Please GBX, patch the Hustler COM

Borderlands 3 Zane the Operative
#1

The Hustler, for those who don’t know, is a new legendary Class Mod for Zane that was added in the Fustercluck DLC.

The effect on the item card states: “Damaging an enemy with a non-critical hit grants Zane a stacking +25% increased Critical Hit Damage and a +5% chance for non-critical hits to score a critical hit which consume all stacks. This skill stacks 5 times.”
Now, that doesn’t sound too bad on paper, until you realize that the describtion is misleading. The problem is, the critical hit bonus is not actually a true crit bonus like those that you get from weapon parts or skills like Fl4ks Galactic Shadow. Instead, it is a post-additive or fake critical hit bonus like the one Fl4k gets for Fadeaway Bodyshots.

What this essentially means is the following: The stacking critical hit bonus? It only applies to those additional body shot crits.
And other “true” critical hit damage bonuses from skills, anoints or weapon parts? Well, those don’t apply to body shot crits.

Fl4k can still get very high damage output in Fadeaway because he can basically score a double crit, that is to say a true critical hit with all the associated damage bonuses that also gets the Fadeaway damage bonus but Zane explicitly only gets his “fake crits” on body shots, making him unable to bodyshot.

That’s just all very frustrating, truth be told. Please GBX, just change the Hustler to allow for true critical hits and true critical hit bonuses. That way it would at least be good, though it still wouldn’t be able to outclass Seein’ Dead (because nothing ever is going to unless one day the effects of Seein’ Dead and Seeing Red are swapped around).

And if we are already at it, change the skills. Brainfreeze is good and we haven’t got it on a legendary COM yet, but Adrenaline and Like a Ghost are both just a waste of points in the late game. Instead, maybe allow it to boost Synchronicity and Confident Competence, those are both solid skills and it would leave the original distribution of 2 Green Tree Skills and one Red Tree Skill intact (also, if Amara gets to boost Illuminated Fist with hers, there’s no reason why Zane shouldn’t be allowed to boost Confident Competence, with both being skills that usually cap out at 1 point).

A video by ThiccFilA further detailing and demonstrating the issues with the effect can be found here

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#2

I haven’t tried it yet. Does it work on the clone/splash/face-puncher?

#3

I have a post before the launch of dlc4 saying that the new class mod would be as useless in endgame content as the rest (besides seein dead).
I guess they all were created with regular gameplay in mind and never tested for mayhem levels. Not to mention the techspert or shockerator having nothing to do with endgame content.

Regarding the husler mod, besides having the luck of getting a 5+ Brain freeze, the other 2 bonuses are kind of useless, one being worst than useless. They could’ve done a lot more with stacking and critical shot, if you remember a certain capstone in Zer0’s sniper tree…

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#4

Incredibly disappointed in this class mod. On paper, it sounded like it could be good enough to at least put Seein’ Dead down, especially if you get some lucky rolls with 2+ points into Brain Freeze and maybe bonus crit dmg in the passives. But no, this one ■■■■■ the bed.

Does GB not care about this character? Because it seems like Fl4k and Moze are getting fixes but outside the clone, Zane mains aren’t getting jack.

#5

I am nearly certain, that the gear until now, was already set in stone before release. It’s really weird, that some class mods name you get in the DLCs sound like they belong to another DLC.
Hustler, Golden Rule, Stackbot, Green Monster sounds like DLC1s theme
Seein Dead, Stone, Peregrine, Flare fits DLC2s theme
Conductor, Muse, Trainer, Sapper fits DLC4s theme

So I think, if they really want it fix things they f’d up on release, they can only do it as recently as now.

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#6

It could be coincidence but back around March I suggested an Amara com favouring an orb-based melee playstyle sporting Illuminated Fist, Laid Bare and Sustainment in the create your own gear thread. As I said, it could be coincidence but in that thread I also suggested a grenade based on melee damage, a weapon with Anarchy stacks and a shotgun with ricochets similar to the Call weapons. They could be coming up with these ideas independently but possibly not, in which case they didn’t have them planned before release.

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#7

Something makes me doubt that.
If they would actually pay attention to those threads, we should have way more interesting guns and gear than what we have now.
Rebound is funny, but the other weapons in the last are DLC are kinda dull.

And as far as I know, the 3 points into a 1 point skill, that the new Amara COM has, is supposed to be a pre release remnant.

#8

Even with only 1 point it would still be good. And the same would go for Confident Competence.

#9

What about with a cryo good juju and cool, calm and collected? Sounds like it could freeze stuff instantly and keep the AS up with relative ease. I’m not a zane guy though so forgive my ignorance.

#10

Not my point.
But yes, it would.
What could be a point against gear being planned out long ago is, that they advertised COMs having points in cap stones. Which we haven’t really gotten yet.

#11

Has anyone tried using this COM with a face puncher+white elephant+clone+dome+CCC build?
Gonna try that later or tomorrow, but don’t want to waste time if it sucks.

#12

Very probably. But you get the same effect with any decent Ice Breaker (especially with high-crit gear like the Hellwalker).

My current CCC build is just that, plus an Executor for kill skill uptime.

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#13

Ah, i see. And i guess good juju already stack crit damage well on it’s own so the extra you’d get on from thay com would’t be noticable.

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#14

The Good Juju sadly doesn’t really have synergy with this COM because it’s effect is linked to a true crit bonus, meaning it wouldn’t apply to the additional bodyshot crits from the Hustler (which is the major issue with the Hustler in general) whilst the Hustler crit bonus wouldn’t benefit the Good Juju on actual crits.
I mean, it wouldn’t be horrible, but it would still be worse than just using it with a Seein’ Dead.
As for CCC: Yes, that’s probably an intended synergie with this class mod, though you’d probably would use it with a really spammy weapon instead, like a Monarch or some kind of high pellet count shotgun that gets a lot of hits.

#15

Is the Hustler mod even allowed to drop before I finish the DLC story? I got it first try when I played co-op and killed Loco after we beat the story. Now, trying it on my own I made 20 runs killing loco with no COM dropping at all.

#16

It is, but apparently it has a painfully low droprate ~5%

#17

Wow, so I just have to give time. good thing I have a corro backburner

#18

Okay, so this is probably best used with single pellet weapons that can’t normally or hardly crit.
Doesn’t work on clone
Is waaaaay to slow too freeze with facepuncher x14 + white elephant. With cryo stone it obv. works, but that could also be done with seein dead also the facepuncher doesn’t have unlimited ammo or works with salvation.

I think just making those crits real crits won’t do much. It needs to be a refreshing buff that does not reset on crit and lasts 1 or 2 seconds.

#19

I mean, it depends. If it were true crits, that would at least allow you to buff them with actual other crit boosts. And you could try for a playstyle akin to the Good Juju where you score a bunch of bodyshots first to buff your crits and then tear into the enemy with some well-placed headshots.

1 Like
#20

Yeah but with the random body shot crits, you would sabotage your own damage.