All Things Borderlands

[BrianS81177]

5 hours ago, Death From Above said:

I don't mind high end Tediore rocket launchers at all. First off all shooting a rocket then throwing the launcher behind it as ANOTHER ROCKET is hilarious, and second of all by rocket launcher standards they are quick reload.

That's exactly what I do with them. Shoot, reload and fire a free rocket ,repeat

[BrianS81177]

5 hours ago, J.T. said:

I also need to create a Siren, Gunzerker, and Assassin and play them long enough to unlock the achievements associated with their action skills.

Don't forget the Mechromancer and Psycho. 

[J.T.]

16 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Don't forget the Mechromancer and Psycho. 

I'll play them for fun but IIRC there are no achievements associated with using their action skills like there are with the original four Vault Hunters..

Okay, here's what went down during the commercials when RAW and Steelers / Redskins was on television.

• High Flying Hurler (10) - Kill a flying enemy with a Tediore reload.  Lucky me had a Tediore pistol in my inventory that I forgot to sell before shutting down on Thursday.   I FTed back to Southern Shelf and fired pot shots at the Rakks and then I threw my pistol at the first one that swooped.  Easy.
• Completed the Pretty Good Train Robbery side mission.  Okay, so the whole point of that was to give you $10K?  YES~!  THIS IS WHY WE DO SIDE MISSIONS~!
• All of the Badass Challenges in Tundra Challenge are complete.  I actually liked working on Badass Challenges here because if you wander around long enough, you will run across the shit you need to find.  You don't have to do anything crazy.
• All Badass Challenges in Friendship Gulag are complete.  I ran across the Cult of the Vault sigil while springing Roland out of lockdown.  All I had to do for the other challenge was wait until nightfall and jump through the spotlight beams from one of the guard towers.  I didn't stick around to fuck with the guards.
• Okay, so we're ready to set this off.  Tina remotely launches the badonkadonks (My sister was there for the "I got bored," part and laughed her ass off.) and I make my way up the conveniently ramp shaped train wreckage to go get this Vault Key..
• All Badass Challenges at the End of the Line are complete.  Cult sigil wasn't that hard to find.  RIP Wilhelm.  Poor asshole was no match for the Teapot caustic pistol.  Mother fucker melted like the Wicked Witch of the West.  I avoided accidentally killing Wilhelm's surveyors by shooting Wilhelm in the legs!  10 BADASS RANK FOR KILLING WILLHELM WITHOUT HURTING HIS SHITTY HELPERS~!  And there is another storyline achievement unlocked!  This evening is looking up!
• Mordecai, you drunken moron....  There is no Vault Key on this train.  Well, at least this Hyperion power core will help Sanctuary.
• DID THE FUCKING ANGEL JUST HEEL TURN ON MY ASS~???  THE SHIELD IS DOWN AND JACK's DEATH STAR LETTER H IS RAILGUNNING THE CRAP OUT OF THE CITY~!
• Wonderful.  I am left without a base of operations with a proper gambling establishment as Lilith and Roland turn Sanctuary into a fucking SHIELD helicarrier and get out of Dodge.  Meanwhile, I am stranded planetside with this traitorous AI.  "I know you’re angry at me right now, but we don’t have a lot of time."  Lady, angry does not even BEGIN to express how I feel at this moment.
• Claptrap needs me to go on a side missions to rough up some bandits.  I'm in.  I really really really need to shoot someone in the head right now.
• I head off to the Drydocks to blow up some furnaces so that the local bandits will freeze to death and then just as I blow up the last heating unit, I am zerg rushed by Psychos.... wearing snow hats?????  Too bad for you fleshies that I got this bomb ass Level 16 Purple Vladof spin rifle that does Fire Damage from a treasure chest at the Varkid Observatory...  Mission accomplished.  Die, Psychos, die...
• Poor stupid Claptrap thinks that the reason I am not laughing at his joke is because I do not have a sense of humor.
• No wonder the firefight at the Drydocks was so challenging a few days ago.  I wasn't supposed to be in this area for two or three story missions.  That's what I get for cheating to find the Cult of the Vault sigils, I guess.  Oh, well I'm 19th level now and these assholes weren't that much of a challenge.  No harm, no foul.
• Now I'm off to The Fridge.  As I unlock another story achievement, the Angel sheepishly says "We're not friends anymore, are we?"  YOU BET YOUR SWEET ASS WE''RE NOT FRIENDS ANYMORE~!  The entrance to The Fridge is blocked with two large chunks of ice and the Angel offers to help by turning on a couple of flame throwers to melt them.  I stand waaaaay the fuck back just in case the Angel goes rogue again.  Ding, I am Level 20 and have also unlocked another story mission achievement, but it is a bittersweet moment.
• Jack talks to me through my ECHO and gloats about using Angel to trick other Vault Hunters and how using her this time was waaaaay funnier than the last time.  Laugh it up, d-bag.  I will see you soon enough.
• Okay, I suppose ending tonight's session on a cliffhanger in front of a big scary door that has FINKS'S SLAUGHTER HOuSE written in blood on a sign above the entrance is as good of a way to quit for the night as any.  I guess I need to start looking for survival tips since I will obviously be doing this Circle of Duty 2.0 bullshit pretty soon.
• Fuck.  I cannot unlock the Challenge Accepted achievement without being in a co-op session as I think I need to trade an item to another player and I need to fight at least one duel to have completed at least Level One of the general challenges.  Oh well.  No Borderlands 2 platinum completion for me.

[BrianS81177]

Definitely play both. They're a lot of fun. And when you play as Krieg (the Psycho) leave him standing in one spot and listen to his dialogue. It's tremendous. 

[Death From Above]

Krieg is one of my favourite video game characters, period.

[BrianS81177]

2 hours ago, Death From Above said:

Krieg is one of my favourite video game characters, period.

I assume you've seen "A meat bicycle built for two"?

[Death From Above]

I liked it so much I pirated the video from Youtube.

[J.T.]

Well, fuck.  I may get my chance to play these extra characters a bit since my sister accidentally nuked my Axton playthough.  No harm, no foul because she didn't realize how far I was in and wanted to try the game for herself and I gave her permission to do that yesterday..

In the spirit of making lemonaide, I am going to take the opportunity to mess around a bit and fire up test drive games with Maya, Zer0, and Salvador and play until I unlock their Action Skill achievements and then maybe go back to playing Axton if I don't particularly care for any of the other character's style of play. 

I'll tinker with Krieg and Gaige after I beat the game with one of the main characters.

I started off the test runs with Maya and even video games are suckers for female characters.  I've blown up Midgemong dozens of times and this is the first time he's dropped his Orange loot for me.  I guess it was the way I had Maya's hair styled. 

This new gyrojet rifle compliments Phaselock perfectly, but it eats four AR rounds per micro-rocket so I still have a shotgun and auto-pistol in my backpack for when my AR ammo count gets low.. 

After I score 100 Phaselocks, I'll roll with Salvador and save Zer0 for last.  As much as I like Phaselock, I am pretty shit when it comes to Crowd Control characters so I probably won't stick with Maya and I am definitely not a Run And Gun zerg rusher like Salvadore. 

Zer0 and Axton are the characters that will probably mesh best with my Death From A Distance / Misdirection playstyle.  I just have to figure out if going invisible or the Saber turret is the better Panic Button power for this game.  Zer0's Deception skill and Sniper proficiency sings of the beloved Infiltrator class from Mass Effect, so that definitely sounds like my kinda thing.

 

[RIPPA]

God dammit - get a XBone and we can co-op till Andromeda

I am the only person who plays Overwatch and the server issues are pissing me off.

Nothing else is holding my attention and if something doesn't change I'm gonna end up buying Rise of Iron and I might as well slit my wrists

[J.T.]

You have as much interest in returning to Destiny as I do, Rippa, and I have heard too many crazy things (mostly bad) about Overwatch to go down that rabbit hole.

I've worked a shit ton of overtime lately so we'll see how much extra cash I can squeeze from the budget.

[J.T.]

Well it took no time at all to get 100 Phaselocks.  Phased and Confused (20) achievement unlocked!

The So Much Blood achievement?  Well......  let's just say I am working on it.  I started a new game with Salvador last night and as they say, well begun is half done... sorta..

The guys at Gearbox want so much for me to like Salvador as much as they do and I hate them for it.  I can see this experiment isn't going to go well, or more precisely I will probably be very happy when it is over. 

Unlike Axton and Maya's Action Skill achievements where I got them roughly around the time I arrived in Three Horns when I was 10th level-ish  or so, unlocking Salvador's Action Skill achievement is going to require a significant time investment.  

That is probably by design to get players to mess around with Salvador for longer than they might want to. There is a reason why the criteria for unlocking Salvador's AS achievement isn't something relatively straightforward like Kill 200 Enemies While Gunzerking

The only skills that extend Gunzerking time are Last Longer (Tier 2) and Yippie Ki Yay (Tier 4) from the Rampage tree which means I'll have to be at least 25th level before I can even make my first attempt at unlocking So Much Blood after successfully Gunzerking continuously for 90 seconds and I will have to pour all of the skill points I have at the time into the Rampage tree to maximize the benefits.

This shit is going to take a while and require more planning than I thought.

As a lowbie Gunzerker, I don't feel anywhere near as tanky as I did as Brick in the first game.   I find myself doing more running and gunning without the added benefit of being a good enough meat shield to survive close engagements with two or more enemies even when Gunzerking. 

It's definitely not the class for me, but I can see why traditional FPS rushers swear by Salvador.  I brought down Midgemong fast enough to get the Midgemong Has No Friends Badass Achievement as a Level 6, and I wasn't able to knock out all of the Southern Shelf - Bay challenges with Maya or Axton without having to come back at a higher level with much better weapons. 

Dual wielding a Jakobs shotgun and a Torque Explosion Damage spin rifle did ridiculous amounts of damage and standing there at point blank range critting at will was total bonus.  I asploded Midgemong before he even got a chance to leave the bar.  Fucker did not drop his Orange explodey rifle for me this time...

With Midgemong dead, it's time to get those Southern Shelf Badass Challenges knocked out and tackle Boom Bewm and Captain Flynt... again..

If there is any consolation this early in the game. I've got the kick ass gangsta braids look going on (those things are not dreadlocks), and found a skin that makes me look like I'm wearing blue jeans.

I was smart enough to have Maya put her Level 10 Oranges (Scorch's Fire Damage SMG and the Firehawk nova shield) in the Secret Stash, so they are waiting for Salvador once he gets to Sanctuary.  I just have to remember to stash them again for Zer0 rather than sell them.

[RIPPA]

I played the game as Salvador... and that was mainly because I was stubborn.

He wasn't what I was expecting and I wish I had played as someone else.

Fucking Veelox ruining my Zer0 playthrough

[J.T.]

Yeah, I am going to suffer through this Salvador chapter of my Borderlands 2 saga because I am stubborn and have OCD.

I am trying not to think about Veelox right now.  I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy playing as Zero and hearing Veelox's voice in my head while scoring headshots or shivving fools while under cover of optic camo will only fuck things up.

[RIPPA]

Well he ruined my playthrough because he dropped into my game and raced ahead and beat the first two bosses before I could even clean up the Berg

[J.T.]

12 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Well he ruined my playthrough because he dropped into my game and raced ahead and beat the first two bosses before I could even clean up the Berg

Yeah, our UK homeboy, Tony, did the same thing to me when he wanted to "power level" me with his Gaige and the only thing that accomplished was getting my Axton killed lots and lots and lots of times. 

The only think I could do was hide... and then he'd grab all of the good loot after all of the bandits were dead....

I think that is what caused me to rage quit the first time and not start playing this game again until now.   Also probably why I went online anon for two weeks straight.

I was not sad when I logged on one day and found that Tony had mysteriously unfriended me.

I'm definitely in this playthrough for the achievement.  I can't see myself beating the game with Salvador.  I would just die a lot and get Second Winds and scream at the sky in anger.

[RIPPA]

That incident is what prompted me to unfriend Veelox

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

That incident is what prompted me to unfriend Veelox

I think Veelox unfriended me by association after you unfriended him.

I did not shed any tears.  It was the opposite of watching the first half hour of Up.

[Gonzo]

Personally, I liked playing as Salvador. But I've always been more of a "just let me fucking shoot things" sort of player than someone that wants to do things with any sort of nuance.

[J.T.]

So I am up to the point in the Salvador Chronicles where I had to hunt down Firehawk.  Lilith is safely back in Sanctuary, Boll is dead (again), and now I am getting ready to explore Frostbite Canyon and do the Incinerator Cult mission chain.  I'm happy that for the most part, I remember the location of most of the Cult of the Vault sigls I've found up to now so I don't have to break out the YouTube On Smartphone for the time being.

My Gunzerker is 13th level now and the grind is getting real.  This class is not like Commando or the Siren where I can gravitate to a couple of favorite weapons and sell off the rest.  I have my slots set up so that my go-to Gunzerker dual weapons are a Blue Torque Explosion Damage assault rifle and the Orange Maliwan Fire Damage SMG I keep in the Secret Stash. and I also have a kick ass Purple Vladof Fire Damage launcher that I looted from a GOD-Liath I recently killed.  

So happy I figured out how Goliaths work so that I can try to farm them for loot and experience points.

I also have a couple of Green weapons (sniper rifle and auto-pistol) for situational use.  Sniping elemental barrels and killing four or five guys all at once never gets old.

I normally hate being a pack rat, but it seems like the more guns I have in reserve for Salvador the better.

This Level 4 Orange MIRV grenade that Boom Bewm dropped for me is still getting it done.  I am happy that I remembered the hard lessons of Borderlands 1 and paid more attention to the damage modifier rather than judged items purely by resale price and base damage. 

There are some Blue Level 10 grenade mods that do slightly more base damage than the one I have, but this thing has two MIRV cycles instead of one.  It is your own personal carpet bomb and it is disturbingly effective despite being the most ridiculously underleveled item in my arsenal, which goes to show that item levels aren't everything in this game.

I'll stop using it once I hit the last level of the EXPLOOOOOOSIONS! Badass Challenge for kills with a MIRV and start using a mod with an elemental damage type.  By then, I should be 15th or 16th level and the grenade mods that are my class level should start to keep pace with the Orange mod...

I have taken the WTFWBFD? (What The Fuck Would Big Fresh Do?) approach to combat and I say that with love and fist bumps.

Salvador regenerates ammo AND health when Gunzerking, so my usual strategy of dealing death from a distance does not play to the strength of this class  I find myself barreling in full tilt to draw out as many enemies as possible, hulking up, breaking out the double jammies, and just blasting whatever is in front of me to kibble and if I get dropped, I hope I left at least one enemy alive to massacre for a Second Wind. 

It ain't pretty, but it usually works.  Key word.... usually. 

I'm still not as meat shield-y as think Salvador should be, but Bloodshot bandits are dying in droves and I survive 99.99% of the time when attempting something dumb like Gunzerking and charging two Badass Psychos.

Also, I was SMART for once.  When I was working on the Kill The Assassins side mission and I got to the one I had to kill with a melee attack I thought to myself, "Doesn't this Orange SMG I've got have a bayonet on the end that does extra shiv damage?"  *shank* *melee damage kill criteria met*  YES~! A SQUALL OF VIOLENCE~!

I will not get this rootin' tootin' shootin' little mother fucker to 25th level soon enough.  After I finally unlock So Much Blood, I can play as Zer0 and will probably enjoy myself 10000000% more. 

If not, then I have heard that unlocking Zer0's Action Skill achievement is fairly simple, so I will game with him long enough to get Unseen Predator and re-start with Axton and roll along until I finally beat the game....

... and then I have all of that Borderlands 2 DLC campaign content to slug through....  Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep alone was nearly two GBs.

[J.T.]

Okay, so class mod skins. 

Axton has a Go-Pro on his shoulder and Maya carries around a book of spells. 

I assume that the things attached to Salvador's bandoliers are ammo boxes and I haven't played Krieg but that is obviously a circular saw blade I see.

I have no idea what those items for Gaige or Zer0 are supposed to represent.

[Gonzo]

4 hours ago, J.T. said:

Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep alone was nearly two GBs.

And it's right up there with Citadel for the greatest piece of DLC attached to any game in this console cycle.

[J.T.]

Tina's my favorite character in the game.  I didn't need to see this:

in order to go all in with Dragon's Keep.

[Death From Above]

Backtracking just a bit, but here's the thing with Salvador.

 

Going around places like twitch, youtube videos etc. all you will hear is Salvador is OP. This is true, but it honestly only applies in endgame, if you have both vault hunter packs to reach the level 72 cap and OP levels, and only THEN if you actually have the gear to make it real. Salvador is BY FAR the most gear-dependent character because of the nature of his action skill. Gunzerking with two shitty guns honestly doesn't do anything for you and is easily the weakest action skill. Gunzerking with an OP8 Grog Nozzle and Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold... not so much. He's also a guy that really needs certain skills to all synergize together to really get the most out of him. Individually a lot of his skills are pretty weak, it's only as it all starts to come together and they mesh well that he passes a point of no return into actually being strong. Sal's skill tree is more of a Spider Web Effect than a case of any one skill that tips everything, aside from the Money Shot/Inconceivable combination.

 

Honestly, in terms of character strength I'd split them into different groups. 1) Normal difficulty (essentially "how easy is this for new players") 2) True Vault Hunter Mode through UVHM to pre-Endgame  3) Endgame, OP Digistruct Peak and Raid Bosses.

 

Salvador is only even *good* in one of these three, really, group 3. Where he is very easily the strongest. Over the rest of the game? Honestly I think he's pretty junk in normal difficulty, might be a good case he's actually the weakest. Group 2 he's better because his skills start to synergize more but he's still not even remotely close to being as good a mobber as, say, Release the Beast Krieg and anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. A lot of people are basing their entire evaluation of character strength only on endgame, which is a complete mis-representation of how all the characters actually work in practical terms as you're building them from 1-72.

[Death From Above]

6 hours ago, J.T. said:

Okay, so class mod skins. 

Axton has a Go-Pro on his shoulder and Maya carries around a book of spells. 

I assume that the things attached to Salvador's bandoliers are ammo boxes and I haven't played Krieg but that is obviously a circular saw blade I see.

I have no idea what those items for Gaige or Zer0 are supposed to represent.

Gaige's is a school lunchbox. Zero I have never quite figured out. Some sort of blade thing he wears on his arm, I think?

[J.T.]

The Salvador Experiment continues.  He's level 16 now.  9 more levels to grind before I attempt to unlock this achievement.

So, I'm all done with my misadventures with Ellie in The Dust right now and I just started working on the Rescue Roland bit last night.  I wasn't successful in rescuing Roland from W4R-D3N as Axton and had to chase him down to Friendship Gulag for Rescue Roland Part 2.  I was under the impression that the game is rigged so that you cannot beat the Constructor in a stand-up fight and the supplementary trip to Friendship Gulag to break Roland out of prison is required.

I found out that it's not.

As Salvador I managed to bring W4R-D3N down at the Bloodshot Ramparts before it could abscond with Roland.  Dual wielding a Dahl Shock Damage SMG and a Maliwan Corrosive Damage auto-pistol was pretty effective.  I almost stopped shooting because I did not expect to win... and found myself winning?.

I remembered how to complete all of the Badass Challenges for the Stronghold and the Ramparts, so I got most of that shit done all in one shot.  Yep, I still haven't knocked anyone into the whirlpool of doom yet.  I took out the Rats for Tannis and now have a decent Slag shotgun that is Level 15.

So now it is off to Tundra Express to deal with this train deal but first, I have to go and do this AI side mission again.  This time I will probably pick the shotgun. 

I am still not crazy about this playstyle, but now that I have skills that are synergizing, I am getting things dead a lot more effectively than before.

I finally sold my Level 4 Orange MITV.  Level 15 enemies not dying immediately told me it was time to buy a grenade mod closer to my level.  The fact that this mod was effective up to this time is pretty remarkable.

Oh and TEDIORE ROCKET LAUNCHERS ARE SO MUCH FUN~!!!!