Some UVHM tips?

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

More of a general thing with a focus on specific things I have questions for. Don’t want to clutter up the forum board by posting a bunch of topics in various places. So, let’s get to it.

  1. Slag. What’s the best way to do this? I know it depends on the character. For Maya, I’ve pretty much been relying on phaselock w/ Ruin and then on the occasion I need more slag, then I use a slag grenade. Currently just a bouncing betty one, but going to work on getting a magic missle at some point. Only issue is that it locks me out of a grenade slot. So… what do I do here? I’ve been using slag sniper rifles in my non-UVHM playthroughs because 65%+ chance to slag seems pretty nice. But their swap speed is slow and you can’t cover a lot of ground with them either.

I know the Slagga exists, so that’s an option. Also that… seraph one but I can’t recall what it is and requires seraph crystals which is endgame level.

  1. Mostly tied to the above one: how do you deal with UVHM on characters that aren’t Maya?

For Krieg, my assumption is that he has a lot of trouble here. Does he have to dump his middle tree and go for Bloodlust & his right one for healing and damage reduction? Even with the massive amount of melee modifiers and Release The Beast, it just comes off as being really hard to deal with UVHM as Krieg, especially raid bosses that make using melee mostly impossible.

For Axton, do you approach it slowly with him? Do you rely on Double Up slag turret? Because he seems to be at a disadvantage quite heavily without his turret. Which does have a long cooldown. Which also will die if someone sneezes at it, given the trouble I’ve had keeping it alive in TVHM (until Longbow + Mag-Lock, anyways).

For Zer0… I don’t even know about this one. Does he just require a lot of skill to use? I’ve always been pretty bad at critting enemies consistently, so I imagine that his left tree would be mostly irrelevant to me, but I don’t see being able to deal with things if you just focus on his middle and right tree, with a bit of the left for kill skills.

Gaige just seems frustrating as all hell. On the occasion you go down, which will happen often as she has no FFYL tools, you have to work on your Discord stacks which just seems like a major pain. Dunno if it’s even worth it, especially given that her middle tree has a lot of scaling issues.

Sal seems more straightforward, so I just want to clear up something: my general setup so far has been using a fire & slag weapon as my first set of weapons (due to the ubiquitous nature of flesh enemies) and then my second set is corrosive & explosion. Which takes care of loaders and other corrosive enemies. Will I need to switch to fire-slag and corrosive-slag? Or should I not depend on perma-slag and just use grenades for it or what?

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#2

This is what i use.

For maya, don’t use slag gun since ruin and scorn is enough for me.

For krieg i use the grog or slagga, (slag pimpernel also works) if i am doing a explosive build, crossfire/bonny (low level) if i go melee.

For axton if i go grenade build i use either the grog, slagga or pimpernel. For beefour build i use slag transfusion or low level magic missile.

For sal pretty much the grog or ladyfist. Or if i am running kitten sal i used the alag kitten.

For melee zero grog works best, i have seen others used a slag pimp as well. For gun zero a slag transfusion is a necessity.

For gaige, i used the magic missile low level and transfusion. Others also use a slagga or a florentine.

My gun setup usually consist of a grog, my main weapon, slag weapon and a second wind weapon. I just matched my main weapon based on the element the enemies in the area are weak.

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#3

For general stuff, this is a great place to start. There are also character specific “50 ways to keep _____ alive in UVHM” threads in the various subtopics.

Re:slag- I personally like slag nades: betties are the go to for Krieg unless I’m using fastballs (then I rely on a Slagga), transfusions for Zer0, Magic Missiles for Gaige. Maya and Axton have efficient slag skills (ruin/scorn and Double Up respectively) that do the job rather efficiently. Sal usually rocks a slag gun in one hand of each gunzerk pair and therefore usually carries singularities for crowd control.

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#4

Another option is the Antagonist Seraph shield, which tosses homing slag balls when it receives damage. The slag balls can blow up close to you and slag you if you aren’t careful.

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#5
  1. Great tool for slagging is slag Maliwan snider with maliwan barrel. Bonus slag chance if maliwan grip.
    From 69.9 to 79.1% chance to slag. Higher with BAR points added on top. Can be found anywhere, because damage for slagging tool is secondary concern.
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#6

Plus you get two chances to slag with a Snider, one from the bullet and one from the splash.

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#7

For Maya, Ruin (with Converge) is a pretty good start, but you need to focus on crowd control if you’re using that only, specifically, use singularity grenades (even if they suck) to get enemies close enough together so Converge can grab them all and let Ruin spray them. Alternately, get Scorn, and slag will never be a problem again.

For Axton, Double Up is easily the best way. For Zer0, Kunai aren’t reliable enough for applying slag, so you definitely need a weapon. For Gaige, Interspersed Outburst works, but you need all five points in there with a COM that enhances it (and you still only get it every few seconds). For weapons, I like a Slagga, Slag Transfusion Grenade, or Maliwan sniper rifle… they’ll all slag quickly and reliably. In reality, I play allegiance, so I use some non-traditional slag gear (Fibber, Patriot, Gwen’s Head, for example).

They definitely all work; we just need to adjust to their respective strengths and weaknesses. Maya is a rock star, and she definitely makes the game seem easy compared to the others. Once I struggled through UVHM the first time and made it to OP8, I “retired” and use the OP system (and some UCP now) to put the difficulty where I want it.

I use Double Up for my Torgue Commando (because Torgue doesn’t make any slag gear), and Gwen’s Head, Veruc, Railer, or Plasma Caster for my Dahl Commando (because I love me some double Nuke action so much that I’ll slag enemies by hand for it). Once I started playing him without Double Up (which was hard to be sure), you get used to it.

Kind of, depending on how you play. Melee? Yes… very easy to miss a kill and wind up right in an enemy’s face with Decepti0n on full cooldown, plus timing all the things is tricky and I found it took a fair amount of practice to time and stack them into lethal shots with a reliable cadence. Once you’re there though, it’s incredibly fun. Sniping can usually be done at a safe distance from trouble though, but some maps/areas don’t lend themselves to this, but his regular gun skills are quite good.

How are you playing her? She’s got pretty unique playstyles, all of which I find entertaining. Sal and Krieg were more frustrating for me, just because their skills didn’t really fit the play styles I enjoy.

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#8

Excellent slagging tool! The only gun i can think of that might be even better is a slag Pimpernel. Very high slag chance, and you can hit multiple targets with one shot.

Zero is probably the least forgiving of all the characters, but he’s a lot of fun to play once you get him going. Even though you feel that you’re bad at critting, It’s not as hard as you think. Deception offers a few seconds to line up each shot, and that makes it a lot easier. You also need to pay more attention to your surroundings, and plan your attacks more carefully. And stick to cover!

Here’s a thread that helped me out a lot when I needed some advice. Maybe you can find it useful too.

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#9

I’m running a Cata + Motion build, though. Can’t really go into Scorn. It’s been working great so far though.

Being that I’m in the early bits of UVHM at lv55, not really an option for me. :stuck_out_tongue:

This is kind of my issue. Getting Double Up requires not being in the Survival Tree, which really worries me. Not to mention the reliance on his turret means that after every encounter, you have to sit and wait until his turret is recharged. Even a bigger issue if it dies, which I’m sure happens very easily. And also doing so means you can’t get Mag-Lock to put your turret out of harm’s way.

I always thought melee was easier. Maybe it’s harder in UVHM? Between roid shields and all the melee bonuses along with a Law/Rapier, seems like he’d stack up damage pretty fast. Only thing I’ll have to work on is shield stripping for roid shields. Which I’ve never done before because I didn’t know it was a thing until I read about it a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve always felt sniping to be more difficult. I can really only hit crit spots reliably as Maya, and that’s because the enemies are stationary for 3-9 seconds and always take the same position when phaselocked. Not to mention enemies get all weird when you throw out deception. What maps make it difficult for sniper Zer0?

I don’t really know what kind of various playstyles she has. Especially when you don’t have specific gear for it, which is pretty much the case for me right now. Typically just using LBT + Anarchy thing. The main issue I find with her is that Deathtrap will become less and less threatening. DT’s various AI issues are also a problem. Most of her middle tree being less than ideal in UVHM due to scaling issues. (Feel free to correct me on that, though). The big one is Anarchy stacks. Having to build up stacks through Jakob Shotgun spam is really boring. I don’t even know how you do that. Since you have to keep shooting manually.

A really big issue being raiding with Gaige is a total nightmare. If you screw up and die, you’re out of luck. 90% of her damage output is done through Anarchy and DT. DT doesn’t like actually attacking raid bosses properly and if she dies, she has to go kill other things for 15 minutes, not die, come back and attempt again.

Also, a couple of questions.

  1. Why is the Fastball recommended all the time on top gear threads? I’ve never gotten it, but I read up on it. It’s evidently just a very fast, very high damage grenade? So it’s just used to deal massive damage to ultimate badasses and particularly threatening enemies. Wouldn’t you normally do that with slag and powerful guns anyways?

  2. I just got to the Dust, so I’ll be able to pick up the Slagga. The issue with the Pimpernel and Grog is that they’re both quest items. I’d really prefer not having to set every few levels and go through the beginning parts of the story constantly to renew Grog & Pimpernel. If I have to, then fine. Just trying to get by with slag grenades and good slag weapons like Slagga. The Maliwan sniper with the barrel mentioned is neat. No idea how you farm non-unique/legendary weapons consistently, though.

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#10

You can unleash tons of damage with Fastball without having to aim for crits. It does more raw damage than a crit from a sniper rifle. It’s great support grenade in case if you run out of ammo in heat of combat, so you can throw it instead of reloading/switching guns. But what makes it even better is that it have great Synergies with many characters.
Most notably bloodsplosion synergy for Krieg, because it causes overkill damage chain and stack from one enemy to next.
Axton with grenade damage boosts and increased grenade ammo capacity.
Salvador throwing 2 fastballs with single throw.
Zer0 can can spam it from deception.

Mailwan slag snider. It’s a sniper rifle.

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#11

Yeah, I know that. :stuck_out_tongue: Moreso me saying it’s obvious how to farm quests and legendaries, pearls and seraph items. Not so much blues/purples.

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#12

White rarity one will suffice just fine. Hit gun shops until you find one. As a slagging tool you don’t need it to be up to your level.

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#13

Ah, okay. I always assumed you wanted the best weapons to deal with UVHM, including slagging tools. Means I can go ahead and get the Grog then if I want to and re-acquire at at 72 for OCD reasons.

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#14

I’ve been taking all characters except Maya to lvl72 using same lvl50 slag pimpernel.

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#15

In “normal” UVHM" you want good gear. Not necessarily the best. You’re not at OP level yet. So for slagging you want something that slag reliably. The Pimpernel and the Slagga are the best but there’s other options. And you shouldn’t need a Moxxxi healing gun yet either.
Sniper rifles have a good slag chance base so Maliwan with their splash damage or Vladof with their high rate of fire will work. Not the best but they will work. I remember having to use an “Horroshow” (Vladof sniper with Jakobs barrel) at some point. It was far from perfect but it got me through.
Anything with multiple projectiles and/or high RoF CAN work. Doesn’t mean it will but it can. (Pistols are awefull for the most part beside de specialty ones)
Some Hyperion shotguns (Mainly single barrel) are decent, but not for really long range.
Slag transfusion grenades are always a good option.

Now about Axton the Commando. Sure he’s dependable on his turret but not so much because he “can’t slag without it” but because of the Battlefront skill. At 5pts it’s a 30% dmg boost while the turret is active. As for the Gemini I never used it and found the one turret reliable for slagging. Not a big fan of the survival tree. Not beyonf Mag lock anyways. But remember. The turret will only slag what it want to. So you can’t be 100% dependent on it even when it’s active.
With a good setup you don’t need to slag everything either. Be it with a commando or any other class. With points in Steady (Gunpowder tree), a Kerblaster, a DPUH, an explosive relic and a fastball. Mobs goes down pretty fast!

Yeah, the Kerblaster. That’s Axton rifle :wink:

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#16

Double post!
Already did enough editing on the previous post! :smiley:

About the turret survivability. The synergy (Also called Derch) between Longbow and Mag lock is great for that. With a little practice you’ll find the best positioning and it make a really significant difference.

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#17

Gaming with no pants on also improves your UVHM success.

It’s scientifically proven.

:wink:

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#18

Correlation doesn’t mean causation. We need to run more tests to be sure.

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#19

Maps full of Skags, Stalkers, Varkids, or Bullymongs (melee-only monsters) are tough for sniper Zer0. Once you cap one and they all rush you, unless you’ve got a safe sniper nest, it becomes very difficult to “snipe” them, and you wind up using the rifle like an AR, in which case you should grab a different weapon.

Which ones? I’ve found all the skills to work as advertised. Buck Up will occasionally fire on an enemy instead of you, but I find that rare (and if you count the times he does it to non-shielded enemies where it’s no big deal, I don’t even sweat it); his other ones, good damage or not, do what they’re supposed to. Barrel management is part of Robot Husbandry 101 (as he will go after barrels that damage him until they fade out).

I think people do that for raid bosses? I might do that twice a year… just start the map and the stacks will pile on super fast, especially with points in Typecast Iconoclast (and more with a Legendary Anarchist COM). Remember: kills contribute towards it as well.

I don’t know… don’t raid much myself, but @pokapoka used to regularly whip Terra’s butt with Gaige.

I think it’s there because many players like hard-hitting if not one-shot weaponry, and the Fastball delivers.

While they’re epic weapons and wind up being the foundation of, what, 80% of players’ builds out there, they are absolutely not necessary for playing/completing the game.

I don’t think it’s consistent - I think most people go to Buttstallion and hope for a gemstone version of what they want. Otherwise it’s just luck while chest farming.

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#20

Alright, I’ll put my pants back on and see how I do. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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