So for my entire 400+ hours Borderlands career I’ve always carried a gun for each major element. In Borderlands one I always had fire/shock/acid and a non-elemental weapon. In BL2 I carry slag/fire/shock/acid. In BL TPS I’ve been carrying Cryo/fire/shock/acid because I’m playing Aurelia. Now I’ve always played Sirens in the past 2 games so elemental effects were always relatively important. I think? Anyway now that I’m playing Aurelia and my build that I plan for is a sort of cryo sniper thing. (Seems to be the simplest build for her) My question is, since she’s primarily based around cryo damage so I use all cryo guns? Or should I still keep all of the elements on hand? I’ve always liked being able to switch to an acid weapon for an armored opponent or whatever. The problem is with this being a sniper build the switch time between sniper rifles is so huge it’s obnoxious to be swapping weapons often. Sorry for the rambling…any input would be nice.
I personally haven’t found elemental matching to be as important in TPS as in BL2 (not that this means you should skip this though, as it does reduce your damage output). I find Aurelia good with explosive weapons just because she’s already got so many of her own skills for freezing enemies, that the explosive weapons enjoy the anti-cryo buff.
I don’t think you’re playing wrong; cryo sniper rifles will do just fine with her. Have you tried her Custom Loads skill? I did for the first time last night… it’s weird, but it’s as close as you’re going to get to using a Cobra in this game (and it takes care of your quest for various elements without swapping weapons).
If you invest heavily into Aurelia’s cold money tree, your cryo damage can outperform element matching and even the cryo-explosive bonus, as seen here.
On other classes, it’s a bit different. On claptrap, you’d mostly just need cryo and explosive due to all his explosive buffs. On Athena, you can do with just shock and fire. Nisha can do just fine with non-elemental, maybe aided by cryo. Wilhelm and Jack can carry any combination of elements, whichever suits your play style most.
Also remember that fire is not as useful when you’re in vacuum.
Personally, I try to be carrying at least one item in each element, but I may have multiple weapons of the same element equipped at any moment in time. That’s partly situational, and partly “Oh crap I just left my only shock weapon in the stash”.
(That actually happened last night - helping a friend with “Bestest Story” and got into the arena only to realise that I had no shock weapons at all! Did the whole fight with cryo/explosive/corrosive as that’s all I had on me)
I do an element per slot as well. But since corrosive is the least important in TPS, I often replace that element in my loadout with explosive. Right now I have an Ornery Moonface there. Works great on the big guys and the frozen.
Always keep an explosive weapon handy. Only one or two of your weapons needs to be cryo.
I have literally NEVER used explosive weapons in any BL games. I guess maybe I should try comboing cryo/explosive and leave out the others given that my cryo damage will out damage other elements anyway and explosive can shatter the freezes?
Also yea corrosive does seem really week in this game. Is there a reason for that?
Yes, explosive has incredible multipliers when frozen. Corrosive has significant multipliers less than 1 against enemies who are not armor.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92639628/BLTPSElement.png
which is found in this post
H
TPS bascially abandoned the need for elements. Blands 2 UVHM it was necessary, not so much anymore. I just use the guns i enjoy in TPS
Would my typical play style be recommended for BL2 then? As I still play that game a fair bit. I’m on UVHM with a siren and get pretty screwed often so maybe my playstyle is the cause?
Take a look at the “100 ways to stay alive in UVHM” thread for starters, then head across to the section for your character and check out the community resources, particular the DDD skills guide. In UVHM you will die a lot more than you need to if your build isn’t setup well for the character and your playstyle. For actual weapons, slag+matched element is the way to go for any enemy, although you can apply slag via grenade or skill (where applicable) for greater flexibility.
Thanks for the help everyone. I’ll try and take some of the information into account when I play.
I do replace the incendiary weapon instead (with explosive or straight damage), on occasion. But I still find fire more generally useful than corrosive even in a vacuum. Lack of ignition does not mean lack of fire damage to fleshies.
I don’t typically use fire.
Basically what I do is this:
Explosive shotgun
Ice (SMG or Pistol)
Electric Sniper (I ONLY USE ELECTRIC WHEN IT COMES TO SNIPING.)
Ladies choice (This one is dependent on the area I am in and the enemies, Laser? Corrosive AR, etc.)
Homing Transfusion, preferably electric.
This has some benefits. I typically can go longer before I worry about running out of ammo as I can switch things around. I usually can cover just about any situation (far or up close).
I play as Claptrap which allows me to get explosive damage with any elemental type. I also use Hyperion Punch which gives me fire damage and coincidentally counts as a rocket launcher. I
also put points into Maniacal Laughter because I like the regen. My CL4-TP is a
beast!
I loaded out pretty similar for BL2, except I played as Gaige so replace the Ice with
Electric. I used to deal so much electrical/fire damage with her. And man the
Anarchy… whoo!
However, in this game I find I need to freeze and then use my explosive shotgun on the BA while playing UVHM.
I made a LVL 50 Baroness but haven’t really played with her. I did invest heavily in the center tree though.