stats all around, and generally have the highest DPS around. As for what you want to prioritize, Plasma Casters have superior stats compared to the AR's (blasters) in all the stats apart from damage. Better reloads, elemental chances, fire rate, accuracy, etc. In my experience, it's best to use a caster as your main weapon and a blaster as backup, with either an E-Tech shotgun or a x7 Shock Conference Call as a backup for the blaster. As for what manufacturers, it's a matter of personal preference. Hyperion's accuracy gimmick works well with Discord, Dahl has faster reload speeds and Maliwan has better elemental stats (damage and chance to shock).