I picked this game up today, and having played a lot of Borderlands 2 I looked into how I could kind of recreate my all time favorite build from that game, Axton with nuclear longbow turrets.
So it seems that the turret in this game is now a digi-clone, which is cool, and there is also a way to blow it up for massive damage, so we’re two thirds of the way there. The problem is that is no way to remotely deploy the damn thing. You can drop a digi clone, charge the enemies, swap places with it and then blow it up, but that’s a really awkward way to get an exploding turret into place and simply has too high of a cost in time you could have spent shooting if you like fighting at longer ranges.
So here is a thought: How about a class mod that replaces the ability to swap places with your digi clone with the ability to teleport your digi clone like a longbow grenade? If you could longbow a digiclone and still swap places with it the skill would suddenly double as a long range teleport skill, so that would probably break a bunch of stuff in the game. As a replacement to swapping it wouldn’t cause a problem though if the clone winds up in places you aren’t supposed to be able to go. All of the effects from swapping like the cryo-nova would still go off when you teleport the clone, so instead of using it as a decoy/teleport you’re puppeteering it around the battlefield to cause destruction. Basically it just changes the skill from being useful for close range assassinations to being useful for long range combat.
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jmthsauer
("Barriers are for the weak. Or the tryhards"-Zane)
#2
I wouldn’t really suggest using the clone simply as a bomb tbh, though I do appreciate the idea of having means to remotely deploy him.
The damage you get from the explosion is not really gonna be worth losing out on the boost you get from Synchronicity and possible whatever equipment the clone itself is fitted with, even if you’re running ASE anointments.
The only people who run Doppelbanger with the Clone do use it so they can cancel the action skill prematurely and have it ready for the next fight again if it is still up after all the enemies are gone.
After all, the difference with Axtons turret was that the turret didn’t get destroyed by the nuke (and if it did, the build wouldn’t have been very popular because it would have meant losing your boost from Battlefront)
Have you looked into the Drone, though? The clone does of course seem more like a turret at first glance, but I think for the kind of playstyle you are going for, running the SNTL with almighty Ordnance might make more sense.
1: Better deployment range
2: Additional bonus of restoring your SNTL duration if you kill somebody
3: Doesn’t compromise your action skill in general
4: SNTL is related to Zane’s stronges anointment which you should be running anyways
5: If you are running it alongside the Clone you don’t lose out on your ability to teleport
So hear is what I do when running Clone Drone. I place clone behind cover or on high ground basicly choose a place I want to be. I then activate my drone and run right in to the middle or near enemy spawn locations. Then I swap places with my Clone. I’m safe he is getting shoot my Drone is supporting my Clone and I’m singling our enemies from a strategic position.
When combat goes just right it makes you feel like you have complete control of the battlefield and thus a badass!
Pre planing Clone Spots gets really easy once you know enemy spawn locations and eventually its second nature.
I’m not huge on the kill skills thing, I’d much rather build out of the other two trees, so the drone kind of doesn’t feel like a good fit. From all I’m reading the kill skills plus Seein’ Dead is pretty much Zane meta right now, but that just says to me that Gearbox should do something to make other play styles a bit more viable with this character.
And yea, Axton’s turret was definitely better at exploding since the explosion was front loaded and it wouldn’t cost you the turret, but to me the fact that people advise against using it, again, just means Gearbox needs to do something with this. I honestly do think that the biggest issue with Doppelbanger is that there is no good way to get it into position. You either drop the clone at a distance, run and swap, which is a lot of time you could have used just shooting and killing, or you drop it off and blow it on the spot, which is faster, but necessitates fighting at close range.