Advice needed: How do I make this feel like end game BL1?

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

I need some advice desperately for helping me regain my love for this series, so let me clarify the issue I’m having…

In the original Borderlands, once I had gotten up to the max difficulty, the game was challenging.
Once I got some of the better gears in the game, it became less so, but it was still fun and I could still die if I wasn’t careful, but I by no means felt weak.
If I faced off against something equal to my level, I had the gear and the skill needed to wreck it, and I didn’t need anything cheap or exploitative to do the job.

Now that I’m coming back to my old character in BL2 ( OP8 with at least 10% boosts in all BAR categories) after over 2 years in hiatus, I’ve come to realize that it just doesn’t feel the same.

The game makes a big deal out of telling the player they’re a bad-ass.
But unless I’m using slag, two turrets, and the Bee shield, I can empty a full clip of Skullmasher shots into an average OP8 bandit ravager, and his health will barely show a dent.

And in return, it takes him less than three trigger pulls to fully drain my shields and start eating into my health.
With what I can only assume is a white gun, since that’s all they seem to drop…

In the first BL, a similar attempt on an end game enemy with my best sniper would result in their heads exploding after two or three crits.

To be blunt, BL2 isn’t living up to its promises.
It’s not letting me feel like a bad-ass without playing dirty or going through a lot of additional preparations just to get my damage up to reasonable levels.
Even with Grit maxed and a Legendary Soldier COM, I’m spending more time in FFYL than running around killing stuff.

So I’m here to ask you guys, with all your experience, about how I can go about making this game feel like BL1.

Preferably, I’d like to know what level my BAR bonuses would need to be at, to honestly make me feel like a BL1 bad-ass again, or if not that, then any other general advice you can give me to tip the scales.

#2

Use your OP8 gear but lower the game to somewhere from OP0 and OP2. See how much that helps you.

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#3

I would do that, but then there would be no point in killing anything because any hope of getting better gears would die with the decrease in mode of difficulty.

I’m saving going back to lower difficulty modes as a sort of “I give up” last resort, because I’d like to revive the fun of BL1 without sacrificing my chances of finding new gear.

Hence my leaning towards BAR, or towards anything else that might help…

#4

Well, that not happening. BL2 was designed to be much harder than BL1 since one of the most common complaints about BL1 was that it was too easy at endgame. You either have to learn OP8, or lower the difficulty :/.

Since you mentioned turrets, try looking at some of the Axton guides, namely the DDD skills guide and Top Gear thread, and see if you can improve your build enough that you can enjoy this game.

#5

Pardon my ignorance, but…DDD?

I’ll look into the top gear thread, but since I’m rolling solo, I get the feeling a lot of raid bosses will be a no go for me, along with any gear mentioned connected to them. ( ie: Omen from the Dragons)

Also, any info given for my BAR question would be appreciated…

#6

If you’re playing for acquiring new, high-level weapons, you’re going to have to play at that level. Want OP8 drops? Gotta play OP8.

If you’re playing for the enjoyment of combat a la BL1, @ACNAero 's suggestion will fit the bill.

Here’s what I do (maybe this’ll work for you). I parked my OP8 characters at OP3 with a set of OP3 gear. I included shields from higher levels (so they can actually tank more than a shot or two, novas kill things, spike damage wrecks things, etc.), and included some guns from higher levels so they become viable again (e-tech weaponry is fun when the damage is on par with other weapons). Between my character’s OP8-ness, my shields’ return to defensive stats that I enjoy, and all weaponry in the game* being on the table, things couldn’t be better. The game is a comfortable romp through the Borderlands reminiscent of maybe TVHM (but I have a lot more skill points to play with, gear that’s leveled the way I think it should be, missions are resettable, and I get UVHM drop rates). If I’m feeling frisky, I’ll bump it to OP4 (in which my OP3+ gear set is noticeably weaker), or if I’m feeling lazy, I’ll drop it to OP2, and one-shot everything. The main thing is that I can change this difficulty on the fly. With this in mind, gear drops at around OP3 (my “level”), so if I didn’t already have everything I want (except for two elusive allegiance relics), weapon drops would be a working source.

*I found a niche for the Emperor and the Madhous! recently… the Tidal Wave is next on my list.

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#7
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#8

[quote=“smashbrolink, post:5, topic:495642”]Also, any info given for my BAR question would be appreciated…[/quote]I parked my BAR at an even 20% across the board, and stopped spending points. This gives me a comfortable, non-game-breaking buff if I leave it on. If your BAR is way beyond that, it may be useless? Still - 20% is just a nice round number that I picked with no rhyme or reason other than it wasn’t game-breaking… it may be different for your own preferences.

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#9

Of course, you could simply try the Wam Bam Island dlc with the Son of Crawmerex boss fight or go back and play BL1… :sunglasses:

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#10

Could you clarify what you mean when you called those OP3 gears a “working source”?
After going into OP8, I can’t imagine seeing OP3 gears as satisfactory, especially if I were hunting for something I wanted that I didn’t have yet…

#11

It stands for Dear Doctor Dumbass. It’s a series of threads @Blutfatal and a few others have made for most characters and loot.
For you other q’s in the first post, to be quite honest Bl2 wasn’t really designed to be easy late game (especially not the OP levels). In all honesty, you’ll likely need to switch your gear out to some other “staple” gear for a similar post BL1 main game feel.

If you’re willing to play as Krieg (or buy if you haven’t) he definitely has an easier time emulating the post BL1 game feel than Axton since his preferred/encouraged style is very strong and Krieg can be tanky if specced right (IIRC Bahroo did an entire playthrough on TVHM difficulty w/out gear). This isn’t to say Axton can’t do the same thing but it’ll be much tougher and require you to min/max your skills a lot so it could feel/look wrong (4/5 or 3/5 on ranger because otherwise it’ll push hp too high, etc.) but it will perform better.
For general help info, if you have access to the Torgue DLC getting a Slag Kitten definitely helps since it’ll slag stuff, heal you and be effective against 99% of Pandoran baddies. If you don’t I highly recommend speccing your turret to be a helper of sorts (example build).

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#12

It just means that this set of weapons I have is based around OP3: most of them are that level, some of them are higher, one is lower. When I bring in the Retcher from OP8, and include it with my OP3 gear set, it’s not one-shotting things: it’s doing the damage I expect a Seraph shotgun to do. An OP3 Retcher against OP3 enemies is much weaker than I think it should be.

When you play at OP3 with OP3 gear, it’s on par with the local enemies, since they scale to your level, so the combat is pretty typical for that level of UVHM. If you want a stiffer fight, select an OP4 game. Your character will still be OP8, but your gear will be under level by about one (which is noticeable). Select an OP5 or 6 game, and it’ll be distinctly more difficult. Playing OP8 with this OP3 gear would be, well, considerably more difficult than OP8 with OP8 gear, but that’s not what we’re after.

Hope that explains it?

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#13

Well enough, yes, and I appreciate your patience and answers.^_^.

At this point, it’s starting to look like my best option is going to be dialing the difficulty back down to lower levels, raising my bar instead of hunting for new gear, then going back into OP8 once my BAR bonuses can compensate for the ludicrously lop-sided scaling.

If I knew of any tricks to gain BAR tokens quick on PS3, I’d use it once or twice then slowly add tokens until things felt balanced again, but at this point I doubt such exploits even exist…

#14

I haven’t tried Kreig, but I just might, now, if he really can be played in that berserk kind of style.
I’ll also look into the kitten once I can find out what drops it, though I’ve specced into slag turrets so I dunno how far extra slag will take me…

#15

I think a look through the Axton section of the forums might help you find out what weapons and strategies work the best. There are a lot of great write-ups there that can give you an idea of what Axton is capable of.

Your problems could just be a matter of using gear or a build that’s inadequate for the task at hand. I’ve had instances when I thought a particular piece of gear was the best option, only to find out later that it was far from it. Sometimes, a simple change can make a big difference.

#16

He excels at that playstyle :smile_cat:
He does greatly love the Rough Rider shield (Sir Hammerlock DLC Jakobs Shield, has 0 capacity but increases max hp and grants a 10% damage reduction from all sources including yourself) so most builds try and abuse it but the Love Thumper can work well too but you’ll need to be mindful of barrels due to nova stuff.

[quote=“smashbrolink, post:14, topic:495642”]
I’ll also look into the kitten once I can find out what drops it, though I’ve specced into slag turrets so I dunno how far extra slag will take me…
[/quote]Kitten isn’t dropped unfortunately but rather a quest reward unfortunately.
Good news is it’s a fairly early mission so easy enough to farm via UVHM resetting playthrough if you don’t want to alt-tab or want multiple versions.

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#17

These threads appear,with some variation,from time to time. I believe it’s because of how the third play through is titled. Instead of Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode try calling it Very Hard mode. Then rename OP 8 as Insanely Hard mode.
Now here’s the basic question again;
“I’m playing on Insanely hard mode but I’m not enjoying it because it’s really hard.”
Well,of course it is. You cannot replicate the BL1 endgame experience at OP8 because it didn’t have that mode. At Op 8 the enemies are at least 8 levels above your character. That never happened in BL1.
Your best option is to play at level 72 or OP1 and start collecting gear again.

#18

20%. And it does come in very handy, especially with StV.

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#19

Hence why I asked about the BAR, which I feel could be a scale tipper.
One person in here has said they felt a boost somewhere around 20% was ideal for making the scaling feel better balanced, but what say you?

#20

I think a part of the equation is exploring your relationship with UVHM and the OP levels. What I mean is, looking at how you define the end game, and seeing how you may feel about different approaches.

Personally, I enjoy problem solving, and I’m a bit competetive. Knowing that it is possible to solo to OP8, I am driven to do so. It’s not enough for me to get to OP8, I relish the challenge of doing it solo. To that end, I work for current gear and enjoy working out my approaches to each area with various classes (currently Zero @ OP2, Salvador @ OP5, Maya @ OP5, Axton @ OP6). That is fun for me.

BUT… when I’m not doing Digistruct runs, I have a great time playing through the main game and expansions with gear matching whatever difficulty setting I go with. Playing on OP0 with level 72 gear is perfectly fine for me.

As far as weapons go, I use some of the mainstays like the Harold (not DPUH, I don’t like the consumption), Bee, Sand Hawk, Pimpernel, etc. I also use blue or purple Sniders, Anarchists, TMPs, Lascaux, blue or purple absorb or booster shields, all kinds of grenades, etc. People say the Infinity sucks, but I keep one on every class just for running around and shooting at piles, or cleaning up damaged enemies, flyers, etc.

One piece of game changing gear:
Magic Missile. blue or purple. Current level or not. It’s free slag, which enables me to have fun with a variety of weapons. I frequently run around with pistol-only stuff going on with any character, using things like the Gwen’s Head, just for fun.

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