An Unwanted Blabber on Fl4k'sAction Skills

Borderlands 3 FL4K the Beastmaster
#1

Hey everybody,

Now that we have a game play footage of Fl4k, and a fair amount of video with people using each action skill, I want to get a consensus on how the community feels about each of Fl4k’s action skills.

For me, I think the concept behind them are pretty interesting. You’ve got a skill that super buffs the pets, a skill that super buffs you, and a tactical nuke (emphasis on tactical, more in a bit). I’m just going to lay out some thoughts and concerns I have.

Fade Away
Fl4k’s steroid skill. I think this one is the most straightforward, and will probably be the skill to use if you want BIG damage. Critting with any weapon is absolutely bonkers, and considering that weapons have on crit effects in this game, the potential builds and synergies are pretty nasty.

Some very suspect pocket math based on ASSumptions:

  1. Fade Away gives 3 shots +200% critical hit damage at base. That equals 600% bonus damage over the course of the skill with no augments.
  2. With Unrelenting Eye, that number increases to 1050% over the duration of the skill. (200+75+200+150+200+225)
  3. Guerillas In the mist reduces the crit damage, but makes up for by allowing you as many shots with 50% additional crit as your fire rate allows in 8 seconds. Assuming an abysmal fire rate of 1, you would have (50*8) 400% crit damage over the duration, BUT
  4. Tossing Unrelenting eye here increases it to ((50*8)+75+150+225+75+150+225+75+150)) 1,125% critical hit damage over the duration!

That is awesome. Nothing more to say.

Gammaburst
The Pet Steroid. Turns Mr. Cuddly into Mr. Hulky, complete with green, irradiated skin and a desire to smash anything in front of them. The skills says the pet gains BONUS radiation damage, which makes me wonder if it will be treated as a multiplicative elemental modifier for the pet. That could get stupid powerful with all the other pet damage skills.

Some questions about the augments:

  1. What is the debuff value on radiation damage? I ask because if radiation is supposed to be this game’s slag, then Gammaburst is a debuff skill like Phaselock+Ruin, as well as a pet buff.
    BUT, if the value isn’t greater than 20%, why wouldn’t you just take emphatic rage? It doesn’t depend on the pet being close to enemies (Then again, it will probably be better for allies).

  2. How big is the rift? Is it the size of a peanut? Do allies need to be right on top of it for Burst Aid, or does it have some range?

Overall, this is solid. It’s basically Promote the Ranks on demand, so I automatically loves this action skill.

Rakk Attack
THEY PROTEC
THEY ATTAC
most importantly
THEY RAKK

Rakk Attack is simultaneously my favorite of Fl4k’s skills, and the one that makes me scratch my head the most. The other two fit in pretty nicely, a pet buff and a FL4K buff. Yet Rakk Attack doesn’t offer any direct buff to you or your pet. It’s just a straight burst damage action skill, the kind that are brand new in the franchise.

We really haven’t ever had AS whose sole purpose was damage. They’ve all been utility with the exception of DT. You did a bunch of damage gunzerking, but that was because you could use 2 guns. You wrecked things during BXR, but that was because it gave you more damage reduction and melee damage. Nisha was a tornado of death during showdown, but only because she didn’t need to take time to aim. Action skills on their own have never killed raids, they unlocked skills or bonuses that allowed you to kill them.

Which is why Rakk Attack feels…out of place. It’s a pure damage skill in a game that has never had a place for these types of skills before. Granted, that doesn’t mean I think it’s bad. I just think it’s difficult to find ways to fit it into builds.

For example, one of the builds I want to use utilizes Rakk Attack (Rakk Open A Cold One + Flock N Load) and Sic Em + Eager to Impress to keep enemies in a constant CC loop with Eiridian Skag or Beefcake jabber, constantly disrupting the battlefield. I don’t have any doubts the concept is at least decent, but the concerns I list below should showcase what I think some of the potential weaknesses of Rakk Attack are.

  1. You only get 2 Rakk to start. To me, you NEED Flock N Load if you’re going to use this AS, because it doubles all the utility this skill provides. You get double the damage, double the healing from Falconer’s Feast, and Double the freeze chance from Rakk Open A Cold One.
  2. Does Falconer’s Feast work per Rakk, or just per charge? If it’s the latter, then IDK. The utility that Rakk Open a Cold One offers is at least a bit easier to fit in, since the only hard CCs FL4K gets are from his pet’s command cooldowns, and the end of Fade Away with Not My Circus. FF offers burst healing, but Fl4k has 4 other skills that also offer healing that aren’t limited to charges or cooldowns. Also, half of this skill’s effectiveness is gated behind Flock N Load. Granted, even if its per charge, that is still 21% of max health if you use all the charges at once at base, and that healing can be shared with allies and pets. I just don’t know if it will be worth the augment slot when FL4K has so many tools for healing, and we haven’t even seen the gear yet.
  3. Is this skill for utility or damage? The first two augments make it seem like a utility skill, but by its very design and function (a one off attack that operates on charges) it’s a damage skill. Regardless of what it is, the skill as a whole needs Flock N Load to work at its best IMO.
  4. Rakkcelerate concerns me. The extra cooldown only amounts to 4 seconds. Considering the tree (cooldown skill) this skill is in, those fours seconds probably won’t mean much. But I don’t see how this can compete with FnL. FnL doubles the effect of the skill per charge. Rakkcelerate gives an extra charge. One adds two, the other multiplies by two. Together, used as a burst damage nuke, I see them working great together, but outside of FnL damage set up I don’t know see how Rakkcelerate stacks up.

Granted, even after all these blocks of text and angst, I still really like the skill and plan on abusing the heck out of it. But I really think that, because of the kind of awkward way it fits into FL4K’s kit, you’re going to really to need to know what it is you want this skill for. I don’t doubt you’ll be able to keep at a very high uptime of the skill using just Headcount, so maybe all of this will be moot because you can just continually carpet bomb enemies. I’m just blabbering on based on what we know at the moment.

How do you all feel about each Action Skill?

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#2

…not really paying attention to builds and whatnot until I get my own hands on the game (they’re invariably misleading to me), but I do think “Guerillas In the mist” is a hilarious play on words. :laughing:

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#3

The Rakktion Skill reminds me of Mordecai’s.

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#4

Me too, that’s why I like it so much!

#5

First build is gonna be all pets. Just wish the rakks were in the pet skill tree for maximum pets.

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#6

I like all the skills, although I prefer Fade Away followed by Gamma Burst.

Gamma Burst seems to be great for a Pet-focused build and in Co-Op to help the team deal more damage by debuffing a tough target for the group.

Fade Away seems to be great Solo AS and/or if you’re going for pure DPS.

Rakk Attack seems mainly useful if you’re aiming for a bunch of CC and Burst self-healing.

#7

Rakk Attack is pretty much Bloodwing 2.0, though it only has an augment for health return and has no interactions with extra loot like Bloodwing did, and instead of the old ‘dazed’ mechanic we have a cryo augment. I’m excited to play with it, it’ll be like having Mordecai again but without 1/3rd of his skill tree being dedicated to sniper rifles and the random weird bonus xp skills BL1 had. :stuck_out_tongue:

Expecting this bad boy to be broken-strong, with Unrelenting Eye it’s gonna average out to just over 100% per shot CD anyways assuming one doesn’t miss out on their 225% crit near the tail end of the skill’s duration. Kinda makes me worry it’s going to make other augments fall by the wayside, when this combo can cut so close to the normal 3-shots version in damage bonus. I hope these crit values don’t hit diminishing returns on jakobs too hard and one-shot style sniping will still be good with the non-guerillas version of the skill.

Most interested in playing with this one, when I do get to Fl4k. Throwing around my skag like a nuclear warhead sounds like a ton of fun.

#8

The Rakks have utility where most people won’t see it until they play it: Combat flow! The ability to have 2 charges of damage on a skill that has a low Cooldown anyway makes Fl4k almost permanently ready for fights. There is so much less downtime that a player will constantly be able to get damage sources independent of themselves.

The augments are just widening the scope of the utility Rakk Attack provides. Freezing an enemy is kinda obvious, but to lower the damage output of multiple enemies and making them more stationary is extremely helpful, especially if we consider that the Spiderant can have attacks of elements that many enemies are vulnerable to. We basically pin down our Target.

Having 3 charges and decreased cooldown decreases the potential downtime even further and makes it possible to cover enemies from 3 sides just with the Rakks alone.

We don’t know yet how Falconers Feast works, but no matter how it works, it’s just a healing skill. The skill that synergizes the most with it, is the only true question here.

Flock’N Load is a flat out damage buff of 100%. Easy enough. Interesting to see how the Rakks scale though, because a build that uses FNL and Rakkcelerate might become pretty good to burst down badasses and even bosses. We’re talking about 12 Rakks here.

But as I said, Rakk Attack isn’t great for it’s power, but for what it does for the flow of combat. Having free damage/healing/freezing ready whenever you need it is great.

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#9

While I’m not a huge fan of the Hunter tree, I adore the Rakk action skill… Knowing that you can gain extra charges to the skill in multiple ways, reduce the cooldown significantly (on what is already a short cooldown), AND double the amount of summoned Rakks on each activation… beautiful.

My primary build is based on Gamma Burst and creating the Hulk in Jabber form, I’m seriously considering rolling two FL4Ks so I can have a dedicated character for my Jabber Hulk and my Rakk swarm.

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#10

I’m curious: Why not?
Right now I have 5 different builds ready and I just can’t decide as I find all trees awesome in their own right, although the stalker tree has probably the weakest (or rather least interesting) capstone.

#11

That’s a fair point.

As I’ve taken more time to think about it, I’ve started to realize the strengths of Rakk Attack lie more in the combat flow like you said. If you don’t use uber burst weapons, and want to have more consistent damage outside of Fadeaway, then Rakk Attack is a great substitute. Actually, it seems like the best AS to use if you don’t know which would work best for your build.

Also, I guess Rakkcelerate would be a nice option if Falconer’s Feast healed per charge.

According to the skill calc, each Rakk does 35 damage, while Phaseslam does 98 damage. But Rakk Attack has 2 rakk per charge, and 3 charges, so even at base it ends up doing 210, double the damage of Phaselam with 10 less seconds on cooldown. Amara probably has more Action Skill damage increases, but with Flock N Load, Interplanetary Stalker, and Grim Harvest, you’ll probably be able to do decent damage even against bosses.

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#12

I actually find Master to be the weird tree. I LOVE Dominance in concept, but I can’t really find a way to combine it seamlessly with the other trees. Also, I fond the lower half of the Master tree to be kind of weak to me.

#13

I just find the health regen, pet focus, and support abilities of the other trees more appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the Hunter tree and it looks powerful, but whenever I have a perma-pet in a game I typically do what I can to boost their power while my played character supports them.

As for the Stalker tree capstone, if you’re using Rakk Attack! then you can get a nigh constant 25% damage increase. More impressivly, it’s a 50% damage boost if your health is full. Sure, you gotta time your Action Skills for 1 every 15 seconds, but that’s a nice boost in damage IMO.