But what about Axton

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

TL;DWTRTWT
Axton has bad skills like the other characters. Why not fix him too?

So, I apologize if this has been addressed and also if this is in the works, but like the title says what about Axton. I feel like a lot of his skills need a looking at. I wouldn’t have even brought it up but for the fact GBX came back and did a pass through of what I can assume are the most popular characters that are not OVERpowered as $#!& (Salvador). I know Axton isn’t super popular but I played roland then axton and wilhelm. I like the idea of the class. So…

-Anyway,the way his HP scales before COM bonuses or how %HP bonuses scale the penalty on turtle shield (as far as I could test at least. please correct me if I am wrong). By my estimation with both of these things changed I could run a full Pangolin Hoplite and still healthgate if I had the right build. Stuff like health relics would have to be looked at too though in case they become overpowered with %HP regen. Axton has 65% boost possible in his tree so it could get out of hand.

-Also how horrific the laser sight is on turret. Looks awesome to me but the aiming is already slow and sketchy enough when mag locked on walls and ceilings. Just make it have a chance to body crit like nisha and be done with it.

Crisis Management, Overload, Last Ditch Effort, are jokes and should be changed. I don’t know anyone that takes them seriously.

-CManagement is only really OK on a rough rider (on maybe the best shield user in game…).
-Overload is meh and almost never taken.
-Last ditch would be great if it were multiplicative, but everything I have tried showed that not to be the case. I have tested it in normal mode with non elemental gun before and after LEG Soldier COM.

-I can’t for the life of me figure out how Grit works or what that % is actually doing. I can go down on first try or GritString for 2 minutes straight. Before we get intellectual, I have read threads and I understand math at a functional level. I just don’t like skills that don’t tell me what they are actually doing. Go 11/5 grit and tell me the percentage is correct. I’ve heard it has multiple “rolls”, or that percent is straight wrong, that RNG just works that way, nothing really definitive.

-Phalanx Shield has uses but could be better with numeric or mechanic changes.

-Double Up hurts its dps on “slagged type” enemies and doesn’t actually get the full Slag bonus on normal enemies (the exact thing its there to produce. Bad synergy is bad).

Don’t get me wrong, Axton will always be my favorite character and BL2 is great. But to come back after all this time and skip some of the oddest, vaguest, poorly designed skills just kind of hurts. I’m glad the other characters got some QOL but again what about Axton.

This turned into a book sorry!!!

WAIT!!! NO IM NOT!!! deal widdit deal widdit #dealwiddit

#2

All of those things are harder to fix than ajusting the numbers on rank based skills like they did for Gaige and Maya.

Before you mention the change to Zero, they got to skip the game balance part of that change because they had months of gameplay to look at.

1 Like
#3

Agreed somewhat. Some of them are rank based skills and could be changed. Phalanx shield for instance. Turret damage overall is pretty horrific in OP8. That should be a pure numeric change as well. I realize that wasn’t in my OP but if we are talking QOL that could be pure numeric bumps thats another.

The zero change (at least Kunai) ended in a wash pretty much. Zero is probably my least played so I can’t say too much about it. I’ve gone OP8 on all of them (Axton 3 times soon to be 4).

Also Hoplite is just a pet peave of mine. Doesn’t pertain to Axton solely. Just my favorite shield that can’t be used past a 2 part Anshin OP6 variant.

#4

Already something similar to this. And yes, people have asked for Axton buffs as well.

#5

there was actually a huge discussion about this a week or so ago, the general verdict was:
¯_(ツ)_/¯

#6

I didn’t see the thread can you link it

#7

ACNAero linked it

#8

Crisis Management basically just helps in FFYL, like LDE. Overload is awesome for an assault rifle build, why are people complaining about it? 10% per point is huge and it’s a direct boost to your DPS on ARs with low magazine sizes (KerBlaster for example).

However I think Axton really should have 1-2 multiplicative skills. Duty Calls for example should’ve been +15% to all non elemental damage, like Gaiges Wires Don’t Talk or Kriegs Strip the Flesh. It would’ve been a really awesome skill and made the Specialist COM a lot more viable. Another skill that could be multiplicative would be Battlefront, even if it’s just the gun damage.

Phalanx Shield, Turret itself, Nuke and Scorched Earth could really use a buff, I agree.

Another thing I hate about the patch is the shotgun splash damage nerf. They didn’t just not boost Axton, but also nerfed him indirectly as he cares about the splash damage the most. They re-buffed Kunai, so why not shotguns?

2 Likes
#9

Thanks for pointing that out Wingsday. I thought you were referencing an Axton specific thread. I saw that they had mentioned a few of his skills there.

CM doesn’t seem to really help me in FFYL. I ran rough rider for a while and I didn’t notice a difference really. FFYL is rarely a dps issue for me when mobbing. It’s positioning which as least LDE helps.

Overload also doesn’t do anything for me. I run Leg.Soldier on my Axplosion build so 10/5 ready is more than plenty to keep DPS up.even 5/5 is still fine. More often than not stockpile effect is more important. If that was part of the skill it would be great. KerBlaster and Dahl minigun are the only ARs I have would even consider mag size relevant on.

Duty calls would be a PERFECT skill to change to multiplicative. Though specialist passive bonus is weird, Ready and DCalls would make a crazy cool alt build to play with and it wouldn’t be OP because you lose element matching bonuses.

Thanks for the replies.

#10

There’s also this one I’d forgotten about it until demonite posted just now