Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

257 ratings
The Space Cowgirl- A Lawbringer Build
By Sickologist
Hey everybody, Uncle Sicko here with the next guide in my Borderlands; The Pre- Sequel character guide series!

Nisha is one of the most popular vault hunters to grace the surface of the moon, and with a good reason. New players enjoy her because her ability, Showdown, is basically an Easy Button that you can press to end almost any firefight as soon as it begins, while experienced players love her for her sheer damage output after some skill point optimization.

Like easy buttons? Like sadomasochistic cowgirls? Read on...
2
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
The Problem-
Real talk? Nisha makes the game too easy. Even trading some damage boosting abilities in favor of health and shield boosting, anything without Invincible in its name is a joke.
The Solution-
Want a true UVHM experience? Well, if you can't nerf the girl, nerf the gear! This build only calls for green equipment. I would have gone for White, but there's a pretty large difference between the two at level 70, and bullets from white weps may as well heal enemies, for all the help they are. But a green rarity Jakobs Iron got the job done, albeit it slowly at times.

The Build-


It seems strange to look at this tree and see that we picked up all three capstones, like we spread out our points too thin to be particualrly good at any one thing. But upon closer inspection, you'll notice that almost all these choices are present for the sake of damage boosting, with an afterthought given to defense. We'll be using a white rarity mod, so what you see here is what you get. And really all you need.

I have everything set up like this because it works best for me, and I'll explain why, but I'm not gonna send the Gestapo after you if you personalize it. Have some fun with it and feel free to respond with any questions, concerns, or tips you may have.
Law & Order-
The bottom of this tree demands one point into Order and four into Law. Law is great for thickening our shields, which will need all the help they can get. One point in Order gives us a random chance(~36% at max stacks) to get healed instead of hurt when we take damage, but that's not the reason we've spec'd into this tree. 

At the next level, we pick up Wanted. It's a little hit- or- miss in terms of usefulness, but I get quite a bit more damage out of it than The Third Degree, and we need to pick one to continue up the tree. We also grab Rough Rider. We don't really need need a boosted slam, but the increase in order stacks will do some work for us. 

The third tier ups us to 25 stacks with Discipline, and provides a 1% gun damage bonus, and 1% reduction in shield recharge delay. These don't seem like much, but when you stack up to thirty in nearly every gunfight, you'll find yourself letting enemies get chip damage on you just so you can get a faster kill, sometimes with a few stacks of Wanted to back it up. 

The next tier gives us five more stacks to amplify damage, and also a roulette chance to fully heal when you kill. I'm confident that it's higher than a 5% chance because, in practice, it happens once about every 8-10 kills, giving it nice parity with Order. The next three points are mostly just to get to the next tier, so I opted for the 15% damage boost from Due Process when I'm close enough to crack Scavs with my whip, but the passive healing from Jurisdiction could also be helpful when you're out of Transfusion grenades. 

The sixth tier is a big reason I spec'd into this tree instead off filling out the other two trees with the cacophony of extra points. Rarin' to go gives us a 2% per stack damage boost, which stacks with Discipline to give us a 90% bonus to damage, and a 60% reload bonus to make sure that we're pumping out lead during Showdown, not just twiddling our thumbs. 

Since we've reached the capstone, we pick up Thunder Crackdown. Even at max stacks, this never hits very hard, as Borderlands melees seem to be more for utility than killing, but it does give us five more stacks, and give us a little extra wallop when we go for a Due Process boost, or ammo steal with Pickpocket.
Fan the Hammer-
The bottom of the tree gives us Ruthless. The half- second boost is handy against crowds, letting you tear through all of them, if you take high ground and are fast enough on the trigger. I forgo Saddle up, despite the healthy damage boost, in favor of saving points for...

Bottled Courage. This ability does nothing for our damage output, but we only have a Green rarity shield, meaning long recharge delay and middling recharge rate. This combats that handily, alongside Law, and giving us a healthy 50% boost so we will never have to risk our life when we pull a berserk Showdown out of our hats at the last possible second after reloading and before dying. Five points go to Magnificent Six. I know that elemental weapons will still have more damage out of the gate when properly paired with their damage type, but this build calls for Jakobs weapons, and will benefit greatly from this ability. 

Melee Eridians and Kraggons got ya down? Here's Short Fused, to punish those fools for bringing tooth and saw to a gun fight. 

The next tier gives us Pickpocket. I didn't use this ability as much as I could have since our reload is so fast, and Thunder Crackdown slows down our melee attack, but it is really helpful in prolonged combat to let you recoup a few shots when your ammo pool is feeling the heat from that Jakobs fire rate. I forgo Faster n' You, because fire rate is beholding only to the speed of your trigger finger, and reload is already fast enough, thanks to Order. Gunslinger is avoided here because triggering Showdown with this can put us above a six round magazine, and cost us a damage reduction from Magnificent Six. 

The second to last tree unlocks Tw0 Fang... er... Hell's Comin' With Me! to artificially inflate our fire rate beyond the speed of our trigger finger, slowing down the rate at which you'll get carpel tunnel from using Jakobs weapons. 

Lastly, the bread and butter of every Nisha build, One For Each of Ya. This ability simply gives you a second pistol, effectively doubling you damage, magazine size, and ammo consumption. I don't recommend using this with Scav pistols, since their large drum magazines will take up a large section of your screen.
The Riflewoman-
Since we use pistols predominantly, and never use ADS, you may think Snap Shot is the obvious pick here, since it makes more shots hit their mark, but you'd be wrong. Showdown gives us all the accuracy we need, so we'll pick up Bona Fide Grit instead, to add a 35% crit bonus to boost Tombstone.

At the second level, we grab Quick Shot. The fire rate bonus from Unchained is useless with our Jakobs weps, but a 30% damage bonus to our guns is decidedly not.

We pick up Fistful of Bullets here, mostly just to continue up the tree. It chips away damage from Magnificent Six, but the other option would be a point in Snap Shot for a completely unnoticeable 7% accuracy bonus.

We don't pick up Crack Shot, since it's single bullet bonus won't help much compared to our other bonuses that focus on basically every other bullet in the mag. We begrudgingly forgo Impatience here, since we had to ditch a point in Fistful of Bullets just to reach this tier. Had the two been switched around, it would certainly be a boon to our damage output, but as such, we no longer have the points to spare. With those out of the way, we put five points into Hot Lead. 25% doesn't seem like much, but it's based off the initial damage dealt, which will always use critical and Order modifiers, in addition to nearly every other perc in this build.

The second to last tier sacrifices a fun ability, Trick Shot, upon the alter of Tombstone, which completely negates the need to aim after we get a kill. Even after we spent all those points to increase damage, This single ability will be the reason we can get away with middling weapons while still being able to face down the toughest enemies in the game. All that in addition to basically letting us spam Hot Lead, instead of only setting enemies on fire after putting in some effort.

Our last point goes into the third capstone, The Unforgiven. It's a handy finisher in case you found a new enemy at the tail end of your Showdown, dealing impressive damage. Everyone will get a bullet. Average Scavs will get blown up. Survivors will be shot again. It's elegant, simple, and covers a lot of ground that our equipment wouldn't have been able to surmount.
The Weapons-
The first weapon is a Jakobs Dastardly Iron. I mostly used it, along with the rest of these choices, to see if level 70 enemies needed the boost provided by countless hours of farming for weps, or if Nisha was so overpowered that she could completely ignore them. And the answer is yes, she totally is, and no, you don't need them. Should you prefer a Legendary in this spot to prevent ammo waste, or be faster, check out Maggie or the Luck Cannon. Maggie is raid boss approved with this build, and dual Luck Cannons with Fist Full of Bullets gives you eight shots instead of a fistful of reloading constantly, letting you capitalize on it's random power shots.

The second weapon is a Jakobs Boss Gatling Gun. I opt for this over a different maker because I prefer the x3 shot multiplier, at the cost of two bullets. Despite needing to reload often, this big fella makes a great backup, in case our pistol's ammo pool runs dry. If you must have a legendary here, don't take a Hammer Buster. It's penetrating rounds glitch and confuse the game when combined with Trick Shot and Unforgiven to destroy your frame rate. I'd recommend the Fatale or Fast Talker to freeze and crit enemies who somehow manage to not die instantly.

Third, I deviate from the Jakobs template with a Torgue shotgun, the Three Way Hulk. Jakobs shotguns look great on paper, but for trustworthy burst damage, you can't go wrong with Torgue. This is also important against large armored targets, letting you pound them down without wasting a lot of pistol ammo. If you must have a stronger alternative, just upgrade to a Casual Ravager. Same principle, and a whole lot more damage. I only use a Three Way here, because you can't get a Torgue barrel on Green rarity shotguns, to the best of my knowledge.

My final weapon here is largely unused, since the other three solve almost all of my problems, but I opted for a Vladof sniper rifle. Its fire rate can keep up with our rapidly switching between enemies, since they'll all die from one or two shots. Just keep in mind that sniper rifles don't get Nisha's Showdown bonuses. After this runs out of ammo, I just bring out my Hyper Iterated Blaster, since its fire rate and crit bonus make an acceptable pseudo- sniper until you find some ammo. If you're looking for the Legendary option here, I'd recommend the Longnail, for obvious reasons.
The Gear-
The Shield-
Since most of the shields at a green rarity are practically unusable, I opted for some Turtle cheese. I picked up a Dormant Turtle Shield. The sheer thickness of it makes up for the health loss, but it has atrocious recharge rate and delay, so Bottled Courage will do a whole lot of work keeping it happy. For overpowered lulz here, pick up a Shield of Ages. With Showdown constantly cycling, this shield is incredibly difficult to penetrate, and won't slow you down like the Fabled Tortoise would.

The Mod-
I went for a white mod here, since green mods would boost a skill, defeating the purpose of this exercise. I opt for a Crapshooter mod to boost crit damage without locking me into specifics like pistol or Jakobs loyalty. If you prefer a stronger mod here, a blue rarity Crapshoot mod is usable here, to boost Tombstone and Trick Shot (Just pull one point from Hell's Comin' with Me to unlock that).

The oZ Kit-
A Precision Strike mod is the clear choice here, giving us a workable 58% crit boost, along with a handy accuracy boost to tighten up those Gatling Gun and Hulk spreads. The Legendary option here is 3DD1.E to keep that Shield of Ages recharging reliably.

The Grenade Mod-
The best green Transfusion grenade you come across will help out here. Occasionally, you'll find yourself taking too much damage to recharge your shields, while that Showdown is recharging, so tossing one of these will keep you healed and happy while you wait out the storm. The legendary choice here will probably be a Quasar to group up enemies for Unforgiven to rip apart. You may also want to keep a Kiss of Death, or purple rarity Transfusion mod on hand, just in case.
Level Progression (Build Update)-
You'll notice that There are a few differences between this and the above noted guide. I've streamlined the build a bit, and frankly I've been too lazy to update the whole thing. These are mainly in areas that pull points from negligible damage increases to help out other things, like movement speed to make Showdown more efficient. We'll be going up the middle tree to have our dual pistols by level 25. After that, it's your call to go for offense or defense, with the right tree or left tree, respectively.

Level 1 through 3- get a gun and don't die.
Level 4 through 13- Ruthless, then Saddle Up
Level 14 through 19- Short Fused, then Faster 'n You
Level 20 through 25- Hells Comin' With Me!, then One for Each of Ya

Now that you have the speed and effectivly double the damage output, I'd say more offense is the best defense, so we'll go with Riflewoman first.

Level 26 through 35- Bona Fide Grit, then Quick Shot
Level 36 through 47- Continue to the top of the tree with Hot Lead, Tombstone and The Unforgiven

I said defense, but it's more of a foot note, because we're going up this tree specifically to use Order to redouble our damage output with Wanted and Rarin' To Go.

Level 48 through 52- Obligitory Law and Order grabs.
Level 53 through 58- Rough Rider, then Wanted
Level 59 through 65- Discipline, Blood of the Guilty, then Jurisdiction
Level 66 through 70- Rarin' To Go

I pulled my points from as many melee abilities as possible, since her whip crack is slow, and being slow reduces damage output. If you prefer 30 Order stacks over the 25 here (60% damage bonus vs. 50 via Rarin' To Go), you can pull a point from Jurisdiction for Thunder Crackdown, but I didn't feel it at all, since everything was dying so fast, anyway. Here's what it'll look like when you're done- http://thepresequel.com/Nisha/4101510150505500150050105501005051


Questions & Answers-
This is the part where I compile good questions, and subsequently answer them, so you don't have to waste time rifling through comments and such.

I have an idea to improve this build. Should I add you to talk about it?
Na bruv, just comment it. If it's cool, I'll add you and we can spitball. If you plan on being insulting, at least be funny. If you make me laugh, I won't delete it.

Why did it take you so long after the games release to start this series?
Long story short? Life just happens, m8. But I'm rolling now, so hopefully it won't be too long before I finish up the other classes.

Why did you waste your time with a bad loadout on purpose?
I'll spare you the rant, but basically I feel like Nisha is much too easily mastered to offer any real challenge, so I did this to artificially raise the difficulty and by proxy have more fun with it.

I'd really like to try this build, but I don't have time to farm all that gear. Would you mind duping for me?
As a matter of principle, I'd rather not, sorry.

How does this build fair against bosses?
Dropped Sentenel and Iwajira on the first try. Is it just me or are the raid bosses in this game sorta... bad?

Do you have any other guides?
Yes I do, ta very much for asking. A link to them should be in the notes by now. Be sure to leave in the comments which class you'd like me to write about next.
Notes & Changelog-
Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope you enjoy this build as much as I do.
If you'd like, check out my other guides here: http://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/id/opheliologist/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides

Feel free to post any questions, tips, or comments below.

7.12.2015
- Guide finished

7.13.2015
- Guide posted
- Several spelling, grammar, and continuity fixes
14 Comments
Sickologist  [author] 15 Nov, 2016 @ 8:37pm 
I think I mentioned it in the Level Progression section, but I'm just being lazy, and I haven't re- edited the guide to match that updated section.
flarewolf 29 Oct, 2016 @ 1:21pm 
I'm a little confused as to why in your picture in your 'build' section and the skills taken in the 'level progression' section vary so much. Did you just switch the points after you maxed?
K. Ostwind 1 Jul, 2016 @ 2:10pm 
I think it's likely a smart idea to have the Impatience perk, especially considering with Hell's Coming With Me you're going to need to reload a lot more. I'm going to try sacrificing one point of Hot Lead to get it and report back.
Nightlight 10 Nov, 2015 @ 3:13pm 
Ahhh alright. Thanks for the prompt response by the way. I just got the game and I'm pretty new, I thought it meant reloading by using Pickpocket. It's a great build by the way, I checked out all of your builds and they're all pretty boss ^3^
Sickologist  [author] 10 Nov, 2015 @ 2:03pm 
It says, "... after reloading OR reaching your maximum clip size via Pickpocket." So in a nutshell, you're activating it whenever you have a full magazine, by either means. Since this artificially inflates her already staggering fire rate, you'll constantly be reloading, so it'll rarely not be active. Pickpocket is for weapons like Ravager with a very slow reload that could take advantage of a melee animation that is faster than its reload animation.
Nightlight 10 Nov, 2015 @ 7:38am 
I'm curious why you get "Hells Comin' With Me!", the in game description says you basically need Pickpocket for it to work. Am I missing something?
Sickologist  [author] 4 Oct, 2015 @ 7:10am 
Level progression added for your viewing and question answerin' pleasure.
(Nappling) -Bau Bau ♡ 4 Oct, 2015 @ 1:33am 
Quick Question: Which way would you recomend to start this build, Like which tree first. ( New player and looking for help. )


Cheers
Rattle Em' Boys 6 Aug, 2015 @ 4:50pm 
say how'd you get the skin?
Zhalo 21 Jul, 2015 @ 12:24am 
np bro