It doesn’t make any sense and it feels like ■■■■, just being real. “Grind your way to M10, higher Mayhem levels drop better loot”. Listen, Linda, this isn’t the case at all.
M0 can drop better loot than items I’ve received from M10. How do you mess this up so bad??
Mayhem levels should have a range of iLvls that can drop for that difficulty. For example:
M0 can drop 500 - 510, M1 can drop 511 - 521, etc.
Why am I finding 584 iLvl gear on M10 and iLvl 630 gear on M2? I’m not saying all gear is rolling that low, but a lot of it does when none of it should. I’m literally crawling through harder Mayhem levels expecting to get stronger weapons and this is what people are getting.
It should’ve been the easiest system in the world to integrate and somehow someone as big as Gearbox manages to screw it up. It’s mind blowing.
I am. And what you’re saying is it’s arbitrary? So why is it there? It may as well be a miniature game of tic-tac-toe. If it’s not a reference tool I can use to determine if a weapon is better than my current it’s just another design flaw.
It’s there because some people at Gearbox noticed item scores in some MMOs and decided to copy the idea without understanding the point. It was never compatible with Borderlands style game mechanics in the first place.
Item Score is literally there JUST for new people to go “oh this has a higher score so it must be better,” and while that can be true it’s very often not
It’s mostly tied to the parts a weapon has, but different weapons also seem to have different averages? I think the Rowan’s and Lucian’s are pretty big outliers for some reason.
So yeah, previously the only real use for item score was to compare two of the same weapons at the same level at a quick glance. Because having a foregrip vs not having a foregrip is usually better, same for the special parts that can sometimes be attached to the barrel, scope, stock, and something else. Now that mayhem is a thing and weapons have no indication of what level they dropped on, looking at item score is probably a detriment.
We don’t care what parts are on the weapons we care about the numbers and if the item level isn’t relative to power, it’s arbitrary and shouldn’t exist in the first place. My guess as to why they haven’t removed it yet is because it took so long to figure out the formula and how to code it.
Really though, all it does is confuse the player and shouldn’t be there.
You can’t have a single number on a weapon that says exactly how good it is. There is too much to account for.
We don’t care what parts are on the weapons we care about the numbers
That is the reason why we have a useless item score in the first place because you in fact don’t care about the numbers. You just want someone to tell you if the gun is good without thinking about it yourself.
If you disagree, tell me what you’d do if there was no item score in the first place? I know for me nothing would change. I’m not so sure about you.
I’ll make a comment that is bit off the intent of the original poster, but I think has some merit and may be related. I’m having a lot of trouble telling a level 57 weapon from a level 57 weapon. This one came from non-true vault hunter mode M0. The one next to it came from TVHM M10. If you actually have two of the same item immediately available to look at, it makes it fairly simple. But if you don’t (say you have a similar item banked) it is decidedly more complicated. I don’ think it would be a bad thing for Gearbox to add a little nomenclature on the card to better allow us to understand what we’re seeing. Maybe place a M(Level number) on the gear card to help disambiguate?
Lord forbid they actually created a gear score system that did make it so we could at a glance better evaluate items… With over a billion guns (not gear, just guns) it is more challenging than ever to “understand” just what it is we’ve picked up, or to decide even if we should. I don’t think it would be a disservice to the community to provide some assistance in this way.
There is “mystique”, and then there is intentional obfuscation. 10 years into the games, it’s starting to feel intentional.
Having only spent a few hours and only gotten a little over a dozen or so legendaries, not that I noticed. It is possible I overlooked something.
Even if they do “something” it still doesn’t prevent the possibility you might find an item at a lower difficulty level that exceeds items from a harder setting. (It just might make it easier to figure out. I don’t think that would hurt anyone.)
The same thing I do if an item does have an item score. Look at the damage and the anoint. You can’t sit there and tell me you even consider picking up unanointed weapons even if they do have more damage. Also, there’s really not a lot to consider, the problem is they thought there was.
Do I care if a weapon has an aftermarket grip or adjustable butt stock or camo strap or red dot sight? Not at all. The only thing that should’ve be considered when factoring an item’s level is where it dropped and it’s effective damage. If it’s anointed with “ASE 250% damage for a duration”, this should be considered as effective damage and would increase the item’s level.
Okay, so you do look at other stats? Because all I kept seeing from you at first was item score.
We both agree that the score as it is now is absolutely useless. I just don’t see how looking at the damage and anointment alone is better. That would mean sniper rifles are automatically better than SMGs most of the time. Though if you meant that the damage boost from Mayhem weapons should impact the item score, then yes, that would have been at least a decent way of comparing them quickly.
It’s not a bad idea to have an item score impacted by the parts, but the problem is that not all parts have the same efficiency, especially when compared to an anointment (which is also factored in from what I can tell.)
Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say everyone should look at the parts all the time. They’re just good for figuring out what is going on with a gun. I admit this update had me a bit agitated.
Couldn’t agree with you (the OP)more, I should be able to look at the item and get a GENERAL idea if it’s a mayhem 10 or mayhem 1. Right now you can’t without knowing the relative damage numbers for a given weapon. The gear score should be removed if they can’t figure it out, no one’s saying it’s a perfect system, but the other ppl are acting like it’s rocket science. Ofc everyone looksa at the annointment, that’s not the point. Should be like OP said, 500 to 510 mh 1 and so on accessories not part of it. If you wanna min-max, then you’ll have to start looking at parts. IMO should be strictly weapon damage output tied to GS.