Borderlands 2

Thanks for posting this.

My tentative plan for my Axton character (in the early to mid lvl 20 range at the moment) was to get to Scorched Earth in the Guerilla tree first and then go all the way through the survival tree. That would give me the Phalanx Shield for protection, lots of health and survival perks, and eventually 2 turrets simultaneously. Part of my rationale for this has been that I've heard that later in the game your turret can be destroyed very easily, minimizing the usefulness of the turret. I figured that two of them behind a shield plus lots of health/shield bonuses for Axton could be pretty dangerous. But I'm also considering how potent explosive weapons could be for Axton.

 

I'll go ahead and post my plans for lvl 50 Maya and Zer0.

http://www.bl2skills.com/siren.html#504501030001000000005405010551

I have posted something like this before, but I have more experience using this character now. I'm almost there with Maya. This build is build around elemental damage and Phaselock. You'll put elemental effects on everything within a pretty decent sized area with this, and the Phaselock cooldown is pretty short.

I go all the way through the Cataclysm tree first. Then I move to the Motion tree. Pick up two awesome survivability skills with Ward and Kinetic Reflection and then get Converge, which is a fantastic compliment to Helios, and Acid Cloud, and especially Ruin. It leads to widespread elemental effects on anything close to the Phaselock. Feel free to also lob a grenade at the Phaselock right after you use it. I use the grenades that break up into several child grenades. You have a free shot on a crowd with Converge, plus you'll add slag damage with Ruin.

I use the rest of my points to improve cooldown and duration of Phaselock. One or two points go into Sweet Release in the Harmony tree for a bit of extra health now and then. This is a terrific offensive-oriented build. It should be obvious enough that you want elemental weapons for Maya. I find the SMGs to be the most handy and frequently available, but just about any type of elemental weapon should work. I have found some fantastic elemental sniper rifles that I use all the time.



Now to Melee Zer0.

http://www.bl2skills.com/assassin.html#000000000005052124005050514501

This one is not hard to figure out how to set up if you are putting together a melee character. Pick the melee skills that suit you best (but get the kill skill Grim regardless of whatever else you want, as it gives you shield regen PLUS it cuts down your Deception cooldown by 7.5%) in the Bloodshed tree, then pick the right half of the Cunning tree. Pretty obvious. But regardless, the Bloodshed and right side of the Cunning tree blend together extremely well. You may not realize how dangerous a melee-focused Zer0 can be until you get pretty deep into the Bloodshed tree, but you'll be amazed at the amount of damage you can do in a single shot. Zer0 is incredible for finishing off a weakened boss/ mini-boss. Use a Deception with 5/5 Killing Bl0w. Even better with Execute and backstab skills.

The Many Must Fall skill can completely wipe out a crowd of lesser enemies. You can chain Deception attacks, and if you have the skills I picked to give you additional melee bonuses, you'll be killing enemy after enemy with one shot.

The weapon you're going to really need is the pistol The Law, which gives 100% melee damage. Don't worry about shooting things with it. It's doubles your melee damage even if it's a low level weapon. Equip this thing right before you use Deception and make sure you get behind your enemy before you strike. I usually try to keep at least one other bladed weapon in my inventory as well, but the main one you want is The Law for 100% melee damage.

At first glance, you might think this character looks too fragile, but keep in mind that in Deception you are invisible and are free to run between enemies. I have found that I usually die less frequently than friends using tank characters most of the time because I plan my Deceptions carefully and have a route to cover/escape in mind. If you're skilled with the Vanguard class and using Biotic Charge from Mass Effect 2 and 3, that could definitely help you as far as the strategy for using Deception. I think that's why it has been so easy to use for me.

When you start adding skills from the Cunning tree, your melee gets even more powerful. One skill alone gives you a chance to do an extra 250% melee in one strike. Stack that with all the other bonuses I recommended, and you'll cause some massive melee damage, especially through Deception. You'll also pick up an additional 20% backstab damage (via Ambush) on top of the massive bonuses you've already acquired. I included some survivability skills that add health through melee and Deception to help keep Zer0 alive (Resurgence, Innervate) in case you get in trouble. As with the Vanguard and Biotic Charges in Mass Effect, it's a good idea to try to pick of isolated enemies that stray from the crowd and use cover. I throw out the decoy from cover and then circle around for backstabs. This character is really quite a bit of fun to use and can also be a great asset to a party for landing massive one-shot damage on the stronger enemies, especially the finishing blow.

 

Hmm, you're really tempting me to create a melee zer0 like I've always wanted. I may just stick to salvador just to torture myself though.

I have a high level purple sentry engineer class mod you can have if you ever get around to leveling up your Axton.

 

I'm finding that melee is a lot harder to use in playthrough 2 and getting up close to certain enemies is just a pain.

 

Bloodshed is overpowered for the first playthrough. I may make adjustments later if I struggle with the second time around. However, I've seen a guy kill Terramorphous primarily relying on melee, so it is certainly possible to use against tougher enemies.

I'm curious to see how effective a melee Zer0 can be if the level cap is raised to the point that it allows me to access both Many Must Fall and Death Bl0ss0m so I can also throw in some kunai between strikes.

Are you using the Cunning or Bloodshed tree more for True Vault Hunter mode?

 

I've specced to the bottom of cunning for the kunai, but I always forget to use them.

 

SHIFT code from a Mr Torgue

PS3 - KTKJB-3CX5B-3CWK3-ZBCJJ-JJZ9T
PC - CTWTB-JTBW5-KFTTT-JTB33-JTBWB


Also the new DLC, Torgue's Campaign of Carnage looks like it's out on the 20th/21st

 

Keep an eye on this page for new shift codes.

http://orcz.com/Borderlands_2:_Golden_Key#Latest_Shift_Codes

The xbox ones seem to last longest, whether it's fewer player due to the glitches or because it requires Gold.

 

that's interesting because at the beginning when pitchford was releasing them, it was always the pc, then xbox, then ps3 to go out. I assume it could be quite a few things. the crowd who's subscribed to live gold has migrated to black ops 2. or the borderlands 2 market for x360 hasnt grown much so most players are already at level cap with multiple characters which makes golden keys useless.

 

more gaiety in Borderlands. One of the missions in Torgues something or other has a man tell us his husband has been turned into a skag with a red scarf.

This game is getting fruitier than grim's socks.



HMMMMMM

 

Just discovered a way to get infinite gold keys if you have the preorder code.

Since it gives you one gold key to start with, if you head to sanctuary as a character that you don't want to use the key with, then join as the character you do want to use the key with, so that they're the second player.

The second player won't have access to your actual collection of gold keys, instead they have the one that is gifted to all of your new characters. Then you can use it, grab the stuff, quit out, join again and repeat. You'll always have that one key.

It's a bit tedious but it works

SHIFT codes incoming this weekend on Twitter and Facebook @ Friday 00:00, Saturday 05.00, 11.00 17.00 and 21.00 GMT.

Last time the codes were different on FB and Twitter so you could bag yourself 10 keys, exclamation mark.