A list of forgotten base game legendary weapons

There’s some legendaries in this game that seem to be forsaken both by the playerbase and by the devs. Weapons that basically noone has used in ages, except maybe in normal mode story playthroughs. I think it would be a good idea to just make a big old list of them to have them all in one place and maybe explain what went wrong. This is just gonna be base game legendaries, maybe I’ll make another one for DLC at some point.

1: All Atlas AR’s except the OPQ. The Rebell Yell is kind of usable since it deal decent damage, but the special effect is straight-up irrelevant. Maybe have it deal bonus shock damage to marked targets instead of just making the tracker darts deal a minimal amount of shock damage. The Carrier is straight-up dead and has been ever since they fixed the elemental bonus projectile interaction which is kind of a shame.

2: Self-igniting CoV AR’s. The Pain is Power actually got a significant damage buff recently so calling it forgotten is maybe not quite accurate. However, these weapons are entirely unusable on high Mayhem because the self-dot significantly outscales player health, meaning that you just end up combusting yourself.

3: Night Hawkin. Used to be a top tier SMG back in the Mayhem 3 days. However, it hasn’t gotten a single buff in the history of the game and boy oh boy it shows. If you want the definition of “powercrept”, look at the Night Hawkin. It needs like a 150% damage buff if it’s ever meant to be good again.

4: The Hellfire. Got buffed, still is garbage (though slightly better than the Night Hawkin).

5: Malak’s Bane. A meme at this point. Deal less damage for more ammo. Has received buffs in the past but those were strangely conservative, causing the weapon to have a base damage of less than 20k on M10. This thing isn’t even good in Arms Race which is saying something.

6: The Butcher. Got nerfed back in 2019 even though it arguably was not overpowered then. No reason to ever use it over any of the other Hyperion Shotguns as it deals pityful damage.

7: The Crossroad. One of the worst nerfs in the history of this game. It fell victim to the wombo-combo of nerf and powercreep. Give it its 4th projectile back and it’s still gonna be meh. Needs some love.

8: The Predatory Lending. Basically a joke weapon. It shoots money as ammo. Its damage is far too low for the gun to remain usable on M10. One of the truly forgotten guns that has never seen a single balancing change in the history of the game. Some players probably don’t even know it exists since it only drops from Lavender Crawley.

9: The Woodblocker. There was a very short time in 2020 where it was good. Between its last buff in february and Mayhem 2.0 in April it could actually kill. You could quite honestly triple its damage and it still would be on the lower end for a sniper.

10: Literally ALL base game Jakobs AR’s. They are all underpowered. The most usable of the bunch might be the Rowan’s Call and possibly (on Moze) the Lead Sprinkler, but they still are just sad. Also, the Bekah still is only a once-per-save redeem unless you get super lucky with a diamond loot room and really could do with a proper farming location. Bekah and Hand of Glory get bonus oblivion points for never receiving any changes, ever. Rowan’s Call could also do with a more farmable drop location because farming slaughter-bosses is obnoxious.

11: The Wagon Wheel. Shared the same fate as the Carrier. Died when they fixed the bonus elemental projectile interaction and is basically unusable now.

12: Nimble Jack. Gimmicky and there’s just no reason to use it. As an exclusive drop from an enemy you wouldn’t usually farm it’s also a rare weapon to come across.

13: One Pump Chump. A fun weapon in story playthroughs, but once you turn the Mayhem up, it loses its one-shot potential and is outclassed in terms of dps by other shotguns. Also an exclusive drop.

14: The Wave. It’s a gun that exists. It’s usable in Arms Race. I don’t think anyone would ever farm for it unless they are either doing an allegiance run or participating in a Hunt event.

15: The Mind-Killer. It’s not particularily powerful and it only drops from Mouthpiece, a boss players typically won’t farm.

16: Vosks Deathgrip. Fun in concept, but very clunky in execution whilst also not being powerful enough to remain usable on high Mayhem. It also is assigned to drop from Troy and noone likes farming Troy.

17: Baby Maker. Never was particularily usable due to the fact that it consumes an unholy amount of ammo on premature reloads. Died completely with the Tediore reload nerf.

18: Gunerang. Just not very good. Whatever usability it had also got hit hard with the Tediore chuck nerf.

19: Creeping Death. Remarkably, one of those guns that were never ever good, even though it received a few buffs. Being corrosive-only hurts it quite a bit.

20: Polybius. Looks pretty, but deals hardly any damage.

21: Alchemist. Weak. No reason to use it.

22: Juliet’s Dazzle. Fairly weak. Also, a semi-recent patch broke its drop location, meaning you can only get it from the Maliwan Takedown now.

23: ALL torgue pistols except the Moonfire and Roisens Thorns. I don’t think most people have ever even bothered using The Devastator, Breeder, Echo and Occultist, among other things because they have never received any buffs in spite of desperately needing them.

24: The Hive. Never got buffed, doesn’t world drop. Basically, there’s no reason to farm it over the Scourge or Plaguebearer that basically do the same. Needs some love.

25: Quadomizer. It’s pretty bad. Also, it should be moved back to the Rampager. It’s basically a Rampager attack, after all.

26: Tunguska. Bad, plz buff.

27: The Damned. It’s just not very good. I feel like it should be able to spawn with all of the different shield varieties that occur on Hyperion guns. Also, move it somewhere else. Agonizer’s Loot Pool is criminally overcrowded and the drop rate for an M10 Damned is just 5.7%

28: Lucian’s Call. Used to be kind of good when the game came out, but got powercrept badly. Needs either a significant damage or crit buff. Also, please improve the accuracy and give it a different drop source. Slaughterbosses are horrible to farm.

29: Ogre. Damage leaves some things to be desired. It would be neat if Accuracy and Projectile speed were improved.

30: Dictator. Got badly power-crept by the Monarch and buffed Star-Helix. Damage is far too low to keep up. Also, it’s basically un-farmable because it’s drop-rate is a mesely 1.2% from Agonizer.

31: Shredifier. Now, some people might disagree with me on that, but I honestly think it’s just not worth it. Besides, it drops from a Slaughter-Boss which makes getting the desirable Super Prefix really hard to get.

32: Jericho. It’s weak and difficult to use. I’m fairly certain the only people who actually use it are those looking to take advantage of it dealing friendly fire to troll their teammates or occasionally torment Ava.

33: Lyuda. It has been buffed and it’s kind of usable, but it still isn’t very good. In my opinion it should get a considerable increase in magazine size (20 being the new minimum) and it should get its original critical hit bonus back.

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As a player who uses them all at end game for mobbing, and has no qualms about adjusting the game difficulty to match a weapon’s softness, here are my takes:

Very usable - one of my mains, even at MM10.

Holy crap, this is one of my favorite Atlas ARs.

I do wish there was more of a difference between the Pain is Power and Embrace the Pain, but I just let off the trigger before my shield gets low, or my pet’s on Second Wind duty (FL4K is the only user here). Fuzzy Math really helps mitigate this if you can supply the crits.

This is still strong enough, no? Cryo Zane still considers it “overpowered” enough that I save it for harder fights.

…dang zillion-game weapon library; this hasn’t come up in rotation for so long, I kind of forgot what it’s like. :laughing:

If I’m going to main this weapon, I definitely need to turn down the modifiers. The shotgun mode on a fire version is alright, but yeah.

It’s in rotation for the sake of rotation; as you say, while it’s not on par with newer Hyperion shotties, it gets the job done.

Another SMG that I haven’t had in rotation for quite some time. This is the one that shoots the sideways pellets on hit?

It’s handy for excursions into areas thin on vending machines, especially given how soft it hits. I like the effect though, and adjust the difficulty accordingly (not really MM10 material, even for me).

It’s thirsty for ammo, but dang if it doesn’t work.

Some are softer than others to be sure, but they can all kill at some mayhem level (and most of their gimmicks are entertaining).

This has also not come up in rotation for some time (lots of Jakobs pistols in the library), but I have honestly not tried to use that gimmick to its full effect yet.

Oh dude, this is one of my favorite shotguns of all time, I love this gimmick. It won’t carry me through the Slaughter Shaft on its own merits, but Gearbox will nerf this weapon from my cold dead hands.

It’s alright - can kill, gimmick isn’t anything to write home about.

I have a fire and shock one… haven’t been on rotation in a while, but I do recall they were soft. If I’m hitting a lower difficulty level, these shotguns are usually in the mix.

I won’t say no when this comes up in rotation. I love their shockwave weapons, and this works. Not quite MM10 material (for what I’d like a shotgun to do), but not bottom tier either.

I love the gimmick though - the risk of whiffing entirely vs catching someone properly in that cryo net is very enjoyable for me. Haven’t gotten the knack of using the singularity in conjunction with it (since singularities in this game tend to sling enemies around instead of pegging them somewhere sometimes), but I enjoy this weapon.

Weird - this is one I bring out when I need to bring some pain. I mean, it’s not carrying me on a leisurely stroll through a slaughter, but it’s not a drag either.

Kind of the same, but it also hasn’t been on rotation in a while.

Yeah, this weapon is unusually soft (need to turn Mayhem off entirely for this, which is fine). I also still haven’t quite nailed its gimmick. I may force this one into rotation today to work on that, as I type this.

Its alright - is more satisfying a couple clicks down the mayhem menu.

Oh weird, I love using both of those (fine at MM11, too).

Ha ha! I just took the Occultist out yesterday at MM10, and it was rocking. I will concede the Girth Blaster elite though… I get that it’s a joke gun, and I can make it work, but I’m turning all the dials down for this one.

It’s been off rotation for so long, I almost forgot about it until Tarantella dropped a rad one. Coming soon!

It works, but I do treat it like an SMG and not a Heavy (like I expect to take a couple shots at the locals). Won’t say no to carrying it when I’m on lower mayhem levels.

This one’s alright? Rotation.

Man, I haven’t used this in quite some time. I don’t remember it being something to write home about, but nor do I remember it being unusable.

Still one of my favorites, with no need to drop the levels (and I love the gimmick).

Dang thing, it does hit soft, and Moze was throwing everything she had at it… constant stream of crits on the local trash, and it wasn’t moving the needle enough for me. Fun to shoot, but I’ll be turning down the mayhem next time it comes up.

Yeah, this still rocks for me.

I get that it’s soft, but I love sinking my teeth into that fire rate.

One of my heavy hitters… love that thing. (Not heavy like it’s going to clear a slaughter for me, but heavy like, “gonna polish off that entire mob in a shot” heavy).

Still top tier for me… it’s in a de-shielding role, and I have to be careful not to waste the enemies with it entirely to give the other weapons in her loadout a chance.

What would you say is the best Hyperion SMG (and shotgun that’s not a Face Puncher)? My Hyperion rep is built around melee, but sometimes she wants to take the other weapons out to play. She can snipe like a pro, but so much of the rest of the Hyperion library seems soft.

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I think these posts really highlight some of the scaling issues with mayhem. I run at level 2 pretty much exclusively because that’s my personal sweet spot. At that level,

  • Hellfire - hell yes!
  • Babymaker - double-up clone says watch Zane and I obliterate minibosses; Super Soldier helps with the ammo consumption.
  • Shredifier - the one I had was not inspiring, but I just got one with a SNTL anoint that looks promising
  • Polybius - love it
  • Lyuda - works great if you can control the climb when holding the trigger down

Also, I was wondering if @Adabiviak was going to show up as this list looked right up his alley!

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i used it on playing dirty zane before anointed damage was upped and everything went to ■■■■ resulting in m2.0 hell i thought this was one of the most fun set up pistols sort of mini spammable scourge (which was also part of my early playing dirty zane) eh good times from base jacobs ar’s i guess bekah is still better than rowans with 0 buffs to it’s name but it is far from m11 usability

Clairvoyance, son. But you’re overall right.

No, that one’s the Hyperfocus. Which also isn’t great but I’d say is more usable. The Crossroads shoots three projectiles in bursts. Used to be 4, but GBX nerfed it in 2019 and also reduced its accuracy to add some insult to injury, turning it from what was one of the top SMGs in the game at the time to one that could kind of handle lower Mayhem levels, struggled heavily on M4 (when it was released) and fell off completely when Mayhem 2.0 was added.

Depends a bit on your Setup. For Zane I’d say Redistributor or Smog (both have excellent synergy with his barrier), for Moze it would probably either be the Handsome Jackhammer or maybe the Proprietary license, though I haven’t used that thing in ages so it might have fallen off a bit.

For shotguns, there’s a lot of good options, again depending on your build.

Guardian Angel is great for all sorts of things, but just like the Facepuncher it’s more about weird interaction shenanigans that just using it as a gun.

Reflux is absolutely monstrous for mobbing.

Phebert I’ve heard good things about but haven’t gotten to drop for myself. Brainstormer is OK but just gets outperformed by the Reflux.

Conference Call and Convergence are both really good on Zane (Convergence is honestly quite good across the board though). If you have a terror setup, the Fearmonger is also really good.

If you go to check my post again, you’ll see that this was a list of only base game items, which is why I didn’t include all-time classics such as the Narp or the Blind Sage.

But yes, the Clairvoyance is really good.

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Nailed it, great list. Only ones im not in full agreement on are Shredifier and Juliets Dazzle which take some work but if built around can be quite good. Damned, Lucians, Ogre are all useable to an extent but still could definitely use some more damage imo.

I’d add The Warlord as well. It’s pretty good in Arms Race if you find one but it’s just not powerful enough for M10/11 especially compared to the rest of the Dahl AR lineup.

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Whoops…

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The Barrage and Warlord both desperately need buffs, no one uses them past story mode as far as I’ve seen. Also the Bitch SMG is irrelevant as heck, it’s essentially just a slightly better than purple Hyperion SMG at this point.

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The Linc did not even make it to this list, THAT is truly forsaken by devs and players

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You know, funny story: I was actually gonna put this on the list and then I got side-tracked and forgot about it. If they just fixed the anoint thing, it’d be a decent enough gun.

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I don’t think it needs any adjustment as i don’t think it needs a place at endgame. The gimmick is very useful on early levels before any SDUs upgrades and the damage is fine for normal mode. It’s a solid starter weapon and it fills that role well. If it’s damage you’re after there a many other alternatives both in early game and end game.

-The Occultist: definitely needs a second pass. It’s a really fun weapon and it’s a unique drop from one of the main bosses in the game. It used to have a place in my loadout along side roisen thorns, flakker and scourge back on release on my Moze. It’s absolutely forgotten.

There are a lot of Guns I wish could hold in higher Mayhem levels, such as the Carrier and the Hellfire.

But in the end, what comes to my mind is: how would it break the base game and casual players experience? BL3 is an already easy game, so scaling everything would Just make history mode/First playthrough trivial. It is already when you can get something like the Hellwalker or Krakatoa.

Maybe the answear could be loot pool by Mayhem levels, as we already have M4 and M6 only guns.

Like, see how many Dahl AR we have and the Kaos and Breath of the Dying outscale them ALL.

The Kaoson outscales every Dahl SMG. Who remembers the 9-Volt?

There is also the “problem” with guns having no synergy with skill trees in almost all cases. In BL2, as an example, Axton can make some guns work that other VH could not due to grenade Splash, like Maya with Reaper splash or Gaige with LBT and Shock Guns.

In BL3 the most important thing seems to be annoints. So a TG gun with a good annoint is just good with everyone.

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Dang it, I was hoping we might have been able to anoint the Linc manually at Earl’s station (like it just wasn’t dropping with an anointment, but it’s barred, like that “non-anointed” or whatever flag is still set. :confused:

Ah, the Blind Sage, my favorite “bad” gun in the game. It’s not even too far off and that’s what is such a shame about it …

Regarding the Breeder and the Occultist: Both are so far from usable by now, but their effects are so cool, that I literally farm for an Occultist each normal playthrough. Honestly, make that a strong monster of a gun and worthwhile dealing with it’s drawbacks and it would be a great gimmick-weapon, especially for Amara.

The Breeder was a cool idea, but it would need at least 30k damage to be worth using, but in that case it would be a cool weapon for Fl4k to combine with the gravity snare.

The Echo is another one of those forgotten Torgue pistols. If it dealt at least 20k damage per pellet it would be good enough already as a “stepping stone” type of gun. But I really love the gimmick.

The Alchemist is a weird one: The only reason you can even use it at Mayhem 6 and higher is it’s low damage, but if you buff it’s damage output you make it a suicide machine as it deals a bit of damage to you. Basically you’d have to not increase it’s self-damage while buffing it’s damage output to enemies. The same goes for most self-damage inflicting guns, they should just all have a hard cap on how much damage they can deal to the player or else buffing them would make them even less usable.

In general there are way too many guns in the game, especially those that only drop from a dedicated loot source, that could use a buff. Honestly, if Troy and Tyreen dropped some of the better base game gear (as in their current loot would be buffed to be actually worth farming) people wouldn’t even complain much about Troy anymore.

Check out today’s hotfix notes:

It’s almost like they were reading the OP… :open_mouth: Be interesting to see just how much of a boost that gives my Hellfire. Also, now I don’t feel so bad about keeping the Polybius and Crossroad I got recently. I’ll still have to test them, of course, but that’s all part of the fun!

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Alchemist is interesting since it shoots incendiary but the damage taken by player is shock. Pairs well with Transformer as a auto-healing gun. If buffed that synergy could be really good.

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Not sure how I feel about Tyreen here - she’s the last boss in the story, and once you beat her, Mayhem becomes accessible in the next 5 minutes, which makes her drops immediately obsolete IMHO (same with loot from the chest in Lilith room).

If they made Mayhem available in normal playthrough… That would be awesome.

Edit: this does not apply to TVHM, of course - but it’s kind of obsolete in BL3, I feel.

Well, her drops wouldn’t be obsolete, she would give a player just a headstart into Mayhem mode. If for example the B*tch was one of the best 10 SMGs in the game, a player could go from Mayhem 0 straight into Mayhem 5 or so and start out faster.

Yes, getting a strong weapon right before you start level and mayhem climbing would make that specific piece of gear obsolete rather fast, but it would also ease the player into the race to the top that is Level 65/M10. Also, it would give the player a direction to go to between level grinds, so that they could be stronger inclined to get into Borderlands 3’s endgame.

Obsolescence is the name of the game in most looter shooters and having that part positively “boosting” the player right when they finish the story would probably lead to a higher conversion into Mayhem mode.

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