A Blue-gear only run?

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

Hello, I’m new to the forums but I play Borderlands 2 (on PS3) from quite a bit and after my UVHM with Zer0 I was a bit bored; so I was wondering if, with a friend of mine IRL, is manageable to do a Blue-gear only run from normal to UVHM (no Uniques, ofc); do anyone of you have any suggestions, starting from the character and finishing with the build? I don’t really want to use Zer0 again and IDK what to use (if you wanna know my playstyle, I used a Gun/Sniper Zer0)

Thanks in advance [:

#2

Well, it would certainly be easier than a white or green gear only run, and a few players have done those.

Overall, I’d say it depends a little bit on who you’re going to play as and how well you know that character’s skills, since you’ll need those at the higher levels to compensate for the blue gear. That said, there is some pretty decent blue gear in game, especially if you include the blue unique items that are either mission or side quest rewards - quite a number of those rank among the “top gear” recommendations for specific characters.

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#3

I’m not gonna use the Uniques, I know a good number of them are extremely powerful
btw a Green only is an idea too, now that you have mentioned it (also because I know there are some Blue Class mods/Shlelds powerful enough to be not considered for the run)

Characters I played but not in a extensive matter are Melee Krieg (did TVHM with him) and a little bit of everyone else (i finished Normal Mode with everyone bar Axton, I hate that guy); I want to try Maya or, once again, Krieg for this run

#4

At this point, I would like to point you in the direction of @DeputyChuck’s Deputy Sal build.

While this build has the Rustler’s Orphan Maker as it’s primary choice of gun, it also allows for a blue coach gun as an option. The only catch here is that you don’t wanna use any uniques at all. Which in turn makes the healing quite a bit more challenging.

Maya is probably the easiest character to do this with, since she has great healing skills along with great offense skills.

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#5

Yeah, I don’t want to use Uniques since some of them are just as powerful (or even better) than Purple, Legendary and so-on guns; so I want to be strict on this one; btw, the Money Shot build can work, I only need to study the possible gear to get along with the Coach gun (a slag pistol/maliwan smg? the shield/grenade? any possible other guns?)

Yeah, I was thinking of her along with Krieg!
Krieg, especially the melee variant, does his job splendidly without (almost) ever using guns (simply get the dirt, go Release the Beast, finish all the enemies/your Special, repeat).
Maya gets the nice healing and insane offensive elemental skills, and even on blue variants Maliwan guns are devastating in her hands.

I’ll see what I will do, probably Maya because my friend isn’t that skilled with the game and I can have some breathing room with only green/blue (haven’t decided that yet) gear as I will heal my friend in need (probably I can let him take Krieg/Sal, I guess?)

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#6

Maya and Krieg have good synergy; if your friend doesn’t have a lot of experience with melee characters, though, I’d suggest Sal.

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#7

A transfusion grenade is basically your only option for healing during fights. Preferably a slag one…

Anything that slags well is what I’d use in my main hand. A Maliwan Snider (Maliwan barrel) has the highest chance to slag, but is a bit awkward to use in some situations. Use whichever you’re most comfortable with.

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#8

He used Sal already so he’s probably his first choice; he never tried melee characters, so he’s probably inclined more towards him.

Good enough with her Harmony tree :^ (I don’t really need other types of grenades on Maya)

Either that, a Revenant (iirc it was the Slag Maliwan Barrel SMG) or the Maliwan/Vladof pistols (the Vladof ones are a bit too ammo expensive, but if I’m unlucky enough to get a Slag Anarchist, so be it)
At least Slagging isn’t one of my top priority until I get to TVHM, although I want to be lucky enough for it.

#9

I ran Maya with no starting gear in tvhm and used greens and whites up until 61 when I beat uvhm.

Maya has cloud kill. Slag weapons+cloud kill means everything dies.

She also has great healling skills.

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#10

Sounds enough for me, thanks a lot!

One last thing: should I go Harmony first for the healing skills and then in the Cataclysm, or…?

#11

I think Zer0 could manage this. Early game when you don’t have blues is up to luck obviously. Unforeseen when you get it trivializes a lot of hard enemies on NVHM and TVHM. The progression might not be fast depending on what you get but Unforeseen and Kunai would eventually see you through. You could also go to melee tree after cunning to get Execute (and the 2 skills before it) which are not too gear dependant, just pick up a bladed weapon somewhere.

The challenge would steadily ramp up during UVHM as you’d become more dependant on having good drops and/or respeccing between having good burst from OSOK or execute. That’s how I’d imagine it at least.

That’s an interesting challenge.

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#12

If you’re going co-op then hit res first then start on the catoclism tree.

If solo it’s up to you. I’m not huge on the harmony tree because the grog exists. :wink:

If you’re level 16+ and feel like you need a damage boost just respec and get cloud kill.

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#13

I probably could, but another time when I feel like using Zer0 once again (I just finished my first UVHM run with him…), now Maya got my attention :^

Yeah, it’s a co-op, so I’m going for the Res first; I can probably try a solo run in these two days waiting for my friend and see what skills/guns can work best for me in the co-op run!

#14

Thoughts on Krieg for this:

Melee again as that kind of trivializes your gear. You need to just go general gunplay until you get release the beast so NVHM is bit of a general use whatever you pick up deal.
When you get RTB you can pretty much rely on it to clear TVHM and I’d build up on Bloodlust after as the skills tend to support your melee and pick whatevs style and getting to bloodsplosion helps tons early UVHM.

I’m positively sure it would make it into 72 but if you plan to go in to OP levels that build will run into problems at some point in the peak runs.

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#15

Yeah, Krieg is also a optimal character for this type of run being that Melee Krieg just needs Moxxi guns, some explosive ones and RTB all the way up to 72, it’s ok for my friend too because it’s not so hard to use once you learn when to melee and when to throw the axe (he’s still my favourite character, sorry Zer0); also, for gun-related things my Maya can go with him until I get Cloud Kill (and even then I’ll just shoot into things)

Nice suggestions, We’ll probably go with a Maya/Krieg duo :^

#16

Ach, sorry. I just realized you said you didn’t want Zero.

Maya go to the right tree. Cloudkill owns stuff regardless of gear and will be a major damage dealer throughout the run. What you build up to after CK is up to you but I’d probably start going left for Converge to get some max AOE going with CK. You should have an easy enough time until UVHM and then you should have enough points built up to have options for different viable builds for the challenge. I’d imagine going for the mid tree after converge to build up on some healing options in orbs and getting extra DPS in Wreck as well as picking up Res is the best but I might not see the whole picture here.

But you can’t use Moxxi guns if you go no uniques. Melee Krieg might want to stay away from those anyway.

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#17

A personal fave are green Jacobs snipers and any maliwan sniper.

Jacobs coach guns or bushwacks are fun too.

Vladof pistols are great too.

Lookout for Jacobs gattling guns. Green rarity ones usually get me through a lot of nvhm.

Just try everything you find and see what you like. Most things work up to level 50.

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#18

So, what are your rules until you pick up blues anyway?
You can use anything but if you find a blue you have to put it into a slot and then it’ll just build into an all blue eventually? Or are you going to farm like mad through all of it to pick up good blues throughout?

#19

IMO, and without any particular VH in mind, I think it’s hard to go wrong with any decent-spec’d Hyperion Thinking shotgun…the accuracy buff, decent range, good power, comes in elements, one ammo per shot.

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#20

Any Jakobs shotgun with a mag size big enough to be shot twice, and any gun with a mag size of at least 10-12. Bonus points if it slags or gives crit bonuses. Usually a sniper is a good pick

Rest of loadout:
Adaptive shield
Health relic
Monk or raider COM Monk would be best, with secondary skill being T-Rex
Any grenade (transfusions would help)

I even posted a brawn-centric version specifically for those who chose to go without a moxxi gun and need to get healing elsewhere.

Yes, you can totally run a Deputy build without any unique item.

If you want to try another character, I think Maya would do it well as mentioned, but one character no one thinks about: Zero doesn’t need any of those fancy Legendary things to kill.

Edit: [quote=“Lammas, post:11, topic:1563590”]
I think Zer0 could manage this.
[/quote]

Should have read all the way down before replying. :stuck_out_tongue: Sorry @Lammas

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