Question About Class Mods- Really Confused

[Jackal]

So this is my second time playing this in the last 12 or so years. The first time I played I really didn't focus on it, but I need to understand something about class mods that are provided at a certain level that have zero use case as far as I can tell.

I'm running Maya right now- level 15 at the moment. I see a blue Lvl 14 "Plague Fox" Class Mod in a vending machine. It increases Reaper and Blight Phoenix skills by a certain amount. You start getting skill points at level 5 so now my character has a total of 11 skill points. Even if I were to dump every skill I have into the Cataclysm tree, I could only get to the 3rd tier. Reaper is 4th tier and Blight Phoenix is 5th. Completely useless to anyone, ever right? Is that just the luck of the draw in the game or am I missing some information here? I'm running BL2Fix and nothing else. Thanks!

[Nakos]

It's pretty rare to see a Blue Class Mod at level 15. Not impossible obviously, but still rare.

The skills you see are because of the Prefix.
A Hell Fox boosts Helios
A Cunning Fox boosts Reaper
A Plague Fox boosts Blight Phoenix

They're not very useful to you now, but they might be later, depending on what you find, and what you want to do.

I seldom use Fox class mods past the early game though. I'm much more likely to use a Cat or a Nurse during the mid game, and eventually look to find either a Legendary Siren or a Legendary Cat. Legendary Sirens can be found at quite low levels, although obviously, they're quite rare. Legendary Cats won't show up prior to the low 60s.

But ... basically, yes. The skills the mod is modding won't be accessible to you at lower levels, and by the time you get to higher levels, you'll likely have access to better mods. But still, sometimes lower level mods have better base stats, so you'll have to compare and contrast (depending on what you want to use). A Fox mod can be useful when you're fighting Bandits or animals, because they're susceptible to fire.


https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Class_Mod_(Borderlands_2)

[RMJ]

Been too many decades since I used Maya. I just use the "turret guy". Just build that weapon, nothing else. Find Torgue firearms, I am happy. So many replays.

[Jackal]

Originally posted by Nakos:

It's pretty rare to see a Blue Class Mod at level 15. Not impossible obviously, but still rare.

The skills you see are because of the Prefix.
A Hell Fox boosts Helios
A Cunning Fox boosts Reaper
A Plague Fox boosts Blight Phoenix

They're not very useful to you now, but they might be later, depending on what you find, and what you want to do.

I seldom use Fox class mods past the early game though. I'm much more likely to use a Cat or a Nurse during the mid game, and eventually look to find either a Legendary Siren or a Legendary Cat. Legendary Sirens can be found at quite low levels, although obviously, they're quite rare. Legendary Cats won't show up prior to the low 60s.

But ... basically, yes. The skills the mod is modding won't be accessible to you at lower levels, and by the time you get to higher levels, you'll likely have access to better mods. But still, sometimes lower level mods have better base stats, so you'll have to compare and contrast (depending on what you want to use). A Fox mod can be useful when you're fighting Bandits or animals, because they're susceptible to fire.


https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Class_Mod_(Borderlands_2)

Thanks for the explanation. Yes, I used that one as an explanation because I just saw it pop up, but there were several others that were similar. I'm switching between a cat and nurse mod currently, so I'm right there with you.

I just could see a new player being like wtf, why can't I even utilize the skills this mod brings if it's at /under my level? Seems like a waste of a player's time to put mods in that are like that. Obviously, it can be used at a higher level but by then, like you said, you probably have something that makes more sense.

[antisimetric]

you might not get another class mod for some time/ among all you find that might be the best. ultimately depends also on if you've already planned a skill investment on the character and the CM would fit the plan.

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Jackal:

I just could see a new player being like wtf, why can't I even utilize the skills this mod brings if it's at /under my level? Seems like a waste of a player's time to put mods in that are like that. Obviously, it can be used at a higher level but by then, like you said, you probably have something that makes more sense.

Mostly that's due to the nature of how loot is rolled up by the loot tables. There's a bunch of rolls to determine if something drops on kill (or when you open any container). There's roles to see whether or not a given successful roll is upgraded to the next rarity. (There are also restrictions that apply below a certain level, like ... SMGs aren't supposed to start dropping until about level 10, and Rocket Launchers are level 12, various things like that). Once a drop has been rolled, and the rarity has been determined, then the specifics of the drop are also rolled (each thing in the game has "parts" (although that's a bit more metaphorical in the case of class mods). The "parts" determine the name of the item. (So, a Torgue Shotgun with the prefix of "Fixating" or the name "Stalker" will always have a Jakobs barrel. Whereas a Torgue "Bangstick" would have a Tediore barrel, but both will be single shot with high accuracy (for a shotgun). A "Ravager" on the other hand, will have a Torgue quad barrel and will have low accuracy. Etc, etc).

So the randomness of the loot tables served you up a Blue class mod at a time prior to most of the skills being useful, but that's because of how the loot tables work. You mostly won't see a lot of class mods prior to 8-10ish and when you do see one, it'll mostly just be white. It's typically not until you get into the mid to late teens that you start to see green and blue class mods a lot.

You just got "lucky" with the loot rolls and rolled something extremely rare for your level. The loot table is meant to be useful through out the entire game, so ... doesn't really matter if it occasionally throws out something a bit too esoteric early on. You can always just sell whatever it is.

The game is a looter-shooter, it throws mountains of loot at you (much of which is junk in one form or another), you just happened to get a particularly gaudy piece of junk rather early on.