Is Zer0 supposed to be hard to play?

[I Kinda Fail]

I've beaten the game with Zer0 and started a new game, months later, with my friend who's new to the game. He's playing as Maya, speccing into a healer role, and low level Zer0 just feels so much less useful. Maybe it's because I'm used to playing him at a much higher level with more skill options like the kunai.

But it just feels like I'm lagging behind, despite having more experience. I'm getting consistent headshots, even on moving targets, but my friend still seems to be more useful than me as Maya.

Early game, Decepti0n really only feels useful for shotguns or melee... I don't feel confident enough lining up a sniper in such a short window, so I try to go for the guaranteed hit. Shotgun or sword to the back of the head. So I've been speccing into melee and alternating between sniping at distance, and rushing in to finish off low health baddies.

Now that I'm level 20ish, I swapped all my points into the center tree, because the weapon swap and reload speed is nice when alternating between shotgunning Decepti0n and corrosive SMGs for buzzards, Ambush gives a damage boost for my melee, Rising Sh0t gives bonuses to both. In a few levels, I'll get passive health regen from Innervate.

Right now, I'm at an area where I either want to snipe the loader bots, or use shock weapons for the stalkers. And it feels like I should swap to the Sniper tree for the crits and weapon swap bonuses.

Meanwhile, my friend has specced entirely into Maya's healing tree. He's got the one that sends out life orbs, shooting me to heal me, health regen during phaselock, and reviving from phaselocking a teammate. And yet he seems able to rush into the battlefield and kill more enemies than me.

Is Maya just that good? Is early Zer0 just that bad? I played through the campaign solo the first time and had no problem, and I'm having no problem now - but it feels like to get the most out of him, I have to keep respeccing my skills depending on what area I'm going to. Maybe I'm just overthinking it and shouldn't even bother respeccing between areas, but I just feel like I'm doing worse than a new player despite nailing consistent headshots and using Decepti0n's bonuses to take out strong enemies.

[GigaChad]

Maya is a gret class to play i like zer0 but too much (im bi) zero is grwat to going invible to hide somewhere to regain health but if maya was there she can just shoot at zer0 to regain health

[Draekus]

i run Sniper Zer0's. i don't generally use Deception until i've specced into B0re.
if you want your friend to really make you feel bad, have him re-spec down the Cataclysm tree.

[BubblestationCPH]

Hes not the easiest imho. Dont have a highlvl ZerO tho.

But Maya is borderline easymode imho. Not same as Sal, but she can still dominate the encounter and pull more in, where ZerO have to finish them in stages, a few at a time so to speak. It might give the appearnace of weakness but its more a matter of them playing differently.

[Nakos]

Maya's my personal favorite, but Zer0 is fine too.

Zer0 tends to be a bit more fragile early on, I find myself using a Survivor class mod most of the time at low levels.

Maya, Axton and Gaige all have ways to heal at low levels, which can make them seem much more resiliant.

Zer0 and Salvador rely on class mods ... and ... I just don't understand Krieg at all, so I can't really say much about him.


With Zer0, I tend to be more cautious, even early on, sniping from a distance, and using Decepti0n to break contact when I get in over my head, rather than offensively. If you're playing Co-op though, that may be less of an option.

[Gorgeous Freeman]

Originally posted by Nakos:

Maya's my personal favorite, but Zer0 is fine too.

Zer0 tends to be a bit more fragile early on, I find myself using a Survivor class mod most of the time at low levels.

Maya, Axton and Gaige all have ways to heal at low levels, which can make them seem much more resiliant.

Zer0 and Salvador rely on class mods ... and ... I just don't understand Krieg at all, so I can't really say much about him.


With Zer0, I tend to be more cautious, even early on, sniping from a distance, and using Decepti0n to break contact when I get in over my head, rather than offensively. If you're playing Co-op though, that may be less of an option.

Early game Krieg isn't particuarly exciting I found, I only used Buzz Axe Rampage if I knew I could get away with it, which wasn't often.

Once you get some levels and invest in some skills to further boost survivability, melee damage etc. he becomes a lot more interesting. I've only played melee Krieg with a minimal spec into Hellborn so I can't really say what using that's like.

[Zen_Disaster]

I've played a lot of BL2 spending at minimum 50 levels to UVHM with each of the six playable classes. At 50 UVHM I left four behind and chose to spend the time & effort building Maya & Zer0 up to max level 80 / OP8. So yes they were my certain two favorites in BL2. But this "Which Is Best?" business is something I could never relate to ~ I mean none are the "best classes for all players" ~ only one or two and it's pretty impossible to tell which one or two until you've spent at least SOME time playing all six. Similarly, I find them all about equivalent in difficulty with the sole exception of Sal who I'd found was much easier to score huge damage with fairly non~stop. For this reason when teaching my oldest grandkid the game, I had her try Sal first & she loved it so ... . Have fun

[Vats]

I'm trying to level up my Zer0 to level 72, but it's harder than doing it with Maya to me. I could handle the Bar Brawl mission with an DPUH many levels below the baseline with Maya, but with Zer0 I'm grinding for a new DPUH for every level I gain to have a reasonable chance to finish the mission.

One thing that I find is that Zer0 doesn't have a good instant damage skill like Phaselock. A Phaselock with a Grog Nozzle refills my life very easily and with a very short cooldown (Legendary Siren mod + cooldown reduction relic). My Zer0 has to count on Chain Lightning for healing and Decepti0n will not save him from impending doom, something that I miss from Lilith in Borderlands (panic button with invulnerability). He lacks healing skills until you are farther in the tree as well.

[HiTmAn]

zero is pretty good i play mostley chaotic zero.... i farm norfleet...dpuh.lyudas only strong gear antagonist... group up mobs with singularty trow decoy between them and use luncher snipeing is fun too with pimp.zero is hard for new players cz its bit squshy but once u learn him he is very strong

[Exploded_Armadillo]

In co-op Maya is will outshine pretty much every char imo. Salvador Obviously being the exception because facetank with grog or rubi..

Healer maya in co-op will still do adequate damage even early on making it easy to see your own faults, Especially as Zer0. his potential for massive damage makes him my favorite to play, but survivability doesnt really come until around halfway through tvhm withough specific farming.

[Habaduba]

Well... zero is preety easy, You preety much put the burden of tanking on your team and in solo he just one shots a lot of stuff and has a lot of good kill skills... He is good if you are starting, but I can imagine some good end game builds for him too.

[Bringoutyerded]

Originally posted by Vats:

...

One thing that I find is that Zer0 doesn't have a good instant damage skill like Phaselock.

...

Interesting take, since Zer0 is ALL about setup, timing, and massive instant damage.

Deception and Phase Lock are used completely differently.

[HEY]

I will never understand why people say zero is hard to play.

When I first bought the game, I decided to play the game as zero played almost the whole game as melee zero and it was alot of fun and after a certan level it became extremely easy. I will say he can be a bit booring to play at the start but once you level up to level 30+ he starts to get fun.
Played the whole game up to op8 solo with melee zero and switch to sniper zero for boss killing.

Imho zero is more of a solo charecter, he does not synergize well with most characters. One of the easiest examples is using the Love Thumper and killing your teammates with the novas.

[pork]

Zer0 is pretty useless in the beginning after u spec into melee it would be a lot of fun.