Mordecai tips?

[about 47 t-rexes]

I've always played as the soldier previously, so I figured I'd shake it up and try out Mordecai. But man, he seems awful. Bloodwing does so little damage and only attacks one target, and snipers are really mediocre it seems. any advice on how to play him right?

[Renfrew]

Mordecai is at his strongest in the endgame, and has very high damage output, but poor healing. After playing soldier I can imagine the struggle to adjust to a glass cannon. Roland actually has the lowest DPS out of all the characters, but is dead easy to play because of all his support skills.

Only thing you are doing wrong is assuming you have to use snipers, which you don't; the skill ceiling is very high and most people will struggle if they are inexperienced. There's not much reason to restrict yourself.

Other than that you should be a lot more careful and cautious with your actions due to lack of healing. Getting Transfusion grenades ASAP is a huge help.

Bloodwing is also stronger in the endgame when you have more skill points to invest in the centre skill tree. Bloodwing will become your main source of healing and supporting damage, especially if you grab a ranger COM and get instant cooldowns; Bloodwing is simply a mobbing beast, and the other action skills can't compare in that regard. Additionally the centre tree capstone allows bloodwing to attack multiple targets.

[about 47 t-rexes]

Thank you for the advice! Good to know it gets a lot better later

[Myyrä]

Ranger class mod all the way.

[Western Iron]

Mordecai is at his weakest early game but you will start to really see his abilities in action and once you are about in the level 30s you will see hilarious results including but not limited to the bird mowing down entire groups of enemies while making them explode in money and ammo if you invest heavily into the middle skill tree based on the bird. Bloodwing is your partner and as such utilize him. You will need to have a good aim but a revolver you can hip fire I found works great with Mordecai as a back up to snipers when they are too close or just need that extra fire rate if you are using a jackobs sniper. You can eventually get to a point where Bloodwing will mow down all the weak enemies and the survivors will be slowed dramatically for you to line up your headshots with for that great take down finish.

I personally like using S&S snipers with any revolver I can either have a high fire rate with or the 2 round capacity types with the crazy high damage and just plink their heads off while I throw the bird out as often as possible. Eyeballs and wads of cash everywhere

[QuasarEnvoy]

The way I recommend is to go down the middle tree first. Swift Strike, then Out for Blood, then put points wherever you want but the best choice to me is usually Fast Hands. but anything other than Aerial Impact is fine. But seriously, Aerial Impact sucks lol don't get it., Then max out the bottom. Once you start putting points into the final rank, Bloodwing really starts to take off, pun intended.

If you're adverse to Bloodwing overall and want to do more by yourself earlier on, focus on the right tree. Deadly is crazy good early game, that extra 30% on crits is a huge bump in power. Gun Crazy is also very good once you find a nice revolver, preferably a Masher but those are pretty rare up until you're around the Middle of Nowhere, in my experience at least. The melee skill has some use but I find it to be a lols build more than anything since outside of Brick, melee isn't really a playstyle in Borderlands 1, and it's also very heavily RNG reliant. Obviously grab the health regen perk, and after you invest in Bloodwing some it's worth it to come back and grab the cooldown perk.

Definitely don't neglect Bloodwing entirely, as it is an incredible asset and a second wind machine after enough investment (Bloodwing doesn't vanish when you go into FFYL, unlike Roland's turret). Very good against all manner of enemies too since it's like firing at an enemy's face with a shotgun of any element, or explosive for just the raw power boost.

Once you get to the later ends of the game you can respec and go into the left tree to grab Trespass in order to deal with the Eridian enemies. Trespass + Masher is nigh unstoppable aside from maybe the badass Eridians. Farm up the Robolution armory room with a +1 or +2 find rare items class mod and you get some great results. I've found 2 Mashers with only a -12% and -14% power penalty in my runs, on playthrough 1 and 2 respectively.

Mordecai is a beast, you just have to wake him up lol.

[Grumpy Old Dude]

Mordecai is my all time fave character. I just love his dialogue. Doing a playthrough on YT now as Mordecai.

My priorities,

enhance Bloodwing skills. (middle skill tree. Once he can start dazing targets AND hit multiple targets per flight? He does TONS in averting damage to you. Add in a little vampiric healing FROM his strikes? Yeah)

look for a GOOD sniper rifle
High accuracy, respectable Rate of Fire (ROF), 6 shot mag minimum

ROF is exceeded in importance only by accuracy
and the two are often time interchangeable as for which is the better option. Just dont ignore how important these are

magazine capacity is central to a long life ( I will dump a sniper rifle with 50% more damage but only a 3 rd mag)

[Greybeard]

All good advice above. I have had the most fun using pistols, primarily revolvers and a Gunslinger COM. Here is a post that I found very helpful. Note, the link to the build in the post no longer works, but he describes all you need to know: https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/frightnings-guide-to-the-gunslinger-com/36573

[Vespasian]

masher revolver headshot win