pistols?

[I Kinda Fail]

I'm trying to play as Zer0 and having a somewhat harder time than I did with Mordecai. I just can't seem to find a good secondary weapon. (Aside from sniper, obviously)

I keep seeing people say pistols, but every pistol I find is either trash, or I'm just bad at them. Dunno.

I found an orange rarity shotgun with pretty high accuracy and zoom (Rustler's Strike, maybe?) that I typically use for hard to hit things like stalkers, and I have an electric SMG that explodes when I reload that I use for FFYL - the exploding gun almost always kills anything within melee distance.

I keep trying out different pistols for my 4th weapon and they just don't feel nearly as strong as they did in BL1. Every revolver I find either has terrible accuracy / no zoom, or no elemental damage. I was attacking a psycho less than 10 feet away from me and all 9 bullets in my revolver missed. Meanwhile, I'm CONSTANTLY finding decent looking repeaters, which were usually terrible in BL1. I've completely given up on revolvers at this point and just started swapping between fire/slag repeaters with zoom, as I can actually hit the enemy then.

Are revolvers meant to be this bad? Am I doing something completely wrong? I never missed this much in BL1 - I used my revolver more than my sniper as Mordecai. Are there any type / brand that I should be on the lookout for? Any tips at all?

[SunDrippedDevil]

I don't mind Jakobs revolvers with Iron Sights. I quite like them. They do take some getting used to.

My favorite kind of pistols are Vladof ones. They have awesome fire rates. The Anarchist, or the Troublemaker. They eventually grow up to be the Stinger, which is my favorite pistol in the whole game.

The Ladyfist is pretty awesome little Hyperion number too with +800% critical hit damage.

If you're looking for a masher like in BL1, then there's the Maggie, which is a mutually exclusive farmable drop with the Slagga SMG.

Maliwan pistols aren't too bad either.

Just don't use e-tech ones like Darts and Spikers.

[Femboi Jesus]

In this game Jakobs pistols are a bit like a weapon with a higher skill floor and cieling than others, it is harder to hit with them and they don't come with elementals, but once you get used to them they have some of the highest damage output (both per shot and in DPS) in the game as far as pistols go, some even challenging weapons like shotguns or snipers.

[I Kinda Fail]

I found a pretty good Hyperion repeater pistol thing. Has a zoom, 20 bullets per mag, and the increased accuracy helps land tons of crits. Not really what I wanted, but I still haven't found a revolver that feels right to me... This is a pretty good replacement. I'm mainly using it for trash enemies anyways; cleared out most of Lynchwood with it, including the dual with the Sheriff.

[gamename]

Why pistols? Could just have another sniper, and hipshot as needed. I like some pistols well enough, but if they're not agreeing with you now ... just skip 'em for a while, no?

FWIW - there are Tediore pistols ('splody, like the SMG youre using), and high-damage, bayoneted revolvers (Law). Also, Grog Nozzle, but that's a special case.

[Feli]

pistols to use with zero that I can think of ( ive only been hear since new years ): unkemp herold, bladed ruby to heal, law+order shiels ( obtined easily enough ) any jakobs revolver basically thats what Ive seen work anyways

[I Kinda Fail]

My sniper just runs out of ammo too fast. In BL1, I had a pistol with pretty good accuracy and a zoom. I used it to wipe out bandits and psychos in close distance, and the sniper was for enemies that couldn't get to me.

In BL2, my strategy is mainly:
- Sniper as much as possible,
- Shotgun with good accuracy when getting swarmed,
- Exploding electric SMG for FFYL
- Pistol for weak mid-distance enemies that would take 2-3 headshots from a sniper anyways, such as the rat guys and nomads

I'm considering swapping the exploding SMG with a corrosive rocket launcher... Dunno. On a related note, why does the FFYL timer go WAY faster sometimes? Like, usually it's about 15 seconds, but sometimes it's 8 or less.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

My sniper just runs out of ammo too fast. In BL1, I had a pistol with pretty good accuracy and a zoom. I used it to wipe out bandits and psychos in close distance, and the sniper was for enemies that couldn't get to me.

In BL2, my strategy is mainly:
- Sniper as much as possible,
- Shotgun with good accuracy when getting swarmed,
- Exploding electric SMG for FFYL
- Pistol for weak mid-distance enemies that would take 2-3 headshots from a sniper anyways, such as the rat guys and nomads

I'm considering swapping the exploding SMG with a corrosive rocket launcher... Dunno. On a related note, why does the FFYL timer go WAY faster sometimes? Like, usually it's about 15 seconds, but sometimes it's 8 or less.

When you go down consecutively, your fight for your life timer gets shorter and shorter. If you go down often enough in quick succession, you can just die instantly. It takes about 2 min to reset, outside of combat.

Sniper ammo is indeed the smallest pool, but I can understand why. They're devastating. I normally mitigate this with either a Sniper Ammo Stockpile Relic (random world drop, most efficient to farm via the train), or with a Blood of the Ancients with Sniper Ammo (far easier to farm from loot midgets). Even at end game, I don't feel the loss of DPS from not using a cooldown relic or a bone of the ancients with a pimpernel or lyuda. I usually need 1 - 2 shots to take out most enemies with slag, or 2 - 3 without.

Part of using your sniper ammo effectively is using each bullet to inflict maximum damage. Take advantage of deception, B0re, ambush, and/or Death mark/bl0ss0m whenever possible, always crit at often as possible. (Consistently hitting critical hits is a key element of playing a Sniper Zer0)

[Zen_Disaster]

Originally posted by gamename:

Why pistols? Could just have another sniper, and hipshot as needed.

Like SMGs and ARs, pistols are a practical consideration cos of their big clips. Hornet, ThunderballFist, Maggie, Stalker, Stinger, Grog & DPUH have all been damn useful pistols at times in BL2.

[gamename]

Well, yeah .. my point wasn't that pistols are bad, it was that if he's not doing well with them, he could use other things, at least for a while (AR, considering his response "weak mid-distance enemies").

Also, FWIW, revolvers don't have big clips. If I'm reading him right, he doesn't necessarily distinguish revolvers from other pistols, though. Just sayin ...

Sounds like he's got some good answers/perspective now, though.

Oh, also - maybe obvious, but OP can put your eridium towards greater sniper ammo capacity. That will help a little. I did a lot of that with my Zero.

[I Kinda Fail]

Well I was using revolvers just because I'm used to them from using Mordecai in BL1. I tried using a repeater several times but ehhh... It was a balance between strong and inaccurate revolvers, or weak and fast repeaters. I hated repeaters in BL1, but I found a Hyperion one with a zoom that I can get crits pretty easily on from a distance. I use my sniper for tougher stuff like loaders, shielded nomads, etc. but the pistol's good for bandits, psychos, skags - weaker stuff that rushes you, rather than shooting you. It got even better because one of the guys on here gave me an upgraded version of the Hyperion guy I was using, the Lady Fist... basically the same as my old pistol, but with an 800% bonus to crit damage.

I always had it set up so that my 4 guns were:
Long distance (sniper or AR)
Close combat (shotgun or SMG)
Fight For Your Life (rocket launcher or exploding weapon)
Weaker but decent to conserve ammo (pistol or SMG)

So I have a sniper for my main, and pistol for weaker stuff. The shotgun's for one-shotting stuff when I'm in Decepti0n.

[Zen_Disaster]

Originally posted by gamename:

Well, yeah .. my point wasn't that pistols are bad, it was that if he's not doing well with them, he could use other things, at least for a while (AR, considering his response "weak mid-distance enemies").

Also, FWIW, revolvers don't have big clips. If I'm reading him right, he doesn't necessarily distinguish revolvers from other pistols, though. Just sayin ...

Sounds like he's got some good answers/perspective now, though.

Oh, also - maybe obvious, but OP can put your eridium towards greater sniper ammo capacity. That will help a little. I did a lot of that with my Zero.

I didn't say pistols are bad. Revolvers are a type of Jakobs pistol in BL2 - it's a common error to refer to both interchangably. My guess is the OP is referring to the fundamental BL2 gun type pistols. The 6 pc's in BL2 can carry more pistol ammo than any other types of ammo aside from SMGs and ARs thus the use of pistols must be a practical consideration for the player.

[gamename]

"I didn't say pistols are bad"

I know. I don't think they're bad either. I said "Why pistols?" because in the OP, he said he's having trouble with them for now - and my point was just that he needn't force himself, and just to play with what works for him in a given situation. You responded to my "why pistols" in a way that made me think that you thought I was questioning the value of pistols in general.


OP, re your last post (#10) -

Yes, Lady Fist is nice. IIRC, it's a successor to a gun from BL1 called Lady Finger. There's a pretty detailed Wiki where you can look stuff like this up.

That meta-loadout ("set up so that my 4 guns were") sounds reasonable. You could also use AR in slot 4. I think I often used a second sniper, once I had enough sniper-ammo-cap (bought in Sanc with eridium), in my 'slot 4'. Once you get to UVHM, you'll probably keep a 'slag slot' (for me, slot 1) - regardless of weapon type.

[I Kinda Fail]

I do have a slag sniper that's slightly weaker than my corrosive one. I also have a fire sniper, but eh. Most stuff dies fast enough anyways. I killed the BNK-3R with a pistol, for example.

All the slag guns with decent stats I get seem to be... bad. I got one from Moxxi, think it was an SMG, that fired UP rather than forward, so I had to aim at the ground. I got another slag repeater which fired in an arc and was pretty inaccurate. The sniper's the best I've found so far, aside from a weak rocket launcher.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

I do have a slag sniper that's slightly weaker than my corrosive one. I also have a fire sniper, but eh. Most stuff dies fast enough anyways. I killed the BNK-3R with a pistol, for example.

All the slag guns with decent stats I get seem to be... bad. I got one from Moxxi, think it was an SMG, that fired UP rather than forward, so I had to aim at the ground. I got another slag repeater which fired in an arc and was pretty inaccurate. The sniper's the best I've found so far, aside from a weak rocket launcher.

For slag weapons, you honestly care most about the slag chance. You want to apply slag to the enemy, then switch to something else (preferably the correct element that they are vulnerable to) and hit them from the bonus damage.

[I Kinda Fail]

Yeah, and I do that, for tough enemies. But most stuff dies in a single headshot. :P