Am I doing something wrong or is the end game scaling really rough?

Borderlands General Discussion
#1

Hello there. I’m aiming to do a 100 % completion run (get a character to max level and do all sidequests and probably aim to get all achievements).

I’ve only taken 1 character beyond level 60 before. It was a level 62 Mordecai that I quit after killing Craw for the first time. I don’t remember having too much trouble with enemies but they definitely got pretty tough in the end. I didn’t play much beyond trying to reach 61 and killing Craw so that was it.

Now I’m running a new Mordecai, currently level 60. I don’t have trouble with bandits but basically everything else seems to have hit the gym hard. I’ve an almost on level (57 I think) purple Hyperion sniper and it takes 4 to 5 headshots to drop a lanceman. The elemental lance badasses are total bullet sponges whether I’m going for their head or their tank. I’ve also got a slightly underleveled Penetrator which still does pretty nice damage on crits but it seems I have to unload, like, half my ammo reserve into a BA’s head for them to die. That’s a bit much.

Worst I’ve seen so far is Ajax who I tried tackling just now since I want to do the Bugged sidemission. Several headshots look like I tickled him with a feather and his rifle takes my shield down in 1 hit and kills me in the next 2 hits. WTF seriously? People complain about BL2 UVHM scaling but that’s cakewalk compared to this ****. Granted my shield is lagging 10 levels behind me but it’s the best one in capacity and recharge rate that I’ve seen so far from vendors or chests that I check frequently.

So, what do I need to do? Drop the non-elemental guns and start spamming fire and acid everywhere? Keep farming for a better shield that I can’t seem to find anywhere. Keep switching BW’s element for each and every enemy and just start spamming him everywhere? I’m sorry for the rantish way of asking this but I’m getting pretty frustrated by this grade A BS.

#2

I’ve not played BL1 through to max level often enough to really have a grasp of the scaling, but using elemental weapons against Lance is pretty much essential in my experience. Mostly corrosive, unless they’re one of the chemical trooper variants. Someone mentioned to me a while back that corrosive in BL1 functions a bit like slag in BL2, and so far that approach has worked pretty well for me.

Also note that the level of gear is not necessarily an indication of how good it is, due to the way the weapons system works in BL1 - it is a VERY different beast to BL2. It’s possible to have a beast of a weapon that’s better but significantly lower level than an at-level item of the same rarity.

#3

Yeah, good weapons stay good for a long time. I mainly wrote that to point out that my good gun is not only good but pretty much up to par when it comes to raw damage department.

#4

Okay, a couple more levels, still the same shield and guns and I went to Underdome and beat the Gully no problem. So I guess the thing that is causing me trouble solely the lancemen unique to Knoxx’s. I guess the general wasn’t kidding when he said he upgraded their gear in one of those echoes…

Well, those guys and alpha skags who I’ve never had any idea how to fight besides lighting them on fire if it’s possible. Those guys take mag upon mag upon mag of bullets if they don’t decide to give me the pleasure of roaring (and if BW isn’t out to stagger them right out of it, that happens way too often).

I haven’t been to the other 2 DLC campaigns yet on this level but so far it looks like it’s just the DLC lancemen then. Goddamn Ajax…

#5

Seeing that it’s primarily armored enemies that are giving you trouble, I’d say try out using the next corrosive weapon you have. They’ve got a buff, might as well use the counter to it.

When it comes to the elemental badass lance, I usually light them up with a DoT and wait for it to damage their reservoir tank. Just remember to keep your distance…

#6

Always carry a corrosive weapon. Most Crimson Lance are weak to it, and corrosion increases the damage they receive from all other sources of damage. For this reason the best grenades at end game are typically corrosive so that weapon swapping is not always necessary (the Dahl Corrosive Bouncing Bettie is good at weakening a whole crowd).

Elemental Crimson Lance and their Badass brethren die best to elemental DoT. Corrosive is a good bet for anything that is not Chemical, and Incendiary for the ones that are.

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#7

In addition to everything the others said, I recommend making sure your shield doesn’t have a horrendous recharge delay. As in, the time it takes for it to start regenerating. Killed me more than a couple times. Try recreating your shield here and check the stats on the bottom right, should be there.

You may also want to revise your skill trees. Perhaps there are better choices? Other than that, just grit your teeth and keep trying.

#8

Oh cool, I’ve often wondered if the delay on shields was simply the same on them all since it’s not mentioned on the card. Looks like it’s not. Kind of inconvenient way of finding it out but I guess I’ll have to bookmark the tool to see my shields are holding up.

I’ll try corrosive on lancemen then. I’ve a pretty powerful Defiler in my backpack that I’ve not used since I don’t particularly like only having 2 shots and not very fast fire rate. But if it actually kills them then I guess it’s worth it. Wish it had a scope though, I can’t hit anything trying to aim it down sights so I’m restricted to shooting from the hip. I’d imagine my current gear should still be able to get me past Knoxx to farm the armory to find some other good corrosive gear too.

Makes me a bit sad if 2 of my favorite weapons are practically worthless on them (Good Hyperion snipers and the Penetrator). Unless I can get them in elements. I haven’t seen those, at least.
EDIT: I toyed around with that calculator and it seems both actually do come in elemental versions. Not that I’d seen too many Penetrators and Hyperion snipers aren’t that common either but I’m surprised I’ve never seen either in element.

#9

Use it! And practice on easier targets (maybe even in PT.1) to get the hang of ADS with it. You should definitely benefit from that. I’d also suggest keeping your eye out for a Pestilential Crux shotgun - I’ve had a few drop in Hyperion Dump (Robolution DLC) at the Hyperion camp. Lots of good corrosive weaponry to be found in the game though - I’ve gone a long way with some green rarity SMGs and blue rarity shotguns/ARs.

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#10

[quote=“Lammas, post:8, topic:1559290, full:true”]
I’ve a pretty powerful Defiler in my backpack…[/quote]
That gun will take down Lance like nothing else. Unless they are Chemical, of course, in which case a decent Hellfire will make short work of them, if you have it.

I haven’t played BL1 for a loooong while but IIRC the 2-shot Defilers are significantly more powerful than the six-shooters. It is a pain without a scope but practising will be worth it and the good news is even the toughest don’t need that many shots to go down. That thing just melts them.

Another good weapon is a Maliwan Crux, Legendary Corrosive shotgun. Almost as quick as the Defiler, with the bonus that it’s much easier to aim :grinning:

Oh, and if you’re lucky enough to find an Orion (sniper) then you can hang back and pick them off from afar. It’s one of my favourite weapons

edit: missed word “shotgun” in description!

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#11

I have all three of those, and I can attest to their efficacy!

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#12

I usually do not base gear recommendations around Pearlescent weapons because they are too rare to have a meaningful impact on game play until well after you have gear good enough to beat the entire game.

The best corrosive weapons are the Maliwan Defiler Revolver Pistol for engaging at longer ranges and the Maliwan Crux Assault Shotgun for closer ranges. Choose based on your preferred combat range.

For the sake of argument, assuming you don’t want to use legendary weapons, then corrosive revolvers work just fine. Their mandatory effect will get the job done, just slower than a Defiler would. From there the drop off is pretty steep, but a machine pistol or SMG are also viable, just markedly inferior.

On the shield note, at end game I never find a reason to use any shield that does not have the AWE or OS body, with preference being up to the character and skills. Brick is my favorite character, and the synergy the AWE body has with Unbreakable and Payback is outstanding. Roland likes the OS body more due to his Quick Charge skill.

Stay on the look out for these bodies for shields in this order:

#1)AWE: The fastest recharge time and shortest recharge delay. The shield will almost always be full.
#2)OS: A good balance between recharge delay, recharge time, and capacity. Depending on character skills this can be a better choice than AWE.
#3) FRR: A weaker version of AWE that lacks the increased capacity of OS. Still a good choice when leveling, and notable for being the body of Wee Wee’s Super Booster.
#4) OBS: Provides no benefit whatsoever, but also does not have a penalty. Will serve fine when the options are worse.
#5) XC: The significantly increased capacity comes with the cost of increased recharge delay. Despite the rarity of its body the performance in combat tends to be poor.
#6) OC: XC with an inferior capacity boost. Absolute garbage, do not use even when leveling.

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#13

Thanks for the shield briefing. I’m fairly sure my gear is good enough to beat the entire game already. I’ve done main campaign and I’m halfway through INAC campaign. I only need to knock out 1 arena in Underdome to have completed prove yourself twice.

It’s just that the lancemen in Knoxx’s got ridiculous after I knocked him out and the DLC started leveling with me. No other enemies in the game have proven to be that bullet spongey. I guess I just expected to get away with no element matching since nonelemental seems like a fine option anywhere else in the game.

#14

To be fair, it can be a good endgame option depending on some factors, such as your character and build (protip: Roland wrecks face with anything if you try hard enough). That said, elemental guns are universally better - you don’t even need to match elements often, as long as it’s elemental, it’ll shred. Of course, using matching elements will make it shred more easily. If you haven’t already, I suggest maining the Gunslinger and Rogue trees, since they’re more universal than Aniper and will benefit more strategies and/or guns.

And since you’re Mordy, I must personally recommend going melee at least once. Yes, melee. You know Lethal Strike? That skill, a good bladed gun, and a Truxican Wrestler COM (or Assassin in a pinch) can oneshot any non-badass with a crit and some luck. Now, it likely won’t work, but at least you’ll have more fun dying. No, seriously, you just might love it.

#15

I’m mainly a sniper and not really interested in pistol gameplay but I’m pretty invested in all trees since I’m almost max level. But I don’t have Gun crazy or Hair trigger in my build.

I tried putting on a Ranger yesterday and today to have some fun with continuous BW swooping. Pretty fun but I’d say sniping is way more effective. Maybe I’m missing something… wouldn’t be surprised.

I do have collected the best versions of each COM that I’ve found so I can try out a lot of things if I want to. I could try Gunslinging at some point with a good masher.

#16

To be fair, Gunslinger (both the COM and the skill tree) are best for generic gun usage. Experiment with different kinds and see what works on the Lance. Respeccing is cheap, anyway.

#17

Just cleared INAC campaign, hit level 69 and as if it was guidance, I found a level 68 pestilence Defiler in a chest after that. 2 shots and 1.0 fire rate. Not really my style at all but I guess I’ll have to give it a try. Can this thing even spawn with a scope? None of the ones I’ve seen so far have had one.

Also, what’s up with the gear? No level 69 gear seems to drop or be found in chests at all. Weapons of the day can be 69 so I’d imagine I’ve just ran into bad luck but then again grenades found in vendors don’t seem to go much beyond 50 while the ones found in game are max 68. What is this weirdness?

#18

Yes it can spawn with a scope. And level 69 gear can only be found in vendors, loot midgets, and loot goons. Everything that drops will be 66-68.

#19

Wow, that kinda sucks.

#20

Oh right, I’ve been meaning to ask:

damage over tech or vice versa, which is better? I don’t actually really know how tech works in BL1 I’m just assuming that the higher the number the higher the percentage to cause DOT? Does it affect the DOT’s damage?

If I’ve 2 guns otherwise similar including the element should I pick the one with the higher base damage and 2x tech or the one with the slighly lower base damage and 3x tech.

I’m looking at automatic fire weapons with high fire rate for this question and I want the enemies to die fast. I’m assuming the high base damage and 2x tech is what I want but since I don’t understand tech I want to make sure.