This is a Dahl Unique SMG that shoots 8 pellets that slowly travel in the shape of a hawk while they fly through the air. The reason this is number one is purely dps, with 8 pellets on each pull of the trigger, burst fire while scoped, nothing comes close to its dps. With a dahl stock one pull of the trigger while you ADS puts out 32 pellets making it one of the fastest fire rate guns you can get despite the slow fire rate on the card. The extra pellets are unlisted so each get the full amp damage, to make it the most powerful gun in the game with amp shields. With the 8 pellets it works wonders with chain reaction. The slow bullet speed can be a liability, but not such much with phaselock and converge. With a dahl stock it is a 4 round burst and non dahl stock 3 round burst. It consumes 3 bullets per shot and 12 or 9 per burst depending on the stock.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Dahl grip
Best Prefix: Flying
Location: from the story mission whoops in the first DLC.
This is a legendary Hyperion smg and its unique ability is its extreme accuracy and high 75% critical hit bonus. Like all Hyperion guns it has reverse recoil, but this is much more accurate than even most sniper rifles after the first few bullets. The Bitch also has one of if not the fastest reverse recoil of all Hyperion guns making it pinpoint accurate very fast. Unlike the other top smg’s this one only takes one bullet per shot and also has a high capacity, so the first few shots are not a huge loss.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit bonus: 75% type A
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Hyperion/Bandit grip
Best Prefix: Rightsizing or Proactive
Location: drops from bunker.
Plasma Casters
These are the e-tech smg’s that come in all manufacturers. They have 50% splash damage, usually 8-9 fire rate, high ammo capacity from 50-60’s, but consume 2 ammo per shot and suffer from slow bullet speed.
Hyperion
These are the most accurate, but because of the reverse recoil you will waste your first few shots and with the ammo consumption that can be an issue. But once you clear that they will have your highest dps because the ability to easily crit with them and stay on target with fast moving enemies. They have the second best damage, best fire rate, best accuracy, and second best reload speed. These will be the best PC’s for dps.
Maliwan
Maliwan PC’s do what Maliwan does, better dots. Too bad dots are only good for healing at endgame. That aside these are very solid with few week points. Third best damage, third best fire rate, second best accuracy, and fourth reload speed. Not the best or the worst in anything making it a very solid gun over all and second or third best of the PC’s
Tediore
These are best thrown for maxing out your dps with them, but unlike most Tediores will still do lots of damage shooting them. They are fourth in damage, second best fire rate, third best accuracy, and best reload speed. These can do the most dps out of any by spamming reloads, but you will loose your ammo pool fast. Over all I would put this second or third among PC’s
Dahl
To hit anything with these you will need to ADS because the accuracy from hip firing is terrible. They will have a 3 or 4 round burst depending on parts. They have the highest damage, slowest fire rate, fourth in accuracy, and third best reload. I would pass on these unless you don’t have anything better. Hyperion, Maliwan and Tediore are all much better.
Bandit
Like all bandit guns these have huge clips and not much else. They do however reflect bullets, but those reflected bullets can damage and kill you. If you see these just leave them where you found them or sell them if you need cash. The only reason I am covering them on here is so you know not to use them. All other PC’s are great, not these.
Elements: Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Splash bonus: 50% no Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl stocks, matching grips
Best Prefix: Proactive (Hyp), Impetuous (Mal), Brisk (Ted), Flying (Dahl), and Bullets Go Fasterified (Bandit)
Location: Not being unique you can find there anywhere, the gold chest has a good chance of giving them, red chests as well. I also find a lot of them in Digistruck Peak.
This is a seraph bandit smg that shoots 3 bullets at a time for the cost of one ammo. It has very high base damage, a fixed fire rate of 7.7, decent accuracy for a bandit smg, and a massive magazine size that can be over 100 with foresight. It always spawns with a blade and cannot get any other acc, and is only effective at close range to mid range. In its limited range it’s very potent and can compete with any smg.
Elements: Fire, Shock, Corrosive, and Slag
Splash bonus: 50% no Reaper
Best Parts: Bandit grip, Dahl stock
Best Prefix: n/a
Location:This is a drop from Hyperious that you can fight in DLC1 in washburn refinery.
Honorable Mentions
Hellfire
This is a legendary Maliwan smg that is a call back to the borderlands 1 gun. Dots are not what they were in borderlands 1 so a lot of people don’t like this gun. But on flesh this is a really good smg. Like all Maliwan smgs all the stats are good, and this one has 50% splash damage like the PC’s. What makes it really good is only 1 ammo per shot, and regular bullet speed.
Elements: Fire
Splash bonus: 50% no Reaper
Best Parts: Maliwan Grip, Dahl stock
Best Prefix: Accelerated or Consummate
Location: Scorch in Frostburn Canyon drops this
Good touch/Bad touch
These are purple Maliwan unique smgs that are moxxi guns. Their unique ability is they heal you for 2.5% of damage done while they are in your hand. They do slightly less damage than a regular purple Maliwan with the same parts but get a 70% crit bonus and The Good Touch vibrates your controller.
Elements: Fire (good) Corrosive (bad)
Crit bonus: 70% type A
Best Parts: Maliwan Grip, Dahl stock
Best Prefix: Accelerated or Consummate
Location: Tip Miss Moxxi and she will give them to you, you can only get the Bad once per character, good as many times as you want.
Lascaux
This is a unique blue Dahl smg and its unique ability is a shotgun like spread of bullets with a fixed pattern and no recoil. Like all Dahl’s when ADS you shoot a burst, but this one at close range is also good to hip fire because its shotgun like spread and good fire rate. This is also one of the easiest uniques in the game to acquire.
Elements: None
Best Parts: Dahl grip, Dahl stock
Best Prefix: Stopping
Location:Near the spidernauts in the tunnels in Frostburn Canyon in a pool of water.
Florentine
This is a seraph version of the plasma casters, comes only in Maliwan and shots both slag and shock at the same time, the bullet is shock and the splash is slag. Like e-tech’s it has slow bullet speed and consumes 2 ammo per shot but also has good fire rates, good damage made really solid with everything being slagged, shocked, and 50% splash damage. The card doesn’t justify what it can do.
Elements: Shock and Slag combined
Splash bonus: 50% no Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Maliwan grip
Best Prefix: Impetuous
Location: in the seraph vendor in the 4th dlc.
This is a Maliwan unique sniper. When you shoot this magical gun after it impacts, you get a second bullet that hits above the first shot and then splits into 5 bullets. The distance the second impact happens depends on the velocity of your shot, and each of the 5 child projectiles can crit if hit right. Each child bullet does the same damage as on the card and 50% splash damage. No other sniper can come close to this damage. So to crit with this gun you have to shoot below the crit spot, the distance below depends on the velocity of the bullet, so accelerate effects the distance of the sweet spot. This thread should help you with sweet spots. 1.1k. I also made a maya pimpernel guide here 863 Phaselock sweet spots are a bit more difficult because of how some of the enemies hang in the air either curled up or the crit spot hanging in the air at an angle. That being said this does enough damage to a target being phaselocked that even missing the crit pretty much everything falls in 1-2 hits without crits. Chain Reaction also allows you to kill multiple targets with one shot with chain reaction, ruin, and converge due to the extra pellets. This gun has a learning curve but once you learn it no other sniper can come close.
Elements: Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit and splash bonus: 100% type A and 50% full Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl/Hyperion stock, Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Gentleman(bee) Barking (no bee) or Banbury (fire rate)
Location: from a side mission in the 1rst dlc called don’t copy that floppy.
Lyuda/White Death
This is a Vladof Legendary sniper, and the only gun that can come close to the pimpernel dps on Maya, and might be better on some bosses. This sniper shoots one bullet that splits into 3 and are unlisted so each can get full amp damage, and has very high fire rate, large magazine, and very little recoil. The downfall is it tears through limited sniper ammo. It can be inefficient for mobbing because of how the ammo can go so quick. If you want a sniper to absolute destroy everything in its path and don’t want to mess with the pimpernels sweet spots this is the sniper for you.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit bonus: 125% type A
Best Parts: Dahl/Hyperion, Vladof grip
Best Prefix: Razrez or Gromky
Location: from Gettle in the dust after you do the mission the good the bad the mordecai.
Honorable Mentions
Cobra
This is a Unique Jakobs sniper riffle, and the only sniper in the game with explosive. The cobra has a high damage on the card, slow fire rate, standard Jakobs sniper reload, and a pretty low recoil for Jakobs. What makes this great is a few things 80% splash damage although unlike most splash this isn’t boosted by grenade damage buffs. Then it has the same bullet speed that all Jakobs snipers have unlike all other explosive weapons. Lastly is the large splash radius, with converge and ruin you hit a lot of targets on a phaselock. With chain reaction added to it you get 2 explosions, and for healing the splash radius will heal teammates to full with only 1 point in restoration. It is not as powerful as some snipers with one shot to the head, but it should 1-2 shot most mobs and if one right you can get 2-4 kills with one bullet.
Elements: Explosive
Crit and splash bonus: 110% type A and 80% full Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl/Hyperion stock, Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Tumtum(bee) or Skookum(no bee)
Location: Burners in the beatdown from dlc2
Sloth
A blue unique Dahl sniper that is one of the most powerful snipers in the game. It shoots in a 3 round burst while you are scoped in, but the 3 projectiles do not follow the same line and have a slight spread to them, as well as slow bullet speed. It can be difficult to hit crits with this gun, but like many guns with slow projectile speed we have phaselock and accelerate. One of the old issues with this gun is your get it from the same mission as the Rubi, making it a someone overlooked gun by many. Now with the grog, getting this as a reward instead is a more common choice than before.
Elements: None, Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Crit bonus:100% type A
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Jakobs/Dahl grip
Best Prefix: Pacifying
Location:Sloth can be obtained by giving the booze to Mordecai in the mission Rakkaholics Anonymous.
Hawkeye
This is about as pure as a sniper as we can get in the game. A Jakobs Seraph that I wish they would take to more Jakobs weapons. This has low damage on the card but up to 600% crit bonus. All other stats are decent for Jakobs snipers. Snipers should be one shot one kills to the head or crit spot and this does it. This will out damage most snipers per bullet. Hit an enemy on the crit and they die with this gun. Its downfall is no elements, and terrible damage if you miss the crit.
Elements: None
Crit bonus: 580% type A
Best Parts: Dahl/Hyperion stock, Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Tumtum (bee) Skookum (no bee) or Klook (fire rate)
Location: You get this from beating Voracidous the Invincible.
Longbow
Legendary etch Hyperion sniper that comes in only fire that is a Minecraft easter egg. Does not come with a scope and has an arching fire pattern. Highest single bullet damage in the sniper and a huge crit bonus on top of it. Unlike other e-techs it only takes 1 ammo per shot and can crit. The bullet has an arch to it and the gun does not come with a scope giving it a learning curve.
Elements: Fire
Crit bonus: 150% type A
Best Parts: Dahl/Hyperion stock, Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Venture
Location: Drops from badass creepers in the caustic caverns.
This is a Hyperion Seraph shotgun that is by far the highest dps shotgun in the game. The projectiles move slow but each bullet splits into 3 one goes strait, the other 2 arc off in opposite directions and come back on impact. If you get all the projectiles to converge on the crit spot you get the biggest dps bonus, and it isn’t that hard to do. You can also move at full speed while scoped, there are only 2 guns in the game you can do this with. With the fast fire rate, unlisted pellets, vast amount of pellets, and elemental bonus, no shotgun comes close to its damage. Add all those things to chain reaction and converge and mobs fall fast, I loose count of how many enemies I kill on each phaselock. The biggest draw back is that this gun is the ammo consumption and fire rate makes it hard to maintain ammo if you use it as your main weapon.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosion
Crit bonus: 60% type A
Best Parts: Torgue stock, Hyperion grip
Best Prefix: Practicable
Location: from beating Voracidous.
This is a pearl Hyperion shotgun. The Butcher shoots a tight spread with its high accuracy and high fire rate making it easy to crit what you are aiming at. What makes it really great is it has a chance to add ammo to your clip while you are shooting so you don’t have to reload often, and as sirens reloading during a phaselock is a terrible thing. It doesn’t do the damage of the Interfacer or Conference Call, but it does plenty for mobs, can handle most bosses without issue and can even take down some raid bosses as well. The massive fire rate is its biggest bonus, with wreck the dps of this thing is just simply great, puts up less pellets per shot than some others but with its speed that isn’t much of an issue. This is also one of the best guns in the game for flying and fast moving targets, buzzards, rakks, stalkers beware.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Best Parts: Torgue stock, Bandit grip
Best Prefix: Practicable
Location: from LLM’s or OMGWTH or tubbies.
This is another Hyperion Shotgun. Even after the bee patch this is the 2nd best dps shotgun in the game, no the CC was never patched. The bullets shoot strait and “T” off hitting everything in the area, unlike the interfacer the bullet speed is very fast making more effective for flying or fast moving targets. It is again brilliant with phaselock letting pellets go every where and quickly. It also consumes a lot of ammo very fast.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Best Parts: Torgue stock, Hyperion grip
Best Prefix: Practicable
Location: from the Warrior, or the Handsome Sorcerer
An Etch Hyperian Moxxi shotgun. Unlike the splatguns this does not shoot in a arch, the balls go strait. The slow hand shoots massive slow moving balls or splash damage of 100%. This has a huge splash radius making it easy to hit multiple targets, but cannot crit. Because it is pure splash it cannot reflect either, not from enemies or chain reaction but the huge splash radius pretty much has the same effect if you shoot it at the mob collected by converge. It also has very high elemental chances, one of the best slag weapons. Since it is a Moxxi it also heals you for damage done while it is in your hand, includes phaselock damage, dot damage, grenade damage. The percent I believe is 2% which is nothing to the Grog or Rubi, but gets the job done for the damage this thing does. This gun does not have the same fire rate as most Hyperion shotguns, but much faster than other brands like Torgue or bandit. You can also be damaged by its splash so be careful with melee enemies charging at you. This is one of my favorite guns for restoration because the big splash is easier to hit your teammates while they move and massive damage always heals them to full even with one point in it, you have to be careful again because of you hit a teammate and enemy you heal the enemy.
Elements: Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Best Parts: Torgue stock, Hyperion grip
Best Prefix: Practicable
Location: from Badassaurus Rex or Piston, the final boss fight in dlc 2…
Honorable Mentions
The Minecraft Tediore shotgun shoots a pattern of 3×3 and each pellet can reflect once off of a surface. This thing does a ton of damage and unlike most Tediores you don’t want to toss it will a full clip because of the damage it does, and the little shotgun ammo we get. Only comes in fire and that keeps it from the top 5.
Elements: Fire
Splash bonus: 100% no Reaper
Best Parts: Bandit grip, Hyperion stock
Best Prefix: Gentle
Location: You get it from creepers in the caustic caverns.
Many people might say this should be in the top 4 and they may be right. In the right hands, this gun can destroy. Shots a sword that acts like a mirv grenade when it hits blowing up all over the place and should have 85% splash damage like other Torgue shotguns. Being a Torgue is shots slow, reloads slow, and only comes as explosive damage. Those are the reasons it’s only an honorable mention.
Elements: Explosive
Splash bonus: 100% main pellet full Reaper, 70% secondary pellets no Reaper
Best Parts: Torgue Grip
Best Prefix: Casual
Location: You get this from doing the side quest The Sword in The Stoner in dlc 4.
One of my favorites in the game, shoots a wide spread of shock balls that group up thinner into a tornado shape as they travel. The only Jakobs shotgun that comes in elemental, adds 40% splash damage with it. These balls move very slow and only for a short distance before they dissipate, making it only good at very close range. But at that range it does as much damage as about any other gun you can get your hands on. The spinning orbs can each hit a target more than once, and keep traveling after they hit. With a high base damage, 19 pellets, and each pellet having the ability to hit multiple times its one of the highest dps guns in the game at close range.
Elements: Shock
Best Parts: Jakobs grip, Hyperion stock
Best Prefix: Rustlers or Doc’s
Location: You can get this from Omnd-Omnd-Ohk in dlc 3.
Hyperion Moxxi shotgun, shoots a fixed patten in the shape of a heart, and 2% healing added to it, and always comes in fire. Great damage, solid rate of fire, and a 50% critical hit
Elements: Fire
Crit bonus: 50% type A
Best Parts: Hyperion grip, Torgue stock
Best Prefix: Practicable
Location: You can get this from the side mission Safe and Sound and return the mission to Moxxi.
This is a seraph e-tech Tediore shotgun that shoots 9 slow moving pellets with splash damage that shoot in a circle following the center pellet. The pellets converge in on a certain distance giving this gun a sweet spot if you can learn the distance. This also comes in all elements. This can easily be top 4 if you learn the gun and its dps can keep up with just about any shotgun. Like the blockhead its not a Tediore that you spam reloads with, the reload is just a bonus.
Elements: Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Splash bonus: 100% no Reaper
Best Parts: Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: New and Improved
Location: You get this from beating the Ancient Dragons of Destruction in dlc4.
The grog nozzle is on top of this list not because it is the best pistol but because it does what no other pistol does. It is a unique Maliwan moxxi pistol that has 65% lifesteal, 200% multiplicative crit bonus, 80% splash, and can cause a drunk effect that transfers to your other guns, and always comes in slag. To balance this out it has some of the lowest base damage in the game. You rarely use this gun to deal damage but to heal and no other gun rivals it to heal. I say rarely because with its high crit and splash it can be used to kill with amp shields like the bee. Just hold this and toss a grenade or phaselock something and you should be at full health in no time, even dots on enemies can heal you to full with this gun at endgame.
Elements: Grog: Slag
Crit and splash bonus: 200% type B and 80% no Reaper
Best Parts: Maliwan grip
Best Prefix: Eviscerating or Surfeit
Location: Grog: The Beard Makes the Man mission has to be open
This Torgue Legendary is quite simply the highest dps pistol in the game, shoots 7 slow moving explosive pellets in a wide pattern with splash damage. the center bullet has 100% splash and the others around it have 70%. Unlisted pellets mean it can take full advantage of amp shields. Limited range of use because of the slow speed of bullets and widespread. It consumes 3 ammo per shot as well, but for its damage and the amount of pistol ammo you can carry this usually isn’t an issue. The low fire rate of this gun isn’t an issue because of the number of pellets it puts out, with chain reaction it’s better than almost every other pistol, and also great for healing teammates. The ammo consumption of the DP version can be an issue with 6 bullets per shot, that’s why some prefer the hard version with less damage but only 3 pellets per shot and still more than powerful enough for mobs, or any mode before UVHM when you don’t need as much damage. When it comes to raids and bigger bosses always go DP.
Elements: Explosive
Splash bonus: 100% main pellets 70% split pellets, no Reaper
Best Parts: Torgue grip
Best Prefix: Double Penetrating
Location: from Savage Lee or as the item of the day in torgue vending machines in DLC 2.
This Hyperion pistol has the highest crit bonus in the game at 800%, with a good fire rare and decent mag size shooting it almost feels like the bitch. With the crit bonus, Hyperion accuracy, and the fact it comes in all elements this gun can really do damage to just about anything.
Elements: None, Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Crit bonus: 800% type A
Best Parts: Bandit Grip
Best Prefix: Win-win or Dynamic
Honorable Mentions
Hornet
A Dahl corrosion only pistol with a 6 round burst and 80% splash damage, this will tear down loaders and other armored targets apart. There isn’t much more to say about it other than its just that powerful even flesh enemies can be melted by it.
Elements: Corrosive
Splash bonus: 80% no Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl grip
Best Prefix: Neutralizing
Location: Drops from knuckle dragger.
Maggie
The Jakobs masher if you played borderlands 1, shoots 6 pellets for the price of one. Also fires as fast as you can pull the trigger, up to 14-15 fire rate. With its fast shot and massive damage this thing is a killer if you are good enough to use it. Like all Jakobs has more crit than your usual pistol as well as well as some of the best bullet speed in the game. the downfall is you need a quick finger trigger, and the recoil can be pretty bad depending on parts. This puts more pellets in the air of all pistols making it great with phaselock, and chain reaction, amazing for healing with all the pellets, fast bullet speed and massive damage. You need to be able to quick scope with this due to having to hit the fire button for each shot, moving it and scoping can be difficult for fast moving enemies. That also is a reason why Maya is great with this, phaselock and the Maggie are a match made in heaven.
Elements: None
Crit bonus: 25% type B
Best Parts: Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Dastardly
Location: from killing Mick Zaford after completing the clan wars and siding with the Hodunks.
Stinger
Another Vladof pistol, this one a seraph. Like the infinity moderate damage, fast fire rate, but this one shoots strait so you can crit. Bullets can reflect, large mag size, can get up to fire rate cap as well.
Elements: None, Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Best Parts: Vladof grip
Best Prefix: Vengeful
Location:You can get it from the Ancient Dragons of Destruction in dlc 4
Thunderball Fist
This is a Maliwan Legendary pistol that is the king of shock. When it shoots it’s first projectile an orb of shock rises up from the point of impact and shortly explodes into a large blast of splash damage. The first impact gives you 100% splash damage and second explosion is 150% splash damage, making this much more powerful than the card would make you believe. Also all that splash damage plays nice with amp shields, and shock relics. Because almost nothing in the game is resistant to shock that makes this a great pistol to carry and easy to rip shields and much more. Fast firing and quick reload makes it even more deadly.
Elements: Shock
Splash bonus: 100% on pellet 150% secondary explosion, no Reaper
Best Parts: Maliwan
Best Prefix: Potent
Location: You can get this from Captain Flynt in the base game or Sparky Flynt in Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax HH pack
Rubi
The rubi is a unique Maliwan Moxxi pistol that has 12% healing, additional crit bonus and your typical Maliwan pistol splash. While it has mostly been outclassed by the grog the rubi can pack a punch and kill on its own unlike the grog, but its not impressive in doing so, therefor many leave it behind for the grog.
Elements: Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit and splash bonus: 7.5% type B and 80% no Reaper
Best Parts: Maliwan grip
Best Prefix:
Location:Rakkaholics Anyonymous, and turn it into Moxxi.
A Jakobs Pearl that fires a single shot, followed by a slow moving projectile which, after a set distance splits into three and rapidly gains speed, it also has bonus critical hit damage beyond most Jakobs AR’s. Those secondary 3 pellets are unlisted so you get full amp damage, and its highly accurate and fires as fast as your can pull the trigger up to 13-14 fire rate. This gun is good for many reasons beyond the special effect, it has high almost sniper rifle base damage, some of the higher fire rate in the game as well, and unlike non Jakobs AR’s it does not suffer a critical hit penalty. After all that goodness the pellets keep moving after impact giving it even more dps making it great with restoration and chain reaction. This is a gun that can be used to spam the trigger and kill enemies with a wall of bullets, as a sniper with one shot potential on crits, or even in burst fire much like a Dahl gun, incredible versatilely and stopping power. Again a learning curve but huge damage potential.
Crit bonus: 50% type A, 15% type B
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Boss
Location: You can get Tubbies or Chubbies to drop this
This is a Vladof Moxxi AR. The hail has an aim like a grenade launcher and shoots in a huge arch and after a certain distance splits into 2 both pellets doing original damage. The hail has a special crit modifier that you can learn about here 197, and a usually large splash damage of 80%. Did I mention it heals you for about 2.5% of damage done with the gun? Add in a really good fire rate and other base stats, if you learn to shoot this gun you will do lots of damage and be very hard to kill.
Elements: Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit and splash bonus: 200% type A, 20% type C and 80% no Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Vladof grip
Best Prefix: Ferocious
Location: you get it from beating round 5 of finks slaughter house
Gameplay Footage: Blutfatal in Pyro Pete’s Bar 791
This is a Vladof Moxxi AR that shoots 3 bullets at a time that move in a pattern of a smiley face. You also get your Moxxi healing of 2.5% from it. With the wide spread and high fire rate this is a really nice mobbing gun, better close up than at range. With a bunch of skags or psychos running towards you can you hit multiple targets at the same time with the way the fire patter is, or up close just put a lot of hurt on one enemy. The damage leaves a little bit to be desired on this gun, but the fire rate and the healing makes up for it.
Elements: Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit and splash bonus: 20% type C
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Vladof grip
Best Prefix: Swift or Severe
Location: from the side mission Everybody Wants to be Wanted in dlc 2.
Honorable Mentions
Ogre
The Ogre is a legendary Torgue spinner gun. It has 90% splash damage, increases speed as you shoot more than other spinners, has a chance to pop off multiple shots in a row, can have increased reload speed, and massive mag size. All this means lots of damage. Like I said above Wreck with spinners and their high fire rate means you can hit the console fire rate cap of 30, and with the Ogre’s damage that is more than enough to deal with any thing. Spinners suffer from really bad accuracy hip firing, but phaselock and converge makes it easy to scope in and take out the converged mob.
Elements: Explosive
Crit and splash bonus: 20% type C and 90% no Reaper
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Torgue grip
Best Prefix: Nasty or Wild
Location: from King of Orcs in Murderlin’s Temple.
Lead Storm
This is a Vladof Seraph Spinner gun. It fires like any spingun that speeds up over time, the bullets move slowly and arch slightly, and after a distance, each splits into 3 bullets vastly increasing its DPS. It takes some getting used to, but when you do it’s a very strong AR and very fun as well. This benefits in all the same way as the Ogre, but with a higher learning curve it’s down is why it’s not tied with it. If you figure out how to use it, then you can be just as effective as you can with the ogre and more so in certain situations. Easiest of all the unique spinners to get your hands on as well.
Elements: None, Slag, Fire, Shock, Corrosive
Crit bonus: 20% type C
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Vladof grip
Best Prefix: Ferocious or Swift
Location: Seraph vendor in dlc3
Sawbar
This is a Bandit Pearl AR that is always in fire and shoots a projectile that splits into 3 after set time in air and each of those 3 go off on an angle and explodes. Meaning it has a set distance for it to do damage, but at that distance its huge dps, out side that distance its almost no dps. You have to really learn this gun to make it great. You can get it from LLM’s tubbies, or OMGWTH.
Elements: Fire
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Bandit Grip
Best Prefix: Wyld Ass
Location: LLM’s or OMGWTH in the peak
Seraphim
This is a Dahl Seraph gun that acts like an e-tech but is not one, means not the ammo consumption and more accurate. You have splash damage with it, and your burst fire while scoped. It is always fire and the bullets move a little slow, but on flesh this thing is a monster. You get this from the Seraph Vendor in DLC1
Elements: Fire
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Dahl grip
Best Prefix: Attack
Location: from beating Master Gee in dlc 1
Hammerbuster
This is a legendary Jakobs assault rifle with massive base damage increase over regualar Jakobs ar’s with matching parts, a 70% base damage increase. It maintains the rest of the great stats of dahl barrel ar’s with really low recoil, fast fire rate and the jakobs nice crit bonus. While this gun make take some skill to wield it can be played both like a sniper and like a smg. It both has accuracy in the low 90’s and fire rates around 15 depending on parts.
Elements: None
Crit bonus: 15% type B
Best Parts: Dahl stock, Jakobs grip
Best Prefix: Boss
Location: Mcnally in the dust, you have to start the bane quest to open it.
This is a Maliwan E-tech Legendary launcher, shoots 3 orbs and when they land or explode everything near or in its patch gets an AOE to splash around them and all take damage. This is by the highest dps launcher or maybe gun in the game. It comes in all elements. Takes 3 ammo per shot and with a 33 rocket limit it has limited in its use outside shamfleeting. If you want to take out a mob or get up from a second wind nothing will be close to as effective as this.
Elements: Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Best Prefix: Puissant or Prudential
Location: from Vermivorous the Invincible and Hyperius the Invincible.
This is a Bandit Legendary That shoots 6 rockets per pull at a cost of 1 rocket and shoots them like shotgun spread. Being a bandit it has a larger clip that helps a lot since most RL’s have very slow reload, also comes in all elements and explosive. It doesn’t have the dps of the Norfleet but its still massive dps and with the low ammo cost and big mag its a great option.
Elements: Explosive, Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Best Prefix: Big or Rapid
Location: King Mong in eridium blight
Topneaa
This Vladof Etech is like the norfleet in how it shoots a slow moving orb that splashes everything near it for massive damage. But way different in it only shoots one orb and the ammo cost is 2/3’s of a rocket meaning you get free shots with it. In fact of the 33 rockets you can carry this gives you 11 free shots. So if you don’t mind aiming and don’t want to use the sham or fight vermi this is a great choice and easy to get.
Elements: Fire, Shock, Corrosive, Slag
Best Prefix: Rugged or Ruthless
Location: Non unique so anywhere, gold and red chest are your best chance.
This is a Torgue Legendary that shoots in a slow arc and a mushroom cloud blows up on impact. This is pure Torgue, slow projectile, slow fire rate, slow reload, massive damage and EXPLOSION!!!. That’s really all there is to it
Elements: Explosive
Best Prefix: derp
Location: Torgue vendors in dlc2 or The Black Queen in the dust or digi peak.
Honorable Mentions
Creamer
Moxxi’s Torgue shoots one projectile that after set time in air explodes and splits into 2 separate projectiles that each have 80% splash damage. Oh yeah also heals you like all moxxi guns, and if you use it for FFYL and get up you are up with full health. Its damage is solid, the split takes practice to get used to but works well and healing. What’s not to love? You get it from completing round 5 in the Creature Slaughter Dome.
PBFG
This is a Maliwan Etech that is the little version of the norfleet, only one orb, 2 ammo and lots of damage. If the norfleet is too hard to get or too much ammo this is another great alternative. Since it is an etech you can get it from vendors, chest, random drops, but gold and red chests are your best bet.
Tunguska
A Torgue Pearl that shoots in an arc first impact is minor damage then bounces up and releases the damage on the card. This does massive damage but shoot it too close to yourself and you will be down. You have to be careful with this but it can be a killing machine. Being a pearl you can get it form OMGWTH, LLM’s or tubbies.
Bandit Launcher
These are the little versions of the badaboom and still pack a punch. Instead of 6 you get 3 rockets but much easier to find and will do the trick as well. Since they are regular items purples will be the best but you can find them in any rarity color and in any drop or chest in the game.
This is a Vladof Tesla Legendary Grenade and maybe the highest dps grenade in the game. The center tesla does the most damage and then tosses out multiple child ones in a circle, the distance of that circle depends on the height of the first impact. It always comes in shock and has a very long duration adding to the dps. Don’t let the card fool you this is a beast. For maya shock is my favorite grenade element because she can do the slag her self and this way you don’t have to swap from shock weapon to fire weapon. Also very little in the game is resistant to shock. This works great with lifetap and moxxi guns, not only initial blast but the duration lets you tank for awhile unlike some other mods.
Best delivery: longbow or sticky longbow
Location: Mike, Lee, Dan, Raph, or flinter after doing the mission A flinter group.
This is a Hyperion shock singularity grenade, it has the biggest singularity pull in the game and while it is pulling in and waiting for the explosion it has a tesla like effect of shock damage. This doesn’t have the dps of the storm front, but sometimes does more do to keeping the enemies in with the pull to take the damage. It also works great with phaselock and converge, 2 pulls are better than one. Also again that way shields ripped, enemies slagged and grouped makes for easy pickings.
Best delivery: longbow or sticky longbow
Location: Ultimate Badass Varkids, or llm’s
A magic grenade made my maliwan. All the magic grenades from dlc4 regenerate grenades. This is always shock, which is great for my love of shield stripping for maya. You throw this out and lighting homes in on your closest target and if others are near it will chain out and hit multiple targets. Due to its fast delivery this is the best grenade mod in the game for min-max play style or just healing in general with moxxi guns.
Location: Badass sorcerers from dlc4
This is another magic grenade so it regens as well, made by maliwan. This one shoots out 4 homing slag balls that do massive damage. You have to be careful with it because if you have enemies close to you it will go to them and kill you fast. Not only is this great for slagging but it kills mobs as well. This is one of the higher dps grenades of the game, and with the regen allows you to spam them more.
Location: Badass sorcerers from dlc4
Honorable Mentions
O-Negative
These are Maliwan Serpah transfusion grenades that spawn 8 child grenades, it has higher damage and lower blast radius making it very safe to use. Not only does it give you health like all transfusions but this one can easily kill trash mobs, comes in all elements but my favorite is shock for a siren not slag. Again Maya can slag, I would rather strip shields. You get this from Pyro Pete and vincible in dlc 2.
Crossfire
Is a Dahl bouncing betty Seraph, that not only shoots out bullets but also child grenades in air and on the ground that also act as bouncing betties. Making this one of the best slag grenades since it covers such a large area and last for a long time. With raids bosses tossing slag so fast this helps keep them slagged for you do do your dps on them. You can get this from the seraph vendor in dlc2
Meteor Shower
Another Seraph grenade from dlc2. This one is Torgue mirv grenade with higher than normal damage and more child grenades. The child grenades release in a high arc and they in turn release more child grenades. Don’t toss it near yourself. Does a ton of damage and always comes in explosive.
Fastball
Our Tediore legendary grenade, toss it like a baseball and has a longbow like delivery but you see it go instead of teleport, always 0 fuse time as well. This used to be horrible but got a 500% damage buff in the loot hunt and increased blast radius. Its always been a fun grenade, but now its fun and useful. Comes in all elements and works great with converge and ruin. Not bad for healing with moxxi guns either. It drops from Boll in three horns divide.
+Smg Damage; 72: 134% op8: 138%
-Smg Accuracy; 72: -33% op8: -36%
+5 Mind’s Eye
+5 Wreck
+5 Accelerate
+5 Reaper
+5 Foresight
This boost all dps skills, and really boosts smg damage, I never really feel the accuracy decrease, must be how they do the formulas that it’s not as bad as it sounds. This com finally lets us keep up with the heavy hitters with dps.
+Cool down rate; 72: 49% op8: 53%
+Gun Damage; 72: 36% op8: 39%
+5 Ward
+5 Accelerate
+5 Mind’s Eye
+5 Flicker
+5 Foresight
Increases movement speed while using phaselock
This is probally #2 when it comes to dps, doesn’t boost reaper or wreck but the always on 39% gum damage makes up for that, and 10/5 ward keeps the bee up really well if you are using that. The movement speed is a great bonus and its cooldown rate is huge. With the 3 new ones this still holds up.
+Team Cooldown Rate; 72: 27% op8: 29%
+5 Reaper
+5 Helios
+5 Suspension
+5 Wreck
+5 Sweet Release
This can out dps the legendary mod with the right set up, adding wreck and suspension with 10/5 and toss reaper in the mix you are hitting hard. Because the cooldown is team that means its lower than the cooldown on the legendary com. Helios is the weak point here it doesn’t do the damage it was designed for late game, but the damage and dots from it are more than enough to fill your health bar with a phaselock and a moxxi gun. With that and the boosted sweet release this is a really well rounded com, damage, healing, cooldown, and crowd control.
+Team Health Regen; 72: 4476.6 op8: 11900.9
+5 Restoration
+5 Elated
+5 Sweet Release
+5 Sustenance
+5 Suspension
This is the healing version of the cat, all healing skill, no dps. This is a nurse’s dream come true. Added Suspension to it was brilliant to keep elated going, offering a dps if you have wreck as well. The reason this is in 4th place is in op8 its really hard to use this solo, but soooo much fun playing op0 with op8 gear.
Honorable Mentions
Breakneck Banshee
+Shield Recharge Rate
-Shield Recharge Delay
-Max Health
+6 Fleet
+5 Immolate or Backdraft
You see this everywhere because with the rough rider you have a constant 110% run speed, making you hard to hit. I’ve seen some great melee builds with this as well making us hard hitting sonics. The downfall is the only dps skill added is only when in FFYL, and Backdraft is just a waste of skill points. If they every make this into a Legendary com its game over.
Unyielding Banshee
+Shield Recharge Rate
-Shield Recharge Delay
-Max Health
+6 Immolate
+5 fleet or backdraft
This one was made famous when Stock22 posted his deal with the devil thread, http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=285479 1.1k, and Maya could now raid big time. This makes us be able to use immolate while alive with the 110% fire damage added bonus and having the bee on we can take down some raids in seconds.
Mirrored Trickster
+Fire Rate
+6 Kinetic Reflection
+5 Life Tap or Chain Reaction
This was a big favorite before the new Legendary com’s 6/5 KR makes you near invincible to bullet damage, and lifetap you heal from the deflected bullets. KR does suffer a bit from scaling, the life tap benefits from it. Again another mod that would make a great legendary com, and the fire rate bonus is also great. If they added 2 good skills to this it would be right up there with the cat com. If they did wreck and inertia, it might be the best com she could have.
Blurred Trickster
+Fire Rate
+6 Chain Reaction
+5 Life Tap or Kinetic Reflection
Like the above com, if you wear this with an Antagonist you almost have the best combination. You shield gives you build in KR and the 88% to Chain Reaction will destroy mobs with ease, while 12% life steal makes it easy to survive.
Leeching Matriarch
+Max Health
+Magazine Size
+6 Lifetap
+5 Sustenance or Elated
13.2% life steal turns you into a human rubi, add in a constant 4% regen from sus, or 10% healing from elated with a phaselock and this can be better than a nurse com for playing solo nurse. The card boosts are better as well. The team health regen on the card isn’t much at all, but to increase your max health, and mag size is both helpful to you and your team. More health on you means sweet release and elated heal more for everyone. This is the other one I think if they made the like legendary nurse com, it would beat it out.
Locations: Legendary com’s have the best chance from tubbies and llm’s, blue com’s can come from anywhere, sanctuary is a good place because you have 3 vendors you can check for them, and just reset and farm. After the dragons with all those chests is another good area, as well as Digistruct Peak.
This is the legendary amp shield, huge amp damage, 0 shield drain, tiny capacity, long delay. It is a glass cannon. It can also come with elemental resistance. Its number one because skills like ward and inertia can keep it up, then skills like Converge, Sub Sequence and of course phaselock can control the battlefield to help us reduce agro and not get hit.
Best Prefix: Inflammable or Alkaline
Best Parts: Torgue, Maliwan, Maliwan
Location: Hunter Helquist in the Arid Nexus Boneyard, or from Treants in the Forest from dlc4.
To start here I have used both of these and have trouble finding a better one, so lets leave the battle to another thread. These are legendary and seraph adaptive shields. They both have high elemental resistance to what ever element attacked you last, up past 80% resistance. They both add massive health to your max health. They both have health regen that increases as your shield takes damage. The Neo has a smaller capacity, but quicker delay. The Evo has a larger capacity, and longer delay. Both are the best shield for a nurse Maya. She is one of the few characters in the game that can mob without abusing health gaiting even at high levels. Also the bigger her health the more elated and sweet release heals your entire team.
Best Parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Hyperion
Neo Location: From spyco in the Frostburn Canyon
Evo Location: From Hyperious the Invincible in dlc1
This is probably the most feature heavy shield in the game and maybe the most balanced as well. It has a high chance of deflecting bullets, deflected bullets can do up to 880% damage, it has damage reduction against bullets, and it launches homing slag balls at any enemy attacking you. On top of all that it has good shield stats across the board, high capacity, good recharge and really quick delay. It’s almost like having a better-balanced KR and a slag version of Impaler on a very solid shield. It can suffer when there are not many bullets in the area you are fighting in (or the entire DLC it was made in) but unlike other shields like the sham, it stands on its own as a good shield. It also goes great with a lot of her skills, Life Tap, Kinetic Reflection, Converge, Cloud Kill and this makes it really hard for bullets to hit you.
Best Parts: Hyperion, Hyperion, Hyperion
Location: Seraph vendor in dlc4
This is another of the more balanced shields in the game, big capacity, decent stats outside that but it gives you 27% damage reduction weather it is depleted or not. So bullets or melee this shield helps you stay alive. This can have as low of a delay as a 1.79. With Ward, Inertia, and all her healing the blockade really lets her tank with the best of them. I’ve personally taken 8 shots in the back from a blaster nomad and laughed at him, turned around and killed him.
Best Parts: Bnadit, Bandit, Bandit
Location: You get it as a drop from the Ancient Dragons of Destruction in dlc4.
Gameplay Videos:Jiandersonzer0 in sawtooth with min delay 304 Jiandersonzer0 with max capacity vs hyperious 274
Honorable Mentions
Rough Rider
This is the only Jakobs shield and they did it right, no shield capacity, but it adds to your total health and gives damage resistance of 20% across the board. This is huge with fleet Mayas, letting you always have a speed boost up to 110%. With all of her healing skills and a few Moxxi guns this is not only a viable option but an incredibly popular one.
Best Parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Hyperion
Location: The Bulwark in Hunter’s Grotto.
Flame of the Firehawk
This is the only legendary you get from a mission. Its the ultimate nova shield, unlike most nova shields this keeps releasing nova’s until it recharges. That means no ward or inertia with it, If you can keep killing with this and Life Tap you become a human Moxxi weapon. This works well with melee builds or any up close and personal builds.
Best Prefix: Inflammable
Best Parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Maliwan
Location: You get it from finishing the cult following missions.
Gameplay Footage: jiandersonzer0 Pete’s Bar 383
Love Thumper
Maya doesn’t have a lot of melee skills to make her that character but it hasn’t stopped many clever vault hunters from doing it anyways with builds like the SUPERSONIC GUERILLA 910. With the Grog Nozzle, this, Fleet, and some oh her healing and slagging skills she can make a fearsome fighter. This shield has a delay over 200 seconds keeping it down, but not only giving you roid damage but an explosive nova that goes off with each melee for a ton of damage. Just be careful because that nova hurts your teammates.
Best Parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Maliwan
Location: You get it from completing the side quest Best Mothers Day Ever in the highlands.
Hoplite
This huge turtle shield takes away almost all your health, in fact, it takes away so much that versions above op3 take away all of your health since your health does not scale up in op levels. Why is this good? With the nurse mod’s constant health regen you can get a Hoplite to make your health so you come back to above 50% health every second if you fall below and abusing health gate to make you a very strong tank. With this you can play very irresponsible and charge in guns a blazing, slagging and shooting without a care in the world.
Best Parts: Anshin, Anshin, Anshin
Location: You get this shield from Pete so farming just the right one isn’t very hard.
Sham
This is a legendary absorption shield that can be up to 94% chance to absorb bullets and turn them into ammo. It was very low capacity and is a poor shield in non bullet areas, but with inertia it is hard to beat in bullet heavy areas.
Best Parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Hyperion
Location: You get this from Bunker.
Best Non Red text/etech
Speedy Shield
This is a Tediore shield with a small capacity, recharge greater than the capacity and tiny delay. So it recharges in less than 2 seconds and sometimes less than 1 second to instant full. Combine this with ward and enemies will have trouble killing you even in op8.
Turtle Shield
These can be very much like a blockade with skills like inertia and ward, massive capacity but you can add elemental immunities to them. My preferred parts are all bandit. This is a bad shield if you are using elated and playing co-op but other than that it works well.
This e-tech relic adds elemental damage and cooldown rate. Because of this bonus comes after final damage, splash damage, crit damage and elemental bonuses, it adds far more than you would think at first look and more than any other relic. Toss in a pretty large cool down rate to it and this is the relic of all relics.
Location: LLM’s
Best Stats
Op8: Cooldown 47%, Elemental 39%
72: Cooldown 43.8%, Elemental 37%
61: Cooldown 39.4%, Elemental 33%
50: Cooldown 35%, Elemental 30%
This e-tech relic adds health and up to 2 ammo capacities. I end up using this more often than the Bone of the Ancients for mobbing. I usually don’t need the extra damage and since I like to use a lot of harmony skills the extra health is great, and the ammo is wonderful for us snipers and shotgun users.
Location: LLM’s
Best Stats:
Op8: Health 62%, Ammo 85% X 2
72: Health 58.8%, Ammo 81% X 2
61: Health 54.4%, Ammo 75.5% X 2
50: Health 50%, Ammo 70% X 2
Yeah this is only good for pistols but the DPS it adds in huge. It adds damage, fire rate, and FFYL time, and for every player wearing a deputy’s badge it adds 15% to your health and more FFYL time. Just think of having the wreck bonus on your gun at all times and double wreck when you phase lock, just only pistols. This is probably the only gun specific relic that can increase damage more than the BOA in certain situations.
Location: Sheriff in Lynchwood.
Best Stats:
Op8: Damage 23.5%, Fire Rate 56%, FFYL 15%
72: Damage 23.1%, Fire Rate 56%, FFYL 15%
61: Damage 22.6%, Fire Rate 56%, FFYL 15%
50: Damage 22%, Fire Rate 56%, FFYL 15%
This e-tech relic can boost up to 4 stats, up to 3 elemental resistant types, and 2 shield buffs, recharge rate and/or capacity. I know 5 buffs and I said 4, it can get any combo of 4 of those but can also come with less. Wear this and a blockade or Evolution and just laugh at mobs attempting to hurt you.
Location: LLM’s
Best Stats:
Op8: Corrosive 28.8%, Explosive 30.5%, Fire 29.7%, Non Elemental 25.9%, Shock 33%, Shield Capacity 39%, Shield Recharge 39%
72: Corrosive 27.6%, Explosive 29%, Fire 28.3%, Non Elemental 24.8%, Shock 31.9%, Shield Capacity 36.6%, Shield Recharge 36.6%
61: Corrosive 25.8%, Explosive 27%, Fire 26.3%, Non Elemental 23.2%, Shock 29.8%, Shield Capacity 33.3%, Shield Recharge 33.3%
50: Corrosive 24%, Explosive 24.8%, Fire 24.2%, Non Elemental 21.6%, Shock 27.5%, Shield Capacity 30%, Shield Recharge 30%
Honorable Mentions
Jakobs Allegiance Relics
I spent some time testing Allegiance relics and this was about the only one that really was worth it, mainly because Bones and Elemental relics don’t effect 99.99% of jakobs guns, and there are many of those guns in this TOP Gear. If your main gun(s) are jakobs than this is worth wearing, it is a pretty big dps buff and makes the guns much more forgiving. You can only get 2 of the 3 buffs on one, I prefer recoil reduction and mag size increase.
Op8: Accuracy Recovery 115%, Magazine Size 85%, Recoil -56.5%
72: Accuracy Recovery 111%, Magazine Size 81%, Recoil -55.8%
61: Accuracy Recovery 105.5%, Magazine Size 75.5%, Recoil -54.6%
50: Accuracy Recovery 100%, Magazine Size 70%, Recoil -53.5%
Elemental Relic
These are like a Bone but no coolown, mainly on here because there is no explosive bone. If you like torgue weapons then this is the best relic to wear. But even the other elements are still great for lower levels before you can get a Bone or if you just have not found the perfect bone yet.
Op8: 39% damage
72: 37% damage
61: 33% damage
50: 30% damage
Stockpile Relic
This can be better than a blood relic because in certain builds you don’t benefit from health stacking, and also this can include grenades as well, or it can stack one type further if you get 2 parts to the same gun type for an additional 3% added to it or all 3 the same gun type for 6% added to it. So if it capped at 70% with 2-3 shared parts it could be 73/76% instead.
Op8: Ammo 85%, Grenades +4
72: Ammo 81%, Grenades +4
61: Ammo 75.5%, Grenades +4
50: Ammo 70%, Grendaes +4
