Worst skills/skill tree(s)?

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

Is there a certain skill you find useless, or a skill tree tree you don’t like?! Did someone get cataclysm’d? I know that none of them are THAT bad, but let’s discuss!

Me? I don’t like the “fragmented fragtrap” tree. I don’t like the elemental/gun subroutines, and I couldn’t even see myself playing a melee claptrap. Only 3 skills in the tree interest me.

edit: typos/edit incase anyone wants to talk about useless skills ^.^

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#2

I agree with you on Fragmented Fragtrap. Not really a fan of Contractual Aristocracy either. Not that it’s actually bad, but so many of those skills don’t even work solo. And even if you wanted to use the solo-usable skills in that tree, you’ve got to waste three points on Contractual Obligations and Valet.

I’d say everyone else has pretty solid skill trees, at least up to the middle skill. Overall, bravo to TPS for the vast majority of skills and possible skill synergies.

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#3

Contractual Aristocracy for ME. Because I play mostly solo. Still, though, 2.3 million melee backhand slap is HILARIOUS.

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#4

Skill tree: Any tree that sort of requires you to play coop (Claptrap’s middle tree, Aurelia’s left) Having skills that synergize well with Coop is easy without making them useless in solo play.

Single skill: Nisha’s Gunslinger… What a wasted opportunity.

#5

But the middle tree actually works in solo. Just don’t invest in the things that need coop.

#6

well there’s like 3 skills in clappy’s tree that require co-op and they all have solo capabilities that are still useful in solo play.

Me:: Venom Bolts, literal garbage, wolf’s bullets have a CHANCE to do damage thats resisted by like most enemies. Oh but don’t worry, Your Corrosive DoT’ll do 20% more damage and have like a 10% larger chance to proc. THANK GOD

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#7

But it gives your corrosive weapons a slightly higher chance to proc Cold War, so it’s obviously helpful, right? /s

Anyway yeah VB’s a total disappointment, I only put 5/5 in it because I really like corrosive. If it boosted straight up corrosive damage instead of just DoT it would be a better skill but I doubt that’ll be changed any time soon.

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#8

Don’t get me started on Cold War…

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#9

Yeah, have to list Venom Bolts as top of the crap heap.

Can you imagine if Wolf could shield strip or freeze enemies?

Corrosive was terribly badly implemented in TPS; give me BL1 corrosive where anything with Corrosive damage would take like 15 percent bonus damage from ALL other sources as well as having the chance to spread to nearby enemies!

And it bothers me to list Aurelia’s right hand Master / Servant skill tree as one of the worst, as it is ridiculously powerful when you have a properly specced out partner (Explosive Clappy, CS Athena) to utilize it with.

Bur for solo, it’s almost useless, same with a good chunk of Clappy’s middle tree.

Oh, ok, i had forgotten about this til now since it’s been SOOO long since I’ve played Jack, but… INSPIRE!!!

■■■■ YOU INSPIRE!

Ohhhh, extra combat dialigue (like 5 lines) but no actual combat bonuses!

Drives me bonkers!

Sure, it’s just one point, sure it’s far down the skill tree, sure you don’t have to take it, but still…,at lease have it give like 5 or 10 percent extra team gun damage or movement / firing speed or accuracy or a quick team percentage heal or SOMETHING!

Also @Chuck80 why is Gunslinger a wasted chance?

#10

Because the premises are great, it’s at a nice spot in the tree and it could have solved ALL the problems this tree has at once.

Gunslinger adds a bullet to the mag for each point in the skill when you start and end showdown. So with 5/5 you get a partial reload of 10 bullets per showdown.

let’s leave aside the fact that Gunzerking did that for free, and it was a complete reload.

Nisha has ammo issues, especially with pistols. Those bullets could have been free instead of coming from your reserve. Nisha has a thing for dual pistols (that’s the NEXT skill in the tree just below Gunslinger) yet it only reloads the main hand gun. There is a COM that boosts it, alongside with Pistol mag size, reload and fire rate skills and pistol max ammo. but the max ammo bonus is just as big as the one from that Aurelia COM: about 35 to 55 bullets. On a sniper it’s GREAT! the max ammo is 132, so 55 more is a good bonus, but 55 bullets on a total of 900 is pointless, especially on a com that boosts fire rate that much.

With 10/5 in Gunslinger, if the bullets were free, and the skill affected both guns, you could have been looking at a build that made shooting fast sustainable instead of a parlor trick. 40 free bullets each showdown ? that would have meant a WHOLE new type of builds for Nisha. Every good pistol build out there use the slowest and most powerful pistols available and NO ONE is using Gunslinger or the Cowgirl COM.

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#11

That IS disappointing!

Thanks @Chuck80 !

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#12

Both of Athena’s tier 5 skills in Xiphos, Fury of the Arena and You’ve Got Red on You, are underwhelming or next to useless. Good thing the rest of Xiphos rocks.

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#13

Venom Bolts - check (I’m currently running with +11 in Venom Bolts on a fresh corrosive-only-unless-I-fight-a-corrosive-resistant-enemy Wilhelm).

Cold War - check (before my swing into corrosive-only Enforcer play, he was cryo-only, and Cold War was maxed out).

Gunslinger or Cowgirl COM - I don’t currently use that skill, but I’ll spec into it next (not sure if I have a Cowgirl COM yet). It seems like this could be useful with some shotguns (where the reload bonuses are non-trivial) when you go into a mob shooting first and save the jump into Showdown for a “free” reload? The tail end of this seems like it would rarely come in handy… usually everything is dead by the time Showdown runs out, and your regular reload speed is insanely high from Faster 'n You and a few stacks of Impatience. I’ll try to find a home for this.

Fury of the Arena and You’ve Got Red On You - I’ve been having so much fun with Athena’s Maelstrom tree that I haven’t really tried out the middle tree. I’ll be sure to try these out.

For me, Nisha’s Fistful of Bullets is one I skip because I’m hooked on Crack Shot and Magnificent Six; bigger mag size is wasted on Crack Shot, and may nerf Magnificent Six. If I wasn’t playing a very coarse Jakobs allegiance build with Nisha, I probably wouldn’t mind this skill though.

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#14

even with shotguns, the COM especially boosts pistols, and doesn’t activate 2 of Nisha’s best skills that work after reloading.

The ONLY place where Gunslinger is good is when you’re toting a rocket launcher.
Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, enter showdown, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, showdown ends, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot…

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#15

Corrosive Wilhelm is love, corrosive Wilhelm is life.

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#16

@Adabiviak

So you intentionally use “sub par” skills for more of a challenge?

To see what they are like?

You don’t think they are in fact “sub par”?

#17

I use an 7/1 Inspire Leader COM because it makes Jack’s words of encouragement physically encourage enemies into suicide.

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#18

Some of Claptrap’s skills that create unwanted action packages. I know Claptrap is supposed to be the screw up, but they damage the co-op experience and half the time the person playing Claptrap doesn’t even realize it.

Why get “Kick Him While He’s Down” when you could get “All the Things are Awesome” instead AND avoid the bomb action package all together.

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#19

On that note, I HATE the “ticking down huge bomb in FFYL” skill for Clappy i avoid it like the plague!

@kritchie2023

#20

I was going to include the “I am rubber, you are glue” skill, but the last few times I played with people they actually moved away from the rest of the team while I got free grenades from the Torgue Fiesta package. If I’m not tossing a grenade every 10 seconds, it just doesn’t feel right to me.

Though I personally never invested a point in it.

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