What's your biggest pleasant surprise in BL?

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel BL:TPS Discussion
#1

You know how you first look at something and you go “wtf is this?” or “well, this is useless”? And then you actually get to use it, and realize it’s awesome?

The Rough Rider was one of those things. I heard about it before I got Hammerlock’s DLC, and was very skeptical. “A shield with no capacity? Are you kidding me?”.
Then I started the DLC, found the shield, and as the game went on with DLCs and whatnot, things started falling into place. The Rough Rider was perfect for Maya, for running like crazy with a Banshee class mod. Then Salvador, with improved moneyshot chance, because of no capacity. Then Krieg with Silence the Voices in OP8. The Rough Rider’s additional health and damage reduction were perfect. Plus the extra fire rate from Embrace the Pain. This item proved to be perfect for three out of six classes. And quite useful for the other three, I might add.

Then there’s Maya herself.
Before starting the game I was hyped. A Siren? How cool! She was my first pick, since I was very fond of Lilith in BL1.
Then I got the game and picked Maya. Upon hitting level 5, I got my precious first skill point. “Let’s see what we can do”. And then disappointment.
“A bubble? That’s it?” Being new to the game, and with it being more difficult at first than BL1, I was getting my butt handed to me. I was so sad. How could the BL2 Siren be so weak and terrible?
Then I got mad and then, I got better. I earned more skill points, upgrading my bubble. And after many skill points and dead bodies, I was happy again. I could wreck havoc with my bubbly Siren. What joy, hitting the f key and seeing the battlefield fill with pretty colors and screams. Then more skill points were added, and my once fragile bubble became a force to be reckoned with.

And then there’s Claptrap. Both as a class, and a place. It’s funny now, seeing all those old claptrap-hate threads. And then reading about his fantastic abilities with explosive gear. The bottom of every joke became one of the most beloved classes. As well as one of the most highly regarded DLCs. Many were unsure about the quality of Claptastic Voyage, including me. It seemed too ambitious, trying to create a new world out of that little bot. But hell, was it great. The areas, the enemies, the story, the weapons, it was all so well put together, it shattered every worry I had. What a fantastic DLC. Being Claptrap, inside Claptrap, killing other Claptraps, that’s where the party is.

So, what about you? What has been your most pleasant surprise? Let’s hear it.

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#2

Discovering Borderlands 1. Got it from gamefly day 1 and soon after I told gamefly to not expect it back from me. Playing the game until I got more and more capabilities in game, like the vehicle and better abilities through skill points. Loved how easy it was to play coop. I came from Halo 1, 2 and 3 and I was HIGHLY disappointed in the lack of good coop matchmaking online in the Halo series. Also, I ended up preferring the way the game saves your progress upon death in the Borderlands series. And of course, the way weapons were handled in Borderlands. All very pleasant and refreshing and more casual (or more hardcore depending on how much on the edge of being under-level you play).

edit: and and course loving the heck out of each piece of borderlands content since then.

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#3

The Boganella. Use it and you will see why.

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#4

@Matrixneo42
Dude, yes.

Finally fully getting into BL1 in January of thus year CHANGED MY LIFE.
Plodive
Took a Lilith from 1-69 in about 3 weeks and then spent 5 straight weeks farming Crawmoury and re-doing everything at 69.

Damn, i miss that crazy loot generation system.

@impala

Krieg / Bloodsplosion with Rapier and a DPUH in BL2 and then Aurelia / Clappy in TPS.

Aurelia for being able to shatter every mob in sight with Instant Shields sending out Bitter Ripostes every other second and actually having to come up with creative ways to solo bosses.

My first fully solo TPS character.

Then solo-ing Clappy, finally learning alk his ins and outs and quirks.

Took him through normal / TVHM using a Short Circuit COM and Shock / Elemental damage and then, for the first time, fully specced into his Explosive tree with SWAB/OLT.

Game changing item?

Too Scoops / Flakker.

Perfect synergy with SWAB/OLT and a Strafing Run oz kit / Avalanche shield.

Icy snowy explosions of death everywhere while I triumphantly blast the 1812 overture!

CLAPPY FTW!

EDIT: Sorry for disgusting typos. This site and my phone HATE each other!

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#5

my most pleasant surprise has been the great people who play the game

Damn, I sound like claptrap

1 Like
#6

The Hail. Not really a surprise, I read on the forums about how good it is about a year after my first playthrough, but on my first try I couldn’t hit anything with it and junked it (that reminds me, gearbox, if you’re reading this, next time there’s a weapon with lifesteal, write it on the card, damn).
Then I tried it with Gaige, and now it’s a staple of my Athena’s loadout.

Angel’s story in bl2. Was really not expecting anything like that after bl1’s postcard expositions

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#7

I think mine would be Sal. I never realized amazing dual wielding could be.

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#8

Assault rifles. Used the Hammer Buster only recently and it was alright. Same with the Major Tom. Started using my Shreddifiers more often.

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#9

I only got into them maybe 9-10 months ago but my biggest surprise is the differences between the classes and how different the gameplay is with different characters. After using nothing but Krieg the first 6 months or so I’ve started working my way through all the different characers across all 3 games. Some of them I found boring after a while but most are pretty good.

I thought it was just a FPS but the different classes force you to try different setups, approach different fights in a variety of ways and even see different items as good loot finds. Really helps add alot of replayability.

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#10

Discovering bl1, as matrixneo said.

I went to the local rental store with my brother cause there was some game i wanted to play that had come out. Well bl1 had just come out and we were looking for something to play coop, and i just off handedly suggested borderlands cause i geuss it was pretty good. Well i barely played whatever the other game was. Once me and my brother started playing i was immediately immersed in the environment, pandora felt alive. By the time we got out of skag gully and were fixing the catch-a-ride we agreed that the game was amazing. Beat it in five days and went right back and rented it again. and bl1 introduced me to cage the elephant for which i shall be forever greatfull haha.

Sal was my big pleasant surprise in bl2, the prospect of having an action skill thatvwas just dual wielding didnt sound that great when it was first announced, but boy was i wrong

Athena being totally awesome and my favorite charcter in the borderlands universe was a surprise for me in tps. She sounded fun, but i thought nisha would be my absolute fav.

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#12

That’s amazing!

#13

The Bekah

#14

The Gub. First time I used it I was shocked at how fast it destroys Loaders.

#15

My biggest surprise is how much I like this series of games. I tried BL2 when it first came out and couldn’t get into it. I was into Battlefield and Call of Duty games at that time and didn’t like or understand how Borderlands games were.

Well, burned out on those games series and Pre -sequel came out so tried it again and dang this is fun…I can make the character skills however I want, I can have more than one character, go on the map wherever I want, shoot stuff with so many different guns and the story telling is good. So wanting to know more about the story I had to go back and get BL 1 and 2 .

Damn,this is a pretty good game there really is a lot to do.

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#16

This thread is filled with so much good!

Borderlends 4 eva!

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#17

This.

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#18

Tediore weapons.

I always compare BL2 to a Tediore Shotgun. When you haven’t seen it in action, you think it’s pretty standard. Then, you pull it out, start firing around, and it’s awesome. Later, when you get past the excitement of the first few shots, and you think that it can’t get any better, you reload and it gets MUCH better.

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#19

Well, the Deliverance was a big surprise to me. I thought it was gimmicky legendary on my first couple characters but found it to be a must have with Anarchy Gaige. It keeps the damage from the Anarchy but doesn’t seem to lose any accuracy. You can clear out buzzards no problem. I did that 12 o clock high challenge on tier three very easily with this gun.

Also the Seeker. Its basically a sniper for Axton. Once you speck the right way, it gets very fun.

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#20

Well. Not at first certainly. I had trouble with Sal early on because I prefer to aim down scope. And early on (levels 1 through 16 probably), Sal isn’t very powerful yet. IMO. Eventually I got past that and now he’s my most complete character.

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#21

Probably how frequently Legendary’s come up in the Pre Sequel’s vending machines. It’s not like they’re every other day, but they’re frequent enough that it’s worth checking the stores you pass by just in case and spend your savings rather than spend weeks on tedious and in-vain farming.

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