Borderlands 3

[Grifman]

Also trying a melee IB build. It's... different. I miss my rockets and nuke. And, I had no problem staying alive in IB on M2. He held is own easily. Presumably the comments meant higher Mayhem levels.

I was using him on the Mayhem 1.0, level 2 and he was ok. But now I am playing Mayhem level 6 on Mayhem 2.0 and he just doesn't cut it. He can kill mobs but he takes damage very quickly and against bosses, they shields/armor/heath barely move.

[Genghis]

Started playing this last week. Got a Fl4k up to high 28ish and started an Amara who is catching up. I have a hate/like relationship with the game. With the right gun the game is a blast. With the wrong gun or bad guns the game is miserable. Fl4k build i was using was a fade build taking mostly +% gun damage nodes. He killed stuff rather effectively but was really squishy. I am hoping the Amara build that I am doing is a little tanker. I also found Fl4ks pet to be pretty much useless. Tried a few of them and they struggled to kill a white enemy solo.

[TheMix]

Don't forget about the chest on the ship. Unlike in BL2, you get quite a few items for your golden key (though the trade off is that you likely have WAY fewer keys). Anyway, if you are really hurting for a weapon, you might be able to get something decent to tide you over.

[TheMix]

Or ask in here. Some of us are notorious packrats that may (likely) have a weapon we can let you have to get you through a bad patch.

[Blackhawk]

I also found Fl4ks pet to be pretty much useless. Tried a few of them and they struggled to kill a white enemy solo.

My advice, unless you're going specifically for a pet build: use the Gunslinger jabber (or any jabber until you unlock that), as he'll stay away from the enemies, and put a point in the skill that allows him to revive you in combat. Then forget him.

[stessier]

I also found Fl4ks pet to be pretty much useless. Tried a few of them and they struggled to kill a white enemy solo.

I used Broodless (the spiderant) and gave him the fire ability (from the Orange path) and used the power that gave a nuclear blast that made him huge (the Green path ability). In his normal size, he didn't kill much, but he was a great distraction which gave me time to focus down other enemies. When he was huge, he could do some real damage (and started a lot of fires).

[Reemul]

I also found Fl4ks pet to be pretty much useless. Tried a few of them and they struggled to kill a white enemy solo.

My advice, unless you're going specifically for a pet build: use the Gunslinger jabber (or any jabber until you unlock that), as he'll stay away from the enemies, and put a point in the skill that allows him to revive you in combat. Then forget him.

Yeah this, I use him and he is a great reviver when I am struggling. Well worth it

[Tao]

My FLAK is now around level 34 and I have been using the Horned Skag upgrade with the Gamma Radiation ability. My Skag has no problem killing normal enemies on it's own. When I enter a fresh area with enemies he will run off and start killing and often times I just leave him to his own devices while I work on my own kills. I will just check his health bar occasionally in case he runs in to a Badass, which is about the only thing that dips his health in which case I will run over and assist with the kill or just hit Gamma Burst. I also tend to use Gamma Burst when there are a large number of enemies. My build is set up so that as I am hitting and killing stuff the pets health regenerates and vice versa. I also have the skill that makes him ultra tanky for a short duration if his health gets too low. I have only had the pet actually "die" and need to respawn two or three times and have had to run over and revive him a few times more than that when I wasn't paying attention. I tend to favor Cryo weapons whenever possible laying down suppression fire which slows enemies down or outright freezes them and then let the Skag pull them down for the kill. There have been a few times where using Gamma Burst and after a fight I have found legendary weapons on the ground that weren't from my kills meaning the pet solo'd something big enough to have an orange. This is still in the normal mode of the game with Cartel turned on, no Mayhem stuff yet.

[stessier]

Moze has saved the galaxy after 85 hours and at Level 48! I watched all the credits. There were A LOT...pretty sure it took 25 minutes to go through them all. Now back to Sanctuary to pilfer.

For comparison, FL4K just made it to TVHM in 22h 5m and hit Level 37 by entering the final vault. I did about 6 side missions and only about the same number of crew tasks. Compared to Moze, I felt like a hot knife going through butter - I was whirling death. It was a lot of fun.

Amara made it to TVHM in 25h 4m and hit Level 37 in the battle where Ava is protecting Tanis just before the final battle. I was a bit upset because the two annointed didn't drop a single item. Final battle wasn't too bad.

And now on to Zane.

[TheMix]

Oh. Word of warning on anointeds. Make sure to break them during the combat. Ideally as soon as possible. They "despawn" after a short (far too short, IMO) while. And on that fight I missed out because of the cut scene. When it ended they were gone.

[Blackhawk]

Huh, I've never seen that happen. I've had fights where, by the time the action stopped, there were five purple statues sitting around the battlefield, but I've never had one disappear.

Backpacks from loot tinks, on the other hand, I've seen despawn.

[Genghis]

So leveled amara up to 54ish in TVHM. Guns still make all the difference, more than abilities or skill tree really. Whenever my gun stops being effective just running Cartel revenge and getting a new weapon through there. There are three pretty broken weapons that drop that just mop up enemies. I haven't found Amara as that much tankier than FLAK. One thing that is kinda irritating is how the game handles ammo. Its fun running around blasting, then frustrating having to stop constantly to open ammo crates just to go to the next room and repeat. The constant ammo search just takes you constantly out of the fray. I would love to use heavy weapons and rifles more often, but the constant drain on ammo makes it almost pointless.

[TheMix]

Try Moze with the bottomless ammo tree. I'm running a splash damage/ammo regen build. With the right weapon, I never have to reload. Ever. It does spoil you though.

Also, which 3 weapons? I've found that the NoPewPew and the Yellowcake are ridiculously OP. But there aren't any others that I've been "collecting". Now I'm wondering if I should.

[TheMix]

Also, at 57 and Mayhem 2, Iron Bear still takes apart mobs. Maybe not faster than the Yellowcake, but pretty fast. And it lasts for a long time. I can clear multiple rooms/areas and still have time left. I've taken out multiple badasses and cartel bosses, with anointeds mixed in. The only thing I have to watch for are the anoiteds that put up the purple shield. Apparently it reflects the damage back. At least, those were the only times I've lost Iron Bear early.

[Blackhawk]

I'm working with a new Amara build that I found. It works off of phaselocking a group of enemies then hitting the main locked target with a gun with the "300% damage when enemies are over 90% health" anointment, with the result that the first found or two kills that enemy, and due to the linking effect, generally kills every enemy linked to them. It has been really, really effective, and that's with only a tiny fraction of the recommended gear.

Here is the skill tree

And here is the breakdown and gear

I recorded the video below playing with the kids on TVHM at Mayhem 4. Minor location spoilers for the event manor. Note that when I phaselock an enemy, every enemy nearby is linked with a glowing line, and that when I kill the main enemy, the others either die are are heavily damaged at the same time.

[Genghis]

Try Moze with the bottomless ammo tree. I'm running a splash damage/ammo regen build. With the right weapon, I never have to reload. Ever. It does spoil you though.

Also, which 3 weapons? I've found that the NoPewPew and the Yellowcake are ridiculously OP. But there aren't any others that I've been "collecting". Now I'm wondering if I should.

The OPQ is amazing as well. I have heard grease trap is close to the best gun in the game vs bosses if you run in groups, not very good solo. At low level NoPewPew trivializes everything but roaster. I have a yellowcake, but i don't use it much due to ammo usage.

[Genghis]

I'm working with a new Amara build that I found. It works off of phaselocking a group of enemies then hitting the main locked target with a gun with the "300% damage when enemies are over 90% health" anointment, with the result that the first found or two kills that enemy, and due to the linking effect, generally kills every enemy linked to them. It has been really, really effective, and that's with only a tiny fraction of the recommended gear.

Here is the skill tree

And here is the breakdown and gear

I recorded the video below playing with the kids on TVHM at Mayhem 4. Minor location spoilers for the event manor. Note that when I phaselock an enemy, every enemy nearby is linked with a glowing line, and that when I kill the main enemy, the others either die are are heavily damaged at the same time.

Thats similar to what i am doing with Amara. Doing mayhem 3, though i can kill stuff on Mayhem 6, just die more often.

[TheMix]

Try Moze with the bottomless ammo tree. I'm running a splash damage/ammo regen build. With the right weapon, I never have to reload. Ever. It does spoil you though.

Also, which 3 weapons? I've found that the NoPewPew and the Yellowcake are ridiculously OP. But there aren't any others that I've been "collecting". Now I'm wondering if I should.

The OPQ is amazing as well. I have heard grease trap is close to the best gun in the game vs bosses if you run in groups, not very good solo. At low level NoPewPew trivializes everything but roaster. I have a yellowcake, but i don't use it much due to ammo usage.

Ah. I just got my first OPQ, but I'm running a splash damage build, so I haven't tried it yet. I've got a couple of Grease Traps. It's good, but I haven't felt it was that good. Yellowcake is amazing. I've gone back to running with it in my fourth weapon slot for when I get in trouble. The key there is to try and move away from the enemies since you want it to have room to split.

[Grifman]

Try Moze with the bottomless ammo tree. I'm running a splash damage/ammo regen build. With the right weapon, I never have to reload. Ever. It does spoil you though.

Also, which 3 weapons? I've found that the NoPewPew and the Yellowcake are ridiculously OP. But there aren't any others that I've been "collecting". Now I'm wondering if I should.

Get the OPQ assault rifle from the Cartel and the Kaoson SMG from Captain Traunt. Those are two of the best, especially with the right annoints.

[Grifman]

Also, at 57 and Mayhem 2, Iron Bear still takes apart mobs. Maybe not faster than the Yellowcake, but pretty fast. And it lasts for a long time. I can clear multiple rooms/areas and still have time left. I've taken out multiple badasses and cartel bosses, with anointeds mixed in. The only thing I have to watch for are the anoiteds that put up the purple shield. Apparently it reflects the damage back. At least, those were the only times I've lost Iron Bear early.

IB really weakens at higher Mayhem levels because his armor and damage don't scale and there's nothing to increase them. However, GB has just said that this is one of the things they are going to fix soon, because IB is not a viable build at higher levels.

[TheMix]

Which really isn't a factor for me. I doubt that I'll push Mayhem levels. It just doesn't interest me.

[Blackhawk]

Which really isn't a factor for me. I doubt that I'll push Mayhem levels. It just doesn't interest me.

We aren't, either. We're just playing the second playthrough. When things get too easy (we never die, stuff dies so fast there's no challenge), we up the Mayhem a level. Eventually, the higher Mayhem gear makes it too easy again and we bump it another one. We're not pushing Mayhem for the sake of Mayhem.

[Blackhawk]

Still working my way through. Made the jump to Mayhem 5, and am thinking that next time might be 6. We're still one-shotting a lot of stuff. In a related note, certain side things are complete:

Spoiler:

[stessier]

Moze has saved the galaxy after 85 hours and at Level 48! I watched all the credits. There were A LOT...pretty sure it took 25 minutes to go through them all. Now back to Sanctuary to pilfer.

For comparison, FL4K just made it to TVHM in 22h 5m and hit Level 37 by entering the final vault. I did about 6 side missions and only about the same number of crew tasks. Compared to Moze, I felt like a hot knife going through butter - I was whirling death. It was a lot of fun.

Amara made it to TVHM in 25h 4m and hit Level 37 in the battle where Ava is protecting Tanis just before the final battle. I was a bit upset because the two anointed didn't drop a single item. Final battle wasn't too bad.

And now on to Zane.

And Zane makes it in 25h 29m and hit Level 37 right before taking on the last battle. Anointed still didn't drop anything above a green, though.

I liked playing all the characters. On to TVHM.

[Smoove_B]

This game is absurdly large! I just made it to the Devil's Razor and was stunned at yet another gigantic outdoor area to explore. I am way over-leveled (because I can't stop myself from doing side-quests) and fighting some of the bosses has been...interesting. Anyway, still cranking through and enjoying it tremendously. Wish I could pay to have my Night Hawkin' SMG leveled to me because it's hand's down my favorite gun in the game. I think I'm about +10 levels above it and it still works great, but I know that's going to end soon.

[TheMix]

Definitely should try some other guns. I finally shelved my Krakatoa and forced myself to try some other ones. I'm having a lot of fun with the Firestorm right now. I was also having a blast (heh) with the Echo (and for a while earlier with The Duc that is similar). But I had to shelve it a bit because it's cold and I'm running with the Mayhem cold mobs. Though since I'm running a splash build, it definitely works really well.

I've actually intentionally started shelving weapons when I find that I'm relying on them too much. The one exception is the Yellowcake. That's my Fight For Your Life weapon.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I've have been using other things, but I just keep going back to the Night Hawkin'. For example,it wasn't working at all against Hot Karl ( ) so I switched off to a radiation machine gun instead. I don't think I've really used sniper rifles or RPGs with Amara; mostly fighting at mid to close range is part of that, I suspect.

[Blackhawk]

What level are you? And are you on my Epic friends list?

[TheMix]

Have you found the Laser-Sploder from Torgue yet? I found a radiation one with my first character pretty early. I discovered that lasers are still awesome. And radiation is really good. And running a splash build made it even better. I had a lot of fun with that one.

[stessier]

So what is the deal with Anointed weapons? I'm playing Moze in TVHM, and the anoints focus on Iron Bear. Do they trigger as long as they are one of the four equipped when I'm in Iron Bear? Or is it only the active one when I jump into IB?

[TheMix]

So what is the deal with Anointed weapons? I'm playing Moze in TVHM, and the anoints focus on Iron Bear. Do they trigger as long as they are one of the four equipped when I'm in Iron Bear? Or is it only the active one when I jump into IB?

Pretty sure that it's only the weapon equipped. So if you want something specific, you have to make sure to equip that weapon before activating. Which is too much of a pain for me.

I've switched over to mostly focusing on keeping weapons with generic anoints (for example, people really like the "300% damage to enemies over 90% health). Then I will be able to use weapons with any of my characters.

[stessier]

So what is the deal with Anointed weapons? I'm playing Moze in TVHM, and the anoints focus on Iron Bear. Do they trigger as long as they are one of the four equipped when I'm in Iron Bear? Or is it only the active one when I jump into IB?

Pretty sure that it's only the weapon equipped. So if you want something specific, you have to make sure to equip that weapon before activating. Which is too much of a pain for me.

I've switched over to mostly focusing on keeping weapons with generic anoints (for example, people really like the "300% damage to enemies over 90% health). Then I will be able to use weapons with any of my characters.

Ok, cool. So far I think I've only found Green anoints. Do they go all the way up to legendaries?

[TheMix]

So what is the deal with Anointed weapons? I'm playing Moze in TVHM, and the anoints focus on Iron Bear. Do they trigger as long as they are one of the four equipped when I'm in Iron Bear? Or is it only the active one when I jump into IB?

Pretty sure that it's only the weapon equipped. So if you want something specific, you have to make sure to equip that weapon before activating. Which is too much of a pain for me.

I've switched over to mostly focusing on keeping weapons with generic anoints (for example, people really like the "300% damage to enemies over 90% health). Then I will be able to use weapons with any of my characters.

Ok, cool. So far I think I've only found Green anoints. Do they go all the way up to legendaries?

Oh definitely. I pretty much only use Legendaries (since they gave us so many). And most of them have anoints.

[Smoove_B]

What level are you? And are you on my Epic friends list?

37, and I'm playing on STEAM. I don't think I have any people friended on Epic, oddly enough.

Have you found the Laser-Sploder from Torgue yet? I found a radiation one with my first character pretty early. I discovered that lasers are still awesome. And radiation is really good. And running a splash build made it even better. I had a lot of fun with that one.

I have not, but it sounds cool. I did just turn off the Cartel stuff because it was overwhelming every time there was a fight. Maybe I'll enable it again and see if I can get some more Legendary weapon drops.

[TheMix]

The bonus to the Cartel is not more frequent legendary drops, but that you have a chance at some of the (currently) top weapons in the game. To really have a good shot, though, you'll have to assault the mansion and take out Joey. But, even if you don't go there, you do have a chance for having one of the mini-bosses warp in when you kill a Cartel member. And a chance for them to drop something. So... I guess, yeah, enable the Cartel content for better chance at some legendary drops.

The Laser-Sploder, however, is not a Cartel weapon. Just a heads up. And, unfortunately, it's a random world drop. So no farming.

[Blackhawk]

Ah, well my SHIFT name is Blackhawk3339. You should be able to friend me from Steam with that.

I'd be happy to toss you this level 41 Night Hawkin I'm sitting on.

[TheMix]

What level are you? And are you on my Epic friends list?

37, and I'm playing on STEAM. I don't think I have any people friended on Epic, oddly enough.

Have you found the Laser-Sploder from Torgue yet? I found a radiation one with my first character pretty early. I discovered that lasers are still awesome. And radiation is really good. And running a splash build made it even better. I had a lot of fun with that one.

I have not, but it sounds cool. I did just turn off the Cartel stuff because it was overwhelming every time there was a fight. Maybe I'll enable it again and see if I can get some more Legendary weapon drops.

Get to 57 and I have a Laser-Sploder you can have. Just had a second one drop. I also have a couple of level 57 Night Hawkins. So you are welcome to one of those.

[stessier]

Mayhem levels brought back the fun for me. Better weapon drops were just too rare for me at the standard TVHM level, but at Mayhem 2, a critical hit kill has a 10% chance to yield a loot splosion. Makes all the difference for me.

[TheMix]

Mayhem levels brought back the fun for me. Better weapon drops were just too rare for me at the standard TVHM level, but at Mayhem 2, a critical hit kill has a 10% chance to yield a loot splosion. Makes all the difference for me.

You sure you read that correctly? My recollection is that Loot Explosion is a 10% chance on kill and 100% chance on critical kill. It's a lot of fun for a while. But eventually I had to turn it off to make any progress. I have having to run back and sell so often that mobs would respawn. Terrible problem to have, I realize.

[Blackhawk]

Mayhem levels brought back the fun for me. Better weapon drops were just too rare for me at the standard TVHM level, but at Mayhem 2, a critical hit kill has a 10% chance to yield a loot splosion. Makes all the difference for me.

You sure you read that correctly? My recollection is that Loot Explosion is a 10% chance on kill and 100% chance on critical kill. It's a lot of fun for a while. But eventually I had to turn it off to make any progress. I have having to run back and sell so often that mobs would respawn. Terrible problem to have, I realize.

That interpretation is correct. 10%/100% on crit kill.

I've reached $99,999,999, and there is literally nothing but ammo to spend it on. I'm also at ~5,000 unspendable Eridium. At this point I only pick up items that sell for more than 50,000 or that I plan to use/bank. It prevents shop runs.