My brother and I got the Borderlands 2 GotY edition, started an Axton and a Gaige, and ran through normal and TVHM very easily. We're now both level 53 trying UVHM and it's hard; constantly getting swarmed and dying, and we can't even finish some side quests.

Anyone have any suggestions? Can't really grind XP because everything just scales. Poked around looking for builds but most seem to depend on gear we don't have. We do have sensible builds; Gaige is using a standard Anarchy build; Axton has a slag turret build with the rest of the points in survival. The big issue seems to be gear; we're using random purple guns, green shields, blue class mods, etc.

So:

• Is it worth taking a break to go farm stuff, and if so, how and where? Earlier playthroughs drop level 50 gear which isn't very useful; and UVHM is super painful.
• My Axton build is focused on my turret, with an engineer class mod. Is there a better build for duoing UVHM with Gaige?
• People talk a lot about Legendary Class Mods. If I understand correctly, they won't drop in the GotY edition unless we buy the UVHM 2 DLC. Is that worth it? Can they be farmed easily?

Just seems like we're doing something wrong; normal mode was trivial and TVHM mode was easy; UVHM has been a brick wall. Bottom line: At level 53; what can I do to make Axton and/or Gaige suck less? Particularly that doesn't require more than 2 people or having a friend with a high level character?