Borderlands 2 release date and preorder

[zinfamous]

getting my butt kicked by Bnk3r and it's costing me piles of cash from the NewU.

I've also started a Zero and at level 6--this seems to be more my style--more similar to the Siren from BL1 than the Siren in BL2. Is it worth it to trait into the mele/action skill line for end game?

It seems like you would be able to put enough into the first 3 tiers for sniper rifle as well as focus on the mele line. That final trait for the mele line looks sick.

 

[diesbudt]

getting my butt kicked by Bnk3r and it's costing me piles of cash from the NewU.

I've also started a Zero and at level 6--this seems to be more my style--more similar to the Siren from BL1 than the Siren in BL2. Is it worth it to trait into the mele/action skill line for end game?

It seems like you would be able to put enough into the first 3 tiers for sniper rifle as well as focus on the mele line. That final trait for the mele line looks sick.

If you do a good enough melee build, you can literally melee 1 shot something, then get thrown back into stealth and repeat for many kills.

Its an interesting playstyle if you like close encounters.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> getting my butt kicked by Bnk3r and it's costing me piles of cash from the NewU

You can cheese it by hiding down near the vending machines, I think the safe spot is where the shielded Hyperion door is.

Also, after you beat him there is a new opening to a red chest somewhere on the lower walkways -- the same spot? I think it was elsewhere.

 

[zinfamous]

> getting my butt kicked by Bnk3r and it's costing me piles of cash from the NewU

You can cheese it by hiding down near the vending machines, I think the safe spot is where the shielded Hyperion door is.

Also, after you beat him there is a new opening to a red chest somewhere on the lower walkways -- the same spot? I think it was elsewhere.

funny thing--i was cheesing him on my first attempt. Standing on the out ring while he hovered out there.

noticed he wasn't moving, just sitting there taking hits and not attacking. I was like, man, this is retarded easy and stupid. GJ gearbox! Got him to 1% or less health after using every damn bullet in my arsenal (because they were just regular shots on his hull.

Then I couldn't kill him, no more damage. Saw that it was a common bug and required reset!

At least, it doesn't reset you to the beginning of the fight like I thought it would. Bnk3r isn't as much of a problem as the adds are. I've gotten him to around 25% health when some unseen exploding loader suicides me from behind, while I'm scoped, and of course there is no target anywhere to get a second wind. that's what keeps killing me.

I'm all about cheesing it at this point. I'll try that trick. Deal with the challenge in a tougher playthrough. My guns are now a bit underleveled anyway.

 

[OCNewbie]

getting my butt kicked by Bnk3r and it's costing me piles of cash from the NewU.

I've also started a Zero and at level 6--this seems to be more my style--more similar to the Siren from BL1 than the Siren in BL2. Is it worth it to trait into the mele/action skill line for end game?

It seems like you would be able to put enough into the first 3 tiers for sniper rifle as well as focus on the mele line. That final trait for the mele line looks sick.

Particularly to the bolded, you are spot on. I have a lvl 32 Zer0, and really love that skill. The final skill (I forget the name of it) in the center tree (Cunning, I think?) is pretty awesome also.

From reading the official gearbox BL2 forums, it appears that melee is the preferred route to go for "end game" for the Assassin/Zer0.

Check it out if you'd like: http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/forumdisplay.php?f=152

 

[Aikouka]

getting my butt kicked by Bnk3r and it's costing me piles of cash from the NewU.

Go onto the circular platform, go up the stairs in that hallway, and stay near the red chest. I've never died on BNK3R using that technique with any of my characters.

 

[zinfamous]

Go onto the circular platform, go up the stairs in that hallway, and stay near the red chest. I've never died on BNK3R using that technique with any of my characters.

I'll try this and what Dave said. Although, hanging out by that chest, I have been ambushed by exp loaders and knocked off the platform to my death.

Surprisingly, I get tunnel vision after spending so much time in scope view

 

[DaveSimmons]

I've killed it 6-8 times now and it's always the adds that get me if I die -- either knocking me off the walkway into a long fall, or one of them triggering FFYL as it dies with no one else around.

 

[Aikouka]

I'll try this and what Dave said. Although, hanging out by that chest, I have been ambushed by exp loaders and knocked off the platform to my death.

Surprisingly, I get tunnel vision after spending so much time in scope view

That's the one nice thing about the Mechromancer. You just toss your bot out and let him handle the loaders for awhile, and then pick them off a little after the bot finally runs out (takes awhile if you have the duration boost upon kill talent).

 

[bguile]

I've also started a Zero and at level 6--this seems to be more my style--more similar to the Siren from BL1 than the Siren in BL2. Is it worth it to trait into the mele/action skill line for end game?

It seems like you would be able to put enough into the first 3 tiers for sniper rifle as well as focus on the mele line. That final trait for the mele line looks sick.

Ironically, Maya makes for a better sniper than zero. She can score more consistant high damage crits than zero. Zero's melee is a lot of fun, but its gear dependant imo. Luckily the gear is pretty easy to get since its quest related.

 

[OCNewbie]

Here's a pretty badass video of a lvl 61 melee Zer0 with the final skills for both the Cunning and Bloodshed trees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WwOTm4j7krc

 

[zinfamous]

Here's a pretty badass video of a lvl 61 melee Zer0 with the final skills for the Cunning and Bloodshed trees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WwOTm4j7krc

well, shit. I guess that is exactly what I want. stupid siren in BL2 Guess I will finish her first playthrough then focus on Zero. ...sucks to go through the game twice on that first playthrough, though, before getting to the second. But maybe if I can unlock Ruin on her, I will be happy again.

and wow--meleing the constructor to death with no shield. I've gotten better in those fights, but those assholes still raise the BP whenever they jump in.

 

[OCNewbie]

and wow--meleing the constructor to death with no shield. I've gotten better in those fights, but those assholes still raise the BP whenever they jump in.

He technically has a shield, but the shield's massive roid/melee damage bonus only applies when the shield is depleted. He's also getting back massive amounts of health when he attacks with his Rubi weapon (it gets back 12% of all damage inflicted when you have it in your hand, even grenade or gun damage).

I agree though, those constructors are vicious and still scare me. Apparently you can "cheese" them by getting behind them as I guess they can't rotate or turn to face you.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Constructors usually only get me when I get impatient and try to take too many shots before hiding behind cover. Or if there is no cover available against their rocket barrage.

Otherwise, "go for the eyes Boo!"

I haven't tried a melee Zer0 yet though.

 

[Elfear]

Here's a pretty badass video of a lvl 61 melee Zer0 with the final skills for both the Cunning and Bloodshed trees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WwOTm4j7krc

I tried UVHM with a Zer0 sniper build and I was getting my butt handed to me. Low-level enemies took 3-4 headshots with a good sniper rifle and enemies that rushed at you I couldn't get away from fast enough before they'd kill me in two hits.

I saw the melee build referenced in the video and gave it a try. Holy crap! It was like a whole new character. I can wade into a bunch of tough enemies and lay waste fairly quickly. The key as mentioned above is the gear and skills combo. You need Rubi's Evisceration and a good shield (I use the Love Thumper but other's have used Hide of Terramorphous with good success). I also use a shock grenade mod with zero fuse time to take my shields all the way down so my roid damage is activated immediately.

I'm still getting used to the play style and end up dying every once in awhile. Usually it's because I come out of Deception with enemies who are far away and they just shoot me down since I have no shield. I can't get to them fast enough to take advantage of the health regen from massive melee damage.

 

[Aikouka]

well, shit. I guess that is exactly what I want. stupid siren in BL2 Guess I will finish her first playthrough then focus on Zero. ...sucks to go through the game twice on that first playthrough, though, before getting to the second. But maybe if I can unlock Ruin on her, I will be happy again.

and wow--meleing the constructor to death with no shield. I've gotten better in those fights, but those assholes still raise the BP whenever they jump in.

If you enjoy a run-n-gun style, here's a video that I captured (and I think I linked awhile ago) in Lynchwood killing a ton of enemies (and almost dying at one point ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqK1mBR-LHQ

 

[edro]

Every time I have killed BNK3R, it has been from the Bore glitch. (As Zero)
I just keep sniping him for minutes on end, then randomly, a single bullet makes the "brrrraaapapapapappapap" sound (hitting thousands of crits simultaneously) and he dies.

Bore is awesome!

 

[zinfamous]

I saw the melee build referenced in the video and gave it a try. Holy crap! It was like a whole new character. I can wade into a bunch of tough enemies and lay waste fairly quickly. The key as mentioned above is the gear and skills combo. You need Rubi's Evisceration and a good shield (I use the Love Thumper but other's have used Hide of Terramorphous with good success). I also use a shock grenade mod with zero fuse time to take my shields all the way down so my roid damage is activated immediately.

Question about that build--could be that I don't understand where these points go in each tier.

Why the 2 points in Be Like Water and not in Headshot from the Sniping Tier? It seems like that would be a huge boost to crit hit damage 8%--vs the 12% regular damage you get from mele with the conditional on a gun shot (from BLW). Is that crit damage from Headshot only for sniping? I wouldn't think it is...

....is it that you have a low crit chance with this build? Actually, I see no skills for Zero that increase crit %....that blows. Didn't realize that before. I think the Siren is loaded with them, no? Is this why someone mentioned earlier that Siren makes better use of Sniper rifles than Zero?

oh derp--I see where I am goofing. There is no crit chance, right? Criticals are target based in BL (basically head shots and other mob-specific weak points).

OK, then...so with the mele build, are you basically getting a low abundance of critical targets? From the videos, it seems that you're just running around and popping off as many hits as you can, as soon as you're in range, so criticals aren't really much of a concern?

 

[zinfamous]

He technically has a shield, but the shield's massive roid/melee damage bonus only applies when the shield is depleted. He's also getting back massive amounts of health when he attacks with his Rubi weapon (it gets back 12% of all damage inflicted when you have it in your hand, even grenade or gun damage).

I agree though, those constructors are vicious and still scare me. Apparently you can "cheese" them by getting behind them as I guess they can't rotate or turn to face you.

Oh right. I knew he had a shield, just the fact that he went at it with it depleted. I know that is how the build works...just that the concept of facing one, close, without a shield, terrifies me at the moment.

As to cheesing it--I discovered that on my first encounter with one, the mission where you rescue Roland (the second part of mission--failed the first one because, well, wasted by constructor on 3rd attempt so they moved him to the prison). After being owned by that thing 6 times, I eventually got pissed and ran right at it and found myself behind it--basically using it for cover from a badass loader. I unloaded my corrosive SMG and watched as it could neither move to face me or damage me with any attack. seemed...too easy.

Every time I have killed BNK3R, it has been from the Bore glitch. (As Zero)
I just keep sniping him for minutes on end, then randomly, a single bullet makes the "brrrraaapapapapappapap" sound (hitting thousands of crits simultaneously) and he dies.

Bore is awesome!

heh, I finally beat bnk3r on my first attempt yesterday after reading the suggestions here. I tried both safe spots, but got bored with the vending machine one quickly because the boss moves too often, then I just got bored standing by the chest up top. I found that focusing fire at all times with my corrosive SMG, rather than waiting to snipe its guns and weak spot when available was much better over all. Also, more mix of phaselock on the guns to one shot them with minimal targeting helped. I've been doing that on threshers anyway. The loaders weren't much of a problem--in fact, they really didn't spawn all that often on that run. Maybe I was suddenly lucky?

The Angel fight was sweet.

The two things I really like about this one more than the first is that it actually has a storyline--mostly because the characters are conceived quite well and executed perfectly.

The humor is also better overall.

 

[Aikouka]

3 Keys (I think): W3C33-JBXC6-WBZJJ-333JT-XHSHX

Commando Class Mod: 5JKBJ-K9WHW-WBZTJ-T3TTB-TW9HR

The humor is also better overall.

Eh, I thought the humor was much worse in the sequel. It kind of reminds me of Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder, "You never go full retard!" They went full retard with some of the humor. At least for me, some comedy really walks a really fine line between funny and stupid, and when you cross into the latter, it's just incredibly groan inducing.

I do think that they did a better job with making a more engaging story, but it seems like that's the only issue with the first game that they fixed. There are still annoying UI bugs that they've never fixed just like in the original. They haven't touched the talent trees at all while increasing the number of points. They ignore making enemies engaging and difficult and instead resort to turning them into giant bullet sponges. It just comes across as lazy.

 

[zinfamous]

Yeah, there are still plenty of the same annoying bugs.

But, I don't know--I think Jack is downright hilarious. And I pretty much disliked Tropic Thunder, so I'm not seeing it I guess I like the Goliaths and their sad sack banter. And the mobs that surround the stupid nomads with shields "You are the worst leader--ever!"


I spend maybe 2 minutes just crouching in a corner listening to an un-aggroed psycho ramble on endlessly about things. I found it particularly brilliant, because it wasn't 3 canned responses over and over. It was a no-holds-barred rant that went on, uninterrupted.
Crap--I think I'm hitting the 50 hour mark in this game, already. sad. ....but I'm still chuckling on a regular basis.

As for the bullet sponges. Yeah, Not fun. But i"m not even out of playthrough 1 yet, so I've barely experienced it. I can only assume that is what you run into late in the second playthrough and in the DLC.

 

[KidNiki1]

3 Keys (I think): W3C33-JBXC6-WBZJJ-3333JT-XHSHX

W3C33-JBXC6-WBZJJ-333JT-XHSHX

where ever you copied that from, someone went a little '3' happy there

 

[Bill Brasky]

W3C33-JBXC6-WBZJJ-333JT-XHSHX

where ever you copied that from, someone went a little '3' happy there

Expired for me already

 

[Aikouka]

But, I don't know--I think Jack is downright hilarious. And I pretty much disliked Tropic Thunder, so I'm not seeing it I guess I like the Goliaths and their sad sack banter. And the mobs that surround the stupid nomads with shields "You are the worst leader--ever!"


I spend maybe 2 minutes just crouching in a corner listening to an un-aggroed psycho ramble on endlessly about things. I found it particularly brilliant, because it wasn't 3 canned responses over and over. It was a no-holds-barred rant that went on, uninterrupted.
Crap--I think I'm hitting the 50 hour mark in this game, already. sad. ....but I'm still chuckling on a regular basis.

I don't think I've ever really listened to the banter. My biggest problem is Claptrap. He went from being silly but loveable in the first game to downright annoying as hell. That was a bummer alone because I like Claptrap! I have his poster and the figurine.

You know what my sign is that I've been playing this game too much? Whenever I say, "I'll survive" in real life, my first thought after that is, "You won't!"

As for the bullet sponges. Yeah, Not fun. But i"m not even out of playthrough 1 yet, so I've barely experienced it. I can only assume that is what you run into late in the second playthrough and in the DLC.

It's a little worse in Playthrough 2, but they really ramped it up in Playthrough 3. You pretty much have to use a slag weapon because they upped the multiplier and things have so much health.

W3C33-JBXC6-WBZJJ-333JT-XHSHX

where ever you copied that from, someone went a little '3' happy there

That would be me typing it from Twitter on my phone! Thanks for catching that.

 

[OCNewbie]

Question about that build--could be that I don't understand where these points go in each tier.

Why the 2 points in Be Like Water and not in Headshot from the Sniping Tier? It seems like that would be a huge boost to crit hit damage 8%--vs the 12% regular damage you get from mele with the conditional on a gun shot (from BLW). Is that crit damage from Headshot only for sniping? I wouldn't think it is...

....is it that you have a low crit chance with this build? Actually, I see no skills for Zero that increase crit %....that blows. Didn't realize that before. I think the Siren is loaded with them, no? Is this why someone mentioned earlier that Siren makes better use of Sniper rifles than Zero?

oh derp--I see where I am goofing. There is no crit chance, right? Criticals are target based in BL (basically head shots and other mob-specific weak points).

OK, then...so with the mele build, are you basically getting a low abundance of critical targets? From the videos, it seems that you're just running around and popping off as many hits as you can, as soon as you're in range, so criticals aren't really much of a concern?

Regarding melee crits: Skills and bonuses to crit % or damage don't apply to melee crits. Melee crits are a flat 2x modifier. Now, you can greatly increase the base damage of a melee attack, but melee crits are fixed at 2x damage (from all I've read just recently).

ETA: Another thought: There's something in this game apparently labeled "health gate" or "health gating", where apparently even if you're lvl 1, no single enemy's attack, even if it's the toughest boss in the game, can take you from above 50% health to dead in one hit. So if you can rapidly gain health, and at least get above 50% health, you won't die. If you'll notice in that video I linked earlier, the player gets super low in health, down to just a few percentage points of his total hp pool, and this happens multiple times. The reason for this is health gating. He should have died most likely, but health gating prevented it.