Is it just me or is DOT worthless?

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

i read on some build somewhere that Maya can make better use of elemental guns, because Flicker increases the chance of them causing DOT. throughout normal and tvhm i focused mainly on elemental weapons with good DOT, and had great results.

but i’m now getting into uvhm. a single shot to a critical spot on a marauder with my purple Jakobs revolver can cause up to 300k damage, but DOT is still stuck around 3-5k per second? should i abandon my elemental arsenal and focus on straight damage weapons? or does the elemental bonus damage still affect the final damage from a gun enough to make them worthwhile?

#2

Once you hit UVHM, DOT is mostly only useful for healing (holding a Moxxxi, etc).

However, each type of elemental damage will hurt its intended target much worse than normal. Shock weapons tear up shields, fire wrecks skin, etc…

So you don’t need to abandon elemental weapons, just realize that you won’t get much bang for your buck when it comes to the after effects of that bullet.

#3

You can keep your elemental weapons. DoT is terrible in UVHM but using elemental weaknesses (i.e.: fire against fleshy weapons) will still do great damage. Slag and elemental relics help as well. Ironically, Maya is one of the best VH in BL2 with Jakobs weapons.
Flicker is only useful for increasing elemental effect chance with slag weapons, but in that regard it is very useful. DoT damage is only good for Moxxi weapons and Life Tap (one of Maya’s skills, which makes any weapon you damage an enemy with a Moxxi weapon in its own right).

#4

alright guys. i’m kinda bummed cause i thought status effects were so awesome, thought i found some secret way of being badass, then it turns out once you get into the real game, it’s crap. and i don’t really worry about elemental slag weapons, i use Ruin, Quicken and a 33% proficiency relic to keep the slag flying. so i guess it’s safe for me to avoid Flicker altogether, which i have on my latest build.

thanks for the quick response guys.

#5

Builds that are specced into the Cataclysm tree tend to spec into Flicker just to reach the capstone since there are some skills in that tree that aren’t worth it (I’m looking at you, Cloud Kill). May I ask what you have specced into to reach the capstone?

#6

IMO, Cataclysm tree is a bunch of low-level skills. It all ends up being filler so that you can get Ruin.

Ruin rocks. No doubt about it. However, you have to decide if it’s worth trading an entire tree for. In a co-op setting, Harmony tree does soooooooooo much more.

#7

Yeah, I hear Legendary Nurse/Legendary Binder builds are beastly in co-op gameplay. I don’t play Maya that much though.

#8

Unfortunately Maya isn’t the elemental goddess of destruction as the game wants you to believe. Maya’s skills just don’t scale well to UVHM. Krieg on the other hand, actually has elemental skills that scale well with the game. If you want to make use of elemental damage, then play Krieg and run full Hellborn.

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#9

Foresight, Chain Reaction, and Reaper are pretty much mandatory for Maya if you want good DPS. Immolate is a massive boost to damage in FFYL. Which leaves 5 points to spend among the weaker elemental skills: Flicker, Helios, Backdraft, Blight Phoenix, and Cloud Kill.

You aren’t exactly trading an entire tree to get Ruin. It’s really 5 points when you break it down.

#10

DOT is only useful for NVHM and TVHM.

Above that… not really.

You can guess about OP 8. The standard OP 8 unique does 2347k damage. The DOT does… 3457 damage.

#11

Krieg and Gaige can make DoT work up to lv 72 and early op lvs

#12

And the Twister?
I don’t know too much about Maya…but makes sense for me.

#13

Sure seems that way on OP8. The fact they regenerate heath cancels out the DOT

#14

DOTs are highly relevant clear through OP8. They’re not restricted to Catalyst Gaige or Krieg, either, although they do excel with them.

Pokashine, Demonite and others have vids demonstrating the fact.
For instance, Witch Maya can melt every loader in sight, while Fox Maya can run a build with a striking resemblance to Hellborn Krieg. Does an elemental Zer0 at OP8 sound unlikely? Yes, but his enemies die from DOT procs anyway.
You do need to spec properly, and it’s entirely crucial that you use slag - otherwise your DOT procs are wasted.

I’m not l interested in blaming anyone for their video content or their viewing habits, but certain Youtubers with large channels have long since stopped being the go-to source for good and accurate BL2 content.

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#15

The DOT cancels out their health regeneration - from the flip side :smile:

#16

No. Just no. That doesn’t even make sense as a typo. The base tick is in the 140K+ range, not adjusted for splash damage, elemental relics, elemental character skills, BAR, correct element used, slag etc. etc.

The enemy level damage reduction and health regen count into it heavily, but can easily be overcome to the point where DOT procs alone kill them.

It’s a great shame that the old forum is so cumbersome to search and that links inside posts have been killed.
(Yes, you can extract them from the page source and alter the URL - ‘cumbersome’, as I said.)

A lot of people have spent a lot of time riddling this out.

#17

I play at op 0 mostly and elemental damage is still really good. Even at op 8 with characters like gaige and krieg’s dot can still kill enemies pretty good. With my maya at 72. I can use a hellfire and melt enemies with damage over time without slag. I don’t why people are saying dot is useless in uvhm. When that is completely false.

#18

You need a dedicated setup to make DoT work effectively on high levels. Also, DoT doesnt work against Raid bosses so people choose to just shoot. You can use it against mobs, but its becomes harder as you raise your OP levels because of the heavy damage reduction.
Also, the skills that involves DoT usually dont scale well in UVHM. Gaige can make DoT viable because of the Legendary Catalyst boost to EE and EB. WDT doesnt event work properly, what is a shame.

#19

Chain Reaction, Immolate, Reaper and Foresight are all amazing skills. You only waste 5 points getting to Ruin, and Ruin is worth that.

#20

Don’t abandon elemental weapons as type effectiveness (damage modifier) is still a huge factor. But yes, DOT is worthless on UVHM as enemies have massive health regen to negate any DOT damage.

For poops and giggles, there is one weapon that does have mildly useful DOT. Get yourself an Infection, play as Maya, invest points in Flicker and get a Witch class mod (at least I think it’s a Witch, the one that boosts corrosive chance and damage). 100% chance to proc and it has a much higher base DOT.