I’m thinking about using this skill in a nursing build, or a binder build, but how useful is it really?
I would put the Fleet points into Inertia and Flicker into Immolate.
Thoughtlock is awesome for Nursing in my opinion, especially in the peak. I would suggest to run a slag Slow Hand or Pimp to help with slagging as you can not get Ruin.
Quasar is a great grenade to have too.
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Word; edited both builds.
I’ve used Thoughtlock to great success (solo completion of Badass round at Murderlin’s Temple with it). But when it comes to co-op you have to consider whether your team wants a static target (Phaselock) or a moving target that draws aggro for the team (Thoughtlock). I’ve played with guys that have no problem with it but I think it’s best suited for close to mid range. In other words, don’t use it with teammates that play back and shoot who base their game on precision unless they are a sharpshooter.
But what it does is net you four seconds more of aggro relief and more time for Sweet Release+Sub-Sequence chains and Elated uptime in your nursing build.
Personally I always favored Ruin+Sub-Sequence even in nursing builds. Something like this with Legendary Binder maintains your DPS while allowing you to proc an ungodly number of Sweet Release orbs for the team.
Edit: Most definitely take Sub-Sequence because teammates will kill the Thoughtlocked enemy and there goes everyones healing.
I thought that Thoughtlocked enemies can’t be hurt until it’s over?
Nope. That was fixed a loooooong time ago. Same with the Restoration bug healing them.
Hmm, interesting. Before this year I hadn’t played BL2 for a long time. In fact, I didn’t even know about the forums until TPS was coming out lol. It’s safe to say that I’m a bit out of the loop.
I wrote a guide on it on the old forums but the link is busted. There are a lot of little intricacies with it. Just a few tips off the top of my head: It won’t show up on radar since the game considers the TL enemy an ally, homing stuff won’t track it, and Chain Reaction does not proc when you shoot it, however, it will when you shoot another enemy while TL is active.
I’ve seen them be unaffected by the Storm Front, so I’d be careful about using AoE grenades on a Thoughtlocked enemy.
[quote=“David_Ayy, post:1, topic:511643”]but how useful is it really?[/quote]Dude… Thoughtlock is (and I like to think I use this term sparingly) epic. As was mentioned above, using it with Sub Sequence is better,and if you’re playing co op, make sure your team knows what’s up. Really, just try it. Like bring it to Caustic Caverns, drop down to Dahl’s Deep Core 6, and step into the spiderants’ nest. Don’t be shy: run out there and get a bunch of them spawned at once and give it a spin. Once Thoughtlocked, they’ll be closing distance themselves, and Converge will be doing this too, allowing you to pretty much fire into the seething mass of confused spiderants. When they’re mashed together like this, Sub Sequence has a much easier and faster time re-acquiring a target, Chain Reaction has a much better chance to hit a target (since they’re close together), Ruin will be applying slag (and everything else) to the entire mass, and even Cloud Kill will at least be applying its status to, well, everything in there. If you’re feeling frisky and aren’t using self-damaging weaponry, go stand next to them and throw a little Blight Phoenix on them.
When starting, I’ll often pick my starter enemy, weaken it quite a bit, then Thoughtlock it. I’m talking so weak that Ruin will actually finish it off, so I get two Converges in a row (with the second, immediate Sub Sequence).
I’d use it in a binder build not really a nursing one. When you nurse you wanna actually help your teammates kill stuff and get seconds winds by making a target stand still.
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I think anything that can’t be Phaselocked also can’t be Thoughtlocked (most bosses, vehicles, threshers/worms, UBA varkids, and some goliath variations)
Correct
Actually, how about young threshers? Since they can jump out of the ground…
Nope, sorry
Rats!
…lol see what I did there?
Yes. 
Note that ruin and converge will still work, but other Phaselock dependent skills like chain reaction will not.
With Threshers (and other un-Phaselockable critters), the cooldown is way faster but Ruin still gets applied. Free slag!
Converge also happens but it just can’t pull threshers, if you phaselock the foreman for example and others are around him they will get pulled in.
4 Thoughtlock Mayas running the Peak/Arena is a lot of fun. I enjoy it more when there are other Maya’s to play with.