Basically, how do you prefer learning about guns, enemies, and other stuff in these games? Do you want to learn everything by playing yourself, or do you visit wiki, these forums or other sources to learn and discuss most effective skill tree builds, loadouts and strategies?
Personally, I’m leaning strongly towards the first option. While I’ve visited the wiki every once in a while to learn about enemies and basic gun types, I’ve mostly wanted to figure and find out about everything on my own. Honestly, I probably couldn’t name ten legendary items to save my life right now!
Feel free to express your opinions!
2 Likes
Piemanlee
(Goodbye friends and not friends, it's been a fun ride)
#2
For me it’s a combo of other people and testing things myself.
I try to learn the game by myself while leveling. And then at every level cap after the new excitement has died down and I have dissected any new gear or game mechanics I go to the internet to see if there was anything I missed.
Ex: When I first tried the Storm I thought it was another Volcano, just in shock only this time. Where the unique didn’t even measure up to it’s purple counterpart. But then I found out on the forums that the Orbs DoT damage is boosted by gun damage, and now its literally the best and only weapon for OP8 shock DoT Gaige.
Granted this was when I was still a novice, but its the best BL2 example I could think of.
I got up to 72 with my Siren without looking at any of the ‘theory’ stuff - I just experimented and didn’t do any farming or anything. I think this is a really nice way to do it as you discover skills and weapons unexpectedly and get your own sense of how to play.
That said, reading up on the details can actually be really helpful for the more difficult bits. I think I might have had an easier time through UVHM if I’d been more aware of legendary spots, boss strategies etc.
I’m still not really into builds or watching playthroughs though I like reading the wiki and joining in with the good people on the forum. I’d actually say getting in touch with pleasant, experienced players (and BL2 has lots!) and jumping into games with them is my favourite way of learning right now, rather than putting myself through too much extra research.
I read about the game for a couple months before I even bought it, so I definitely come down on the side of theory first. After learning the basics and getting my first character to the level cap, I devoted even more time to reading about the game.
The top gear threads and build threads on the forums saved me a lot of trial and error by giving me a good starting point for developing my own strategies and playstyles.
One thing I’ve learned: Don’t accept the common wisdom of the community without testing the mechanics for yourself. Everyone plays the game differently and my results with the Hawkeye versus the Muckamuck, for example, might be very different from the results of other players.
Also, this. I’ve learned more in random public lobbies than I ever could have by just reading forums and wikis.
Some guns are awesome on paper but the learning curve or special effect makes them less desirable (the Flakker is a good example: even though it’s still great, it’s not as mind blowing as the DPS data suggests)
Some guns are the opposite: they are just OK on paper, but are killing it on the field because of some weird interactions that can’t be predicted by just looking at raw data (like the Pimpernel)
Theory, every time. I like knowing exactly what I’m doing at every stage, and I hate missing out on opportunities.
OP, you say you can’t name 10 legendary guns to save your life.
I would consider myself a failure if I couldn’t name every legendary in all three games without looking them up. But that’s me - I like being a walking database.
1 Like
Piemanlee
(Goodbye friends and not friends, it's been a fun ride)
#10
You can name every legendary in bl1 that’s not easy gg.
I’m the same way, I love knowing all the little details of games. Whenever I get really into a game, I go on a crazy research binge and learn everything I can
I’ll find things out on my own on my way to level cap (the first one, so 50 usually). After that, I peek around to see what people are doing, comapre it how I do things, and see what I can integrate into my play style .
For guns though, I do it myself. I find that most of the time, it only takes about 5 minutes to get a sweet spot down, except for the lyuda (I can’t get that one in combat). Other mechanics are simple enough that I can get them on my own, although researching some, like Sal’s crit sharing, helped me in making builds like my hawkeye Jakobs Zerker.
