Sniper Zer0 or Pistol Zer0

Borderlands 2 Zer0 the Assassin
#1

So I’m thinking of playing as Zer0, though I don’t know which kind of Zer0 I’m interested in. I’ve played this game many times it’s just down there with Salvador, Zer0 is one of the least played characters I’ve used.

I know you can use him as a Melee build but…eeh I’m already doing a Krieg playthrough with a buddy of mine so I’m already having my fill with melee only builds.

I’m thinking about just rocking a Sniper but how good are his Pistol builds?

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#2

His proficiency with a pistol might be second only to Salvador? Might be… he might be the best in the game too just because of his Stalker COM (he doesn’t have any pistol-specific skills; his regular skills just work great with them). You can always re-spec into sniper or melee if ‘regular’ gun combat doesn’t do it for you.

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#3

I’d also suggest considering a hybrid build - there are some examples listed in the master build list. Zer0’s melee skill is very different from Krieg’s. The nice thing about the game, of course, is that if you don’t like one build you can simply respec without starting over!

#4

Between them, the difference is the playstyle.

Sniper Zero mostly use deception to get the damage bonus on that first shot and the Kunais debuff, While pistol Zero will use it more defensively.

Pistol Zero is more in-your-face, more frantic.

For Snipers, nothing gets even close to the Pimpernel. Learn to use it and you’ll need nothing else.

Best pistol setups IMO are with either a Maggie with a leg Killer COM and a lot of points in two fangs or with a Vladof pistol with a chaotic Rogue COM.

If you can deal with the lemsicate pattern (and frankly you should easily), the Infinity with a (low level) leg. Sniper COM and 10/5 in OSOK is also very efficient, despite the general hype/hatred for this gun.

The Harold is also pretty good in Zero’s hands with a few points in velocity.

I know you didn’t mention it as an option, but consider a shotgun Zero. They really shine with his skillset, Especially Jakobs ones.

#5

Lol wait Shotgun Zer0? That’s a thing…honestly that seems alot of fun lol Deception, wait for the last moment then “Nows my cue to appear out of no where with a shotgun and blow the f–(well I can’t say it here lol.) outta you!”

I might find a shotgun build then. Though thank you very much~ You gave me alot of info about each build and they all sound like fun :slight_smile:

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#6

I’ve been running a jakobs shotgun Zer0 lately. Tons of fun!!

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#7

Alright so this is a bit of a rough draft of my Shotgun build that Chuck just told me about lol. So am I going in the right direction for this?
http://bl2skills.com/assassin.html#505051500050555105315050510000

#8

Yeah, that’s pretty much it :slightly_smiling:

Depending on what brand of shotgun you use, you might want to spec out of Two fangs, as it provides no benefit to small mag shotties like Jakobs (just pull the trigger twice instead) waste less ammo and get more control over your shots.

Rising shot is much less interesting with Shotguns: you might empty your mag before even reaching 5 stacks, and they will always go down fast when you reload (which is often)

Precision is not to be skipped with Shotguns: accuracy makes the spread tighter…which means more DAMAGE.

I don’t like Fearless, but that’s just me.

If you have points left, you might want to consider Unforseen. It has been buffed recently and is now very reliable.

The rest is perfect

What brand do you plan on using ?

#9

I kind of like two fang with jakobs shotguns. That combined with OSOK. Bear with me, I am still rather new to Zer0, but clearrning out the mag faster means more OSOK shots in my mind.

#10

Eh as I said rough draft. I don’t know what brand of Shotguns I plan on using I’m still looking up many builds but I suppose Jakobs/Hyperion seems to be the way to go.

I honestly didn’t think Precision would be that useful considering you’ll be so close to your enemies anyway the extra accuracy wouldn’t matter lol.

And really Unforseen got buffed? Then cool I’ll take those 5 points out of Rising shot (I myself didn’t think it be that good but back then lol Unforseen wasn’t that good XD)

Fearless…eh why not really I need to get myself down in this tree :slightly_smiling:

Class mod well, not to sure really I think either Legendary Hunter/Killer might do good.

EDIT- Draft 2~
http://bl2skills.com/assassin.html#505551500050050155415050500000

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#11

If that is your purpose for speccing into it, it would be even faster to reload after the first shot than to rely on Two Fangs to empty the mag. Just hold down the trigger and hit reload during the shot. You’ll even save on ammo.

Jakobs shotguns (or all Jakobs guns for that matter) are not about DPS most of the time. Often, you’ll be better off waiting an extra second between those 2 shots to correct recoil and making sure it lands properly (on crit if possible) than to getting it out as fast as possible.

Even if we’re in a situation where you would want that shot out ASAP, What you gain is maybe 1/10th of a second (the time you save by not pulling the trigger a second time yourself) but you might lose more, Like the ammo of that second shot if it wasn’t necessary or whatever aim you had (Jakobs shotguns jump around a lot, and that second shot is made through heavy recoil). And you will still have to pull that trigger twice because Two fangs isn’t guaranteed.

You gain a tiny bit of time, but you lose both in ammo conservation and control

In short, it’s not useless, but there are better places to put those points.

Both are great choices. Consider also The Professional and Rogue COMs, they’re pretty good too :slight_smile:

#12

Steal a point from…say, velocity, and put it back into Execute.
It’s very handy for moving around and setting up your shots (especially since shotguns are mostly close range)
If you actually hit someone with it, they’ll be staggered for a second or 2, great setup for a boomstick blast :slight_smile:

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#13

My 100% bullet speed though D:

Haha it’s fine, it’s a shotgun build so that 80%/8% (speed/damage) is totally fine :slight_smile: I’ll do that then. Well thank you very much, you manage to turn a character that I wasn’t really too interested in playing into something I can’t wait for lol.

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#14

Be warned though: Zero is a real glass canon

Playing him is like a dance: you gotta know the timing, the right moves, you have to be precise… mess up and you’ll die.

In short: If you die a lot, it’s likely not the build or your gear, you just made a mistake. Try to spot what it was. In no time you’ll make improvements. He’s the hardest to play, but the most rewarding once you master him :slightly_smiling:
Good luck!

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#15

To ground this a little, I’m still leveling up, so some of it is what gear I have access too/picked up along the way, and have been using primarily professional coms up to this point. This iteration of Zero started more as a Jabobs build as a whole, which got me in two-fang as well, as I absolutely love the combo with Jakobs ARs and Pistols. I dont see a point in Fearless if I’m going to spec into grim, and with trying to keep a two shot mag, I kind of liked that it emptied it, or at least had a good chance to with the com, when coming out of deception. I’ve made it to level 50 without issue, but I am soon going to see if I actually learned anything along the way when I hit UVHM

EDIT: I should probably include that I didnt see much on returns with rising shot on Jakobs, and have moved away from melee/hybrid so counter strike is also a little meh right now. That left two fang to get to the capstone

Unless I change my mind again, I am pretty much building up to this (I am just trying out Unforseen right now, kinda nice, kinda meh):
http://bl2skills.com/assassin.html#505551300050050155515050510000

You have provided some great insight into tactics I never considered as well

Although, I have been having a blast with sniper rifles lately, so that may change again.

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#16

If you’re using other Jakobs guns besides shotguns, then keep Two Fangs: it’s one of Zero’s best skills with the right gear.

There are only 2 situations where I would not spec in it: If i’m only using Jakobs shotguns or Snipers.
the first one for the reasons above, and the second because it throws your aim off and sniper ammo is precious.

The other is if i’m using guns with fire rate of 10 or above
As two fangs will break and not give its full bonus with very fast guns.
You see this mostly with ARs and Vladof Pistols (as well as with relatively fast guns when used with a chaotic rogue COM)

Rising shot with Jakobs is laughable: the stacks go away too fast because the card value for fire rate on Jakobs guns is very high.

I don’t like fearless, but in cases like this you can spec into it even if you have grim: it will still work while in FFYL.

But like I said: I would skip two fangs ONLY if you only use Jakobs shotguns or snipers.
If you tend to also use other guns beside those, keep it. The drawbacks of having it with those guns is much smaller than the bonus it provides with everything else.

That looks very solid to me :slightly_smiling:

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#17

Thank you for the additional insight. Glad to see I’m at least on the right track!!

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#18

Hello there people, long time no see :slightly_smiling:

I just wanted to chime in here since I’ve been dabbling with Zero pistol builds for years now.

Try this:
Disturbed stalker com +6 rising shot, +5 followthrough
Explosive relic, and a Harold.
I usually go with a defensive shield like a turtle shield, but you can go full offense with a rough rider or bee shield if you really want to turn it up to 11.

It is ridiculously strong. I used it myself all through Digipeak, and I keep getting suprised at just how strong it is.

And if you are playing with friends you can swap to a leg. killer com (remember to spec with that in mind) for better team synergy. In my opinion the disturbed stalker feels stronger with the Harlold, while the Killer com feels stronger with Maggie, and Lady Fists (also excellent options).

Sniper builds are fun, but for mobbing you can honestly one shot most things with a pimpernel so I don’t really see any need to go all out sniper build unless you want to, or if you are killing bosses.

Edit: Just realised I’m 3 weeks late to the party… Sorry guys, just replied because it was a relatively new post in the Zero sub-forum.

#19

Welcome back :slight_smile:

Why an explosive relic over a sheriff’s badge ?

#20

It’s more then fast enough without it, and I tend to run out of ammo when I use the badge. So I prefer the relic, maybe someone elses playstyle better suits the badge then mine.

And in my own very non-scientific test I killed the snowman faster with the relic then the badge. But it was just the one test so dont read to much into it :slightly_smiling:
And I personally prefer intense unkempt harold over the dpuh. Again for the ammo consumption, and also because I constantly swap between it and the grog so Drunk effect is actually very common and a pretty big deal. With the dpuh its often overkill when it gets drunk.