I’ve gotten back into BL2 lately and have been leveling up Kreig. He’s my first character to really try the UVHM content and I’m dying left and right. Mobs seem to look at me and I die. I can usually take several out with RTB but I’ve killed myself so many times with STV. Is this normal? What is the best way to approach UVHM?
Thanks!
StV isn’t really neccesary in UVHM, a roid shield usually does it nicely
[quote=“urbanmech, post:1, topic:1504221”]What is the best way to approach UVHM?
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[quote=“urbanmech, post:1, topic:1504221”]He’s my first character to really try the UVHM content and I’m dying left and right.[/quote]Welcome to the eastern front, rook. Bandits out here mean business; those first two playthroughs were just shenanigans to see who’s got the onions for a real fight. (Seriously though… UVHM isn’t for everyone; if the difficulty just isn’t enjoyable, don’t beat yourself up slogging through it. Do, however, give it an honest try; it will get easier as you get used to it and you get more skill points.)
First - use slag. Don’t eat it or smear it all over yourself (who invited the Psycho anyway 
), just paint your targets, swap to something non-slag, and lean on the 3x damage multiplier. Seriously, the slag mechanics in UVHM were altered to accommodate this (everyone’s weapon swap speed is faster and slag lasts longer).
Second - use cover. As you’ve noticed, enemies hit pretty hard. You can run and gun in UVHM, but for your first few sorties, keep your head down until the shock of these nigh invulnerable enemies wears off a little. Have you seen their health regeneration yet? It can be a shock at first as that guy you just whittled down to half his health takes cover to reload, and pops back up a few moments later with a full health bar.
Third - match elements to the health type. In NVHM, you could fire a decent fire weapon at an armored enemy, and it might die from the DoT. In TVHM, you could fire a decent corrosive weapon at an armored enemy, and it might die from the DoT. In UVHM, death by DoT is quite possible (it’s one of my personal favorites), but you really have to spec and otherwise build around it; don’t count on this from your everyday elemental gear. You want to match elements to the health type to take advantage of the damage enhancement and (perhaps more importantly) avoid the damage penalty of off-element damage.
Fourth - weapons underlevel much faster in UVHM; outside of some one-off Unique things whose damage output is abnormally high, you’re probably looking at maybe two to three levels before a typical weapon isn’t producing the damage you need. A DPUH or Pimpernel, for example, might work well over five levels beneath your quarry before their damage starts to wane.
Fifth - work to maximize your character’s skills by choosing gear that’s specifically enhanced by them. This can be overkill sometimes, but once you get used to the difficulty in UVHM and can handle yourself here, you can back away from a min/max build into something that focuses on skills you think are fun at the cost of this damage (or stick with the min/max build - whatever floats your boat).
If you are having problems with STV, but still want to use it, go with the Roughrider shield… It’s great on melee Krieg… I didn’t have a problem with STV until OP levels (I used a Love Thumper-solo play only, Hide, or Order usually up until OP levels), but the roughrider sorted those out for me… I loved my UVHM run through of Krieg, I don’t use the skill that extends psycho mode because I try to cycle in and out of release the beast, with full health I’ll often come at an enemy intentionally letting them take me under 25% and then I’ve closed enough distance I can release the beast and immediately start hitting…for big things though, axes from distance can be very effective…mauaraders are not fun with the full speed backpedaling, approach carefully even though a “weaker” enemy on paper… I like to fire out magic missiles as I’m closing in for slagging purposes, but you can down yourself with those… As I’m not the best with Krieg, I found a tenacity relic to be really useful (or better, a Heart of the ancients matching your main gun type) because I don’t need cooldown relics with him. I went down a fair bit, but with the relic, strip the flesh, and redeem the soul (in single player, in multi leave this off) I had enough time with his fire rate increases to get back up with a Harold (or Norfleet if you are having trouble)…Again, I’m no Krieg expert so others may have better suggestions, just saying how I played on UVHM with him… I find the Hellborn stuff fun, but a bit gimmicky and I don’t run it for too long…
When you play as Krieg, and especially melee Krieg, you will right out there at the brink of death a lot of the time. This takes some practice before you’re able to manage it well. For everyone!
StV will sometimes down you. That’s just the way it is. Spamming the melee button can often result in chains of self-hits. Best way to avoid it is to simply throw the axe instead.
To expand on this, throwing your axe is very important. I can’t stress this enough! It’s much better to finish off weak or weakened enemies with a thrown axe than meleeing them and risking StV, except maybe when you want to Bloodsplode.
One thing to note, axe throwing counts as a pistol. Sheriff’s Badge can drastically increase your throwing DPS.
I have a question though. If you get BABombardier, do thrown axes still benefit from melee damage bonuses?
As far as I know, every kind of melee-bonus affects the axe-throws. You just get an second instance of damage output: the dynamite stick (counts as grenade damage afaik).
And yes, I agree; throw the Axe all day. Especially when you get more and more practiced with it and become able to hit critical or vulnerable spots. For example: You can stop loaders from attacking by throwing axes at their arms or legs. That way, you can stun even Ultimate Badass Loaders for a while.