Momentum - Noun - Force or speed of movement; impetus; as of a physical object or course of events. As a rock falls, it gains momentum.

Momentum = mass • velocity

or

p = m * v

Welcome to a thread for Axton, the Commando. The best character. Or well, at least my favorite. :)

The purpose of this thread is to attempt to illustrate the importance of what I'd like to call Axton's momentum. Depending on how you decide to build your commando, the act of maintaining some kind of momentum and/or inertia is crucial to your ultimate DPS potential. This thread will provide you with tips on how to both quickly obtain and easily maintain your commando's Momentum in combat.

Before we continue, there are a few things i'd like to point out and discuss as I'm classifying skills in the following way:

Vertical = These are skills that don't require you to kill enemies for them to work.

Momentum = Essentially Kill Skills. Some skills like Able, while not a Kill Skill, are sort of like this as they focus on dealing damage to have the effect be active. This would be different from battlefront as you don't need to kill or be doing damage to enemies to have Battlefront be active.

Defensive = Skills that are designed to improve Health, Health Regen, Shield capacity, Shield Recharge, etc.

At end game, in otherwords UVHM OP8, I'd say there are really three major/core styles of play for the commando. Those are:

Pure Vertical = Commando builds that are centered around Battlefront, Sentry, Resourceful as well as other Turret skills. When combined with a Bee Shield, the goal is to obtain High Damage output without the need for Kill Skills. These setups are also great for raiding as they don't require you to consistently kill enemies to maintain high DPS.

Think of your favorite turret style builds. These go here.

Momentum/Vertical Hybrid = Builds that rely on the use of and careful maintancence of Kill Skills and Turret Buffs. These set ups focus on Onslaught, Metal Storm and sometimes Quick charge to achieve and maintain damage output as well as improve survivability. The idea is to be aggressive while playing.

I'd argue that most Builds that focus around Legendary Soldier, Legendary Ranger, Expert Veteran, Expert Grenadier, etc. are essentially these types of builds with different degrees of verticality. Momentum/Vertical Hybrid are the types of builds we will be mainly focusing on with this guide.

Pure Defensive = Builds that rely on the use of a Turtle Shield and Pointman Class mod. The focus is to carefully balance bonuses to Max health to decrease player health below the Pointman class mod's built in health regeneration. When combined with Grit, the commando becomes almost(but essentially) Immortal. That, and you can finally get rid of those crutches Moxxi gave you. :)

So you may be asking, what are the skills that define a Momentum/Vertical Hybrid's Damage output? Here are what I consider to be the core DPS increasing Skills:

Core 1:

Impact, Ready, Metal Storm

Impact and Ready are Vertical skills. Metal Storm is based on momentum. All of these skills have an effect on your commando's DPS.

I'd recommend you max both of the Vertical skills. Deciding to whether to Max out metal storm or not will be based on your preference,the weapons you decide to use and the in game break points for Fire rate.

Something also worth considering is the bonus to recoil reduction. This greatly reduces the time in achieving Max Accuracy on Hyperion weapons. Usually, I max Metal Storm, but to each there own.

Core 2:

Onslaught and BattleFront (Steady)

Battlefront is more vertical while Onslaught is based on Momentum. Both improve the damage output of your weapons but Battlefront also boosts Grenade damage. This is important on Tediores, Grenades and weapons that are boosted by Grenade Damage bonus. Onslaught improves Movement speed, which is always nice to have. I recommend maxing them as the Gun damage bonuses are what we are after.

Steady is included if you decide to use weapons that get the Grenade damage bonus. This is weapon dependent so you may or may not need it.

Here are a couple skills that will help your Commando maintain it's Momentum

Sentry:

Allows your turrets to stay out longer thus allowing you to keep the Battlefront bonus longer. Useful on Pure Vertical builds as well as Momentum/Vertical based builds as well.

Willing and Pressure:

These are important for Shield Recharge delay. If you're going to go with the Bee, they're definitely recommended. Otherwise, they work well with Preparation which regenerates your health when your shields are fully charged.

Pressure is also useful in FFYL or at low health as you achieve the maximum bonus for reload speed which makes Tediores and Launchers work much better.

Do Or Die:

When paired with a FastBall, this skill goes from Great to Fantastic. Extremely useful if you go down. Plus the 10% to Grenade Damage Bonus really helps!

Able:

While the Health regeneration bonus isn't huge or life changing, it's nice to have. I usually max it or at the very least put 4/5 in the skill.

Grenadier:

Seriously, having a class mod that boosts this skill and having one point in the skill can provide you with 6 additional grenades. Great for and recommended if you plan to use the Fastball.

Ranger:
Another useful skill. It's going to depend on your final build and what class mod you decide to use. Most players that run a Legendary Ranger max it to get 10/5

I'm embarrased to admit that I used to criticize many builds for even specing into Expertise. The fact is that you were probably right and I was wrong. :)

Expertise is actually a very good skill and really only got better in UVHM. The best bonus on the skill is to Weapon Swap speed which allow you to quickly switch between weapons. If you have a weapon like the Grog to slag and you switch back to another weapon for the kill, this is actually superior to using a magic missile for a couple reasons:

1. Waiting for the Magic Missile to get enemies slagged takes forever and your Kill Skills are usually down by the time it does, which decreases your damage output. If you Slag an enemy with one weapon and switch to another to finish the enemy off, it's much easier to keep your kill skills up.

2. Weapon Swap also has the side benefit of allowing Passive weapon effects to pass from one weapon to another. Some may view this as a flaw or glitch with the Unreal 3 Engine, but if gunzerkers abuse it, than I will too. Some examples are how the Ogre can allow weapons to get Two Fang and Ricochet, the grog provides multiple projectiles and/or heals, etc.

This all said, I don't think you necessarily need to max Expertise unless you are using a class mod that doesn't boost it. You can get by with 1/5 in the skill if you're using pistols, which have a relatively impressive swap speed anyway.

Another paragraph bashing the Magic Missile:
While regenerating grenades are nice, you are better off with a grenade mod that does more damage and has a more instantaneous effect. The magic missile is just too slow and the loss of Kill Skills is very noticeable. While performing the weapon swap requires more effort, at the end of the day you're are better off with keeping your Kill Skills Active, thus maintaining momentum.

So what we are looking for are weapons and gear that already have high vertical damage output and are easy to use. So what I mean is we are looking for weapons and gear that allow for alot of damage from a point of rest. The easier your gear is to use, the better they are at maintaining momentum. Here are just a few examples.

Legendary Soldier
This is argueably one of the Best Class mods on Axton. It's got great Bonuses to Gun Damage, Fire Rate and Reload Speed. It's also recommended as it boosts our Weapon Swap speed through the Expertise skill.

Legendary Ranger
Essentially a Pure Momentum based Class Mod. Boosts momentum based skills like Onslaught, Metal Storm and Quick Charge.

The Bee
While loved and hated, the bee is very useful. No skill on Axton can beat the shear vertical damage output that the bee allows for. That said, it's not always the best choice. If you're constantly being hit, stick with something more durable like the Antagonist, Sham, Blockade or whatever else you can find.

Also try to stick to single projectile weapons while using the bee. If the projectiles are listed, then they don't get Amp Bonuses and are divided among the projectiles.

The Fastball
If you're going to farm for a grenade mod, the Fastball is going to be the one for you. The Fastball comes in Corrosive, Fire, Shock and Explosive and if you can atleast get Fire and Corrosive, i'd argue that's all you need. This is another weapon that screams pure Vertical Damage output. Throw it at things and they just die.

The Grog Nozzle
Thanks to Pistols having a high swap speed along with the Grog's high healing chance, high slag chance and crazy passive effects, you've got a fantastic weapon. Most enemies are slagged in 2-3 shots and after that you switch back to your primary weapon for the kill. Or Slag, throw a FastBall and return to max health.

Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold
High swap speed, great damage and easy to use. Pair with a sheriff's badge and fire even faster.

Norfleet/Topneaa
Launchers that have high damage and can wreak some havoc. Both Launchers are very easy to use. Point in the general direction and fire.

The Video below will show a Demonstration of what Axton can do at full momentum. I show that you can quickly dispatch enemies with just a Grog Nozzle, an Unkempt Harold and a FastBall.

This will be for questions as they are asked. I will address them here as well as in the guide.

Gearbox:
I'd like to thank Gearbox for creating a game where I've put at least 1,000+ hours into both on console and pc. It's been a great run and I'm looking forward to both more DLC and future titles within the Borderlands universe.

Gearbox Forums/Borderlands 2 Forums/SevenSins Gaming Community:
I'd like to thank the following for all of the very knowlegdable members on all of these sites that have helped me both improve and have more fun with the game. It's keeps me motivated to always know that their are other people to play with and how great the Borderlands 2 community is as a whole.

Valve:
While I haven't been on Valve/Steam for very long, I do think it was great to come here. Additionally, i like how everything integrates so seamlessly. Thanks for allowing me to publish this guide too!