Kripp's Solo Double Barrel Vanessa Build

When to Fly Solo

Ever since Patch 0.1.6, Weapons have become much stronger in the early game. They're finally getting closer to their strength during the earlier patches of Closed Beta, as for a while they've been significantly weaker.

This is thanks to the rebalancing of items, allotting more power to go towards an item's Bronze/Silver tiers, while lowering their later Gold/Diamond values. Given the fact that most late game power comes from scaling skills and/or enchants, nerfs to Gold/Diamond tiers isn't really that big a deal, especially in contrast to the early game buffs.

Keeping this in mind, multi-Ammo setups can definitely be worth pursuing early on. It's much easier to burst down the enemy before they get the chance to scale their HP out of reach.

However, if you start to get to a point where your Damage doesn't keep up, it's important to get in position to pivot. Start looking for Vanessa's one-Weapon staples, then drop most of your Weapons and shift to the Solo Double Barrel.

Double Barrel

Double Barrel deals a ton of Damage at an incredibly fast rate. It can absolutely keep up with the likes of Flagship, but also has the benefit of getting the first shot off much earlier. While it does require a form of Reload support, it takes up far fewer slots than what Flagship needs to enable its Multicast, meaning it's a lot easier to put together.

Kripp applied a Shielded enchant to his Double Barrel which helps give the build a lot more survivability. There's a much greater risk of being one-shot during the later parts of the game, so being able to stack Shield can make up for the lower Max HP.

Ramrod

Ramrod is a really strong Ammo support item. It will essentially keep two of your items from running out of Ammo, while also applying a flat Crit Chance buff across every Ammo item (even those not adjacent).

Kripp's Ramrod was enchanted with Radiant. This creates a solid insurance plan to make sure the Double Barrel will continue to be Reloaded. It's important to remember that if your Reload supporting item gets Frozen or Slowed, there's a good chance that your Double Barrel will ceasefire.

Crow's Nest

Crow's Nest is a huge part of the Solo Double Barrel pivot. While the Crit Chance is nice, the sustain that comes with the Lifesteal is extremely important. Dealing Damage is not the tough part, it's surviving long enough to put their HP to zero.

Unlike Flagship builds the Property tag is irrelevant. If you happen to pick up Quality over Quantity or Big Ego, feel free to look at other supporting items like Swash Buckle that further improve your Damage output.

Although if you manage to get a Deadly enchanted Crow's Nest its usefulness skyrockets. While Double Barrel does do a great deal of Damage, against other builds with sustain, you'll need as much extra offense as possible.

Silencer

Silencer is the definitive part of most one-Weapon builds, but in the case of Double Barrel it's actually not quite as critical. With a base Cooldown of three seconds, the extra reduction is not nearly as necessary compared to the many other solo Weapons.

Despite that, Silencer is still a welcome inclusion and will always justify its place on the board. Though in some cases you may want to opt to place it somewhere else in order to free up an "adjacent slot" next to Double Barrel.

Ramrod is absolutely necessary on one side, but depending on the other items you find, there's a fair argument to be made for placing something else on the other side instead of Silencer. After all, you still get the Cooldown reduction. Sitting on its right side only affects the Damage.

Kripp was super lucky with his random enchant, having it apply Shiny to his Silencer. This granted an additional 25% Cooldown reduction which is essentially like having two Silencers.

Sextant

Sextant is mostly here as an efficient source of Haste. You'll usually have a solid foundation of Crit Chance, and so the added adjacent Crit just isn't necessary. However, if you are lacking Crit, feel free to swap its position with Silencer.

Be sure to get it to at least Gold tier in order to reach two second Haste duration. Two seconds makes a huge difference when it comes to stacking Haste triggers. Alternatively, look for a pair of Rocket Boots at The Curio.

Flurry of Blows

Flurry of Blows gives this build the potential to have a more explosive opener. Ideally the Charges fuel the Double Barrel (and not Ramrod) to essentially unload multiple shots within a few seconds.

This can help trigger any Freeze skills and deal a bunch of Damage before the opponent has the chance to respond and/or scale. With the Shielded enchant it also helps give you a buffer to hopefully keep out of one-shot reach.

Left-Handed / Right-Handed

Left-Handed and/or Right-Handed are both excellent flat Damage boosts for a single Weapon. It's important to make sure your Damage is much higher than its base form, as you're relying on a single source of offense.

It's also necessary to make up for the lower Gold/Diamond tier values. The particular Damage skill is generally irrelevant. It's just a matter of finding the most raw stats available for the cost, and these two offer exactly that.

Tempering / Improvised Weaponry

Tempering gives the build a much needed form of Damage scaling. This is a pretty reliable skill that works great during the earlier days with multi-Weapon setups, as it doesn't rely on anything but the item being used.

For late game options, Improvised Weaponry is definitely the premium skill to look for, provided you have a reliable amount of Crit. And given that you've pivoted to a one-Weapon setup, nine times out of ten you'll be ready, because your build depends on it!

Swash Buckle

Swash Buckle can add a massive amount of Damage to the build and gets even more ridiculous if you have any form of Crit scaling. However, in order to make space for its inclusion you usually have to opt out of Crow's Nest.

This isn't a big deal if you can find another form of sustain. One-Weapon builds definitely rely on the Lifesteal, but if you get a Shielded or Restorative enchantment it's far less of an issue. Or as mentioned above, Lifesteal from a skill like Quality over Quantity.

Clamera + Crashing Waves

Clamera + Crashing Waves is a cool little combo you can pull off to kickstart your one Weapon. Since the Clamera triggers immediately at the start of the fight, it'll apply Haste to the Double Barrel, effectively halving its Cooldown for that first activation.

And given how absurd this particular highroll is, that one shot is often enough to take out the opponent singlehandedly.

One Shot, One Kill

One Shot, One Kill is one of the craziest Damage scalers in the entire game, giving you the ability to triple your Damage as long as you're only playing one Weapon. It's a rare drop from the Ferros Khan PvE Encounter, though be warned it can be a dangerous fight.

While its extended Cooldown can be a big drawback in some cases, alongside a low Cooldown Hasty Double Barrel, the difference is negligable. Besides, with this much Damage you'll rarely need more than one hit.