Jakobs Zero and Vel0city

Borderlands 2 Zer0 the Assassin
#1

I’m planning to play as Jakobs Zero using weapons like the bekah, twister, maggie and orphan maker.
I’ve read many threads were people said that they don’t invest in Velocity because of the time when the pellets from guns like bekah split or the twister can’t bore effectivly. But then on the other hand i saw people invested in this skill because they want to make the twister faster.
I’m a little bit confused what to do and hope that somebody can make this clear for me. I want to use the guns i listed at the top so don’t care about guns like the pimpernell.
I would also like to hear your opinion in other skills i should invest in for Jakobs Zero. Two fang yeah or neh?

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#2

For the bekah it all depends on what range you use it at. If you want a longer range sniper role for it velocity wouldn’t hinder it. Since velocity increases the range at which the bullet spilts.

That’s about all the advice i can give, i don’t play zero

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#3

For Velocity I’d just say try it out without and with and see if it has negative impact for you. If it doesn’t then just go ahead and spec it.

Two Fang is good for all of those with maybe the exception of Orpan Maker IF the Two Fang shot also hurts you (I don’t remember if it does). You could also go for a Triquetra, Coach gun, Bushwack or ,if you are looking for a really close range deal breaker and have both precicion and velocity specced, a Quad.

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#4

The Maggie, Twister and Orphan Maker all benefit from the passive damage Vel0city provides. For the Twister, I always prefer it will Vel0city because of the additional bullet speed and range it gets. I wouldn’t use it with the Bekah though - since you are likely gonna using the Leg. Killer, even 1 point in Vel0city can really mess with it.

That said, Vel0city isn’t a gamebreaker - so if you are maining the Bekah, I wouldn’t spec into it.

Definitely spec into Two Fang. Unless you have a godly trigger finger, TF will add alot of DPS to the Maggie and Bekah.

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#5

Pick your favorite depending on how you use the weapons. I’m a Vel0city user. For the Twister, I’m not trying to exploit overlapping hitboxes; I’m trying to use the target in front of me as a damage multiplier for the target behind, and Vel0city helps get that tornado downwind faster. For the Bekah, I just use it at a slightly longer range (and use other Jakobs assault rifles for closer range work). Then, besides these two weapons, every other weapon loves some Vel0city, so I don’t find it much of a “sacrifice” at all.

I have three points in it by default. When sniping, if the rifle drops more than one round when I fire, who cares? I’m still reloading for the 0ne Sh0t 0ne Kill bonus, and it’s only the first round that I care about (so if the others go wide and miss, I still don’t care). I like it because it’s one of the ways to “increase” my fire rate when fanning the hammer. I mostly use it with assault rifles, with which I pack a Neutral Good Rogue COM:

  • Reload speed buff is nice… those Jakobs ARs take forever to spin up, especially without Killer active.
  • Mag size buff is nice, especially with a Gatling Gun, but it’s also good for sustaining Rising Sh0t.
  • Tw0 Fang throws more shot downwind for a given hammer rate.
  • Vel0city: remember that there’s bonus base and crit damage in addition to the bullet speed buff.

Here’s my build. When I play Jakobs Assassin, I am definitely trying to get one-hit kills most of the time (with sniper rifles and most shotguns; when I play with assault rifles or pistols, then I’m Tw0 Fanging it), so I focus on skills that facilitate this. When I come out of Decepti0n, the damage buff is poured into that single shot. Ambush and Innervate damage is poured into that single shot. When you tap the enemy with a melee hit to fire Be Like Water, this damage is only good for the single shot. 0ne Sh0t One Kill is only good for the single shot (and since it should be a kill, Killer helps get 0ne Sh0t 0ne Kill back on deck quick enough that you should be able to take advantage of the crit buff from Killer on your next shot too). Kill C0nfirmed is only good for the one shot, since we’re reloading afterwards for 0ne Sh0t 0ne Kill.

It really depends on what you want to do with your Jakobs loadouts though. Using the Orphan Maker and Twister with all the enhancements listed above should turn them into one-hit killers for sure; the Bekah and Maggie I find are more fun to B0re with, just because I like the sound all that multi-pellet B0re makes. If you Tw0 Fang those with a deep enough magazine, Rising Sh0t isn’t a bad skill either.

build
build.jpg2560×1440 1.68 MB

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#6

The others have stated things pretty conclusively, but I just wanted to reinforce how bad Velocity is with bullet splitting. I haven’t tested it with a Bekah as I’ve never found one, but I have with the Godfinger and the Pimpernel ( I know you’re not using the Pimp, but the principal is close enough ).

One single un-boosted point is about all you can afford to put into Velocity with the Pimp ( the Godfinger is completely unusable with any Velocity ) - and I don’t see why the Bekah would be any different.

With the Leg Killer or Leg Sniper COMs, you should definitely not spec it - or use a Gatling Gun instead of the Bekah. With a Rogue COM, one or two points max ( but test against a wall to see at what point you get the extra pellets ).

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#7

The bekah doesn’t gain damage from the bullets being in the air longer, so all velocity would do is force you to use it at longer range, like a traditional sniper. Unless I’m missing something

Edit: same thing as the lyuda

#8

That’s correct - but at 6/5 or 10/5, Velocity will increase that range dramatically to the point of potentially being unusable. Tell you what - I’ll work on this and get back to you :wink:

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#9

Thanks you were all really helpful and do your best to really help me. I will not invest in velocity because it makes the bekah unuseable for range i wanna use it, even when i miss the speed for the twister :smile: i think its perfect to make this gun more effectiv and can be used at medium ranges.
I will Definitely try two fang. I never used it before but seems like the only possivility to really push up the fire rate for a jakobs :smiley:

#10

@Piemanlee @FleshCrunch

Here’s a surprising result : at 10/5 in Vel0city , it doesn’t seem to affect bullet splitting significantly. The only thing I can’t seem to determine is the 4th pellet. @darreltan2004 : do you have any insight into that?

Full disclosure : that Bekah is “manufactured” strictly for testing purposes. It went straight into the bin after.

The minimum distance at 10/5 increased by about two meters vs 0/5 so I have to reverse my recommendation : definitely go into Velocity as deep as you want. The good thing is that just one point goes a long way, so if you can only afford one or two or three, that’s still worth it.

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#11

Doing god’s work out there lol

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#12

Velocity with the twister is a god sent, Bekah I have no clue as I’m not a fan of range on Zer0. With Jakob’s weaponry in general though I would say velocity can’t hurt, two fang however is bad for Jakob’s snipers imo.

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#13

I just tested it myself. Yeah you are right, the split distance even at 10/5 Vel0city isn’t unreasonable. It still does as advertised and more than doubles the split distance - but what surprised me was how short the split distance was.

At 10/5 Vel0city, I stood just before the new-U station to get the split. But at 0/5, I needed less than 5m to get the split. I think this really allows for alot more versatility of use for the Bekah - it is not strictly a long range weapon anymore.

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