How can I build Gaige so I don't have to aim?

Gaige the Mechromancer's main selling point was that she'd be easy to play, hard to master, an ideal class for people not familiar with shooting games. I was intrigued by this idea and wanted to see how she plays going for the "no aiming" skills.

However even as someone familiar with shooting games I've thus far found it very hard to make use of her "shoot bullets and don't bother aiming" playstyle; Anarchy notably seems to be very hard to make use of. I also find this playstyle runs me out of bullets extremely quickly.

How can I build Gaige to be playable without all that "aiming" and "accuracy"? Do I just have to put all my skill points into Deathtrap (who does help) or is there some way I can get that crazy gun damage without that crazy gun aiming?

Solution 1:

Playing Gaige in a "no aiming" style requires a different mindset from the other Vault Hunters. The Ordered Chaos tree works better when using a weapon with a low Magazine Size but high Reload Rate. Generally, that means you're shifting away from automatic weapons such as SMGs and Assault Rifles that often have Magazine Sizes of 20-30+.

One other thing you'll need to force yourself to forget is reloading in between fights. Anarchy stacks based on emptying your magazine or killing an enemy, so the fewer shots you have your current magazine, the sooner you'll accumulate stacks of Anarchy.

Anarchy itself is an odd mechanic. Because it reduces Accuracy per stack, you'll actually want to use a weapon with a decent amount of Accuracy otherwise you'll be doing little damage even at close range (a la Sledge's Shotgun from the first Borderlands). Combined with the need for low Magazine Size and high Reload Rate, your best shot for a go-to weapon is anything from the pistol family. Be a revolver or a repeater, these guns have respectable Accuracy and Fire Rate, without having the relatively high Magazine Sizes you want to avoid.

With this mind, you can stack Anarchy as quickly as possible for use with your other skills. While this isn't so much a "no aiming" style, Gaige's Ordered Chaos tree puts a lower emphasis on aiming than other playstyles. What's making this hard to swallow isn't so much the skill build but the mindset involved. A lot of it run counters to what you learned in other FPSs.

P.S. If you really want tips for skill builds, I would recommend getting the Close Enough skill in the Best Friends Forever tree as soon as you invest a couple of points in the Ordered Chaos tree. With your decreased Accuracy from Anarchy stacks, the ricochet will definitely help. After more points in the Ordered Chaos tree, I would recommend coming back to the Best Friends Forever tree for The Better Half skill. As you want to empty your magazines as quickly as possible, any source of increased Fire Rate helps. In fact, The Better Half skill might actually make high Magazine Size weapons such as Assault Rifles, Machineguns, and SMGs more palatable to use.

Solution 2:

I think I just found the perfect setup. There's two parts to this, getting the right gun(s) and getting the right skills.

1. First of all the gun. Find a gun -- preferably one that you can have a lot of ammo for -- that has a "Dodge this." stat (this is key). With "Dodge this", your bullets will home in on an enemy, effectively giving you 100% accuracy. And with the reduced accuracy which makes Anarchy harder to use, these weapons effectively cancel the only negative. It doesn't matter what its base stats are, all you really want is the accuracy, the Anarchy damage will make up for it.

   A weapon with a reduced magazine size would be nice since it helps build up your Anarchy stacks quickly, you probably won't need that much bullets to kill your enemies anyway.

   Just to give you a taste of what damage I can do, a single bullet from this gun deals 3000 corrosive damage to loaders at around 130 Anarchy stacks (that doesn't count the additional elemental damage over time). With the potential to go up to 400 anarchy stacks, just imagine what the damage would be. And again, that is with a single bullet. I'm excited for when I find a stronger weapon with Dodge this that has a better ammo consumption rate.

   

2. Secondly, you want to be able to build up your Anarchy stacks as high as you can, as quick as possible without losing it too quickly. To build it up quickly, these skills are essential:

   • Preshrunk Cyberpunk - Because you need to raise your maximum as high as you can.
   • Discord - It's more forgiving if you accidentally reload too early or have to deal with the bug when playing multiplayer where reloading automatic weapons sometimes count as premature reloads. At least with this, you don't just lose all of it at once and you can always cancel it by prematurely reloading again.
   • Typecast Iconoclast - Helps reach your limit faster.
   • Rational Anarchist - Helps reach your limit faster.

The rest is up to you. You just need to stay alive long enough to reach your Anarchy cap. So you can invest in yourself and get healing/shield regenerating skills and equipment, or you can boost the Deathtrap's abilities.

I don't really have to aim, just point in the general direction of an enemy, the bullets will do the rest.

Update: Using this setup, it actually doesn't feel the best unfortunately. The thing about the Dahlminator is that it cannot ricochet and must have a direct path to your target. If it hits a wall, the ground or anything that is not an enemy, that bullet is lost and you probably won't even notice it. With the decreased accuracy at 400 stacks, it's almost impossible to get a hit even if you're facing straight forward because it is probably hitting the ground. You'll have to force yourself to aim for a bit more a accuracy (and even that doesn't always work). Also the bullets are slow so enemies such as Rakks will often be able to dodge them.

Alternate setup: I've found this build much more useful in practice. Find a weapon that fires many bullets per shot, to be more precise, a shotgun that fires at least 10 slugs per shot. The more the better. This weapon along with the Close Enough and The Nth Degree skills (as well as the skills listed in point 2 above), the increased bullet count raises your odds of hitting an enemy much higher.

Suppose we have a 15 bullet shotgun. With a 50% chance of ricocheting, each individual bullet benefits from the ability. Per shot, just shooting the into the ground gives you a 100% chance (1-.5^15) of a hitting an enemy at reduced damage from Close Enough. Chances are, you're going to be pointing in the general direction of an enemy at least so your odds are even greater.

Firing point blank into an enemy hitting connecting on every bullet gives you at least 3 guaranteed hits on another enemy at full damage from The Nth Degree.

For best results, fire into the ground in the direction of your enemies (at their feet). You have a poor chance of hitting them if you shoot directly at them, but with the chance of ricocheting with a guaranteed hit, it's foolish to not take advantage of that.

Also, if you can find a Tediore weapon, you'll be happy to know that Tediore reloads benefit from the anarchy boost without the drawbacks of reduced accuracy. So as long as you are good at aiming those Tediore reloads, you'll be able to get a lot of damage per reload. With this, Discord is an essential skill to have so you don't loose your stacks. And with a gun with a lot of ammo, be prepared to deal a lot of damage. Yes you have to aim, but for a single "shot" at normal accuracy, you can't beat it.

Solution 3:

I find, by combining Close Enough with Anarchy, and using a decent shotgun=LOADS OF FUN! Add in Shock and AAARGH, Shock Storm and Electrical Burn for additional LAWLS! Basically, you just have to aim in the general direction of enemies and let Close Enough send each pellet of the shot gun blast, bounce into the nearest enemy. If they are lower leveled foes, they will die quickly, quickly building up your Anarchy stacks, allowing the next shots to do even more damage (even with the 50% reduction to damage).

With multiple projectiles getting spewed in the battle field, after about 20 or so Anarchy Stacks, you'll start getting multiple Critical Hits (or totally blowing up bad guys), regardless of how poor your aim is, and cause an increase of of shock damage and combusting of baddies. Also, with the smaller magazine sizes being paired with Shoock and AAARGH!, you have even more reason to add to the chaos and be in the midst of a bunch of bad guys when you naturally reload your weapon!