Just wondering about it.
It’s a simple question to ask but a difficult question to answer. But I’ll try.
The short answer is no but that’s only because there are barrier anointed versions of most guns in the game. The specific barrier anointment I’m thinking of is crit/accuracy. The 60% accuracy bonus is significantly better than Nerves of Steel because you don’t lose it when your shield takes damage. But if you don’t have a barrier anointment and you are effective at keeping your shield full then Nerves of Steel can turn shotguns into hand cannons or sniper rifles and that’s a DPS increase because a tighter pellet spread on a multi pellet gun equals more damage.
The other problem with Nerves of Steel is it’s a tier 5 skill whose condition is soooo demanding but the benefit it provides is so lack luster and niche that picking it just isn’t worth it for most builds. But again, it can do work for shotgun and masher pistol builds if you can keep your shields full.
Yeah I tried it and it didn’t last long enough to do anything without the Barrier up. It technically can count as a 1 point investment due to it stacking over time, but given that even a single hit resets your stacks entirely it doesn’t even feel worth that much. And as mentioned, given that there are Anointments that work better without the downsides to manage, its pretty much a waste of points to use. Not to mention that Zane’s overall kit doesn’t really gain much benefit from improved accuracy or recoil given that the most of his damage comes from general movement anyways, and given the state of sniping in the game at this point and time, there’s no real incentive to be anywhere but mid to close range anyways and getting crits at those ranges are far easier anyways.
The bonus is definitely noticably at max stacks, but my environmental awareness isn’t good enough to notice every damn elemental puddle that last longer than Maya if Ava didn’t exist.
I’ll echo @studdugie’s comments. I tend to use weapons with better accuracy, such as Dahl, and for weapons that don’t already have it, such as the Maggie, mine has the Barrier accuracy anointment. Also, if you have any investment in GR accuracy, Nerves of Steel loses even more value, given that your net gain becomes less. All that said, for a tier 5 skill, it’s simply not worth the point investment, and imo, there are better places to spend your skill points.
Its almost as bad as Best Served Cold. Which says a lot.
I’m kinda having fun with that in my middling levels, because I got a +3 points to that on a legendary com I picked up. It’s nice when you got a clump of enemies.
You mean Best Served Cold? You might still want to try Seein Dead than. BSC is procced by Seein Dead as if it’s a killskill.
Weird fact, SD BSC procs trigger a nova AROUND YOU. which is wild. You basically just become a cryo bomb. It’s absolutely bonkers. Because the…oh, I gotta go comment on the skill rate thread.
Because the worst part of BSC was self damage and that’s gone here.