Do skills or items that increase fire rate also affect melee attack speed? (e.g. Krieg the Psycho's Buzz Axe Rampage)

Question

I noticed that Krieg the Psycho has a skill that increases Fire Rate (Embrace the Pain), on the Mania skill tree (which focuses on improving the Buzz Axe Rampage action skill). Embrace the Pain increases Fire Rate when the shields are down. I am wondering if the Buzz Axe Rampage attack speed (both melee and when throwing the axe) is also increased by the Embrace the Pain skill and other skills that increase Fire Rate. What about the regular melee attack (V, by default on the PC) by all the playable characters (including Krieg, when non-Buzz Axe Rampaging)?

And what about items (e.g. class mods or relics) that increase Fire Rate? Will they also affect normal melee attack speed or the Buzz Axe Rampage skill attack speed (both melee and when the axe is thrown)?

Answer 1

The thrown axe counts as a pistol, so pistol fire rate is what you are looking for. I run with the Sheriff's Badge exclusively now and farmed the 56% one just for this reason. With no Blood Trance I get 16-17 throws up from the normal 11-12. Unfortunately, the pistol damage boost on the Badge doesn't effect the thrown axe :/

While writing this it crossed my mind to test Embrace the Pain, and that does NOT boost the thrown axe. This is an exception, all other general or pistol fire rate increases should work. Elemental Elation DOES work.

I second the answers from others, the primary melee doesn't change in speed.

Answer 2

When throwing the Buzz Axe while Buzz Axe Rampaging, yes, Fire Rate boosts (from items and skills) affect how fast you can throw Buzz Axes.

Discussions on Buzz Axe throwing fire rate boosts from the Gearbox Software forums:

• Fire Rate increase help with Axe Throw?
• Just in case anyone didn't know, fire boosts apply to thrown buzzaxes.
• Is there a Throw-Axe focused build for Krieg? Viable?
• Apparently fire rate boosts afect how fast you can throw the buzzaxe

Answer 3

No - rate of fire buffs do not effect melee attack speed.

Buzz Axe Rampage only effects melee damage and movement speed, as per the tooltips.

Just like in Borderlands 1, there are no modifiers for melee attack speed, and rate of fire bonuses only affect weapons. Additionally, a full breakdown of all skills in the game can be found here which details that no skill in game increases melee attack speed. This list has not yet been updated to include Krieg's skills, but using the Borderlands 2 Skill Calculator it's possible to see that none of Krieg's skills influence melee attack speed.

The only ability in the game that "in essence" gives you a boost in attack speed is Gaige's "With Claws" ability, as this causes a double attack at the expense of a single stack of anarchy. As both of these melee strikes do full damage and because of the speed at which the attacks occur, this ability essentially give you a 50% increase in melee attack speed for this attack.

It's worth noting that the Mania skill tree doesn't exist with the sole purpose of improving Buzz Axe Rampage - there are many individual skills in the tree that do nothing to your melee damage, for example "Feed the Meat" increases your health and shield recharge speed, "Light the Fuse" replaces the downed mechanic for Krieg, etc.