Borderlands 2 - Impressions start Page 5

[GreenGoo]

I'm working my way up the left hand tree for Krieg right now and I can't get over how boring it is. There are a few trees in the game for other characters that don't come into their own until you're at least lvl 25-30, but very few of those were this uninteresting. I'm only level 17 so I don't have anywhere near a coherent build yet, but lots of trees (for other characters) had at least 1 or 2 skills that you could focus on using or increased the fun levels.

So very yawnworthy. The best skill so far has been a 1 point skill on the 3rd tier that adds dynamite to my thrown axes during rampage. And I get to use it exactly as often as it sounds. Pretty rarely.

[Isgrimnur]

Bloodlust is on the left.

[GreenGoo]

Bloodlust is on the left.

Yeah, Hellborn is the right hand tree, but that's all I remember.

[Bad Demographic]

You could put those points into the middle or right tree until you have enough to get to the specific skills you want on the left tree, then respec.

[GreenGoo]

You could put those points into the middle or right tree until you have enough to get to the specific skills you want on the left tree, then respec.

I could, but that's not how I do things.

In all seriousness, I like to experience the progression of a tree or build as it levels up. You get a definite feel for the ebb and flow of the effectiveness of the tree at various stages of the game. Of course with borderlands, one good drop and suddenly you're a god no matter what you put your points into, including not spending them at all. At least for awhile.

Just to be clear, my complaint isn't there is a problem with the game, class or even tree (taken as a whole) really, it's that most of the skills in the bottom 3 tiers are BORING. Did I have to take them? No I did not.

[stessier]

You could put those points into the middle or right tree until you have enough to get to the specific skills you want on the left tree, then respec.

I could, but that's not how I do things.

I play your way too. The only switch I made was I started Kreig in the middle tree and took the Drop Grenade on Death skill first. After thinking about it, I don't see how that would ever help in a SP game, so I respec'd that single point. Otherwise, I live with my choices. It means i miss out of a lot of benefits of some of the Mods that give bonus points, but it feels more organic.

[stessier]

When I bought Gaige and Krieg, I apparently triggered something and get to start with better weapons and a Relic that nets you a 5% better loot chance. It doesn't sound like much, but man does it seem to add up over time. I've already gotten 6 oranges and am only on Level 26. My newest is a rocket launcher that sets off a nuclear explosion when it hits - a detail that was not in the description and caused a certain amount of consternation when I fired it standing maybe 50 yards from the target (not nearly far enough away).

Edit: A search tells me I got Derp Nukem (or one of the variations). At level 26, blue launchers were giving me about 5500 damage. This does 16k. It is a nice upgrade, if a wee bit dangerous to use.

[KDH]

When I bought Gaige and Krieg, I apparently triggered something and get to start with better weapons and a Relic that nets you a 5% better loot chance. It doesn't sound like much, but man does it seem to add up over time. ....

apparently the vault hunter relic is only intended to decrease 'white label' weapons, giving you a boost early game with more 'green label' drops. I've seen a small chart of the influence it has on drops and the only significant numbers were in those early quality ranks, but I could only dredge up the enclosed link ... from my experience, I was lucky to see one or two 'orange labels' by level 26 .. so maybe buy some lottery tickets tonight ... I only point this out so that you can move to a more build related relic without regrets




I just hit level 72 for the first time today (having bought the game in 2013, I set it down for a year+half) ... I never even expected to see, let alone defeat, the 'warrior' on normal diff. ... I've been having a blast, if you can ignore all the dying, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. ... One thing I miss is the display of XP gained, since I've capped, it told me I killed the guy, and leveling is one of the reasons I enjoy RPGs ... DING!

[TheMix]

Now begins the farming....

And you can do those advanced levels now. I only recently dabbled a bit with going past UVHM. I didn't notice a lot of difference.

[GreenGoo]

I think it's fairly common to get 3-6 oranges by the end of your first run through. Not all of them will be worth using. 6 is on the higher side, but it's not outrageously high, ime.

I usually switch out the +5% rare item relic when I finish the Truxican Standoff which gives a relic that is typically +4.8-5.2% combat experience. It's very rare that I replace this relic during a normal run through.

[TheMix]

I've actually never bothered with either of those. So I can't speak to whether they make a difference.

I also save a lot of my drops. So when I start a new character, I often have weapons available.

[stessier]

Finished with Kreig and dinged 31 when I killed Jack. Got anther orange drop - a shotgun (Flak Attack I believe) that is impressive to watch - not sure how it plays yet.

Started with Gaige - she's cruising. I like her Deathbot.

[TheMix]

"Best robot EVARRRRR!"

I've never been a fan of that shotgun. It's fairly situational. The biggest problem that I had with it was range. The shots all explode at a specific range. Which will create quite a wall of death. However, if you misjudge, then your targets get to watch the light show too.

[GreenGoo]

An anarchy stacking, richochet having Gaige might be the single easiest play through on normal.

[TheMix]

An anarchy stacking, richochet having Gaige might be the single easiest play through on normal.

I think that may be my current build. Couple that with a Bee shield and an Infinity pistol, and you don't even have to see them to kill them.

[stessier]

When reading through the skill trees, I had decided to skip Anarchy because I'm all about accuracy with my sniper shots. Yeah, Gaige is right - accuracy is overrated! I'm cruising through everything and lovin' it. I just rescued Roland by taking down the bots shield with a handgun and then switching over to a sniper rifle to one shot it. 121 stacks makes for a quick kill! Now I hate quitting the game because I know I'll have to get all those stacks all over again.

At first I thought I'd never be able to do it because I'm well trained at reloading whenever there is a lull regardless of clip emptiness. Fighting that urge is stressful. I thought about remapping the R-key just in case I forgot but felt that was cheating. So stressful self control it is!

[GreenGoo]

Working hard against the instinct to reload was actually an enjoyable part of playing Gaige for me. Of course I'd be pissed if I reloaded by accident, but that just made it more fun (I realize not many will feel this way).

On the plus side, it made me switch weapons a helluva lot more often than with any other character, which added variety.

Get full stacks of anarchy, then full ricochet skill, then start firing a shotgun at your feet (to illustrate how powerful ricochet is) and watch everyone fall down.

[TheMix]

Doesn't it at least put an effect on you when you reload early? And don't the levels tick down? So you can reload again quickly to go back? Or am I thinking of a different skill?

[stessier]

You're thinking of Discord (I think that is the name). Reload once with just Anarchy and they all disappear.

[TheMix]

You're thinking of Discord (I think that is the name). Reload once with just Anarchy and they all disappear.

Ah. Thanks. I had this nagging feeling that I was confusing my character skills.

[stessier]

Wow - Gaige is level 16 and just took down Wilhelm with almost no trouble (had to hide once when he shot a few ion bolts my way and I was concentrating on hitting him rather than dodging). 121 stacks certainly helped. Then we went and helped Tina have her tea party - I was actually outside the cave entrance for the battle because the shotgun worked better out there. It was amazing!! One guy did slip by because I lost track of him in all the bodies falling at my feet, but Deathbot took care of him.

It's weird to be level 16 and only have tier 1 skillz (Ricochet x5, Anarchy x1, Smaller/lighter/faster x3, and More Pep x2).

[GreenGoo]

Yep, she only gets more powerful too. I don't know how she does in the other game modes (the ultimate vault hunter mode etc) but she made normal mode trivial. Lots of other builds and classes can do the same, but none can make it look so easy with so little effort or even paying attention. You'll kill guys that you didn't even know existed until you stumble across their corpses.

[stessier]

I am was Level 18 when I entered Caustic Caverns for the first time (ie, not to get the Hidden Loot quest) and exited at about 20.5. I didn't die even once! That's never happened before!! I didn't even get to FFYL - well, really close - 15 health, but Deathbot caused enough of a distraction for me to hide and shield regen. I've never had a build without some type of health replenishment system - it's a very interesting way to play.

[TheMix]

Well, if nothing else, presumably you now have Moxxi's shotgun. That can provide some health regen. Especially since you don't have to worry as much about actually aiming.

[stessier]

Yes, and it is wonderful!

I usually only get to play between the time I wake up and 6am (unless I'm going to the gym, in which case it's 5am). So I have to be smart on when I start areas so I don't get near to the end only to have to quit. Today I decided to make the first run through the Wilderness Preserve with 40 minutes left. I had about 87 stacks at the start, so thought I had a pretty good chance.

The start of that section is always weird as I have to arm my least powerful weapon to get them to open the door. In this case, it was Moxxi's shotgun aimed at random walls - the ricochets were enough to wound but not kill. The next challenge was PWR Loaders - stupid things were deflecting even the ricochets making it a bit tricky. After that, though, I flew all the way up to the holding pens. I went through the room with the four mini-Badasses hiding in the boxes with no trouble as I was up to 283 stacks and to top it off, they dropped an orange KerBlaster! I got Bloodwing's feather and raced to the first Badasses Skag enclosure to wait for the field to drop. 4 shots finished off the first one and as I spun to face the second, I hit reload. I'm still not sure if I was trying to hit the 4 key to switch weapons or if I just naturally reloaded in the free time between enemies like normal - but 285 stacks went poof - and the fight was on.

Fortunately the KerBlaster is powerful even without stacks but I only had 13 minutes left to finish the level. It took a lot more shimming and shaking than I would have preferred (and one FFYL when I thought I'd killed a Badass Electrical Skag and turned to face the four charging troopers only to be electrocuted to near death. Fortunately I had just popped off Deathbot who finished him off and gave me a new lease on life) but I got to Bloodwing with 4 minutes left. That fight always takes me forever - or, you know, less than 1 minute. I was back to 100+ stacks at that point and the KerBlaster got me through Fire before Bloodwing even got off an attack. Deathbot was doing his thing and every time Bloodwing set up for a run, I was able to hit him enough to trigger the next mutation. It took longer for the cut scenes in that section than the battle. I love this build!

I got all the way back to the extraction point 1 minute past my cutoff, which isn't bad at all. Now I'm looking forward to going back and freeing all those poor, poor animals.

[GreenGoo]

Anything with a shield will deflect attacks from that direction (whether it's the spinny blade things, or the bulldozer things, or whatever), so I would personally shoot at walls/floor behind them. The ricochet should hit them in the back, and if they stumble, all bets are off because the shield gets lowered.

Nisha in the Pre-Sequel has a similar build. From what I've read it's very effective, but probably not nearly as effective as Gaige. Those anarchy stacks are outrageous. Combined with everything becoming a homing bullet? insane.

[Isgrimnur]

Sir Hammerlock's is done. Jackenstein can suck it! If I never see him again, I won't shed any tears. I lost $200k in respawn fees. The final time, I killed him in FFYL and downed him point blank with the SMG.

[TheMix]

I tried killing him with my 70 Gunzerker. I think I was close to max money. I don't recall the exact numbers, but when I finally gave up, I believe I was below 40 million. So I probably lost at least 60%. It was brutal. I finally had to load him up in TVHM so that I could get him out of there.

I might have been able to pull it off with some different weapons.

To paraphrase Archer, "Eat a dick, Jackenstein."

[GreenGoo]

Sir Hammerlock's is done. Jackenstein can suck it! If I never see him again, I won't shed any tears. I lost $200k in respawn fees. The final time, I killed him in FFYL and downed him point blank with the SMG.

I just lost half a mil trying to get past the constructor and thresher just before Overlook, where the Thresher eats the moon transport beacon. I was playing Krieg, with the left tree capped and 1/2 way up hellborn. I have pretty much zero damage mitigation and/or defense, and the thresher has so many friggin' hit points in tvhm. I need to start slagging stuff, finally.

[TheMix]

Slagging definitely helps. But I can also show you an "exploit" that will make the thresher a cake-walk. If you want. Or tell you. Though it will require you to have an appropriate weapon.

If you are facing where the thresher first comes up and eats the beacon, there is a structure/building to the left. Once the beacon gets eaten, run around that building to the back right corner. If you stand against the wall at that corner and look back towards the "entrance" to the area, the thresher will keep popping up by that raised platform. He'll throw things at you, but as long as you don't step too far out from the wall, they won't hit you. You can plink away to your heart's content. Also, the robots that spawn in won't know where you are and will leave you alone. One more thing... it may be necessary to "lead" the thresher that way. So when the beacon first gets eaten, turn to the left and go around the left side of the building and then along the back. If you go along the right side of the building, then the thresher may not position properly.

You will need a weapon with some range. And it'll help to also have a slag weapon.

For the constructor, once you jump down on his side of the water and move towards the door to get him to spawn (I think you'll have to take out some weaker trash first), ignore him and run to the lever on the left by the bridge. You can then run back across the bridge to the other side. Most of the robots won't follow you. This will often make things a bit easier. Especially with a good sniper rifle.

[TheMix]

One more thing.... if you can get a nice homing slag grenade, you can skip worrying about a slag weapon. Depending on your level and whether you'd feel like it was cheating, I could probably hook you up with a magic missile grenade mod. That's pretty much all I run with now.

[GreenGoo]

Slagging definitely helps. But I can also show you an "exploit" that will make the thresher a cake-walk. If you want. Or tell you. Though it will require you to have an appropriate weapon.

If you are facing where the thresher first comes up and eats the beacon, there is a structure/building to the left. Once the beacon gets eaten, run around that building to the back right corner. If you stand against the wall at that corner and look back towards the "entrance" to the area, the thresher will keep popping up by that raised platform. He'll throw things at you, but as long as you don't step too far out from the wall, they won't hit you. You can plink away to your heart's content. Also, the robots that spawn in won't know where you are and will leave you alone. One more thing... it may be necessary to "lead" the thresher that way. So when the beacon first gets eaten, turn to the left and go around the left side of the building and then along the back. If you go along the right side of the building, then the thresher may not position properly.

You will need a weapon with some range. And it'll help to also have a slag weapon.

For the constructor, once you jump down on his side of the water and move towards the door to get him to spawn (I think you'll have to take out some weaker trash first), ignore him and run to the lever on the left by the bridge. You can then run back across the bridge to the other side. Most of the robots won't follow you. This will often make things a bit easier. Especially with a good sniper rifle.

Yeah, I eventually pulled it all the way back into the compound, found a spot it couldn't reach me and just emptied clip after clip into it. Took forever, even though my weapons run between 3 and 5k damage (sniper rifle is 7.5k). Used an electro pistol to burn the shield (which often just popped back up immediately) and I tried fire (being hellborn and all) without much luck, so I just switched to a straight 1.5k damage smg.

All the loaders that dropped that are there mostly to let you ffyl could kill me in about 4-6 shots, so when they dropped it was profanity time.

I haven't really needed to slag except a couple of times, but when I needed it, I really needed it, so it's time to find a decent weapon and/or grenade.

I'm actually borrowing the pre-sequel from my son and playing that now. I switch back to BL2 when he is using his steam account and I can't borrow any longer.

If you just die to the constructor you respawn on the other side of the bridge. Problem solved.

edit: Thanks for the offer, but I don't play often enough or care enough (about this character) to accept your offer for the magic missile. But I appreciate it in any case.

[KDH]

..... <snip> ... For the constructor, once you jump down on his side of the water and move towards the door to get him to spawn (I think you'll have to take out some weaker trash first), ignore him and run to the lever on the left by the bridge. You can then run back across the bridge to the other side. Most of the robots won't follow you. This will often make things a bit easier. Especially with a good sniper rifle.

You can also jump in the water when you first arrive at that locale, go around and come up on the console that gets blow'd-up and prevents the bridge from working .. you are now in position to prevent that from happening when the EXP-loaders show up ..

not that the other route is difficult

[TheMix]

..... <snip> ... For the constructor, once you jump down on his side of the water and move towards the door to get him to spawn (I think you'll have to take out some weaker trash first), ignore him and run to the lever on the left by the bridge. You can then run back across the bridge to the other side. Most of the robots won't follow you. This will often make things a bit easier. Especially with a good sniper rifle.

You can also jump in the water when you first arrive at that locale, go around and come up on the console that gets blow'd-up and prevents the bridge from working .. you are now in position to prevent that from happening when the EXP-loaders show up ..

not that the other route is difficult

Hmmm... Intriguing. The only thing I'd worry about then is getting mobbed with spawns. But I'll try that the next time I'm in the area.

[KDH]

... The only thing I'd worry about then is getting mobbed with spawns.

when you come up the ladder, face the closest door, that's where the vandal emerges ... but check your six immediately after ..

otherwise no more yellows to harsh your mellow

[Isgrimnur]

Lulled into a false sense of security by the theme of Tiny Tina's opening, I have already died twice in the initial area before getting to the central town.

[TheMix]

You haven't played Tina's little game before?

Let me help you.... It is hard. Hard! HARD!

Seriously, there are so many ways to die. Those skeleton archers at the beginning are brutal. I'm pretty sure they are incapable of missing.

[Isgrimnur]

Good to know. Good thing I have a slag turret.

And I love headshots. Makes boosting my melee stats against the melee attackers a lot easier.

[stessier]

Tina's is my next foray after I finish the first playthrough with Gaige. I think I'll either try her or Maya on Tina's world.

[GreenGoo]

I need to play Tina's DLC too.