Level 72 character with level 50 gear in TVHM

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

This post over here reminded me of a new idea I had for enjoying Borderlands 2. But I thought I’d ask to see what people thought.

Basically, if I take one of my level 72 guys and drop all his stuff. And then go back to TVHM and grab level 50 gear, how OP would he really be? Would the level 50 enemies be able to hurt me? Would I still be killing stuff too quick, even with level 50 weapons?

My goal is to enjoy a more casual BL2 (no health regen because not UVHM) and still have the benefit of all the available skill points.

Obvious con: no way to reset TVHM

But I can still enjoy running any map and doing any dlc I missed. And I could more casually solo the raids I expect. And in a pinch I could equip some high end gear in order to p0wn something that’s in the way, or perhaps farm.

What we definitely needed for BL2 was a way to have some more freedom with gameplay settings. For example, the health regen in UVHM could have been a gameplay modifier set by the host.

And the endgame gets weird for me. Almost a chicken and the egg problem. I want to be max level before I start focusing too much on farming for gear. But to get there it would be easier to have excellent gear along the way. So do I farm every 3 levels? Do I just use golden keys for purples every couple levels. Then when I’m max level the only way to really improve is badass points, better gear, and player skill (realizing as a player when you should do certain things and getting better at aiming, etc…). Badass points have their own issue I won’t get into here. I have pretty decent player skill and it’s hard to get much better there.

Better gear is often how you get better gear faster, so it’s always very tempting to grab stuff when people join your session and drop all their loot. But once you grab that loot it’s almost like your appetite is spoiled and my interest starts to stall. Even though there’s all kinds of unfinished goals I still have. My point in the loot stuff is that maybe it’s better to not grab all the loot people drop. It’s probably better to earn your own drops.

In any case I think I might try a level 72 in a level 50 environment.

edit: It’s fun. Level 72 character with level 50 gear in TVHM

Continuing the discussion from Borderlands 1 remastered / port to new gen:

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#2

You would take major damage reduction from enemies so you would be a bullet sponge to mobs and badasses. Raid bosses would be some relaxed fun with all level 50 gear.

I’ve tried this before and it was pretty fun.

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#3

There’s probably exceptions to this. Such as: “I just spent 30 to 60 minutes farming something and X didn’t drop” or “it dropped but it was the wrong element”. I say go ahead and pick up someone else’s dropped copy at that point. You earned it.

#4

I do this, but find that I get way more flexibility with the OP levels. Here’s the scoop:

Get your character to OP8 first, then park it at, say, OP3 (which is where I do). Re-acquire your gear set at some middle level (say OP3). For an easier fight, drop down OP levels until you’re comfortable (or for a harder fight, go up OP levels). This lets you choose your difficulty on the fly. If you need even more “nerf” to be comfortable tooling around in UVHM like that, get your gear at like OP6 (and you have six levels of slightly easier gameplay). Your maximum nerf will be 8 OP levels, which should be plenty (but doesn’t leave room for weapon buffing).

Weapon buffing (this is my favorite part) - with a mid-range gear set, you can “buff” weapons by including them from a higher level. I love the Retcher, for example, but to give it damage on par with my other OP3 stuff, It needs to be OP8. Wish e-tech gear could still kill things? Buff it as needed by adding it to your library at a high enough level. Wish nova or spike shields could actually damage things (or at least tank more than like one or two bullets)? Bring them in at a higher level. You can also nerf gear if you somehow think something needs it. Personally, I only nerf the Bee because I like the gameplay mechanic and risk/reward for using it, but it’s a little too powerful to be fun (everything dies too fast). Mine’s like level 68 in an OP3 library, which puts its damage at half the value of my best regular amp shield, and makes it really soft.

Once you have this library of gear (with your mix of higher and lower level gear), you can then choose different difficulty levels every time you start your game by choosing your OP level.

Seriously - I don’t imagine another first-person shooter will come up with a better, more granular and on-the-fly “difficulty slider” than this in my lifetime. I’m slightly concerned that too many people wandered into UVHM2 and got mad when their expectation of a slight rise in difficulty would up being a swift kick in the nuts, which then left Gearbox with a sour taste in their mouth given all the subsequent complaining, and may abandon this in future games. It’s really a brilliant system.

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#5

Well said man I know people that do this and don’t know why its not a more popular topic with so many complaints about difficulty choosing 8+ custom levels between switching gear and op levels I’ve always thought was great. Op8 in Op0 feels much like TVHM maybe easier because of all the skills.

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#6

When I farm for eriduim for the mules on my main account I use a level 50 Maya from my alt account in normal mode vs. the Ancient Dragons of Destruction. Using a level 49 Infinity it usually takes about 5 minutes from start to finish, which includes loading the game. The 15 level difference makes it easy to level the mules as well as growing their backpack and bank… :sunglasses:

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#7

I think you’ll find it pretty easy. After all, you do have an extra 22 levels of health. I don’t think you’ll actually see a massive benefit from the skill points, though. You probably wont die, but enemies wont die too quickly, assuming all your gear is lvl 50.

#8

I’ve thought of doing this very thing, but then I don’t get rewarded with acceptable loot. For example, if I’m in OP 0, fighting stuff (using OP 4 gear), then I’ll still only get OP 0 loot drops. Meaning most loot will be junk.

Whereas, if I’m fighting in TVHM at level 50 (using level 50 gear), then I’ll get level 50 loot. Which is comparable to what I’m using at that moment.

Second problem, if I want to avoid health regen in UVHM I can’t at that point. I can deal with UVHM at all levels and with all characters but right now I’m more interested in trying something like my Original Post, because of various reasons, perhaps mostly the casual feel/sound of it. It harkens back to posts about how players wished for a TVHM that scaled higher than 50.

Thirdly, if I’m counting on my action skill being more powerful than usual, then I’d also want to be in level 50.

Conversely, I have been thinking about how OP Maya’s action probably is at level 50. Krieg probably as well. Zero’s melee definitely. Axton and Gaige’s action skills most likely too. Sal, is always OP. But a potential/partial solution is to be more experimental in skill selection. Less optimized to maxmize DPS. Or for Sal to use dual machine guns instead of the best level 50 gear.

Still though, the most controlled action skill is Zero. So I think he’s the character I’ll try this with. And his action skill will mostly just multiply the power of the gear at level.

Other thought, it may be useful to use no shield or less than level 50 gear so the enemies can be more effective.

Recently I played some normal mode stuff with a level 72 character. To make the fight more fair than not I started to use only gear I picked up around that level. Interestingly enough it wasn’t too OP. So I’ll try my level 50 experiment next.

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#9

You could also try respecing to just level 50 as far as skill points go- it might have the same effect…

#10

[quote=“Matrixneo42, post:8, topic:476052”]I’ve thought of doing this very thing, but then I don’t get rewarded with acceptable loot. For example, if I’m in OP 0, fighting stuff (using OP 4 gear), then I’ll still only get OP 0 loot drops. Meaning most loot will be junk.[/quote]Very true: I wouldn’t recommend it for someone driven by finding loot (although I still dig having rare items drop even though all I do is sell them). It’s mostly a way to get the most enjoyment out of the combat.

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#11

Tried it a little this morning. Seemed decently fun. Melee was obscene of course. But I was specced into it and playing as Zero. My gun damage was right on target. What will be fun for sure is fighting the raids this way.

I might try it with other classes too, even Sal, but specced into other stuff for once (maybe even the far right tree) or something else besides Unkempt Harolds.

edit:
Played it some more. Health regen is needed! I have removed/quoted my silly part of this post about it. I’ve been playing the Hammerlock DLC. Highly suitable and still difficult for this experiment. The enemies, such as the shamans, tend to be just as tough. Plus there are dudes with wooden shields who block melee frequently/easily. The boss was actually a fair fight. And the raid boss still wasn’t. So I used my remaining level 72 gun to solo the raid (keeping that one as a backup). Even then I was struggling! But keep in mind I wasn’t using a bee shield or any legendaries in fact. Melee wasn’t as strong here, but it’s a heated fight and I didn’t always do the optimal thing. I’ll try daddy long legs raid next.

Melee against regular guys is very powerful this way. Combo of being higher level, I suspect, being built into impressive melee damage, and being zero in general.

As I’m specced into bore and crit damage boosts, those tend to do extreme damage.

Shield, I pretty much didn’t use a shield and that made it more fun. Including the need to health regen. But I did that mostly with my action skill, melee hits, and health vials.

Generally I feel like a badass but not invulnerable. I do wish I could have taken down that raid with level 50 gear. But I was solo and it’s kind of an unfair fight. You realize how much damage he does to player health and how little you damage you do with at level weapons? It’d be nice if I could include the raids in my loot loop. I’ll revisit him once I have earned some level 50 legendaries.

By loot loop I mean that, while still using only level 50 gear, I go get loot from whatever, kill the raid earn more level 50 gear, fight something else, come back again for more. Right now I have to use outside variables (my higher level and my level 72 gun) to beat him. Which means that next time I face him, it might not be any better as I’m trying to use level 50 stuff.

Relic. I’ve debated whether or not I should restrict myself to level 50 relics only. For now I’m using the vault hunter relic.

Class mod. Same as relics. wondering if I should allow the higher level ones.

For both I think I will stay in level 50 gear so that I can enjoy looking for those too.

I might decide to spec out of health regen skills as I don’t need that very much here. Didn’t even need to think about moxxi weapons.

#12

Taking a 72 lvl toon into tvhm is thus:

base weapon damage is on level, but all skills are scaled to 72.

Here’s a demonstration. Enjoy! :smile:

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#13

Level 72 zero with level 50 gear VS Invincible Son of Cramerax the Invincible equals a fun fight. Decently rewarding. Bunch of purples drop. I also used a level 50 shield. Health was certainly an issue (both keeping mine up and trying to get his down). The minions provided a great way to get back up when I fell. My melee damage might be a little OP to him. Sometimes I seemed to land a massive melee hit. Other times, not so much. I still wish raid bosses in BL2 dropped random legendaries more frequently.

So I’ll likely try out the other headhunter packs this way.