Worst skills debate

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

I was on discord last night and a few of us were debating what the truly garbage/completely useless skills are. So we compiled a list. This list is all about unmodded End game bl2, UVHM at whatever your lvl cap is. I’ve only listed reason for the characters i know the most about
Basically if a skill has any half decent use or a build around it, it’s not on this list

Axton
Laser sight(turret hardly benefits at all)
Crisis management(useless due to all his other survival skills)
Last ditch effort(some people like this, but it’s the samething as crisis management for me)
Honorable mention:
Ranger

Maya, both skills currently debated as useful
Recompense(buffed CK made this skill worse, unless i have it confused with KR)
Flicker(the effect is tiny)

Sal
I’m the juggernaut
All i need is one

Kreig
Bloody revival
Pull the pin(at lvl cap it’s 100% useless)
Light the fuse
Hellfire halitosis
Fuel the rampage

Gaige
Potent as a Pony
Explosive Clap
Shock Storm
The Stare
One Two Boom
Death From Above

Zero, seems he has no truly useless skills
Fearless
Optics(not bad just never worth the points)

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BL2 worst things
#2

Funny - I literally just posted elsewhere about Sal’s Just Got Real : Brawn only really works by health stacking so your health will almost never be low enough for the skill to be of any benefit. The individual I responded to was actually building around All I Need is One :laughing:

There are many Zer0 skills that are right on the cusp of being useless but I agree Fearless is the only truly useless one (barring raiding with the Love Thumper).

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#3

The only reason just got real didn’t make the list is becuase I’ve seen it used in many 1 shot boss kills.
I also saw the post about the all i need is one build, I’m rather curious and it’s a skill that’s right on the border for the list imo.

Like the wind and like the water, or whatever those 2 zer0 skills are were talked about, but in the end i didn’t think they were bad enough

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#4

Optics is another marginal one. No one specs it because all the tree’s other skills are better - but it’s actually not bad.

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#5

This one was discussed on the forums in the past. People that posted in the older thread disagreed with that statement, as do I.

While the benefit may not become immediately apparent to you, the Laser Sight IS worth putting at least a point or 2 into, as it DOES improve the accuracy of the turret’s shots, ESPECIALLY AGAINST FLYING TARGETS! So if you’re in an area where you’re being attacked by flying creatures, or Bandits in flying vehicles, your turret(s) will have an easier time knocking them out of the sky! :sunglasses::+1:

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#6

Pretty much. Pull the pin was fun while it lasted though… Light the fuse would be useful if its damage scaled better with level and in the OP levels. It’s still fun to run around like a maniac throwing dynamite at everything though I don’t recommend it past NVHM.

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#7

Explosive Clap is pretty decent. Can stun multiple enemies and does a fair bit of damage. Death From Above absolutely sucks though. It activates all the time and you lose Anarchy stacks incredibly fast.

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#8

I’m not a zero player, i totally forgot about that skill, I’ll have to look it up

Fair enough, but I’ve never seen an accuracy issue with my turret before. Also for a long time most people thought the skill was bugged

Also not a gaige player, but isn’t the main problem with all the DT abilities that aren’t robot rampage the dps lose?

I spy an enderborn, I’m looking forwards to his post!

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#9

While I’d agree that at 5/5 it’s not really that great, at 10/5 with the Legendary Siren it gives you 60% extra Elemental Effect Chance, which is actually very good for some Slag weapons. For example, the Grog Nozzle goes from 50.4% to a whopping 80.6%, which is absolutely massive and really helps for DPS Maya builds.

While I 100% agree it absolutely sucks at OP8, it’s actually decent on lower levels. I’ve seen people clear Sawtooth Cauldron with it at OP0.

It’s not a great skill by any means but if you’re gonna put it here as one of the worst skills in the game, you might as well put 0ptics, Like the Wind and Be Like Water for being just as bad.

This is all just my opinion, of course. :smile:

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#10

Dam that is good. This is why i made this post

I mentioned above, I’m not a zero player, so i forgot this existed

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#11

Also I’d add Ranger (Axton) to the list of worst skills. It’s just not worth going down the Skill Tree for it, let alone actually spend points in it.
You can also add More Pep (Gaige) to the list, it’s basically a worse Flicker.

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#12

The problem with some skills is that at 5/5 they’re not worth it, but boosted by a COM they totally are (either 6/5 or 10/5).

I think Flicker and Ranger aren’t totally useless since a COM can make them worth a point. Or is this strictly on the merit of the unboosted skill?

Precision is another one : great boosted, meh unboosted.

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#13

I hate ranger i really do, but it’s just personal opinion. It can be pretty good with a Com boost

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#14

The thing is that Flicker is a Tier 1 Skill boosted by arguably Maya’s best COM. Ranger is a Tier 5 Skill boosted by two mid-tier COMs (Ranger and Legendary Ranger). I just don’t think 6% in all those attributes is really worth the point (it’s a lot of boosts but they’re all pretty irrelevant), I’d rather just get Mag-Lock or put some points in Expertise.

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#15

An 11% boost to 7 stats might not sound great, but it’s far from useless

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#16

100% agree it does sound nice on paper, but it does require you go down the Gunpowder tree to spec 5 points in it AND use a specific COM that isn’t as good as Axton’s better ones. The Ranger is kinda meh and the Legendary Ranger is bugged.

You just sacrifice way too much to try and make that skill good and what you end up getting is much worse than what you’d get from totally ignoring it. As I said I’d rather use a better COM like the Legendary Soldier and spend those points in objectively better skills. Because of all this I think Ranger is flat-out useless.

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#17

Indeed. Especially with the Stare I noticed a huge DPS loss. RR, Make it Sparkle, and the 1 pointer from BFF are the only really worthwhile skills to give him.

Edit: Sharing is Caring is good too, if only with Roid Shields.

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#18

AFK on 72 Gee all because of Recompense. It is not that bad, it just doesn’t scale past OP4. But if you change your perspective that Recompense is to be use as a Defensive skill rather than an offensive skill it isn’t bad.

Also Fearless isn’t bad it is just outclassed by other skills in that tree.

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#19

100% see where you’re coming from. but if i included every skill that points could be put elsewhere to min/max the list would triple in size. And i also agree ranger is bad, but bad=/=useless

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#20

I’m not sure The Stare belongs on a “worst skills” list. It never misses, and if it hits a fleshy slagged enemy that enemy is pretty well hammered. Plus it goes through barriers. Shock Storm is borderline useless. I have a point in it for a com boost, and I see it do damage, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to set up. And Explosive Clap can function like Nuke, albeit far less predictable, for a little knock back. (I’m starting to sound a little like @Adabiviak, aren’t I?) Also, glad to see that Shock and Aaaaaarrrrgggg didn’t make your list. I like that skill with one shot Jakobs shotties.

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