Zer0 had Critical Ascensi0n. Aurelia had I Never Miss. Suppose we redesigned Mordecai’s skill tree and gave him a 999-stack skill of his own that fit his character just like how the other two do. What would it be like?
As long it (theoretically) replaces Smirk, i’m game with this idea.
Although, considering that he can one shot most things with a half decent sniper already it would be overkill if the percentage per stack was too high, but on the other hand, having too little gain makes the skill moot.
I’m not proposing it as an actual skill tree umprovement; I’m just saying that theoretically, if all the skill trees were redesigned to be more in line with BL2/TPS power levels and Mord got such a skill as a result, what conditions (e.g. CA’s stack decay) should said skill have.
Are we also assuming weapon proficiency has been switched to something else? Because BL1 proficiency is a bit different to BL2 BAR perks, and that would impact the design of this theoretical sniper stacking skill.
Doesn’t matter really. I don’t think it would impact it that much; you could make the skill increase bullet damage rather than sniper damage if you wanted.
If he had such skills then it’d make most of single shot sniper rifles pointless. Fliching already makes them plently difficult to use and it’s not like automatic snipers have that much lower damage.
Zer0 and Aurelia don’t need crit stacking to one-shot regular enemies either; it’s only for bosses and stuff when people actually start relying on those skills. Imagine Mordecai speedkilling Craw with a Bessie or Invader instead of a masher Unforgiven.
Well, endgame in BL1 is farming ultimate gear on Knoxx DLC, where crimson lances takes punishement and doesn’t go down with single shot each. So I believe that such skill would turn choice of equipment for this endgame around and give reason to use automatic sniper rifles only to rip through them faster.
Mordy has enough to OHK most chumps (save for big guys like badass devastators or whatever) with any sniper regardless of RoF, so it wouldn’t be much of a gamechanger in that regard.
Also if you’ve ever played enough sniper Zer0 or Aurelia you would know that RoF really only matters when you’re trying to prestack (i.e. shoot an enemy with a low-level, fast-firing sniper to continuously build up stacks). When you’re actually running around mobbing most enemies die too fast for you to really gain sufficient stacks, and even when you do gain a few stacks the damage bonus of each stack is super low and barely noticeable.
Although it makes sense, comparing I Never Miss to Critical Ascensi0n is like… y’know? Not even close
Well one’s a capstone and the other’s a 5-point tier 4 skill so
Yeah but like, Critical Ascension tho
Yeah but like, skill tier differences tho
Obviously they aren’t the same thing but I think it’s not too far fetched to say that INM is a derivation of / inspired by CA.
As for Mordecai, hard to really think of one. Good snipers seem to pack quite enough punch already (I haven’t been to level 69, though) so I guess if there was a skill that stacks accuracy, accuracy recovery and recoil reduction on hitting crits with snipers, so that after a few consecutive crits you’d have pretty much pin point accuracy and almost zero recoil could be pretty cool. Stacks start decaying after a few seconds (say 7) with 1 stack loss per 2 seconds, max stacks of 5 and 3 % bonus at per point to all of the effects. So at 5 stacks with 5/5 skill it would be 75 % bonus to acc min, acc max, acc recovery and recoil reduction.
I guess it would favor semiauto more than boltlock / pump action but both would benefit.
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Good idea. I was thinking extra bullet velocity would be a nice perk as well given the number of complaints there are about BL1 snipers and their default velocity. It might hurt Orions but that’s probably the one exception.
tbh I’ve never really liked CA’s stack decay system because while it certainly makes CA an easier skill to use than INM it promotes aggressive play rather than that patient, make-every-shot-count playstyle that you’d expect from sniping.
Mine would kind of encourage aggression too. If you got stacks going you’d be able to line up shots easier and quicker if you were being fast about it. But that’s why I put the decay on a slow timer so you wouldn’t have to go rambo with it.
The decay time/rate you proposed is almost the same as CA which is already tricky enough (and a bit of a turnoff) for a lot of players. Of course it would be easy to stack against bosses (again, like CA); however accuracy/recoil reduction isn’t too helpful against bosses even with the large number of small-hitbox human bosses BL1 has. Regarding the whole aggression thing,
Like I said – instead of punching, I prefer to keep my distance from the target, pick my moment, and kill them with a single, well-placed shot.
This quote pretty much sums up how people view sniping in general as- it emphasizes patience, something that you can’t really afford to have if you’re constantly worrying about a decay timer. The fact that this quote comes from Mordecai himself is also pretty telling.
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Sniping bosses with Mordecai is about the same as it is Mordecai in general: harder than the other characters, but still doable. It’s more an issue of how effective sniper rifles are in general against the bosses: the two extremes are probably Krom, who becomes a joke provided you’re using a good enough sniper, and Sledge, who has a tiny crit hitbox and is fought in a location that is less than ideal for sniping.
Also, wouldn’t it be enough if it was good for mobbing?
Yes; the issue here though is how easily can you stack while mobbing.