Is mayhem 4 really too hard?

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

I’m serious, can the hardest difficulty in a video game actually be “too hard”? Sure when you give every enemy 850-1000% extra hit points they can seem like bullet sponges when compared to before, but I remember people seemed to think the negative modifiers on mayhem 3 were too difficult. This dry variation of mayhem mode was only brought about because after nerfing all the hard edges in mayhem 3 a new challenge was needed. I have builds that can get nerfed to the floor by the mayhem 3 modifiers and still tear through like a badass. This game already has plenty of different builds (even realgrasp) and players that are able to solo the raid on mayhem 4, even if it’s not a fast or a clean run. What are players on that level going to do once every one of their interesting and fun builds have mastered the highest difficulty and are burnt out?

Yes certain anointed and badass enemies are meant to drop you or stop your progression on any difficulty setting and this seems to be what has given the players trying to enjoy lower difficulties an issue. Though the dry modifiers of mayhem 4 either pose no issue or make players just under the output needed see a huge gap in power level required. I also understand that some people physically cannot play as long and others have too much responsibility at this point in their life to catch up. With no drop rate increase for balance or any mechanics that boost the success rate of farming for casuals trying to get specific pieces of gear becomes unimaginable, not everyone can get the gear required to give Fl4k 100% critical hit damage.

If you take into consideration the requirements in gear needed to progress in difficulty and the fact that this game has several different difficulties it still seems to me that Borderlands 3 could have no difficulty setting too high or boss too challenging as long as we could obtain the gear needed, one way or another. Sure it may take longer for certain people or certain builds but I’ve never seen a stingy gaming community when others are in need or a game that couldn’t be beat. This game still needs to find a proper balance and plenty of other shooters have had issues with creating modifiers like the ones mayhem has to offer. I may not like all the modifiers mayhem 3 has to offer but just giving tinks steroids doesn’t seem like much aside from being used to scale the mayhem modes up for a challenge, like ultimate mayhem mode or something badass.

3 Likes
#2

I’m not sure whether you would call MH4 hard or not but to me it’s hard in the way that it’s just no fun to play. For me it seems like a waste of time and/or effort.

14 Likes
#3

For me? Probably. But there is no universal metric for that.

1 Like
#4

Honestly, I have no clue what any of you expect, that’s realistic, that could make the end-game not based on bloated numbers.

Your answer is going to be more interesting mechanics, newer enemies, newer animations. That takes time, and ALOT of effort from the team. Maliwan Takedown introduced multiple new enemies, new boss, and raid boss. Wait for DLC content, and we’ll have all new challenges to await us.

Now, M4. It can be easier or harder. Mayhem 3 modifiers could completely cripple your build, or boost you and make the game even easier than normal mode. M4 has spongy enemies, but I like that I don’t have to reroll modifiers. Also, having many godly rolls/builds allows me to use them without facerolling everything on M3, like I was. Like badass enemies in Slaughtershaft don’t get turned into ash anymore, and can at least fire at me on M4. It allows more exposure for enemies, and really allows annointments and godly-rolled gear to shine.

On the topic of loot. I farmed MT first on M3, tbh to get the new legendaries. Then I continued to farm M4 for the new legendaries, quickly realizing that, other than the classmods, emp5, and kybs worth to some extent, they are all garbage. So just continue farming your annointments on M3/gear on M3 until you feel like you need more challenge in M4.

Casuals. The entire game is open for basically everyone. Every piece of it, bar some of the newer M4 items. They’re not really a necessity for content below M4, and most are garbage and can’t even handle M4. There’s nothing else to do than to farm and await DLC content. Casuals still have full access to the game, and can play it and get these items whenever they want. Mayhem is basically the same game, just harder. BL2 was out and popular for like 8 years or something, and look how many new things were introduced over-time with that. Casuals have time to take things slow, meet people, trade, and still have access to the full game.

6 Likes
#5

Mayhem 4 is akin to OP8. In many ways, they share mechanics. Either way, consider the drop rates on chests alone without Fighting get cranked to drop easy legendaries fast. And Mayhem 4 has some crazy weapons.

It’s not fun, it needs patches and I’m just glad it wasn’t just a neat paid add-on to get better gear with crazier enemy spawns and buffed enemies. Does need them massive improvements though. Maybe Gearbox won’t buff it to hell if they crank the level cap, i mean hell. That would be easy enough.

1 Like
#6

You really think mayhem 4 is equal to OP8?

3 Likes
#7

If they were equal, we’d all be dead.

1 Like
#8

for me, mayhem 4 is actually easier compared to previous mayhem levels. i do not find enemies bullet spongey. maybe i just got a good build and gears, I just finished all side missions avaialble on mayhem 4 with iron bear moze, gammavore fl4k and terror ccc zane and i have no difficulty except for anointed enemies.

Maliwan Takedown, on the other hand i can agree that it is bullet spongey, but mayhem 4, not for me.

4 Likes
#9

Move on, game are meant to be fun not about spending your entire life time on it. i hear this a lot “when you have everything you want, what then?” That’s when you wrap up move on to other classes / playthroughs / games.

Why does everything have to be tedious and made it such way to keep us around for as long as possible because it takes time? it’s just filler stuff at that point. hell, if there was a endgame with an actual end you can reach in a reasonble time frame i want to be people will still play it. look at BL2. it’s 7 years old and still played by many.

10 Likes
#10

A very few unimportant people would like borderlands 2 overpower 8 to be easier, I wish good loot was more accessible.
Btw filler is monotonous tasks that force you to do content and reset in a cycle. We’re just playing to shoot stuff and get weird guns.

#11

I don’t know if anyone here has experienced an AoE proc on OP8 before comparison. This reminds me more of lvl 69 in the OG. ■■■■■■■■ badasses, good synergies with elemental effects, and overall a lot of tanking bullets.

But in OP8, you get shocked, you die. No ragrets, man. Pray to the gods a midget jumps in on the fun.

#12

Really the extra projectiles suck to have all night but in Borderlands 2 during the higher OP levels I made sure to have slag in my skills or atleast on one good weapon, and always rocking a bee shield.

#13

The hardest thing about M4 is annointed COV. Those bastards just take forever to gun down. Everything else, with the right build and gear, is manageable.

5 Likes
#14

I know the militants are an issue, being some weapons are inefficient on their shield and they go immune. Are the other annointed really that bad for most people on mayhem 4?

1 Like
#15

For me, I can handle one at a time. Unfortunately, there are many situations where I get hit with two at a time and it gets difficult. Especially annointed tinks and militants. They are bullet sponges and just hit so damn hard.

2 Likes
#16

The tinks don’t actually take as much damage to kill as it seems they’re just hard to hit and like to circle you like a wolf, burst builds mow them down easily.
A tip for 2 or 3 of them at, once especially Amara and fl4k, is mix fire damage in and shred them with a brainstormer, moze can shred them with a spring epicenter. This makes it easier for you to stay under time limit if that happens during the trail of cunning.

#17

What I like about the Mayhem system compared to OP levels was the fact I do not have to regrind gear. Sure after shared between but the 1st time was:

Get Unkept Harold, go get new firehawk shield, get flakker, get slagga, get maggie.
Ok now rinse repeat. Until OP done-ness.

7 Likes
#18

Not hard, technically, but just tedious and a little boring because it eliminates a lot of playstyles and weapons that simply cannot keep up with the health increases.

7 Likes
#19

This is a good point. Many may not enjoy the difficulty of Mayhem 4 but imagine if Mayhem 4 was actually level 60… every single piece of loot You now cherish would be trash. Now I don’t know about you but I have 150 pieces of nicely anointed loot that suits my toon perfectly. The thought of having to restock all of it is nauseating :joy:. I welcome op 1-10 like levels at some point but just not this soon.

#20

I’m cool with difficulty scale as long as it is represented with equal quality loot. Which it is not. That is the main problem I see. I’ll take on 4 Annointed enemies no problem but when out of all of the work and ammo done to take them out they only drop 3 purples and 4 blues it feels like a waste of time. Definitely not a fan of straight up RNG

3 Likes