Main and Off Hand Bonuses

Borderlands 2 Salvador the Gunzerker
#1

It’s my first time really working with the Gunzerker and I’ve been hearing alot about off hand bonuses and what not and I’m wondering what the difference is between your main hand and off hand weapon slots? Is there a difference? Where should my guns go?

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#2

Unless you have a specific combo that requires a different placement (like a Deputy build) you should always put your main DPS gun in your main hand.

I can elaborate a bit more on the specifics a bit later if you need. (going to bed now)

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#3

If I remember right slot 1 and 3 are your main hand (right), 2 and 4 are your off hand (left)

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#4

I agree with @Chuck80 The main gun should go in your main hand. As far as i know the effects of the off hand gun will be transfered to your Main hand. So if you have a lady finger in your off hand and a harold in your main hand. Then the you will be healing for a percentage of the damage you do with the harold.

Although if you do a pimpernel off hand with an empty ahab in your main hand then im not sure how that works.

Actually i have no idea how any of it works except that i pull the trigger and stuff happens.

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#5

In your example if you have the Lady Fist (it was Lady Finger in BL1) in your off hand it will give the Harold in your main hand its 800% crit bonus (Moxxie guns are the healing guns BTW- not the Lady Fist). The Pimpernel off hand trick will work with other RL but not as well as I understand it. Any off hand Moxxie weapon will heal Sal (although if you use Chuck80’s Deputy Sal build his main hand holds the Moxxie weapon- check it out for a fuller explanation…). Other weapons cause other off hand exploits; I believe there is a thread about that in the Salvador section…

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#6

I’ve always felt that using the word “transfer” was creating more confusion than anything else.

Moxxi weapons also “transfer” their ability to melee weapons and grenades for other characters.
It’s probably easier to understand if you say “when you are holding a Moxxi weapon, all damage you deal will heal you for some %” That way it applies to the other gun…but also to any other source of damage you have… no form of “ability transfer is involved” :slight_smile:

Same goes for crit bonus: all crit bonus from all sources will add together, in Sal’s case, that includes both of his guns. So the Lady Fist doesn’t transfer anything to the other gun…it just adds another bonus on top of your other bonuses.

The pimpernel/RL is a very special and specific case. It just exploits a weakness in the game’s code relating to secondary projectiles taking on characteristics of the main hand’s card damage. It only works with 3-4 guns in total … It’s much simpler to think of it as an exception rather than as an example of how Sal works.

@FusedKush

The reason that you should always put your main gun in your right hand is because the game was coded for 1 gun per character, so there are a lot of things that simply don’t affect the off-hand gun:

Off the top of my head:
Skills:

  • KIPH
  • I’m your huckleberry
  • 5so6
  • a few others

Gear:

  • all the Monk’s COM bonus except “evil” don’t affect it either
  • Aggression and allegiance relics don’t work either

I’m forgetting a lot of them, but that’s the gist of it: many things don’t provide their bonus to the off-hand, so you should always place your main gun in your main hand…that is, unless you have a specific reason not to.

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#7

I totally knew that. I had a moment of dumb.

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#8

I put this in a .txt file after the first time I saw it way back.

Sljm’s list of stuff that doesn’t effect the off hand weapon :

Equipment

Gun Damage, Recoil Reduction, Accuracy, Min/Max Accuracy and Accuracy Regen modifiers from Relics and Class Mods don't work for the offhand.
Fire Rate, Reload Speed, Elemental Damage, Burn Damage, Burn Chance, and Critical Damage modifiers from Relics and Class Mods do work.
    Exception: Fire Rate and Reload Speed boosts from Monk Class Mods don't work for the offhand.
Magazine Size boosts from Relics don't work for the offhand.
Magazine Size boosts from Class Mods do work.
    Exception: Magazine Size boosts from Monk Class Mods don't work for the offhand.
Amp Shields don't work for the offhand.
    Exception: Bugged extra pellets that inherit damage from the main hand, such as Pimpernel's, do work with Amp Shields.
Orphan Maker's self-damaging effect doesn't work when held in the offhand.
Shadow of the Seraphs' Extra Shot Chance doesn't work for the offhand.

Skills

I'm Your Huckleberry
    Pistol Damage doesn't work for the offhand.
    Pistol Reload Speed doesn't work for the offhand.
All I Need is One
    Gun Damage does work.
        Exception: Bugged extra pellets that inherit damage from the main hand, such as Pimpernel's, don't work for the offhand with All I Need is One.
Lay Waste
    Fire Rate doesn't work for the offhand.
    Critical Damage does work.
Keep it Piping Hot
    Gun Damage doesn't work for the offhand.
    Grenade Damage does work (on weapons with Splash Damage).
Money Shot
    Technically works, but it uses the Magazine Size for the main hand instead.
5 Shots or 6
    Chance to add bullets doesn't work for the offhand.
Incite
    Reload Speed doesn't work for the offhand.
Just Got Real
    Gun Damage doesn't work for the offhand.
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#9

Thanks for clearing all that up. I guess adding on to the main hand make more sense than transfering.

I still have no idea what all happens there all i k ow is that i pull the trigger and stuff dies extra hard.

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