No point using elemental weapons after maxing Duty Calls skill

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

I decided to max out Duty Calls skill, which I think was worth it because now SMGs and Vladof machines pistols are great to use.

The thing is now basically using elemental weapons is pointless, except for maybe an acid shotgun for robots but these are rare to find.

I instead slag the enemies and then gun them down with non-elemental weapons, I even do this with armored enemies.

#2

Incorrect

Sure, if you consider around 60% of the game rare

Slag is an element in this game.

#5

no it wasn’t pointless

I tested this on the armored maniacs that run at you. I used an acid smg on them and it wasn’t doing any more damamge on them than my standard smg because of maxed Duty Calls skill

do you understand now

#6

Some of the best guns in the game are SMGs (sandhawk anyone?), and vladof pistols are usually good as well, first and foremost the anarchist (which can come in any element other than explosive).

Using elemental weapons is never, nor will it ever be pointless. Loaders rare? Are you sure you’re playing Borderlands 2? You’re fighting loaders, or armored enemies in at least 50% of the main campaign, and I’m not even gonna mention the DLCs.

Slag is an element, and if you’re in UVHM you should be doing this regardless of if you’re using other elemental weaponry, or not.

Armored psychos/maniacs/lunatics are only weak to corrosive damage in their chest area. Their head isn’t armored, and therefor is not weak to corrosive damage. If you wanted to test accurately you should have gone to Washburne Refinery where all enemies aside from Hyperius are loaders.

#7

I didn’t mean loaders were rare I meant that acid shotguns were rare.

I remember in 1st playthrough of the game I found an amazing blue-tier acid shotgun at level 19 that I was still using at level 25.

#8

Actually, they’re not rare in terms of their theoretical drop rates - a shotgun has the same chance to be corrosive, fire, slag, or shock. However:

  1. Non-elemental seems to have a higher set probability than elemental (except fixed part uniques and legendaries)
  2. Every player has a different experience because RNG.

The only thing I’d say to your thread title is: if that’s the way you want to play, then that’s fine. Non-elemental weapons generally have higher base damage than their elemental equivalents because they don’t apply DoT, and have zero chance of AoE splash damage either. So even without maxing Duty Calls you can deal major damage with non-elemental weapons (eg Jakobs spinigun).

The two things you’ll be missing if you go totally non-elemental are:

  1. Slag (yes, it is an element, and slag-on-slag damage is a thing in UVHM)
  2. DoT to keep health regen from overwhelming your damage on tankier enemies while you reload

I’d also suggest that you’ll still need shock and corrosive weapons if you want to run raid bosses, since they can be all shield and/or armour, and you can run out of ammo if you don’t use the appropriate type of weapon (with Axton anyway - Sal always has a hoarder mod to go to in pinch).

#9

Interesting thought.

non elemental weapons have ~16% higher base damage
+55% dmg with Duy calls(+33% firerate)

up to 71% dmg boost

vs

elemenal weapons deals +75% extra damage to weakness on UVHM+, excluding DoT.

I guess you might be onto something, maybe the extra firerate is better than that extra 4%+ damage and chance to inflict DoT.

#10

Is Duty Calls additive or multiplicative?

#12

A non-elemental build is a valid playstyle , especially for Axton.
But there are some good corrosive weapons that aren’t pistols or smg’s , so maybe dont rule it out?
The stinkpot,corrosive conference call,pimpernel,kitten,lyuda and a good few others can make short work of any Loaders.

Theres also some great elemental weapons that are just fun to use.
Blockhead(fire) , Twister(shock) etc.

#13

I’d like remind new forum members to read the forum rules, as they give a lot of advice on how to avoid all kinds of unpleasantness.

#14