Please Help Me Be Better with Zer0

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

Hello. I’ve never been good with Zer0, it’s a fact. Maybe i’m just not skilled enough, i’m not sure. I tried to go melee for a long time and kept getting frustrated by dying all the time, so switched it up to go with more of a gun setup. The issue I have is, I was working through with him, got to level 55. Died at Bloodwing, and got annoyed, went and played Krieg, then Salvador, and i’m finding it very hard to come back to him. My build is this:

My gear is a little underleveled now. I have 3 level 50 Pimpernels (slag, corrosive and shock), a level 54 Quad, a Good Touch and some other vaguely useless gear. I have a slag bouncing betty grenade and also a Tesla in the backpack. I really want to use him but I just get so frustrated by him a lot. Or rather by myself being bad with him. The class mod is a One Shot Sniper COM, by the way. I can farm gear but farming for anything between 50 and 72 is hard as he’s my only character in the mid-50s range.

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

You have a good build, but I’d highly recommend getting Grim. The survivability is provides is extremely good for gun Zer0. I’d also do you good to have a Rubi, Grog, or Transfusion; as IMO you shouldn’t play Zer0 without one.

http://bl2skills.com/assassin.html#505001200050055104515050010000

In terms of good easy (non-quest) farms to get you to a place so that you can finish the story, I recommend these…

• Guns
  • Hornet
  • Blockhead
  • Harold
  • Good Touch
  • Bad Touch
  • Lascaux (maybe not)
• Quest guns
  • Lyuda
  • Heartbreaker
  • Infinity (once you get OSOK)
  • Etc… (some others I didn’t mention because I’d suggest saving them for the end game)
• Grenades
  • A Tesla or a Chain Lightning if you’re using Moxxi weapons
  • Or a slag transfusion
• Relics
  • Until you get a Bone, I’d recommend a proficiency relic (cooldown)
• COMs
  • Just go to the Snowman DLC after you get a Blockhead and farm for a L. Hunter since you’re only level 55. Get a TVHM Lady Fist (fire preferably) and a TVHM Bee (if you can’t get to the Tree Ants in Tina’s DLC) to kill the Snowman.
• Shields
  • I guess I’d recommend an Absorb shield until you can farm crystals from Pete for an Antagonist
    • IDK, someone else can chip in on this part

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

I have a 48 Storm Front on a mule somewhere, I can get that and use my 50 Grog. See what I mean? He makes me forget how to play the game thanks for all those tips. Out of interest, which 10 points would you move to get Grim?

[DeputyChuck (Sheriff)]

Personally, I think there is a lot to learn with playing Zero from a purely muscle-memory standpoint, and that should come first.

It doesn’t actually matter what kind of guns you use, as long as you learn to master the deception sequence (something like: deception, strafe to avoid being directly behind, kunai, reload, grenade, timed shot, movement, etc…)

A lot of people will disagree with this, but I would phase out the snipers for now. They are a bit unforgiving of mistakes and player mistakes are what kills Zero in general, so you might want to smooth out the curve a bit.

I have personally found the Kitten to be a great fit to learn to play Zero: The weakness it has is spread (which Zero can correct with accuracy skills) it has Moxxi healing, it is just slow enough to fully benefit from 2 fangs, and works great at shotgun range.

The Heartbreaker is awesome too for the same reasons.

Move the points in A1WTG to bloodshed to get to grim. Either take the remaining points from rising shot or unforseen, depending on weapon used.

Slag Transfusion is almost mandatory I feel, unless you don’t mind switching to a grog all the time.

me too
Alternatively, if you find a Skin of the ancient or the non-etech equivalent, it helps make Zero less squishy.

Leg. Hunter is great, but if you don’t feel like farming too much right away, the Professional COM is great in almost all setups.

Turtle shields work great with Zero, I have found.

Since you rarely get hit while in deception, you often have the 4-5 seconds necessary to let a shield recharge, so while you’re at it, you might as well have a big one.

[Jefe (བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ)]

I like Khim’s build and suggestions. I prefer Unforseen to Two Fang.

The Hunter COM is vastly better than any other COM ( barring the other Legendaries ). In the meantime I like the Killer and Spy COMs.

Already stated but just restating for effect : cooldown relic is really the only choice with Zer0.

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

@DeputyChuck @Jefe Thanks to both of you for your input. I will be back on BL2 shortly, I will have a mess around with my build, I can farm for a Legendary Hunter COM with someone else right? I can take Sal or Maya to the Snowman in TVHM and spam him until I get one. I don’t mind putting the time in, I just don’t like having no idea what i’m doing (which doesn’t really happen with any other Vault Hunter except maybe Axton, but he’s more forgiving).

The Kitten was mentioned, i’m guessing it isn’t worthwhile farming a level 50 one though, right? I’m already 55, i’m assuming it wouldn’t be too useful even now. I’ll have a play around and see what I can come up with.

Thanks again

[DeputyChuck (Sheriff)]

Not worth it for guns at all, but when you get there in UVHM, do the quest and get one

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

Yes, I thought that’s what you meant. I have it farmable on Samael anyway so i’ll grab one when I get him to 72 if I ever do

[DeputyChuck (Sheriff)]

Make sure you get a Severe prefix (or at least NOT the Rabid one)

[User2136]

Just wanna make sure you’re looking for L Hunter com. The killer is one of the second gen of legendary comms. The hunter does wonders for his survivability, more deception= more damage and less dying.

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

I did mean Hunter, I was looking through some COMs I have stashed and wrote what I had on screen at the time. I don’t have a Hunter, which is a shame. Guess i’ll get farming

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

Ok, I farmed for a Legendary Hunter but had no joy, did get a green Professional COM that I figured would do for now, i’ll keep farming machines for something better. I came up with a build to incorporate Grim, and while trying to farm the COM I got a Cooldown relic from the Loot Train. Here’s what I changed it to for now

I farmed a new Good Touch/Bad Touch, passed him a Grog from a mule, got rid of 2 of the Pimpernels (kept the slag one because it can still be useful). How am I looking now?

[Jefe (བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ)]

Looks good!
The points in Iron Hand could go into Killing Blow - it’s nice to have the option of meleeing a target at low health to finish it off.
Even just a single point in Velocity does wonders. Optics is nice for shotties though ( and I do like my SG’s ).

In both cases, totally up to preference.

btw, what about Gaige?

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

Honestly those 5 just got throw in randomly, but good point.

Ok, i’ll do that.

I feel like i’m missing out on Zer0 by doing everything other than playing him all the time, I decided I needed to at least give him another go before I use someone else

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

I’m back again. @Sun_Tsunami has a level 50 Legendary Hunter COM I can have (not in possession of it yet due to timezone differences) so I changed the build to this (done pretending I have the Hunter COM equipped)

I’m guessing this is ok?

Edit: Here’s the build with the COM on.

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

Looks good. The only thing I’d do is trade the points in Unforseen for Two Fang. Unforseen is nice now with its buff, but IMO it’s not worth it to spec into it if you’re not building around it.

You’re not using snipers now, and that’s really the only weapon type that doesn’t like it most of the time.

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

Really? I always assumed that Two Fang wasn’t something people take. Not that i’m basing that on much! I’ll try it out, thanks

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

Yeah so long as your gun doesn’t really care about the extra recoil, it’s extremely powerful. It and the Shadow of the Seraphs are the only multiplicative fire rates in the game essentially, as all the rest are additive. I assume you know how powerful most multiplicative stats are in BL2.

You really feel the increase on slow guns like the Harold, Pimp, SGs, etc…

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

Because if any two weapons in the game need to be made more powerful, it’s those two I jest, I understand the point you’re making. I’m farming the snowman now for some XP so I can get some more skill points and some gear. I’ll change to Two Fang on my next run!

Edit: Here’s me being awful with Zer0

[Jefe (བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ)]

The Two Fang vs Unforseen choice basically comes down to sustained fire vs burst fire.

I prefer the latter because I like big bore shotguns : round up a bunch of targets , throw the decoy into the middle , Twister (say) blast , and Bore & Unforseen do the rest.

If using pistols ( which are for sissies ), go Two Fang.