New character. Going to 70

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel BL:TPS Discussion
#1

I am making a new BL:TPS character and I will be going to 70 with this one. 90% will be co op but I will also play by myself. I have gone to 70 with Nisha, Jack and a couple others. I have it narrowed down to Aurelia, Claptrap, and Wilhelm. I wanna play a character that is very fun, has many play styles, and does take a bit of skill but can be very powerful. My most important thing is that the character is fun to play with. Could you help me out?

#2

Either Aurelia or Wilhelm. Clappy is fairly one-dimensional.

Wilhelm might be easier solo because of the pets and tanking skills, but Aureliaā€™s freezing capabilities and absurd damage make her a good candidate as well.

If you prefer being tanky, go Willy. If you want to go glass cannon, or liked playing nurse Maya, go with Aurelia for those sniper heals across the map.

#3

Thanks man, in your own opinion who is the best medium good tank and good damage, and also in your opinion who is your favorite TPS character to play, just wondering. Thanks!!

#4

If you want the best combination of damage and tanking, then Jack is your best bet. Heā€™s almost the most versatile, and works great with anything you pick up.

But if you want me to choose between the characters you listed, then Iā€™d honestly put Aurelia as the better combination of tanking and damage.

Wilhelm tanks pretty OK, but if you play Aurelia correctly (watch @Derchā€™s deputy Aurelia videos on youtube) she will rarely die because she will be freezing everything so it canā€™t attack you.

TL:DR-If you want good tank and good damage then Wilhelm works alright. If you want something more in depth, read on.

Wilhelm can be fairly tough, but most heā€™s pretty pigeonholed by COMs. Besides the legendary COMs, he has no COMs that have all around damage and survivability. His CoE only boosts cryo damage, and his other COMs only boost certain gun types or elements.

Willy tanks far better against bosses, but his tanking works in a way that is time dependent. He has medium regen over a prolonged period, so when you get hurt you have to avoid taking hits while you recover. If you have too many enemies shooting you at once, you will die. Aureliaā€™s tanking actually works a bit better when sheā€™s surrounded by mobs since they proc her freezing skills, healing her, immobilizing them, and allowing her to kill them easier.

Since youā€™re playing coop, this gets a bit complicated. Wilhelmā€™s Overcharge and Laser guided are awesome for any team, but Aurelia has an entire tree dedicated to coop buffs. She also freezes everything effortlessly and has sniper res.

If you want a good tank by classic RPG standards (a warrior who can take some hits) then Wilhelm is the closest thing out all the characters you listed. Clappyā€™s survival is really spikey because it depends on having lots of DoTs out, killing things, or having the right subroutine. Aureliaā€™s tanking comes from preventing things from hitting her. When you get to an enemy that canā€™t be frozen, her glassiness starts to come through.

Just realize that if you are going to play as Wilhelm, you will need to utilize cover and retreat when your injured. Wilhelm isnā€™t Axton, he canā€™t stay in the fight with a corrosive DoT on him and power through it. Youā€™ll also have to get the hang of using Laser Guided. If youā€™re on console and your AS button isnā€™t responding, Willy can be a pain because you wonā€™t be able to paint enemies before Wolf kills them.

Sorry for writing you a big wall. Hope something in there is useful to you.

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#5

In terms of her survivability while leveling, itā€™s actually quite bad. It may have been because I focused the on the Huntress tree more, but things hit hard and you canā€™t really bounce back. End game she relies on Avalanche to insta freeze things and Frigid Touch (a kill skill) to tank damage solo. And thatā€™s not the easiest with found leveling gear since it only works with cryo. Plus her inherent poor boss survivability is something not really fun if youā€™re not proficient with the game, along with the hard wall youā€™ll run into with the TVHM Sentinel. If you donā€™t have a good Droog bosses can feel like slogs as that is her only real bossing potential.

  • If you want Wilhelm he is average in everything he does, but he is reliant on his action skill. So you may have to high tail it a bit while itā€™s on cooldown. I suggest you get his Celestial com asap.

  • In terms of your question Jack would be my answer to both, but I assume you want it out of the 3 characters you listed. And IMO Claptrap is the best fit. He gets one of the best survivability skills in the game level 4 with ā€˜Safety Firstā€™. And that alone, especially with the shield subroutine, will keep you kicking for a long while. Add in Killbot which you fully spec by level 9 and he wins the tanky category, especially with the copious amount of survivability he has throughout his tree. And in terms of damage, he makes Torgue and Jakobs shotguns hit like a mother ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā€™ truck with ā€˜One Last Thingā€™ and ā€˜Load ā€˜nā€™ Splodeā€™. So some bullet pointsā€¦

  • Spec into ā€˜Safety Firstā€™ level 4.

  • Do not spec into ā€˜All the Gunsā€™ while leveling. Itā€™s bad and messes up ā€˜Safety Firstā€™.

  • Eventually you will want to use a Sapper com once you spec into OLT.

  • Large bore Torgue and Jakobs shotguns are your friends, preferably quad barrel.

  • The Flakker is an easy farm and Clappyā€™s favorite weapon. Just farm for one in TVHM and farm for it in UVHM whenever you need a new one. And Clappy makes it do a lot of damage on the second to last shot, so reload before you fire the last shot. Explanation

  • And for any character you ever level, the Spadroon will make the NVHM Sentinel soooo much easier to deal with.

And for the OP, Clappy is really fun/(annoying) in coop. And he has his Flakker/Tediore build, and Nova build for his staples, but Iā€™m sure he preforms fine with other stuff if you want. His skill comes from the need to be constantly killing things to stay alive, and knowing when to pop his action skill for the ā€œget out of jail cardā€ of 100% health regen. And this is what I got for power. vs Eclipse & EOS

#6

Iā€™ve gotten all 6 characters to 70. Willy was my first, Aurelia was my last. Clappy was somewhere in the middle.

Of all 3, Wilhelm was the easiest one to get to 70, playing mostly solo. He has great mobbing potential with Wolf & Saint out, along with Laser Guided and Rolling Thunder. You can also use Escalation to help with Wolf & Saintā€™s slightly longer cooldown. Heā€™s also a real solid boss fighter, as you can either choose to go the Wolf route and keep that flying distraction buzzing around the bossā€™s head, or you can rock an Overcharge spam and keep Wilhelmā€™s own DPS at a high level.

Claptrap is pretty fun, too. @khimerakiller gave a great description of how to build him up, and once youā€™ve got constant novas exploding, as well as constant bullets exploding, youā€™re in real good shape. Plus youā€™ve got that middle tree too if you want to spec into a little more co-op heavy build.

Aurelia was, by far, the toughest of the 6 to get to 70 for me. I ran into a lot of walls at different bosses. In UVHM specifically, Deadlift was a huge barrier for me, as was the Bosun. She is the queen of mobbing (I think I went down against mobs maybe once in UVHM), but just does not have the survivability against protracted boss fights. Now, having a partner may mitigate some of this weakness, but itā€™s definitely something to keep in mind for when youā€™re trying to progress solo.

#7

WILHELM, RESPECT AUTHORITY.
No, seriously, I agree with @boombumr, either Wilhelm or Aurelia :

  • Wilhelmā€™s playstyle is defined by tanking, being mobile thanks to multiple mobility skills and dealing massive amounts of damage (make sure to pick up Laser-Guided first, it is one of his craziest skills) like a complete Cybernetic Badass Enforcer.

  • Aureliaā€™s playstyle consists into releasing your Action Skill, aim to the crits and just enjoy the numbers. You donā€™t have to use Snipers to make her effective (Flayer, Kanedaā€™s Laser, Fatale, Absolute Zero ā€¦) but she is outstanding with them (The Machine, Muckamuck, Omni-Cannon, Longnail, Plunkett, Wet Week ā€¦)

You can use Claptrap, but I find him really boring to level up. He becomes truly awesome with the right gear and the right spec at level 70 (that is, of course, only my opinion).

They are my top 3 favourite characters in TPS, so if you have any question about them feel free to ask :smiley: !

#8

Thanks for the responses, my last question is who is your favorite to play out of all the characters in the pre sequel.

#9

Thanks!

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#10

Thanks. My friend is going to be playing jack so who do you think has the most synergy out of all of the 3 with jack. Wilhelm can give good stats along with tanking but Aurelia can get a kill and repair 55% of shields. Just wondering everyoneā€™s opinion.

#11

Out of all characters, which is your absolute favorite and absolute least favorite? Thanks for your input.

#12

Pet Jack, bar none. Nothing funnier than running around trying not to die and having the clones 1 shot the raid boss.:laughing:

#13

Wilhelm is my favorite. Iā€™ve completed the story 6 times with him, because I just enjoy the way he plays. Iā€™ve always enjoyed the soldier classes (Roland was my first character in BL1, and my second favorite overall; Axton was my first character in BL2 and my second favorite overall), and Wilhelm fills that role very nicely. Plus heā€™s so versatile, even if you walk into a situation where something unexpected happens, heā€™ll be able to handle it without issue.