I have my Krieg up to UVHM and I play him with a friend, now I am thinking of starting a Zero.
I found a Leg Hunter Com lvl 47 but not sure if that is good for a Melee/Sniper build. I know I want to use snipers a lot, but are there any good builds that make good use of both melee and sniper rifles? Should I also throw in shotguns/pistols for up close fights? I was thinking melee would be my goto dps for up close and personal.
Any good tips or links to good builds for what I am after?
âSnipingâ is a bit misleading in the game in general and with Zero in particular, as he has the skill tree of that name.
The game isnât really a sniperâs game, itâs fast paced in-your-face combat and itâs hard to get one shot kills even on headshots in UVHM against anything above basic enemies.
That said, I love sniping and so try to make it work, even though I donât have @Adabiviak 's creativity in making everything work, even long range play with the Godfinger.
The Leg Hunter is great for Zero period. If you look at Zeroâs sniping tree, unless you base your whole play around stacking Critical Ascension, you donât have to go far down the tree to get the main skills like Rising Shot, edit: meant OSOK, and Bore. Kill Confirmed, At One with the Gun arenât necessary to still do a lot of damage with Sniper rifles. Therefore, you can make hybrid builds with the middle tree and the right one too at higher levels.
The only issue with making a hybrid build early is that you really want Deathmark/Kunai with all Zero builds at UVHM. Yes, Iâm sure you can play around that, but itâs much much harder. Therefore, youâve got twenty six points committed to the middle tree and that limits allocation elsewhere until higher levels.
The Leg Hunter is just plain great for Zero as it gives that nice little health boost on Deception plus the passive buffs. Combined with Innervate, it really helps your surviveability. For melee, once you have Followthrough, Killing Blow, and Execute, you can melee fairly well or use melee as your finisher.
Therefore, you can scrap together a hybrid with Kunai, and the first couple rows of skills in the right and left trees, but again, the math dictates that wonât be until you have sufficient skill points to do that.
My advice would be to choose a more gun or melee focused Zero and just incorporate a powerful Sniper into whatever your playstyle is, as even the most melee focused builds will still use guns until you have the points for both Kunai and Many Must Fall. The Leg Hunter is a great COM for Zero so it will fit into everything you are doing.
Have fun with Zero, of all the characters, heâs the one that makes me play with the most precision and accuracy and so made me much better at the game in general.
edit: saw your â â â â â â â about shotguns, they work really with Zero with OSOK and Rising Shot
[quote=âChemicalConundrum, post:3, topic:1562270â]The game isnât really a sniperâs game
[/quote]Itâs only as much a sniperâs game as one makes it. Most players I see using sniper rifles are using them more like combat rifles, but even traditional sniping works almost everywhere (and Iâm including Hammerlockâs DLC here).
[quote=âsehenry10, post:1, topic:1562270â]Should I also throw in shotguns/pistols for up close fights?[/quote]Why not? If this is your first Assassin, youâll be crawling through the skill trees one point at a time, so unless you donât ever try out certain skills, youâll have plenty of opportunity (especially in NVHM) to give them all a spin and see what you like. There are plenty of builds listed above, but you should really get your own hands on all the skills and see if theyâre something you like.
The game isnât really set out for snipers with the lack of the one shot one kill headshot and a suppressor. Generally in games more built around sniping mechanics, these allow to constantly shift position and keep the enemy off balance. Iâm not just referring to sniping games like Sniper Elite or Sniper Ghost Warrior, but something like the Far Cry games. There, you can comfortably work from range. In BL2, at higher UVHM levels, you arenât usually going to take down an enemy in one shot and youâll alert the others to your position. In addition, the way the spawns work, the enemy is right on top of you many times, so even picking off a few early spawners from range has little effect. Iâm not criticizing BL2 for this, BL2 has unbelievably intense combat, but itâs nature dictates being in the fray or just outside of it, not at a comfortable distance chipping away, which is what I generally associate with sniping.
I agree that sniper rifles in the game function more like combat rifles. That said, I love picking off an enemy from range with a Muckamuck as Zero⊠that gun has such a satisfying âcrackâ as opposed to the pew pew of the Lyuda
Zer0 is great at using different weaps. For example you could use a sniper to slag, debuff ennemies, fighting at long range. Once you close the gap between you and your ennemy, swap to a pistol, a shotgun, or execute a melee attack.
Not the same playstyle at all, Krieg and Zer0 have a sort of micro management to get the most out of their skills but I would say on one hit, Zer0 can deal the most damage. Iâm sure there is someone who has compiled all this data somewhere on the forum.
Do I use a roid shield on Zero? I use a rough rider on Krieg but thatâs for a totally different reason. I figured a Roid shield for when I want to melee and maybe a Bee when I want to use snipers?
For a pure melee playstyle, roid shield is mandatory. You can either strip your shield yourself with a nade or a gun that deals splash damage to benefit from the roid damage bonus. Kunai will get the roid bonus too.
If you have a more hybrid playstyle, a mix between guns (not specially snipers, most of the skills of the left tree are applied to every type of guns) and melee, use your execute move once ennemies have depleted your shield. Meantime, you can slag, debuff them, heal yourself, etc ⊠For this one, a roid shield or a shield that grants you some survivability would be appreciate. Antagonist is a great choice imho for an hybrid Zer0.
Thatâs just my opinion, but The Bee is a bit redundant with Zer0. He has ton of skills that boost dps, I would pick a shield that give me more survivability or something that makes life easier. For example an absorb shield could be a nice choice if playing with a high fire rate sniper rifle.
If you feel you really need a damage increase for any reason, The Bee will fit very well this role but you will have to pay attention to keep it always full.
[quote=âChemicalConundrum, post:5, topic:1562270â]The game isnât really set out for snipers with the lack of the one shot one kill headshot and a suppressor.[/quote]Lack of one-shot kill headshot? I get that few people use Zer0âs suppressor capability, but one-shot kills are his bread and butter. Itâs quite possible to do this up to the late levels of UVHM; one just needs to bring more and more favorable game mechanics to bear, which makes it prohibitively difficult, but itâs certainly not impossible. That itâs otherwise relatively simple for a majority of the game before the few very hardest levels available, I would say that traditional, ranged sniping is quite viable in BL2.