Moze (Gunner) Leveling Build Guide

So, you want to pilot a badass mech, you like explosions, grenades and wielding enough firepower to put all the others Vault Hunters combined to shame? Look no further, this is Moze, the Gunner.

This build is primarily meant for leveling up to TVHM Mayhem 2 offering high damage/survivability through Iron Bear, and means to replenish grenades and reset the cooldown of the mech, without relying on specific legendary/unique weapons/items. More often than not while leveling, players have to work with what is best at the moment and single items can become quickly obsolete in a matter of few levels; to minimize this aspect, we focus on Action Skill effectiveness and complementary traits.

• High burst and damage output while being safe.
• Independent from gear for the most part.

• Power spike tied to your mech, so when it is on cooldown, you have to rely on your weapons/grenades.

The Playstyle of the build revolves around maximizing Iron Bear uptime and using Splash Damage to both refill your Grenades and Mech cooldown. When on your own, it is advisable to fight at mid-range with automatic and fast-firing weapons such as Assault Rifles and SMGs with the occasional use of Jakobs Revolvers or bipod Vladof Assault Rifles to extend your range of engagement.

This build excels in solo and in duo, but can also be played in a larger group. While not offering substantial party buffs, you are a more-than-capable frontliner and you excel at mobbing and bursting down badasses; plus you can carry a friend as a gunner!

Early on, your mech suffers from relatively poor fuel efficiency, long cooldown, and average survivability, so we focus on improving mech uptime and staying power with maxed Grizzled, Stainless Steel Bear, and Deadlines.

Auto Bear increases the uptime passively as long as you exit the mech with some armour (you can deplete all the fuel).

A single point in Means of Destruction allows us to take Lock and Speedload which drastically increases Iron Bear damage output and burst.

In the shield of Retribution tree, we pick early Security Bear to further increase Iron Bear survivability, before maxing out Means of Destruction.

Now that we have a way to replenish grenades, we want to invest into Pull the Holy Pin and To the Last which enable clutch plays with grenades.

Next, we want to rush to Short Fuse as it dramatically improves the number of explosions, thus the grenades and cooldown reduction on Iron Bear we can get, especially when using fast firing weapons such as Assault Rifles or SMG or even multiple pellet weapons like shotguns.

The last 3 points are going on Cloud of Lead which both improves our damage and increases our ammo economy.

At this point, your Iron Bear is already a force to be reckoned with, but remember: unlike shields or health, it cannot regenerate armour, so make good use of the air slide function to dash across the battlefield and dodge projectiles while you can. To do so, simply press the Jump button with a directional input again while jumping. Prioritize Grenade capacity when upgrading SDUs so you can start the playstyle loop of:

1. spam grenades;
2. enter the mech and lay waste while refilling all the grenades;
3. use those grenades together with your weapons explosion procs from Short Fuse to reset your mech cooldown.

Maxing out Cloud of Lead allows us to take Redistribution which again gives us more ammunition everytime we hit a weak spot or our grenades scores a critical hit.

3 points in Stoke the Embers is a flat damage gain when using incendiary weapons and will have an even greater synergy later as we get more points to spend.

Last point to unlock the next row can go either in Scrappy for better weapon handling while moving, or in Dakka Bear which allows us to carry a friend as gunner or even use it ourselves during Auto Bear duration.

Scorching RPM's is a flat output buff but 4 points are enough there; the 5th is better spent in Rushin’ Offensive which allows us to be more mobile and reposition while also shooting outside of Mech.

The final point in the tree is on Specialist Bear, which equals to a flat 25% damage buff, provided we run with two of the same weapons.

At this point, we have the option to swap from the twin Grenade Launchers to the Twin Minigun with Exploding. Bullets.; the former offers better burst and AoE at the expense of shorter reach, while the latter allows us to extend the Mech range at the cost of more sustained and slightly worse damage per second. Double Minigun also offers better target tracking against flying units and let us "park" the Mech in Auto Bear without worrying about its position and range too much.

What about the last 4 points? Back in the Demolition Woman tree, there is Fire in the Skag Den which allows us to deal bonus incendiary damage whenever Moze deals Splash Damage, so by using Grenades, firing weapons with explosive properties or simply proccing Short Fuse. That bonus damage is further amplified by Stoke the Embers we maxed before. YAY Synergy!

Playstyle-wise, we are going to spend the vast majority of the time piloting Iron Bear and laying waste to everything in front of us, and when it is off cooldown (or destroyed), it is just a matter of seconds to get it back again thanks to all the grenades or secondary explosions we can generate.

As this is a leveling guide, legendaries are a bonus during the playthrough, however, there are some important manufacturers synergies worth mentioning, even if ultimately weapon choices are a matter of personal preference.

As mentioned already this build works around generating as many explosions as possible to quickly regenerate both grenades and Action Skill cooldown, therefore fast firing weapons have a stronger synergy than slower ones like Launchers or Sniper Rifles.

Assault Rifles are your mid to long range bread and butter options.

• Jakobs have the highest damage per shot at the slowest rate of fire which works well if you want to click heads consistently at any range. Carbine model in particular is extremely effective for hipfiring headshot and dispatching mobs in 2-4 shots. The ricochet trait snapshots the original projectile properties so it can double the effect of both Cloud of Lead and Short Fuse.
• Dahl offers semi auto and burst fire solutions which will improve your accuracy at longer ranges compared to a full auto weapon, especially if you can click fast.
• Vladof underbarrel attachments can come handy in a pinch but the bipod allows you to transform the Assault rifle into a fully automatic and almost recoil-less sniper rifle.

SMGs are mostly for the close quarter combat and for elemental damage

• Dahl SMGs are precise, offer high elemental damage and the fastest reload speed in the category. Due to the extremely low recoil, they are generally preferable in full auto mode rather than burst.
• Hyperion offers increased accuracy the more you fire and solid elemental damage that complements high rate of fire.
• Maliwan have the best elemental damage but are often hindered by slow projectile travel time which require you to lead the target, and a charge time before they can fire; powerful, especially when elemental damage is required, but not as usable as the other two options.

Pistols or Revolvers are generally used to complement your loadout. If you need more range or more upfront damage against dangerous targets, consider using a revolver. If your current loadout lacks elemental damage mid-close range, pick a Dahl/Maliwan pistol instead.

• Torgue revolvers are basically hand cannons with the option of sticky bombs for even more damage on a single target; mostly a mid-to-close range option due to rocket travel time. Skill Cannons.
• Jakobs revolver can fill the gap of a pocket sniper rifle or a shotgun in a pinch, while still being more ammo efficient; a good gun can delete a target in a blink of an eye.
• Dahl pistols being usually x-rounds burst are better suited for mid range when you need specific elemental damage, and they are great at dispatching hordes of enemies.
• Maliwan offers in general a bigger elemental punch but again is better suited for closer range due to slower rate of fire, projectile travel time, and sometimes charging time before you can fire.
• Tediore guns, while offering on paper just another explosion effect on reload, most of the times have the drawback of poor ammo economy and, in general, their model damage is lower to compensate for the unique reload effect.

Grenade mods are somewhat important: you want to focus on those with continuous damage and possibly the MIRV property. Lifesteal and homing end up taxing the damage too much in favour of a slight quality of life change; on the other hand, cryo damage and to a lesser extent shock damage are extremely valuable for the crowd control they can apply along the damage.

Notable Grenade mods rewards from the main story and side quests are Fungus Among Us and Whispering Ice, both on Eden6.

Shields are generally underwhelming unless you get a random legendary, but try to focus on shield capacity and chance to absorb hits. Later in the main story, you will unlock an extremely useful shield: The Transformer which converts all shock damage into shields.

Good traits to find in class mods are, Stainless Steel Bear, Deadlines, and Explosive Punctuation, which give a higher uptime of piloting Iron Bear

Finding Experimental Munitions trait in a class mod can be extremely valuable if you can consistently hit headshots.

Torgue Cross-Promotion, Vampyr and Why Can't I Carry All These Grenades? offer mostly quality of life bonuses; small but noticeable nonetheless.