Getting Started
Welcome to our skill guide for Salvador, where we will try to provide general guidelines in choosing skills for aspiring Gunzerkers to help them kick as much ass as possible.
Special thanks to VaultHunter101 and Jefe for being our editorial monkeys (i.e. doing all the formatting for us.)
Disclaimer: This is a simplified guide meant to give a rough idea of what our favorite dual-wielding Truxican is all about and to help bring the best out of him. This means that if we say a skill sucks, it’s because it sucks in general and might be a very good choice in some specialized builds. Likewise, some excellent skills will be bad choices in other builds. Please use common sense.
We will use this simple rating system:
- Bad: These skills sucks, only spec in them to get further down the tree, and only if there are no better options.
- Average: Can help, not a bad choice for going down trees.
- Good: Good skills are worth specing into, they will help without necessarily being the focus of your playstyle. Definitely worth taking.
- Outstanding: Skills of this rating will be game changers and should be taken by almost all Sal players.
Gunlust
Locked And Loaded: Good
Almost everyone should take this to 5/5, reloading is something you do often, and rare are the weapons that don’t benefit from it.
Quick Draw: Average
The swap speed is almost irrelevant (except for Rocket Launchers) and the crit bonus is rather small. Still, not a bad skill.
I’m Your Huckleberry: Good if you use pistols, Bad if you don’t.
What more is there to say? If you use pistols take it. If you don’t, don’t.
All I Need is One: Bad
No one that I know has ever made a build that takes advantage of this skill. The bonus is too small to care about.
Divergent Likeness: Average
Useful for the damage bonus, or to make big bore shotguns spread tighter.
Auto-Loader: Average
Good for reloading a rocket launcher in your inventory, or swapping between two sets of guns that are longer to reload than swap to.
Money Shot: Outstanding
Probably one of the best skills in the game. At the core of a LOT of builds. Coupled with Inconceivable, can produce “Money Shot chains” that can dispose of raid bosses in a matter of seconds. Less useful in Hoarder-type builds, as firing the last bullet happens much less frequently.
Lay Waste: Good (+Crit -Fire rate)
The only thing keeping this skill from getting an Outstanding rating is that it’s a kill skill, and it’s harder to activate against bosses. Otherwise, a VERY good skill.
Down Not Out: Outstanding
No gunzerker should be without this skill. Seriously. No matter the build. Take it. You’ll thank me later.
Keep It Piping Hot: Good (-Gun dmg +grenade dmg)
Seems just ok at first glance, but this skill activates whenever Get Some does. So yes: you can use it WHILE gunzerking.
No Kill Like Overkill: Outstanding
This skill is almost too good to be true. Coupled with a rocket launcher, a fastball grenade, a Tediore throw, or a well-placed money shot, this skill transforms any gun into a blistering hell for about 8 seconds.
Rampage
Inconceivable: Outstanding
Coupled with Money Shot, this skill is responsible for the fastest raid boss kills Sal is capable of. It’s also pretty good on its own. Really shines when used with guns that consume more than one bullet per shot and in the early game where it can extend your limited ammo supply.
Little note: If you let go of the trigger while your gun is under the effect of Inconceivable and at 0 ammo, the gun will NOT automatically reload. This will leave you with an empty gun that you will have to manually reload, and it’s easy to lose track of that in the middle of a fight.
Solutions are to time your stops around the middle of a magazine, learn to compulsively reload every so often, or my favorite technique: never let go of the trigger at all. And as a bonus: never letting go of the trigger will synergize well with Keep Firing.
Filled to the Brim: Average
More bullets are good. Not much to say about this one.
All in the Reflexes: Average
The reload speed is good, but the melee bonus is not unless you have a build dedicated to it.
Last Longer: Good
Gunzerking = good, longer gunzerking = good-er
I’m Ready Already: Bad
Not compatible with Get Some. Only Good on weapons that don’t activate Get Some (like rocket launchers). Can be worth taking while leveling up until you have enough points to respec and switch to Get Some (especially if paired with Keep it Piping Hot)
Steady as She Goes: Good but Bad with Hyperion weapons.
This is one of the unsung heroes of Sal’s skills. reduces recoil immensely and improves accuracy while gunzerking. This skill fills the role of scoping for the guy that can’t be bothered to scope. Note: actually HINDERS your aim if used with Hyperion weapons because of their built-in reverse recoil gimmick.
5 Shots or 6: Good
Really shines with guns that use one bullet per shot. With a Hoarder COM you can almost shoot forever, as long as you’re killing things. A must for AR, SMG, and pistols users. At its best while boosted to 10/5 with the right COM. Otherwise, not as great.
Yippie Ki Yay: Outstanding
This skill, coupled with Last Longer, can extend gunzerking for long enough to have Get Some completely reset your cooldown. Not to be skipped.
Double Your Fun: Good
It’s only a point, and it basically doubles your grenade damage. No reason to skip it IMO.
Get Some: Outstanding
Salvador’s BEST skill, bare none. There is nothing quite like having a new gunzerk at the ready when you’re still gunzerking. It also activates Keep it Piping Hot, which is nice.
Keep Firing: Outstanding
Unless you’re using Jakobs weapons, there are no reasons not to take this skill. It almost doubles your DPS. Coupled with Locked and Loaded and Lay Waste, Salvador is capable of truly ridiculous rates of fire, even with relatively slow weapons.
Brawn
Hard to Kill: Average
More health… yup…
Incite: Good
The reload speed is nice, but the movement speed alone is enough to warrant taking it.
Asbestos: Average
Not as bad as the other “bad” skills…and actually one of the rare Brawn “health” skills to make the transition to UVHM unscathed. Teetering between a “bad” and an “average” rating…
I’m the Juggernaut: Bad
Just plain bad, no way around it. Damage reductions don’t stack efficiently, and Gunzerking gives 50% already. The result is almost negligible damage mitigation, even at 5/5 points. Sal’s worst skill IMO.
Ain’t Got Time To Bleed: Good up to TVHM, Average in UVHM
Good while going through Normal and TVHM. Coupled with Sexy T-Rex, it offers enough health regen to keep you afloat even through heavy fire. Once you hit UVHM it simply can’t keep up with the raw damage output you’re subjected to and completely falls flat.
Fistful of Hurt: Average
Great in melee builds. Can be useful for the knockback effect if you’re getting overwhelmed or if you have guns that can damage you like a slow hand.
All Out of Bubblegum: Good
Offers a pretty good fire rate boost. Especially good when coupled with the Rough Rider shield.
Bus That Can’t Slow Down: Good
Makes you go fast. Going fast is good.
Just Got Real: Bad
Not worth getting your health low for. Keep your health high and get your damage from other sources.
Sexual Tyrannosaurus: Good, Bad in UVHM
See Ain’t Got Time to Bleed…
Come At Me, Bro: Average
Awesome during normal and TVHM if you don’t have a Moxxi weapon. Once you have one though, it’s not as good as it looks. In UVHM the 10 seconds of invincibility are much more interesting that the full healing.
It’s a very hard skill to rate, because it’s pretty good but requires you to spec in many horrible things to get to, and the payoff doesn’t compensate for the cost.
Leveling Builds
Here are a few generic leveling builds designed to help you on your way to the level caps. The skills may change drastically from one iteration to the next. This is because some skills are worth getting once they’re available, but the skills taken to get there, are not so much.
Level 15
Inconceivable will help you get the most out of your limited ammo supplies.
Level 22
At that point, the skills needed to go further down the rampage are not good enough. Respec back into rampage once Yippee Kay Yay is available.
Level 31
Those 4 points in All in the reflex could be put in Filled to the brim, depending on your weapon. This is the basic foundation upon which almost all level 72 Salvador builds are made.
Level 31 Brawn Build
An alternative to the base rampage build will make Salvador nearly invincible. Very fun to play too. Usable up to UVHM… after that you HAVE TO respec.
Level 47 :
We might get some heat over this, but before you hit UVHM, the Brawn tree is perfectly acceptable, and the Gunlust tree adds DPS, which is not really an issue at this stage of the game. Survivability trumps overkill.
Level 47 Full-on Brawn Version
Again, very fun, but once you hit UVHM, completely obsolete.
Level 61
If you’re using pistols, move the points from quick draw to I’m your huckleberry.
From that point forward, in relative order of importance:
- Put points into Incite, Hard to Kill, and Ain’t Got Time to Bleed.
- Leftover points in Reflex, Quick Draw (if you skipped it), Filled to the Brim, and Bus that Can’t Slow Down.
