Despite a couple of thousand hours on BL2, Ive never played a melee skill build character. Ive always preferred to play Zero as a sniper. I finally decided to give it a go (after watching a really fun Jotz playthrough). It was just OK until around level 20’ish, then with the rubi/Thumper combo finally in play, I started to have some real fun. (got the slag bladed Rubi first try!)
I was wondering thou, how long does the Love Thumper stay truly effective as the main roid shield, and what’s next ? I’m using normal mode to get use to the build, although I do see how more powerful the build get’s once you get into the 2-3 tier skills, so I guess TVHM will be a blast.
I think on-level Love Thumpers are almost always effective? That nova hits super hard, and you don’t need to sweat re-stripping your shield all the time.
As for what’s next… I’d say using a Rapier for the volatliity: Rubi has self healing but 50% melee damage; Rapier has 200% melee damage, but no self healing (and in fact, makes you softer to incoming melee attacks). It makes it much more “kill or be killed”, where it’s easier to kill them with that high damage, but if you screw up and wind up in something’s face (with no shield and the weapon curse), damage will hurt.
Alternately, have you tried the Law and Order combo? Roid damage isn’t as high as the Love Thumper, but the melee damage from the Law is 100%, and (when used with the Order shield), it returns health (25% of damage dealt, as opposed to the Rubi’s otherwise high rate of 12% (so you get better healing and more melee damage).
Effective all through OP8. It’s just that hide of terra can give you longer chains. LT also is best partnered with slag nades, chain lightning, or fastball.
Oh yeah. Still have both open. Must try the law/order combo. Got the rapier at around level 20, and yes, for a newbie melee player its absolutely kill or be killed…although the poke is kinda fun.
Yes, will look to a more scientific approach in TVHM . Got these stored in various mules at different levels, so must look for them. Thanks for the advice.
Adding melee buffs to an otherwise run-n-gun build has wonderful payoffs (especially if you can do it with Many Must Fall), since it’s such a great “regroup” option that lets a player take big risks with a mob but still get out of a pickle.
Go run into the fray, tap them for Death Mark (and Be Like Water if you’re so inclined), slag/shoot them, and if things start getting hairy, weaken one to Killing Bl0w range, enter Decepti0n and Execute fairly immediately to get back basically a full timer. Now you’ve got a fresh Decepti0n timer, enemies are off your back, F0ll0wthr0ugh is on deck so you can reposition yourself as needed, and Killer is on deck so you can reload your weapons (to get 0ne Sh0t 0ne Kill) on deck.
Without Many Must Fall, it’s just a kill, and you’re right back at it (which is fine), but Many Must Fall throwing you immediately back into Decepti0n really lets you stay in control of run-n-gun mobbing. My Vladof Assassin does this quite often… wish Vladof made shotguns (or my Jakobs build had Many Must Fall)
I’m not sure if your question was : how many levels is it good for?
The answer is 5-12 levels depending on parts. A roid shield’s damage can be highly variable. An all Maliwan shield will have quadruple the damage of an all Bandit shield.
Thanks. The original question was just that, how many levels does my level 20 last for. I’m at l30 heading to kill Jack, and it’s starting to age. Ditto when I get to TVHM
I’ve taken the law and order with me to try it out, as well as an on level purple roid shield I acquired along the way .
The advice you get in the forums are great and really appreciate the specific tips. I do read the forums and watch the videos when I can but sometimes its better to ask the experts direct.
All these years later, BL2 still provides new challenges and that’s why I love it. I still have Kreig to get to l72, never tried the Peak, and never faced a raid boss other than Terra and Pete… Another 6 years to go I figure, just in time for BL3
Thanks guys.
