Yes, I know it’s been beaten 100%. But I want common players, not just the “hardcore” crowd to mess around with this a little bit, to try and get through part of NVHM, at least past Sanctuary. It’s quite fun to try and balance levels vs. gear, determining which side quests to do and which to leave, whether to farm a specific boss, etc. I started playing today and made it to Sanctuary as Gaige. If anybody else attempts this, leave updates below, I’m interested in seeing how this goes for people.
Edit 1: I did the “Assassinate the Assassins” side mission, killed Mercy, and did the Firehawk set of quests to get the FotF, then did the Bloodshot Stronghold map. Other than a scary moment at Mad Mike (I sniped the last enemy from just outside his door, switched to my Harold, summoned DT, and ran out of ammo after two shots, switched to my sniper and then got an almost instantaneous Second Wind, but it still scared me to death) it went pretty swimmingly, and I have a much cleaner mission log. I hope anybody else trying this has the same successes!
Edit 2: I’m so confused. I just don’t understand how I’m still alive. The only characters I’ve played before (Maya and Zer0, both of which are at 72) never had it this easy. I mean, I got through UVHM story with Zer0 in 3 levels, but I was dying constantly as well as bypassing hordes of enemies. Gaige just mows people down. Anyway, here’s my update:
I’m going to have to replace my Harold soon, it’s level 7. After I took this screenshot I lay off the story and went back, cleared out the Three Horns Valley quests, the Bloodshot stronghold quests, and did the first of Tina’s tea party missions. My Harold’s splash damage also eventually completed the e-tech weapon quest. Sadly I cannot turn most of these in until I return to Sanctuary. But it’s going much better than I ever imagined.
I’ve always wanted to give this a try. Problem is, I am my own worst enemy and would probably get myself killed sooner than I would fighting bandits. Between the grenades, the barrels, the DOTs, the bottomless pits, corrosion, rust, being kicked a lot, being called bad names, being looked at funny…
It’s not so bad. I failed in the Southern Shelf map 4 times, before even getting to Flynt. Somehow my next run has taken me all the way to Bloodshot Stronghold, but I’m only level ten so I need to get more XP somehow. But I’ve been super lucky on gear: An Inflammable Tediore shield in a vendor just before Frostburn, and speaking of “on the way to Frostburn”… Yeah Lee dropped me a Harold. Took out level 13 Badmaw as a level 10 Gaige in like 4 shots. It helps.
See, I’d run it as Axton. Turrets to take the heat off you during boss fights, Gemini to give you that extra bit of cover, and Double Up to slag enemies, leaving you free to pummel them with whatever weapons you have.
I’m planning on only trying to beat NVHM. If I get further than that I’ll keep going and start regretting my choice. But I’ve never played Gaige before so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try her out. Have yet to invest any of my skill points, I should work out a spec. And I’ll consider using Axton if or when I fail this run. Another character I’ve never used, but he has one of the easiest leveling experiences, I hear, so I’ll consider that. I like Gaige so far because I can have DT play in the cutscenes and that makes me laugh.
Edit: BFFs tree looks best, I really don’t like the idea of speccing into Anarchy right now, with a good weapon and only one shot at Second Winds.
Assuming I decide to continue on this path, this would be my spec going into the final fight: http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#555150150051000000000000000000000000
As a Gaige, you do not want to spec into deathtrap against the warrior. Deathtrap will only target the rakks, or worse, the crystalisks. If you play for pc I will join in on a 1 life go of the game.
So for the final fight I should avoid summoning DT? Thanks for your advice, the last thing I want to do is aggro enemies which sometimes randomly healthgate players. I appreciate it.
All good things come to an end. A Badass Marauder ran into Tina’s area behind me while I was dealing with another, and even though I killed his pal and he was the only baddie left, DT never targeted him. He put me down, and I was slightly too far away for any of my weapons to be effective. Ah well. I’ll try again soon.
Should I not be specced into Buck Up? I think DT stops trying to kill enemies and restore my shield instead when I go into FFYL, which is the last thing I want. Not only does it block my view but it cuts down on my overall dps. Is that a thing? I made it to level 13 and then died doing the “Danger Zone” quest.
My revised spec, working off the assumption that I’ll be going into the final fight both extremely overlevelled and not be summoning DT during that fight. My order for speccing and my reasoning for doing so is this: Five points into CuT for health regen (this allows me to get health between fights or skulk around a corner if DT is active), five into Close Enough, purely to prepare for eventually getting Anarchy and because it’s better than The Better Half, which I’ll get to in a moment. Next is Upshot Robot, for the extension it grants to DT, who is a good little tank and draws aggro. Next is five points into Unstoppable Force, for protection from DoTs and some escaping ability. 5 points into The Better Half, in preparation for the BNK-3R fight, and then 4 into SLF, putting Anarchy off as much as possible. Next point with be there to unlock the tree. As my accuracy vanishes I foresee this getting much more difficult for me, but I don’t have a lot of choices. 5 points into Blood Soaked Shields, nullifying part of Unstoppable Force but granting much greater survivability. Next is Discord, for protection against accidental reloads (or purposeful ones, if I need to activate CuT) and finally Robot Rampage so DT still feels loved. If any long-time Gaige players have any input, I’d love some feedback on my build. My current character, who I’ve named Nemesis, is almost level 12 and set to go forward into Bloodshot Stronghold with a level 9 Crammed Unkempt Harold. If anybody wants one, btw, I farmed Savage Lee for XP and got three drops in a row of this level and variant of the weapon.
That’s around what I was using when I ran anarchy. It is fairly good, just make sure you go into the fight with anarchy stacks. Only difference is that I used 4 preshrunk cyberpunk and robot rampage instead of the blood soaked shields.
Thanks a lot, and I’ll work on getting used to Anarchy. Shame that it’s so integral to playing Gaige, it’s not a playstyle I really enjoy. But having DT as a mobile target for enemies is invaluable in this challenge, I’ve found.
One of my most recent runs ended on the way to Wilhelm, there was some BS with an EXP Loader and him being the last enemy didn’t help. But I had the bright idea to take that run and continue with it, one step ahead of my next attempt, to see what the game throws at me and how it challenges me. I figured out that once I get back to Sanctuary, the smartest course of action is getting a Heartbreaker to replace my Harold, and running the Mercenary Day DLC for gear and XP. So my current run will follow that path, and hopefully the Harold I scored will work even longer than my others, since it’s of the DPUH variety. I’m feeling good about this, I think this run will get me to BNK-3R at least.
I really want to give this a go, but not 100% sure what the ‘rules’ are.
Also I still haven’t got either Krieg or Gaige but am looking to buy one or the other of them and giving this a go with them. Anybody have any suggestions who to go for,I know it pretty much comes down to personal preference/play style etc. but I’d still be interested to hear your opinions on who’s you find the most ‘fun’ to play with.
Thank you for the clarification, definitely going to be giving this a try…and since I have absolutely no willpower, I ended up spending more money I can’t afford and getting both Krieg & Gaige, so I have them both to try out.
I’m glad I decided not to do a 1life run with Krieg first time out (I wanted to get used to him first), I got through to the Boom Bewm fight with no problems, killed Boom Bewm and went to check the red chest by the elevator there…only to get stuck and not be able to get out again, had to save and quit.
hahahaha that chest gets me sometimes, too. But there’s nothing wrong with save/quitting or even alt-f4ing in a 1life run as long as you don’t use it to bypass death. Plus, this way your Krieg can get more xp by killing the Booms again, and in case you’re wondering, being overlevelled is a great thing in this kind of run. I’m actually experimenting with a way of doing it right now: Farm all bosses for XP until they drop their legendaries (unless the run would be too tedious, such as Flynt, or if they have a bloated pool with customizations, like the assassins). I’m currently level 8 and still in Southern Shelf, I like this
