No Phaselock Run

Borderlands 2 Maya the Siren
#1

I joined a coop game yesterday playing as axton and he playing as mayain op8. After some time, I notice that he is not using phaselock, so i thought that he has a thoughlock build and I try to suggest to him to get subsequence since i do not see subsequent orbs seeks another target. and Legendary Binder since he is using a Legendary Siren Class Mod. But he told me that hes playing Maya without using any phaselock.

Weird right? I check his gear and his using the following:
Guns: Slagga (his main weapon), slag omen (bullets is in circular pattern and violet, so i think its a slag omen), bekah on his back and dpuh.
Shield: Bee
Grenade: looks like a transfusion or a magic missles
Class Mod: L Siren

He only use scorn once and i dont see and corrosive dot on enemies so i think he does not spec into cloudkill as well. He was put into FFYL often and i have revived him a few times, but he can still cope up. We ran Tiny tina up to the 4 ghost kings.

Weird setup. Anyone else tried running Maya or any other Vault hunters without using any action skills. It might be a fun difficult challenge.

#2

I’ve run Axton without turrets, as I think some others have. Cute for awhile. I’ve even killed Hyperius and (of course) Pete without turrets.

Maya… nah. I love PL!

2 Likes
#3

Maya with a Bee and no Phaselock… Yeah, he must really like FFYL.

Running through this game without your Action Skill takes away too much fun. It also cripples you in more ways than just the actual AS. A lot of skills are closely connected to the AS, and will be useless without it. So even if it’s possible to do it… Why would you?

6 Likes
#4

Why not play a generic action game instead? Sounds about as much fun…

2 Likes
#5

Currently working a Psycho through NVHM this way. I specced the action skill, Pull the Pin, and one other thing, then left it. I now have about 15 unassigned skill points, and I get a little nag box about it every so often. Between it being normal mode, 19% atb BAR perks, and all blue unique, purple, or legendary hand-me-downs, it’s been fine so far.

My no-BAR gaige is skill-specced, and currently at level 40 in TVHM. Similarly not had too many problems, but she’s badly over-levelled atm. It will likely get harder as I push into the final mission.

1 Like
#6

Gaige and Krieg can easily run without their action skill, since they each only have one tree that actually boosts it. A Hell-Sploding Krieg and a Shocking Anarchist are both viable builds. As for the rest of the vault hunters… Nope!

3 Likes
#7

Especially for Maya and Sal, those two live and die by their action skills, literally!

1 Like
#8

Not necessarily. You can do a lot with Maya without Phaselock because she’s so versatile, and has strong skills outside it. You can do plenty with Cataclysm and kill skills. It’s possible, just not as fun in my own opinion - you miss out on a lot without overwhelming gains, whereas for say Krieg, missing out on melee allows for more gun combat. Phaselock is a great skill because it works well with and supports most styles of combat in a fairly unobtrusive way. Going without it is just being deliberately weird (which I approve of in general) :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
#9

I mean, it’s far from ideal, but it can be fun to run a map or two without using one’s action skill. Challenge yourself, shake things up a little. Some setups aren’t that action skill reliant in the first place. Granted, Maya is more dependant on her action skill than most, but some people have done fairly impressive things without her action skill woth her.

Not sure why anyone would prefer running Maya without her action skill though, especially in a co-op game.

3 Likes
#10

I think that all characters can be played without action skill, just some of them will suffer more from lack of it :

  • Krieg and Gaige can completely ignore their action skills because their damage output is so high even without it
  • Axton is strong enough to play without he’s turret, its just good addition to damage and to taking of aggro from him
  • Sal and Zero suffer really much from lack of their action skill, Zero is like 3 times weaker while Sal is like 30 times weaker
  • Maya suffer the most from all of them. No chain reaction, no additional source of slag, bonus damage and healing, no taking aggro.

So if he was playing as Maya without action skill then I really admire it. He needed to completely change hes playstyle, plus he had hard times in situations where he would take enemies with EZ if he would use phaselock.

1 Like
#11

Actually with Maya between Sustenance, Life Tap and Restoration he could heal himself and his co-op partners fairly well, and Scorn doesn’t rely on PL… :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#12

It’s not really a matter of whether you can play the characters without their action skill. It’s simply a matter of how incredibly boring it would be.

4 Likes
#13

Come to think of it. My hellborn krieg does not use his action skills. I only use it from going from point a to point b.