Haven’t got to end game yet and leveling couple characters concurrently and this is in-general question. I know there isn’t a precise X levels below a mob that a gun is considered under-leveled. The specific gun I’m sure also makes a difference. So two sub-questions:
1 - Purple weapons - excluding legendary and unique weapons that may be good for some long time because of some unique factor, taking purple weapons as a whole - any decent rule of thumb? e.g. no more than 5 levels under mob?
2 - At UVHM 50+, does the rule of thumb change?
-My normal and TVHM play I just finished seems to trend towards where you can use a purple weapon for a lot longer when you are lower levels (Normal), not as long in mid levels (TVHM) - not sure about TPS UVHM as I’m only low 50s with both chars at moment. So far going 50 to 55, my observation so far seems 5 levels is still ok but I start to definitely feel like I’m burning lot more ammo for same kill till I get a new gun at current level.
3 - Actually another sub-question - for legendary weapons, it seems too specific based on gun, build, etc to have an accurate rule of thumb but as rough SWAG, how long can you use legendary weapons once you hit UVHM ~level 50 before you should upgrade? 6-7 levels?
Well it depends on the type of weapons, if they’re elemental or N/E and what character is using them.
I’d say that for everyone except Wilhelm, you can use most found gear for at least five levels without any issues at all. My Athena run from 50 - 60 used all the same weapons, sure it took a while to kill someone like Aiwjwjwenajawa once my weapons were 5 levels below that stupid dog, but for mobbing it really didn’t make that much of a difference until I got to 57 or so. Basically at that point I was wasting too much ammo but everything still died without much fuss.
If you have an elemental build it’s going to be even less of an issue in UVHM because DOT from elemental weapons is a bit more effective than in the first two modes.
If you want quick kills while not using up too much ammo, replace weapons every three levels if you find a better version of what you’re using, if not going five levels isn’t out of the question.
Thanks. Thats kinda been rough rule ive been trying to use, partly because i ended up with about 40-50 golden keys before i started replaying tps. I figure i can build an entire set of leveling gear using all those keys, save the guns and re-use them for the 4 other chars i havent started or tried yet.
With my current Jack and Aurelia - ive been using keys or getting vendor machine purples to fill out my 6-weapon set every 5 levels so that my future chars will have gear i can just hand down in nice imcrements pf 5.
To ding all the challenge badass points ive been always running with a set that has AR, SMG, shotgun, pistol, rocket launcher, and laser weapon of some kind - with one element of each type.
The only gear it seems that 5 levels is too much is shield - at 5 levels under i really start to see big shield value differences so i try to keep current or just couple levels apart.
Oz kits seem like you can use forever. At 54 I’m still using a low 30s 3dd1.e that still seems better than any other ive found so far.
Five. Both for BL2 and TPS. They still work, but once you get the same item again and it’s 5 levels higher/at your current level, you start wondering how you were making do with the other.
For purple guns, it’s about 3-4 depending on how “good” the parts.
UVHM, I find myself wanting upgrades every 3 levels.
There are some rare exceptions such as the Harold, I am still finding value in a lvl 10 Harold when my character is level 23. I know this is bl2 but I’m sure the Fragnum has similar results.