Why do they exist? For OP8 melee zero, they are the most dangerous enemy. What is the purpose of them?
Sorry for no screencap, but just found 2 barrels literally next to each other.
Why, to make us mad, of course. 
In all seriousness, they do need to be fixed. They do a hell of a lot of damage to the player later on, all the while doing little to no damage to the enemies. Something’s not right about that.
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They do the same damage but enemies just have a lot more health than you do.
That’s what I figured, so I am wondering if it would be possible to scale the damage that the barrels do depending on what is taking damage from the barrel. For instance, enemies would take more damage from barrels, and the player would take the same amount of damage as they have been.
I don’t think that would be possible, barrels are dumb for the same reasons dueling is.
Just look out for them and take them out before you enter the room, chain lighting works well on them and melee zer0’s usually have that.
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Yep, that’s what I’ve been doing. I think I sometimes blame barrels after killing myself with my own kunai. They do do way too much damage though, that’s for certain.
I’ll preface this by saying I personally had nothing to do with the design process or placement of the barrels, so this is just conjecture on my part. That said, another aspect of the barrels is that they add a strategic element to encounters. Depending on your build (melee Zer0 for example), you may have to account for the barrels when you’re planning how you’re going to approach an engagement. This could affect not only where you choose to take cover, but also how you plan to engage/control the movements of the enemies so that you can take advantage of the barrels as a damage source.
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I’m with Joe there, when I’m watching people play on youtube or twitch I kinda judge their skill of the game partly with how they deal with barrels.
You have the people who are hyper aware of them and destroy everyone, or people that run into them all the time. Of course there is a huge middle ground.
Of course this is one more reason why I always try to talk people out of power leveling, barrels are one of those things you have to learn to deal with as your character. There are so many factors but if you play a character from 1 to 70 and then level up to op8 with peak runs and farming inbetween you should know your character and build inside and out.
Barrels still will do a ton of damage but at this point you should know the maps, roughly where they are and how you deal with them.
As Maya scorn and phaselock often take care of them but I make sure to shoot any left over ones, I see melee zer0’s often throw chain lighting or pop a few slag pimp shots into them before entering the room. Melee Kreig really needs to deal with them as well, while hellborn FOTFH K not so much worry.
To me its all part of the strategy, I don’t know if I want them going forward, but BL2 is old enough they are not going anywhere so learning to use them to your advantage is best.
As a damage source to enemies, they really aren’t useful due to enemies having much more health than the player. If the dot was fierce enough to kill enemies, players would suffer even more. (Though op8 is already all about healthgating). I’m not demanding a removal of every single barrel in the game, but I wish they would be more balanced. This far in the game’s lifecycle, I’ll just accept that as an attribute of the game, and I’m fully able to cope with that.
Yeah I was talking primarily about zero, other characters like to tank with millions of health.
Slag barrels are the only ones I find useful. I see myself often popping a slag barrel close to an enemy with kunai and applying slag in deception with more certainty than kunai has to offer.
They are basically some sort of environmental hazard the player has to navigate through or deal with. You can use barrels when the enemy is nearby but that tend to be less situational than I want it to be, but that’s not a big deal really.
I like the barrels a lot on the Clap Trap DLC, I think they are going in the right direction there. The barrels keep re-spawning and their element randomly change. It would be cool to see a transfusion/shieldfusion barrel where it will heal/recover shield.
The other thing I like with the claptrap DLC are the floating Health/Corrosive boxes you can shoot during combat for some aid. They do not pose any threat while still helping you in combat.
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I will take note of barrels without bursting them before going into an area, because they really don’t pose too much of a threat. I like to phaselock someone near them and watch them get DOTted, but at the same time, shedding a DoT at OP8 is still a simple matter of getting a kill for Maya’s shield regen or phaselocking someone for 5% health back per second and transfusion trails. For me, it’s a risk worth taking. I like laughing at enemies. Plus, those fire barrels are so effective against loaders after they trigger cloudkill off my antagonist.
Reiss: Wake me up when I’m not on Pandora anymore.
Translation: I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with any more damn barrels…
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A few hours and one death to a barrel later (my friend got payback for my running him over while he was in FFYL) and I think they should be REMOVED FROM THE ■■■■■■■GAME. Nah I’m kidding it was freakin’ hilarious. Idk what peoples’ problem with them is.
Just please NEVER remove them !!
Because in co-op game, it’s our funniest way to down a partner with the famous Barrel’s Surprise Shot 
It has turned in some kind of tradition in our gameplay !! 
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Lol I sometimes do that to people who are bad teammates that always rush in and cause trouble, I just down them be for they down themselves.
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