Wow, levelling up in UVHM is cripplingly slow

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

Hey guys, I have roughly 30mins per day to play the game (because life!).

I’ve asked how to level the fastest in borderlands 2 before and the response I’ve got is to ‘just play the game and you’ll level up in no time’. Well, that’s not happening. In my 30 min sessions I level up approximately 1/10th of a bar. My goal is to get to level 72 with all classes, and at the moment that’s looking like it will take over 2 years to complete.

The main story is taking a hell of a long time to do so I don’t even have the option of farming whatever boss I want for XP and loot.

And I think I will genuinely get stuck pretty soon. It just took me 2 hours to kill Boom (I played longer than I should have) because I ran out of all ammo with all types of guns. Yes I use slag weapons of the appropriate level. And yes I was opening all ammo boxes, but they were just giving me flipping cash! So I ran out of ammo completely and just had to wait until my turret recharged because that was the only way to damage him. And he nearly regen’d all the health I took off him in the time it took to recharge.

It was a nightmare. And pretty boring, to be honest. Next up I’m gonna hit Captain Flynt and I can’t see how I’m ever gonna get through him. It’s going to take a 2 hour battle at least, and will still only give me 1/5th of an XP bar.

How the hell did you guys manage to get from level 50-72? And how long did it take you? Do I have to change my preferred defensive build and playstyle to be a glass cannon? I thought the point of these types of games is that you have the freedom to play whatever style you like best?

#2

If it takes you 2 hours to kill Boom Bewm, you’re doing something wrong… With slag and a matching element gun, most enemies should not pose much of a threat. Are your guns matching your level? Have you bought the ammo upgrades from crazy Earl?

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#3

Yes, got all ammo upgrades.

Am using a level 50 bitch on level 51 enemies, and a bunch of greens and blues at level 51. Also using a level 50 impaler shield. I don’t think that’s too underlevel…?

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#4

Try farming the first mission. Start up UVHM and clear Liarsberg, turn it in to Hammerlock, then reset UVHM and repeat.

#5

Gotta agree with @kallumbo here… Somethings not right. A level 50 Bitch (corrosive, shock or non-elemental) should tear their butts off in a matter of seconds when they’re slagged.

And as for the leveling up in UVHM… Yes, it takes time. UVHM was added on as dlc material, and is widely considered as broken because of it’s lack of balance. Enemies do way more damage, and you also have to rely heavily on slag to deal damage. This makes it a lot harder to play a defensive style, imo. Most builds tend to look a bit like glass cannons, because it’s necessary to put points in offensive skills.

I’d try a build like this.

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#6

I’ve put everything into defence - so I’ve got 5/5 in all skills that are involved with health, health regen, shield recharge, elemental resist…etc… Also got 5/5 in grit.

I survive really well and regen health really quick, but I’m running out of ammo all the time and it’s taking stupidly long to do anything… And, I’m pretty sure I’ll get stuck on Flynt

I’d rather not change my build - because I thought that multiple playstyles were meant to be viable in this game? Or does everyone have to go glass-cannon?

I’m not seeing my defense rewarded in any way so far except surviving long enough to burn through all my ammo

#7

Because enemies in UVHM have both higher health AND health regen, you need to put more points into offence. @Ronnie_Rayburn’s suggested build above looks really good. Don’t forget that some of the defensive/health stuff only kicks in if you damage or kill an enemy, so you need to put the hurt on to heal.

If you want to get past Boom’n’Bewm, farm Knuckledragger for a Hornet - very fast run if you go back from Liar’s Berg through the Hyperion barge travel point, as you’ll re-spawn inside the barge every time you restart.

For Flynt, your best bet is slag + explosive.

For both those fights, there are good tactics and bad tactics, including where you decide to stand your ground. Can’t emphasize that enough, especially facing Flynt, since there are so many obstacles you can get stuck on and you do not want to be on a grill when he lights the fire on you!

Only having 30 minutes a time does suck though - I usually plan on at least an hour’s session if I want to make some serious progress on UVHM, since I like to complete a mission so I don’t have to start over from the beginning of the map when I come back to it. Might want to look into scheduling some co-op if at all possible?

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#8

a lot of players have someone powerlevel them. It doe take a long time to grind to 72 because each new level takes more XP to get to the next level. I have powerleveled myself and others using the “Bar Room Brawl” in Torgues C.o.C. DLC, this is about the fastest way to get XP and Level up. Also using this method you can get a lot of Torgue Tokens to use in his machine to get a D.P.U.H. and other Guns

Another would be Tiny Tina’s DLC “Ancient Dragons” Raid this gives a lot of XP (and both Eridium/seraph in UVHM)

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#9

This or open the game to Randoms to help over rough spots and if they get annoying after that spot you can always change the game back to “Friends Only” and kick them.

As VaultHunter101 says For Flynt, your best bet is slag + explosive. Also you can hop back up to the point you enter and work Flynt that way, that way if needed you can back up a bit and regain your health when needed

#10

I used the badass bar brawl in the torgue DLC. Repeatable mission for lots of xp. Bunch of enemies. I leveled up pretty quickly there. I find it more fun and less tedious than resetting UVHM every 10 minutes.

Maybe post us what your skill tree is so we can check it out.

#11

Cheers. You need to have good enough gear to even be able to do bar brawl to start with though…

I don’t think my gear qualifies, apart from under-leveled legendaries it’s all greens and blues. How would you suggest I get gear up to the point of being able to do bar brawl?

And once you’re in the bar-brawl cycle, is it self-sustaining? By that, I mean, you’re able to do bar brawl, level up, then you get good enough loot at your level to just keep doing the bar brawl over and over as you level up without having to go anywhere else?

Or will you keep having to take breaks from bar brawl once your gear becomes too under-powered and under-leveled for you to be able to do bar brawl?

#12

That’s a fair question, since you have to get through the Horde of Horrors, fight your way to the bar, and then start the cycle. There are a couple of ways to give yourself a gear boost though.

  1. Golden keys and chest in Sanctuary - these will be your level even if you load up TVHM to get to the chest
  2. Red chests - the ones behind the signs in Badass Crater are relatively easy to get to without too much fighting; fair chance of blue/purple/e-tech gear if you hit them enough times

Once you’ve got as far in game as the Bar Room Brawl then yes, the gear dropped during the fight will contain items you can use. The rest you can sell, which means you’ll also have some good gear showing up in the vendors. The Torgue tokens will obviously help too. Personally, I find the Torgue fight a bit tedious, so I can only do so many rounds at a time. Still, you can usefully spend 30 minutes grinding some gear and XP that way.

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#13

The bar brawl actually drops good loot not to mention torgue tokens. I would use the tokens to just keep buying a harold (double Penetrating is the best prefix) every few levels and if you save a quit in the bar anyways then join back you will be in the bar and the loot will scale even quicker to your current level in UVHM

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#14

Then of course there are guys like Krieg who, specced right, can just burn and melee everything without much or any gear requirements.

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#15

Try the headhunter packs. Fast campaign, easy bosses, lot of loot. Mercenary Day’s train is very generous.
I always do the HH upon starting UVHM for gear and exp farming.

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#16

I’m a bit OCD so I’ve gotten everyone to OP8. I’m also single, and my job allows me enough time to play during the afternoon/evening hours during weekdays and basically 10-12 hours a day on the weekends- I’ve had the game going on 2+ years now and when I first started I’d easily play 40 hours in a week (like I said- single and OCD :laughing:) . As far as burning thru ammo the only thing I can say is that you really have to aim for the crit spots- for anything human it’s the head, spiderants their thorax, etc. You’ve mentioned your gear and build but what kind of com and relics are you using? Both could make a big difference. As far as taking the defensive: great idea, but in UVHM the enemy WILL take out your shields, and as a great mind once said “The best defense is a good offense”. As far as your build goes, I started with the Survival tree with Axton, and thanks to doing the Tiny Tina dlc during the loot hunt a couple years back, I also had a level 48 Grog Nozzle to help things out (still have it as a matte of fact). At level 50 my build was like this IIRC:
http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#52050000005000000000005050155151
If you can try to get any type of Unkempt Harold and a Sheriff’s Badge (level for relics isn’t always a thing to go by- my level 28 Sheriff’s Badge lasted me until the OP levels…). Also, since few enemies are resistant to explosive damage, it’s a great default damage dealer if you don’t have the proper elemental weapon available. MIRV grenades, Torgue shotguns and explosive AR’s could really help you out here…

#17

I have a few suggestions that you might want to try to bolster your arsenal. Now I assume you finished tvhm at lvl 50 and you don’t (or do) have the dlc’s. You can choose to play tvhm mode from the menu screen, go back to hunter hellquist to farm the bee shield.


Back to the dust behind Ellie’s garage to farm chubbies although chances are they might not be as rewarding compared to when they turn to tubbies in uvhm its still worth a shot from there you might spawn, the black queen at the end of the trail, that might drop the nukem launcher, then backup a little to the fork in the trail and then make your way up left to the graveyard by the church to farm mobley (for the veruc) and gettle (the lyuda).

While you’re there you can also farm gwen’s head pistol in boxes around the dust, perhaps not the most popular among bl2 players but the 7 round fire burst and bonus crit damage, I think it might be worth your while as its one of the easiest to farm. And it spawns w/ all elements and twin prefix versions.

Another easy farm in tvhm is the smg lascaux. Either flying or stopping prefix worked well for me. It’ll always spawn after quitting and saving in the same location (shallow pool of water) in frostburn canyon. You do have to fight enemies to get there and if you take a certain route you can farm both the lascaux and the hellfire smg from a mini boss named scorch not to far from each other.


There’s a host if others you can farm over and over in tvhm around lvl 50 to help you w/ before you continue in uvhm mode. Here’s a link to the loot maps found in this forum to get you started.

And if you’re on ps3 send me an FR. I have a few lvl 50 I can give you. Good luck mate! :wink:

#18

Hey, thanks for the advice but I’m facing level 51-53 enemies now.

Even my level 50 bitch isn’t doing much to them.

I didn’t farm the bitch (hmmm sounds wrong) I just got lucky to get that - but I don’t think I’d waste time farming for legendaries in TVHM because they’ll get out-leveled very soon in UVHM.

I think I need legendaries at a higher level than 50.

I need some way of continually getting legendaries that are my level. Apparently the way to do that is doing bar brawl, but I’m so far away from being able to do bar brawl that I need to farm legendaries of the appropriate level in order to get to it

#19

The thing I like most about uvhm is that everything is on level. If you deviate from the main story and get lost in a dlc or hh pack then come back 10 lvl’s beefier your foes will await your return right on par with you. I usually split from the main path for a bit once uvhm is opened up, giving myself a break from vanilla story and to hunt around for some updated goodies. If you have the mercenary hh pack I usually make a pit stop there for some decent xp each time you kill snowman and also updating gear and mods. I might also open a dlc like captain scarlet for example and only go so far as to get myself a sandhawk or even better a pimpernel and then reset uvhm so I can come back and get that awesome booty from Scarlet closer to end game. My advice is to mix it up get lost in Pandora - forwarning when you start honing your skills in uvhm you might just flip your position and ask why getting to lvl 72 was so quick.

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#20

another advice if you have any Torgue machines open in UVHM, then drop into NVHM or TVHM and do the barroom brawl for tokens as the xp will be almost non-existent in NVHM and Low in TVHM, and after at least getting 700 tokens hop in to UVHM and farm the torgue machines.

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