Borderlands 2 [PS3, X360]

And they need to give us more inventory and/or bank space. I already have 2 characters that have almost not space left, and I really don't want to sell stuff that took me hours to get. Remembering where I put stuff and swapping items between characters is also getting tedious.

I'm trying to get a 3rd character to level 50, again not doing side missions so I can have the highest level mission items for when the raise the level cap. I'm playing as Gaige this time. She's pretty powerful, using the Little Big Trouble skilltree with a bit of luck I can shock, slag and burn enemies all at the same time.
 
I saw a YouTube video where Maya had all her skill trees maxed. OMG @ at the ease with which she could lay waste to enemies! I want some of that.
 
Badass rank is nice, but it's too little gain for the grinding effort. On the other hand, one point on the skill tree has a much more notable affect on the character's abilities.
 
If your BadAss Ranks are anything like mine, whenever you get a token to spend, you have 3 items that are absolutely worthless to you and 2 mediocre selections or if you're really lucky you'll get 1 mediocre selection and 1 selection of what you really want.
 
So it's a failed system then. I thought it sounded that way - there's no substitute for unlocking skills for a sense of progress in games.
 
I wouldn't say it's a failed system. It's just the improvements from increasing Badass rank are more subtle than what you would get from a skill point increase, and as BRiT says, a lot of time the available choices are mediocre.
 
I'd much rather see them give us new characters then increase the level cap. The level scaling is already pretty bad as it is. Just going from level 40 to 50 will see you health and damage increase by a factor of 3 to 4. All your weapons are useless within a few levels, and facing enemies just a few levels above you feels like running into a brick wall.

I like the badass points, but yeah it's a lot of work for little gain. I'm only getting +0.3% to one stat for everything above 10%. At least you still get points playing the games without specifically looking for them.
 
On it's own it's failed, but I view it more as a way of augmenting all of your characters since you have so few skill points to spend and there seems to be so few legendary items to use since the drop rate is obscenely low. It some cases I imagine they expect you to have so much already put into your BA ranks with the way the mobs are scaled.

In BL1 you had a sizable chance of getting Legendary drops from the big raid bosses, but in BL2 it's nearly impossible to get the good items. Some have farmed the big bosses in BL2 and only gotten 1 legendary item out of 50 runs.

The part of the system that isn't an all out fail is how it added some interesting challenges to keep you distracted while you play the game. They're not quite quests but they exist to be done. However once you've done the first and midway through the second playthroughs you're mostly done with all the challenges. The only way to re-earn BA tokens is to bring in a completely brand new character and start over.

The part that really has me ticked is how they have such a bullshit game-mechanic as the one raid-boss, Master Gee. I want to know what his raw stats are, cause I've seen 4.2 Million damage numbers roll off of him when he was down to just his health and the health bar didn't even move!
 
I would like to be able to completely max out a character's skill trees, if for no other reason than the joy of being insanely powerful. Forcing me to respec and compromise by choosing which skills I want (and thereby denying me others) is lame. Gearbox shouldn't dictate how I play the game.
 
So it's a failed system then. I thought it sounded that way - there's no substitute for unlocking skills for a sense of progress in games.

Baddass ranks were never meant to replace skills, and they don't in BL2. They are an addition to skills, allowing you to choose a small boost to various abilities. They actually replace the bonus ranks you got in BL1 by making kills with specific weapons, but you get to select what you want, rather than just getting preset bonuses based on the weapons you used.

So they are a little bonus, but not as good as skill unlocks, which is why we need a higher level cap and therefore get more points to put into the skill trees.

I would like to be able to completely max out a character's skill trees, if for no other reason than the joy of being insanely powerful. Forcing me to respec and compromise by choosing which skills I want (and thereby denying me others) is lame. Gearbox shouldn't dictate how I play the game.

Yes, I would love this. It's something to really work towards. One of the things I really liked about Kingdoms of Amalur was that you could max out the whole of a really big skill tree to make you a totally baddass character. You could have every skill from the Magic, Fighter or Thief tree, or a mixture of all three. Pure awesome. IIRC, it was something like 109 points to max out a skill tree.
 
Baddass ranks were never meant to replace skills, and they don't in BL2.
I know. See below -

I wouldn't say it's a failed system. It's just the improvements from increasing Badass rank are more subtle than what you would get from a skill point increase, and as BRiT says, a lot of time the available choices are mediocre.
As I understand it, Gearbox wanted a game that people would play over and over and over as a hobby, similar say to golf. One of the big appeals about BL over other FPSes is the inclusion of RPG like classes and levels, which are always a hugely addictive element for players. Those skills and rare loot drops are the carrots dangling from sticks that keep people playing over and over; I completed BL1 with all classes. I completed BGDA and CON and DSIII etc. with every class. I maxxed out every class in PuzzleQuest.

Now Gearbox's thinking was to provide value to replay over and above the finite set of skills, so they implemented an uncapped bonus system in Badass Rank. However, the rewards don't work like carrots on sticks attracting subsequent play from the sounds of it. As such, though a nice addition BAR doesn't work as a system of incentive to attract constant play. After you've maxxed out your character, the game hits a dead-end like every game. It's 'completed'. You can then play other characters, or DLC, but there's no 'unlimited replayability' in this game any more than any other.
 
There's no point in fighting Master Gee beyond for the sake of completion. And the same goes for Hyperius. They drop nothing good that you can't get anywhere else. Pyro Pete drops more Seraph crystals, and has a good chance to drop legendary items. He's also more fun to fight.
 
There's no point in fighting Master Gee beyond for the sake of completion. And the same goes for Hyperius. They drop nothing good that you can't get anywhere else. Pyro Pete drops more Seraph crystals, and has a good chance to drop legendary items. He's also more fun to fight.

I completely agree.

I'm just curious as to wtf they were thinking when including such a character as Master Gee. There's such a vast divide between normal play and this boss that it's not fun to fight him. I'm all for Raid bosses, but the entire time we were playing through the campaign there was never anything as insurmountable as that Sereph Guardian. They need better scaling. When fighting Master Gee with just 1 other player (Xarthna) at one point there were 15 sand worms. It's not fun at all and becomes just a load of bullshit.

The lock-ups when Master Gee dies doesn't help either for the fun factor.
 
I completely agree.

I'm just curious as to wtf they were thinking when including such a character as Master Gee. There's such a vast divide between normal play and this boss that it's not fun to fight him. I'm all for Raid bosses, but the entire time we were playing through the campaign there was never anything as insurmountable as that Sereph Guardian. They need better scaling. When fighting Master Gee with just 1 other player (Xarthna) at one point there were 15 sand worms. It's not fun at all and becomes just a load of bullshit.

The lock-ups when Master Gee dies doesn't help either for the fun factor.

Yeah, the Master Gee boss fight is just terrible. Suddenly the game introduces new rules unique to this boss fight, and it just takes forever to beat him. I've only managed to do it once together with a friend, and without it locking up on us. But also without him dropping any Seraph crystals.

The lock-ups should be fixed when the long overdue patch finally arrives.

Gearbox doesn't seem to want these Raid bosses to scale down with the number of players. There is even a bug that if you enter the level the DLC Raid bosses are in the game assumes you're playing the a 4 player game, and scales all of the enemies up accordingly. The game stays that way until you reload your game.
 
The patch is available now. It seems Gearbox really went ahead and ruined the Bee shield. I still managed to kill Terra solo before and after the patch with Gaige. But it was very close before he would have killed me, or I would have ran out ammo. I think Salvador is going to have a much easier time killing Terra alone.
 
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