This is my first time playing B3 and I’ve been enjoying Moze quite a bit. I do spend a lot of time in Iron Bear though, and I was worried that the mech might become less viable once I reach the harder content.
Should I be trying to wean myself from the action skill and start using more skills from the other trees like the explosives one? Or can the mech still hold its own later on?
If I can, I try to avoid builds that are really gear dependent and rely on farming. I don’t mind a bit of it, but too much starts to sour the game. I’ve heard that the Bear builds don’t need as much gear, but I also don’t want to get pounded into oblivion.
I get the sense from reading about different classes that this is an ongoing thing (nerf-buff loop). Does Gearbox just have trouble hitting the right balance?
Truth is, I love shooters like this, but I’ve never had the twitch skills to run gun builds. I guess that’s why IB appeals to me…lots of room for error. I played a siren in B2 and loved the whole crowd control thing. Figured this would be something different from that.
I wouldn’t mind a hybrid approach. Despite spending a lot of time in IB when it gets chaotic, I love the tight gunplay in B3, so mixing it up would be pretty refreshing anyway.
Yeah right now IB is quite viable. For the last couple days I’ve been playing in M10 (normally I’m in M1-4) farming up some gear in anticipation of M11 dropping in a coupla weeks and IB wrecks, no problem.
If you play in higher mayhem levels you might be spending a little more time out of IB just because gun enemies will be hitting harder (I hate that bug) and be careful with IB self-damage; it’ll knock you out of IB much more quickly than lower levels because of the way IB’s damage scales up in mayhem.
The shield that IB has…is there any way to tell how much it has deteriorated before it falls? I figured I’m supposed to take cover when the shield goes, to keep the damage from eating my armor, but I can’t tell from the HUD how much damage it’s taken. I see the shield around me, and then next thing I know it’s gone.
The armor is based on Iron Bear’s hp (percentage on the Security Bear…cant remember).
The more hp Moze has, the more hp IB has which means more shield. If you equip a multivitamin or shield with extra health, even without IB shield, IB can tank and still do a lot of dmg
klg_chaos
(What a wonderful night to have a curse.)
#11
I just came back and was still level 57… got to 65 in Slaughter Shaft in like 30 min using IB on Mayhem 10 and got a decent amount of M10 legendaries to start off as a base. IB definitely feels strong now. Lol.
@BasherSBC No. Its based off max health, not current. Thin Red Line just keeps your health from regenerating past a certain point but doesn’t lower max health. If you use something like Loaded Dice, which reduces the max, then it would hurt IB.
@zwangzug I believe Security Bear shield is 50% of IB’s max health with a 25% damage reduction built in. So, easily over 500-600k at 65 with the right gear.
I tried out some of the Mayhem (just level 2)…wasn’t sure how to set it, based on my level (47). When I turned up the difficulty, Iron Bear was still able to put up a fight, but Moze alone was really struggling. Maybe I need better weapons.
klg_chaos
(What a wonderful night to have a curse.)
#13
Yeah, your best bet is to go into Mayhem 10 with an IB build, go in Slaughter Shaft and destroy things with IB. You will get a lot of Mayhem 10 drops to start off with a good base which will help quite a bit in lower Mayhem levels.
Yes IB is very strong. The pattern for many months now is almost always buffing gear so at least for now the Nerf/Buff cycle is gone. I doubt with the new content being released gearbox will make any changes to anything existing apart from the current pattern of buffing a few weapons, if that.
In terms of a build, I have specced away from IB and placed a sole focus on making Moze as strong as possible. Naturally some skills points have helped IB too. This approach still sees IB work very well a t M10 while Moze is simply brutal. I absolutely love the build.
If you mean the slaughtershaft and you’ve finished the main story, now is a great time to run the shaft. At a high mayhem level you’ll get to 65 quite quickly. Then you can start to gather the good gear.
klg_chaos
(What a wonderful night to have a curse.)
#18
If you’ve finished the story, go right in at Mayhem 10 in IB. Take some IB bonus perks like Deadlines, Autobear, Security Bear, and if you have a shield that increases health, put that on.
Equip some rocket pods on one arm, nuke on the other. Go in and kill until you die (which if you play smart shouldn’t happen for quite a few rounds as IB is pretty damn strong). After you die/finish loot all the legendary gear, sell it for cash, re-do it until you hit 65. Should get there in like an hour at most. Then farm a bit more to get some good base mayhem 10 weapons and shields. Artifact and Class Mods can be lower level without issue until you find what you want.
I gave it a try in M10, the Bear was certainly doing a ton of damage compared to my guns. IB ran out after about 2 rounds, and I got smoked trying to run away from enemies. It felt doable, for sure. I think I just need to get a handle on the layout so I can keep out of danger while I’m waiting for the cooldown to complete.