How does Flicker work?

[Mordy]

If i have a gun that has 10% chance to ignite on hit, would the skill boost that 30%, so i would then have 13% chance to ignite on hit or is it flat 30% increase on top of whatever % is on the gun?

I am assuming it's the first option, but since there's no real way to tell in game, at least not that i've found..

[Renfrew]

It is possible to tell in-game. For whatever reason elemental effect chance boosted by Flicker will appear if you are examining another weapon on the ground or in a chest, in the item card that appears when you are comparing guns outside of your inventory.

But anyway you are right, it is the former option.

Weapon elemental effect chance * (1 + Flicker bonus)

[Mordy]

Wait, what?

So skills show boosted stats on guns/items on the ground but not in my inventory?

That's a bit backwards way of doing this but this being Gearbox game.. eh, thanks anyways, figured it was so but since couldn't tell figured it was best to ask.

[Renfrew]

Give me a minute, I will take a screenshot to better convey what I mean

[Renfrew]

Two identical weapons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2101160798

If I compare out of inventory
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2101160894

I put the following skills (to boost various stats - flicker obviously included):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2101161395

Now look at the comparison:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2101161174


This is considered a glitch, that only affects elemental effect chance, no other stats are affected. This is a unique property of Flicker and Badass rank (Badass rank was off when taking these screenshots, but you would see a similar results as speccing into Flicker).

Needless to say, this glitch can be quite deceiving if you don't have some knowledge of the game and elemental effect chances, as it can lead you to believe your weapon is superior to another due to this one stat.

[Casurin]

Originally posted by ꧁Renfrew꧂:

Needless to say, this glitch can be quite deceiving if you don't have some knowledge of the game and elemental effect chances, as it can lead you to believe your weapon is superior to another due to this one stat.

Funny that - in BL3 they have had nearly the exact same bug - but also showing on damage. Just that contrary to BL2 it was not useful as it was not universal - it happened for some skills, some weapons, some players and only some version of the game (i even saw it show different stats for 2 identical weapons when both where on the ground and the same when both picked up)

[Mordy]

Hm, interesting.

But looking at the gun in question, if the base proc chance becomes that high at endgame levels, then Flicker is pretty damn pointless and it'd be best to just skill something else.

Which i will be doing the next time i'll hop onto the Siren.. grab the largr clip size/reload speed instead since that actually has some use throughout the game. ^^

[Renfrew]

Flicker is not a useless skill.

1) This is just a demonstration of how Flicker is glitched.

2) Maliwan has the highest proc chance when compared to other manufacturers

3) The gun I used for demonstration purposes has PERFECT parts, and was spawned for the purposes of demonstration as I did not have any two identical guns. In other words, good luck farming anything even close to this.

4) Proc chance for slag is always higher than proc chance compared to other elements. If you were to get a sniper that is identical to the one shown, but shock, fire or corrosive instead of slag, then the proc chance would be 52.7% . This is a significant drop.

5) Snipers have the highest elemental effect chance out of all the gun types.

Assault Rifle: 6.0%
Shotgun: 8.0%
SMG: 10.0% - 18.7%
Pistol: 12.0% - 19.3%
Rocket Launcher: 20.0% - 31.9%
Sniper: 30.0% - 52.7%

Slag Assault Rifle: 9.0%
Slag Shotgun: 12.0%
Slag SMG: 15.0% - 28.1%
Slag pistol: 18.0% - 29.0%
Slag Rocket Launcher: 30.0% - 47.9%
Slag sniper: 45.0% - 79.1%

Weapons without variable elemental effect chance are weapons that Maliwan does not manufacture, hence Maliwan parts on grip or barrel increase elemental effect chance

This list does not factor in red text guns that have a different elemental effect chance from the norm (very few) and E-techs, because E-techs fundamentally change the way guns behave and as such are not a fair comparison (E-techs in general are quite awful and should be avoided apart from a few exceptions).

[Renfrew]

Oh yeah and before I forget if you plan to go all the way to the endgame at OP levels elemental effect chance (apart from slag, which is essential of course) is not too bad to have. This is because on UVHM enemies have health regen (apart from major bosses), and at OP10 enemies effectively have 65% damage reduction (70% for enemies that are level 91 and 75% for bosses and enemies that are 92). This makes any sort of elemental damage over time useful to COUNTER the health regen of enemies.

Edit:
Final note, at OP levels enemies also have reduced chance to have an elemental effect proc on them, so this means that a 79.1% slag sniper, just got a whole lot less impressive.

[Casurin]

Originally posted by ꧁Renfrew꧂:

Final note, at OP levels enemies also have reduced chance to have an elemental effect proc on them, so this means that a 79.1% slag sniper, just got a whole lot less impressive.

That is the most important one for elemental-chance and thus flicker.
The higher the difference in levels (this is not limited to OP levels) the lower the chance to apply an element.
At lower levels this even means there are enemies you can not afflict with an element at all, at the OP-levels your chance to apply an element are reduced by i think up to 60% !!!! So even a weapon with 150% chance would still not always apply the effect.

So even with a weapon with 70% chance - flicker is still worth it.

[Mordy]

Originally posted by ꧁Renfrew꧂:

Flicker is not a useless skill.

1) This is just a demonstration of how Flicker is glitched.

2) Maliwan has the highest proc chance when compared to other manufacturers

3) The gun I used for demonstration purposes has PERFECT parts, and was spawned for the purposes of demonstration as I did not have any two identical guns. In other words, good luck farming anything even close to this.

4) Proc chance for slag is always higher than proc chance compared to other elements. If you were to get a sniper that is identical to the one shown, but shock, fire or corrosive instead of slag, then the proc chance would be 52.7% . This is a significant drop.

5) Snipers have the highest elemental effect chance out of all the gun types.

Assault Rifle: 6.0%
Shotgun: 8.0%
SMG: 10.0% - 18.7%
Pistol: 12.0% - 19.3%
Rocket Launcher: 20.0% - 31.9%
Sniper: 30.0% - 52.7%

Slag Assault Rifle: 9.0%
Slag Shotgun: 12.0%
Slag SMG: 15.0% - 28.1%
Slag pistol: 18.0% - 29.0%
Slag Rocket Launcher: 30.0% - 47.9%
Slag sniper: 45.0% - 79.1%

Weapons without variable elemental effect chance are weapons that Maliwan does not manufacture, hence Maliwan parts on grip or barrel increase elemental effect chance

This list does not factor in red text guns that have a different elemental effect chance from the norm (very few) and E-techs, because E-techs fundamentally change the way guns behave and as such are not a fair comparison (E-techs in general are quite awful and should be avoided apart from a few exceptions).

Thanks for the very useful info..

And just hit level 13 the other day, so it's gonna be a very long time before i can start farming actually good guns or increase difficulty for better drops which would help, cos so far haven't found a single pick up worthy gun from the weapon chests.

Only saving grace so far been friend's golden keys, without those, would be using some white/green poop tube and wondering (even more so) why do i even bother with any of it.