Flak NEEDS some good survival buffs (Heck a new mod or rework could help with that)

Borderlands 3 FL4K the Beastmaster
#1

I know Flak has been getting some great bug fixes and buffs.

However…it has come to my attention that after 6 builds with Flak his survival skills are a bit lacking.

I thought for awhile maybe I could tools to substitute that like the grenades that give help and/or shields back. Heck maybe even run something like relic that grants health back on kills. That didn’t go so well as I hoped…

Flak is REALLY good when it comes to damage in my opinion but surviving is like such a downfall for him. Moze, Zane, Amara can basically do really high damage insane actually with really good survival skills and tools for the job. Flak just has damage but oh my no way to counter all that damage other than ways to basically avoid danger all together or health back on demand.

Red Fang class mod
Falconer’s Feast (Technically to me the only thing that gives health back on demand)
Burst Aid (Technically to me it’s just another regen bonus though a powerful one)
and last but not least…Fade away. Maybe with the augment Not my Circus for 6 seconds.

I been playing with Gamma burst because I LOVE radiation and I tried out the augment Burst Aid. Currently I love this augment however I felt it could of been better to help with Flak on the survival side.

What if the rift followed Flak around as long as his action skill was active because I thought it was pretty lame that you have to be in one spot to take advantage of it since that’s basically how it’s played. Yes yes you could put it in the middle of the battlefield but then you gotta hope that regen is enough but to my testing that regen can’t help you survive all that damage. “That’s a lot of damage”

Reworking it to move with you would be pretty nice and helpful in team play as well as solo. I think a lot more would love this rather than all going straight for a Deathless build and Red fang for survival.

Another alternative idea would be to make a mod that makes it so when Flak or his pet kills an enemy while Gamma burst is active they create a Burst Aid rift at that exact location and yes there can be multiple rifts up. This would get people to run other mods with Gamma burst besides Red Fang. (I really don’t want Red Fang to be the only thing people choose to run for survival I feel that’s an issue.

How does fix Flak survival as a whole? Honestly to do that they could also consider giving him more ways to get health back on demand like I don’t know maybe one of his Hunter skills should grant life steal or maybe make it so his pet gives him health back on damage dealt. Maybe finally rework the worse skill that I see NOBODY uses which is Dominance. They could make the enemy gain the same benefits that your pets get in gamma burst AND/OR make it so the bonuses your pet gains like Frenzy, Psycho on a stick all these other skills heck even make the passive pet bounces stack from the dominated enemy as well as make it so the health from the target that gets taken away is also being put into Flak for more survival skills and buff how much it takes per seconds as well as maybe for how long it last. From 12 up to 15. Although the timer doesn’t need a buff everything I said would make it viable and actually worth going for.

Because lets face it that skill is COMPLETELY useless for the most part. Heck even the mod that does something similar could use a buff or rework. They could do the same thing to the mod or add some bonuses to it like bonuses damage and life steal for activating it until it ends.

Sorry this was a long one but I felt Flak compared to the other vault hunters is a bit meh. His damage is amazing, his pets useful and pretty dang amazing, yet his survival is just awful it seems. Took me having to play him for awhile and make 6 builds just to realize how bad that part is compared to the other characters that I felt like Red Fang was needed 100% no matter what if I wanted to play a Gamma burst build. Sigh…hope they do give him a lot more buffs like they did for the other three vault hunters. STILL enjoying Flak though and the builds I made for him don’t get me wrong.

Anybody else having thoughts on his survival skills? Am I just that bad at Flak DUN DUN DUUUUN! Nah but for real anybody have any thoughts on him?

(ALSO FLAK’S DLC MOD NEED SOME FIXES AND REWORKS! AT LEAST ONE OF THEM!)

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#2

That sounds like some great ideas but I was thinking for burst aid have the first tap of the action skill button be the normal group heal rift and if you tap it again the rift disappears and becomes health regen for flak only making it a solo heal as long as the action skill is active.

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#3

That sounds really good too. The only reason I’d say make it follow wherever he goes is because I like the rift’s like visual…like the way it looks is so freaking cool and when it follows him around he can be basically healing himself and the team.

HOWEVER if you think about it we could add on to that. While his action skill gamma burst what if when he makes the rift disappear and it heals him solo it increases the effects to make it more powerful. However when he drops for the team it will have a decrease effect but trade off is instead of just you it’s for your team and they can even throw in that it decrease the rate of how long it’s taking your action skill to end. Make it so he can make the rift reappear and disappear whenever he wants similar to Zane’s barricade.

(Man I still love how the rift looks though. I wanna see a rift around Flak heck that’d be SO COOL!) Sorry getting too excited. Yes your idea sounds really interesting. I’d say even better. (It’s kinda similar to how Zane barricade is if they do this.)

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#4

I’d say that you REALLY have to understand how Fl4k works to get any survival out of them, probably moreso than any of the VHs - and I play all 4.

I main Fl4k, and there are an absolute TON of interactions and glitchy skills that I still don’t know about. For Mayhem 10 play, the best way to survive as Fl4k that I have been able to find is simply to kill faster. That said, you should be considering deploying all of the following on any Fl4k build:

-Otto Idol (this is key to a bunch of builds, and many CAN be done without an Otto Idol, but you are sacrificing survival in many cases)

-Frozen Heart, Snowshoe, or Stop Gap with ASS anoint

-URad/Deathless/Red Fang build (you kill REALLY fast and have lots of aggro relief with this build)

-3-shot Fade Away is one of the more survival-oriented builds, if you haven’t tried that

-Power Siphon Tran-Fusion Tracker (this is great now that grenades have been buffed, restores shields and health)

-Shields that have health or shield boosters really help

Just a few thoughts on a few of my go-tos for Fl4k survival. I will agree that Fl4k has to take advantage of as many of the survival options that are available to them. You have to play both skillfully and smartly (gearing correctly AND thinking about positioning and dodging shots on the battlefield) to have good survival on Fl4k, as this can be one of the most challenging aspects of playing Fl4k.

But it sounds like you already may have hit on some of these. Practice makes perfect, as they say. I believe Fl4k, more than any of the VHs, requires a fairly high level of knowledge in spec’ing, gearing, and using the chosen playstyle in order to max out Fl4k’s potential. That is not to say “git gud” at all, just that this is my experience with Fl4k and one of the reasons I love Fl4k.

11 Likes
#5

I do agree and this is actually helpful so thank you so much. It seems you more further down the line at understanding how to play Flak more than me (I WISH I COULD SAY I UNDERSTOOD MORE THAN RIGHT NOW! :rofl:) I have so much more to do with Flak and so much to learn.

I’m actually glad to have leveled a Flak and try the builds I wanted out regardless of the drawbacks I found. Even if some of the builds I made at the moment need a bit of a tweak.

(Just wanna say again OH MY GOSH FLAK DOES SO MUCH DAMAGE ALONG WITH HIS PETS IT’S AMAZING) but yes thank you for these suggestions and tips.

#6

@wrandle1999 Thank you and you’re welcome!

There are a lot of really smart Fl4k players that post on the forums, most of them know a lot more than me, but I just tend to be more opinionated and loud than most probably LOL.

Check the builds thread and the Top Gear thread for some good builds, gear, and discussion about the pros and cons of most of them.

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#7

You should check out the Killer Queen build. The gear is a little picky but I think it’s the most fun possible with FL4K. I’m confident that this build is the pinnacle of pet damage ATM.

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#8

I just might check it out. Could be hilarious to see my pet kill a boss all by itself. (Heard that was possible.)

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#9

It definitely is possible. Often.

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#10

It’s tricky to do but the pet deals enough damage in the right situations to one shot bosses. It’s well into the billions

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#11

Here’s the link.

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#12

I agree with pretty much everything your saying here but my issue is mainly centered around gamma builds and the fact that red fang is what makes it strong. Gamma with out red fang feels annoying to play IMO. I feel having burst aid becoming both a group or solo heal that stays with flak while gamma’s active would fix or at least make it a little less tedious to play with a bounty hunter, cosmic stalker ect.

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#13

You have a point. I felt disappointed seeing I had to rely on Red Fang for survival which is why I thought the changes I said above would be a nice way to add different playstyle to Gamma burst instead of the same thing every time.

Gamma burst aid could be the thing that might make it better with those changes but I also thought the other ideas would add more variety in playstyles all around.

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#14

Also ty for the link.

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#15

I’m sure you would have found it, but it’s here on forums not YT lol

Edit: sorry I sidetracked the thread lol there is a HEAPING pile of cool ideas to revamp FL4K’S survivability in the FL4K section

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#16

Yep, you’ll get no argument from me there. There has been a lot of discussion on these forums about making the Red Fang taunt either a passive effect of Gamma Burst or an augment to GB (I like the former idea better). It is silly that you are pretty much locked into using the Red Fang if you want to run GB.

In the same way, I think GBX should make the Rakkslag anointment into either an augment (or add to an existing augment) or just make it a passive effect of casting Rakks as well.

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#17

Agreed, I think that if a COM is related to an action skill it should benefit that action skill. Not entirely obliterate it.

For instance look at the benefit of R4KK P4K to Rakk Attack vs Red Fang to Gamma Burst. R4KK P4K is the best overall damage bonus for RA and adds quite a bit of survivability. However you are perfectly capable of using a Bounty Hunter, Cosmic Stalker or Deadeye with Rakk Ataack. How well does Gamma Burst fare without Red Fang?

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#18

I really want them to do something to let you atleast temporary have your other pets out. I feel like the master tree capstone should have been a thing that summoned your other two pets for a short period of time after using attack command or your action skill.
I also find it funny that the only VH left without Life steal in his skill tree is the hunter sub class character. Instead his life steal is relegated to an anointment.

Getting a Stop Gap shield with on ASE trigger shield fill and bread is amazing for rakks but I don’t agree with any VH feeling required to equip spicific anointments to feel functional on Mayhem 5+.

Health Regen has had this problem since OP levels in BL2. The moment gun damage goes up the value of life steal craps all over health regen. The only time I was able to run a Health regen FL4K in end game was when Terror was a thing and you got like 10% regen per second per stack of terror up to 3. Even then I was not unkillable. I had to constantly sit behind cover for a few seconds in places like the slaughter shaft or the maliwan takedown.

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#19

I actually really liked the terror health regen mechanics and believed at the time that it would be really powerful for characters, but then the gear was quickly outleveled. When the Halloween DLC comes around again this year, it will be really interesting to see what builds players come up with.

I ran a Rakk build with a Transformer with terror, a grenade with terror health regen, and a Lyuda with terror ammo regen. Obviously that build would mot work at Mayhem 10 now with the way the Lyuda’s damage has become outclassed, but the concept was cool and could be moved over to different weapons to be equally powerful.

There is still a lot of potential with terror anoints that I think will be developed further this year during the Halloween DLC.

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#20

I was running multi projectile madness. I had single pellet guns with very high damage and was running around with a One Pump one shooting almost everything in the game outside of Vault Monsters and Maliwan takedown XD. Like you said I’m not sure If the build would work with M10. I had a Back Ham with the Regen and a Nagata sadly the Nagata was just there for Terror nothing else XD.

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