Basic Class Guide for new players

[Vapid Actions]

Basic Class Guide for new players

New to Borderlands two and not sure who you want to take to the end game? Scared of investing time into a class that you might eventually find out doesn't work the way you wanted? Here's a very basic rundown on each of the classes.

References

• Normal Mode: This is the first play through. The class you chose will have little impact on this play through, and you will rarely if ever have difficulty when fighting the same level opponents
  
• TVHM: True Vault Hunter mode. This is the second play through, usually levels 32-50. Your class starts to matter here, and your abilities now more well defined with more skill points start to force your playstyle to the class'
  
• UVHM: Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. This is the third play through, levels 50-61/72. Your class really matters here. You have to start playing to your classes strengths, or you will die... a lot. Slag is also pretty much a necessity to kill anything. If you're not applying slag, you're going to have a bad time.
  
• Overpower levels: This comes with the second Vault Hunter level pack, and includes levels 62-72. Once you get to level 72, you can go to Digistruct peak, and complete the quest there to unlock an "Overpower level", which basically means all enemies will be 1 level higher than normal. That boss is level 74 in UVHM? Now level 75 in OP1, 76 in OP2 gaining resistances to your damage, and dealing more damage to you. There is a total of 8 overpower levels. Digistruct peak is not to be taken lightly. It requires high competency with your class, and often multiple players at higher OP levels.

Salvador : The Gunzerker

Salvador is a great starter character. Very tanky, and his action skill is honestly "overpowered". Most veteran players consider Salvador to be a "newbie" type character since he's so powerful, but there's nothing wrong with having a little fun. The main thing to be aware of with Salvador is when you use your action skill to equip two guns at the same time, both guns gain the properties of the other. So if you have a sniper rifle in one hand, the gun in the other hand will gain the bonus critical damage. Making use of inconceivable and money shot is key to ludicrous damage (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QvRrGuzO-o) Because of his action skill, Salvador can also equip a 'Moxie' weapon in one hand (which offers % damage dealt as healing) in one hand, and a high dps weapon in the other to constantly heal tons of health.

Axton : The Commando

Axton is usually considered to be the 'worst' class in Borderlands 2. He has very few abilities to increase his damage output, and little to no survivability. His turret also doesn't scale well into UVHM. He can certainly be fun through normal and TVHM, but has a hard time in UVHM and overpower levels. That being said UVHM and OP levels are not impossible, just difficult. His highest damage build is a Tediore reload build where basically you abuse Tediore reloads to fire one shot, then throw the gun at the enemy for damage based on the remaining clip, and rapidly repeat with Axton's super fast reload speed.

Zero : The Assasin

Zero... Is an odd one. He excels at melee and sniping. With his skill B0re, Zero is capable of "cheesing" or abusing the skill mechanics to easily kill or even oneshot bosses that are meant to be very hard. However this is very specific use. For most fights Zero is a fairly hard character to play, due to lack of health recouperation, but unlike Axton is capable of very high damage. Your main combat technique is going to be to use your active ability to get into position, throw kunai for bonus damage, then open up on the target before going back into stealth to reposition. Tricky, but can be very fun once you get it down.

Maya : The Siren

Maya is #1 MVP when it comes to playing with other people. She can heal, she can revive at a distance, she offers crowd control, what more could you want? The downside to this is her personal damage outside of a couple of very specific builds is not as high as other classes. You'll focus mainly on skirting combat, and using your crowd control in combination with high rate of fire weapons to quickly take an enemy or two out before hiding to recover. While Zero does excel at sniping, Maya is actually the best 'reliable' sniper. Zero only surpasses Maya after he gains several stacks of "Critical Ascension" which wear off over time. That being said, Borderlands 2 is not a sniper simulator, you won't be hiding in cover taking precise shots unnoticed. It is very fast paced.

Gaige : The Mechromancer (Requires Pre-order bonus - comes with GOTY)

Aha, Gaige. Gaige is hilarity bottled ready to ship. To understand Gaige is to understand her main skill "Anarchy". Pretty much no matter what build you go with, you're going to be using Anarchy. Basically, each time you kill an enemy, or fully empty a clip and reload (in combat), you gain a stack of Anarchy. Reload prematurely though, and all your stacks are gone. For each stack you have, you deal increased damage, but lose accuracy. Eventually, when you get up to 600 stacks (the absolute max with class mods), your accuracy will be so low you will be shooting everywhere at once; literally even be shooting behind you. However in combination with her skill "Close Enough" which redirects missed projectiles towards a nearby enemy, this isn't an issue. Gaige does not aim. She simply pulls the trigger and things die. Like Salvador, Gaige is commonly seen as an overpowered class, and "newb" friendly. However Gaige is not nearly as overpowered as Salvador, lacking the ability to heal while doing damage. Though she has several abilities for survivability.

Kreig : The Psycho (Requires Kreig DLC, comes with GOTY)

Kreig is a very interesting character. Being a psycho, he excels at melee. If you go into "Unleash the beast" It can be pretty hard to die through TVHM and UVHM with well timed active usage. However due to his melee heavy builds, Kreig can encounter some difficulty in some fights, and overpower levels since he doesn't have much to boost ranged damage, and melee range is often suicide, even for Kreig. There are builds that can certainly make him work late game, but he really peaks in TVHM and early UVHM. Your build is probably going to focus around ... meleeing stuff. What did you expect?

[Dagirkeran]

Krieg Mania/Hellborn = infinite life, infinite killing
Axton has no hope.
Sal, I'm booting you if I don't get to see living enemies for more than two seconds.
Maya I will love it if you actually used res for once in your life.
Gaige just keep shooting eventually your shots will hit (use something like the wanderlust)
Zer0, don't kill me with your love thumper for the love of god.

[Justuค็็็็็็็s[FIN]]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p9-bYXyAX_Y

[WolfconGamer]

I'm a new player, only got 12 hours on record, and I've gotten Zero to level 11. I have to say, with Zero the main thing is you want good shields with low recharge delay. If you can find one with a good mix, Pangolin is the way to go. I know the max health penalty seems daunting, but if you find a good one, you'll be using shields for most damage.
My current one has -85 max health, 293 capacity, 36 recharge, and 2.57 delay, but I've found one that was -53 max health, 277 cap, 32 recharge, and 2.13 delay.
A definite alternate use of Deception is saving it for when your shield gets low and then activating it in order to sprint for cover and let your recharge-delay run out.

For people who haven't gotten a good Pangolin yet, I have found a little workaround. Your shields share your current amount, so if your high-cap shield with a huge delay and slow recharge gets low, you jump into cover and swap to a mid-cap shield with good recharge and a tiny delay and let it boost your shield up, and once you switch back your big-shield is now partially full and it will immediately start recharging.
Works best in singleplayer, since inventory pauses the overworld around you, but could still be a viable option in co-op if you know your way around the inventory menu.

Weapons:
I definitely suggest you pair your sniper rifle with a shotgun, either high ROF for blasting to pieces, or high damage double-barrel for headshots, or if you're bad at hitting a sprinting target, kneecap him and then shoot him while he's staggered.. Trust me, kneecapping is your best friend for a Suicider Psycho. If they blow up, it can easily take half of your shield or more.
Then once you get a third slot (or don't mind swapping inventory mid-combat), definitely get a good mid-range weapon for suppressing fire and picking away at enemy health. Also good for if you go down, because trying to quickly kill someone with a sniper rifle is basically impossible, and if you weren't hit point-blank, a shotgun isnt' gonna do very much.
Grenades, I suggest using short-fuse and high-radius, and save them for when enemies are encroaching on your cover while you're trying to recharge shields. Or if you get really annoyed by that one last enemy you want to snipe always hiding behind cover, a long-fuse grenade might 'convince' him to leave his current position.

Eridium, you definitely want to spend it on sniper rifle, shotgun, and grenade capacity. If you're using some of the swapping techniques I was on about, you'll definitely want backpack upgrades.

sweet tips:
Scooter's Garage has 4 eridium bars you can loot from it (or I got insanely lucky)
Weapons/shields left untouched in an opened chest won't despawn, unlike weapons/shields on the ground, so you can leave them to go sell your inventory at a vending machine (only tested while remaining in the same area-map.))


TL;DR
Use Pangolin shields, or swap from high-cap to low-delay to replenish empty.
Save deception for emergencies to GTFO into cover and burn recharge delay.
Use shotgun and backup mid-range gun.
Kneecap melee enemies.
Short-fuse grenade when recharging shields in cover.
Long-fuse to lure out that last sniping target.
Use eridium for shotgun, sniper, grenades, and backpack
Scooter's garage should have 4 lootable Eridium
Inventory full? Guns/shields left on ground despawn, ones untouched in opened chest don't (only tested while staying in same area-map).

[A Random Canadian]

WolfconGamer eredeti hozzászólása:

-long-ass-necro-

Dude. You know this is from

2015

right?

[mongi]

Shouldn’t this be a guide?

[WolfconGamer]

A Random Canadian eredeti hozzászólása:

WolfconGamer eredeti hozzászólása:

-long-ass-necro-

Dude. You know this is from

2015

right?

Yeah, and the Christmas sale just had Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel with all DLC for both for just $14.47, so there's bound to be new players.
Just because people haven't been commenting doesn't mean nobody's been reading the guide.

[Bringoutyerded]

WolfconGamer eredeti hozzászólása:

A Random Canadian eredeti hozzászólása:

Dude. You know this is from

2015

right?

Yeah, and the Christmas sale just had Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel with all DLC for both for just $14.47, so there's bound to be new players.
Just because people haven't been commenting doesn't mean nobody's been reading the guide.

For new players, the guide serves to perpetuate ill-founded myths about some of the toons.

This thread should have remained buried.

[Vapid Actions]

Not sure about ill founded myths. However, not all of it is accurate anymore due to some changes in patches (primarily gunzerker). Though overall still fairly accurate /shrug. I'm interested in what "myths" you're referring to though.

[Bringoutyerded]

Vapid Actions eredeti hozzászólása:

Not sure about ill founded myths. However, not all of it is accurate anymore due to some changes in patches (primarily gunzerker). Though overall still fairly accurate /shrug. I'm interested in what "myths" you're referring to though.

Vapid Actions: To be honest, I stopped reading when I read your description about Axton as having little to no survivability, and having a "hard time in UVHM and OP levels", or "difficult". It's comments such as this that are not uncommon in this game, yet unfounded in my experience and those who I play with.

Sal is indeed OP, but he's past that. He's broken.

I've since finished reading the rest of your guide. Perhaps I was too harsh in my initial comment as I can generally agree with your description of the game's other toons.

[Vapid Actions]

I've played every character to OP8 including axton, and the only way he was able to finish OP8 was through abusing tediore reloads.

I mention that he's perfectly fine until UVHM, and that's true. But unless he's getting carried by a party, he's still absolutely awful in UVHM and OP1-8.

This was written quickly offhand, and was no way intended to be any sort of in depth guide, heck, it's not even a proper overview - but it was all based off of personal experience. And Axton was, and still is far, far behind all other characters.

[Starbug]

Vapid Actions eredeti hozzászólása:

And Axton was, and still is far, far behind all other characters.

Thanks! That's news to me. Wrecking digistruct with him makes me feel even better now.

[DocStrangelove]

I'm also not sure how much help it is for new players talking about which characters are best/worst in UVHM/OP8. Also, no difficulties in normal mode? Sure, today I don't have any, but I can recall a lot of frustration on my very first playthrough when I had not much clue about how to put good use to skills, equipment etc. First time Captain Flynt? Argh. First time Dukino's Mom? WTF.

And as for Maya not doing much damage, you get Cloud Kill at level 16 which is a game-changer and one of the best skills of any class at that point, for only one skill point. In normal mode it's monstrous.

[Draekus]

DrStrangelove eredeti hozzászólása:

I'm also not sure how much help it is for new players talking about which characters are best/worst in UVHM/OP8. Also, no difficulties in normal mode? Sure, today I don't have any, but I can recall a lot of frustration on my very first playthrough when I had not much clue about how to put good use to skills, equipment etc. First time Captain Flynt? Argh. First time Dukino's Mom? WTF.

And as for Maya not doing much damage, you get Cloud Kill at level 16 which is a game-changer and one of the best skills of any class at that point, for only one skill point. In normal mode it's monstrous.

not to mention getting Ruin at level 31.

[Vapid Actions]

DrStrangelove eredeti hozzászólása:

I'm also not sure how much help it is for new players talking about which characters are best/worst in UVHM/OP8. Also, no difficulties in normal mode? Sure, today I don't have any, but I can recall a lot of frustration on my very first playthrough when I had not much clue about how to put good use to skills, equipment etc. First time Captain Flynt? Argh. First time Dukino's Mom? WTF.

And as for Maya not doing much damage, you get Cloud Kill at level 16 which is a game-changer and one of the best skills of any class at that point, for only one skill point. In normal mode it's monstrous.

A lot of players hate spending all the time to get to late game, only to find out that their class simply cannot do what they want it to. A lot of players will never make it that far, and for them it doesn't matter what class they pick. I mentioned class only really matters once you get to UVHM, lvl50~. For the players that aren't going to OP, they probably aren't even going to UVHM.

At the time of this writing, Cloud Kill was abysmal, it didn't do enough damage to even show a tick of damage on a basic white enemy. It was buffed massively in the last patch which also nerfed gunzerker and close enough to try to close the classes in a bit.

I mean, in the end, no one I know who still plays BL2 plays vanilla BL2. Everyone plays the UCP now. In which classes and weapons are actually properly balanced and more enjoyable imho. This writeup was on the vanilla game from 4 years ago, several patches of balance changes. UCP has been the way to play for quite some time now.

[DocStrangelove]

Fair enough about Cloud Kill, I just found out that was patched only in late 2015, three years after release. Thought it was earlier. As for UCP, many still don't use it.