About to begin UVHM on PS3

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

Well, I think I might have screwed up a bit on my TVHM play through. I played straight through TVHM without playing many side missions, since I had done all of them in the normal mode. I really have nothing but terrible weapons and I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to get through UVHM at all. It took 9 attempts for me just to kill the Warrior in TVHM and it cost me just about all of my money, mainly because the only weapon that did much damage to the Warrior was my turret. Every time it expired I was pretty much just meat waiting for the slaughter. The truth is that at nearly 60 years old, I’m afraid I may not have the skill or reflexes to be able to play at UVHM. I have only played as Axton since I can let the turret do the heavy lifting and I can hide to stay alive. But from what I’ve read, that doesn’t seem to work on UVHM.

I’m currently at level 50. Almost 51. I’ve been trying to farm Pyro Pete’s bar for Torque tokens to buy an DPUH. But I’m only at 449 tokens so I have a lot of farming left. I have also noticed that it has been impossible for me to beat the bar room side mission at level 50 because I always run out of time before I get all the big guys killed. So farming has been very slow. 3 or 4 tokens at a time is proving to be quite a hill to climb to 650. Getting those 20 tokens for completing that mission would help a lot.

Anyway, any suggestions for a rather bad player here? Should I stay in TVHM and try to earn some money back before trying UVHM? Or is UVHM just going to be more than I can handle no matter how much money and tokens I can farm? I’m enjoying the game, but I’m not sure I really want to play all the side missions over again in TVHM just to have something to do. And I’ve read that any weapons I do get in TVHM aren’t much use in UVHM anyway. BTW, in all of my experience in BL2, I’ve only gotten 5 legendaries. Is that a low number? All the videos I’ve watched have guys getting legendaries by the bucket loads.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance.

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#2

Hmm if you need any legendaries i can give you some. And i can also help you farm for some token’s if you like. From reading the post it seem’s you need a stronger shield and some good shock and corrosive gun’s. I will check my inventory to see if i have weapons in your level range. Add me so i can give you the item’s .

PSN:DarkBlader41

#3

I’m on the 360 so all I can offer is advice and encouragement- heck, I’m 56 and got all 6 VH to OP8- hang in there. If you played the dlc in normal drop back into that and get the tokens there, then pop back up into TVHM and buy that DPUH. If you have any gold keys use them to get at level gear in UVHM- they should get you by until you can start gettiung better loot. The Marcus Saves Mercenary Day and the Son of Crawmerex Headhunter packs are two great sources of loot once you’ve completed them- the boss fights can be repeated as often as desired and upon completion there’s always a great choice of loot to pick from. If you start UVHM I would seriously consider doing either of these two HH packs first before continuing with the main game and if you want to post your build I can give you some ideas with that as well…

#4

at lvl 51, you have 46 pts, exclude 1 pt from action skill. spec 5 pts in santry, ready, willing, able, onslaught, 1 pt in double up in the first tree. In second tree, spec 5pts in impact, metal storm, steady, 4 pts in battle front, 1 pt in longbow. Ignore third tree.
Find an adaptive shield, purple tediore shield (farm golden chest if you have keys).
Class mode that boost steady (grenadier?) or leg soldier is fine
Tesla or transfusion granade lowest fuse time possible.
Elemental relics, fire, cor, shock, exp or go to linchwood to farm for sheriff and deputy badges.
look out for gears element preferred:
Pistol purple- anarchist, tmp, assassin, synergy, slapper, maliwan aegis (pistol with splash)
Shotgun purple - hyperion thinking or diversification shotgun, tediore single barrel shotgun
SMG purple - good and bad touch if you are at sanctuary, tediore SMG, maliwan or tediore plamas casters
Assualt rifle purple - dahl minigun, galting gun
Sniper purple - maliwan snider mali barrel preferred, dahl scout, vladof droog, jakobs muckamuck.

Note grenade damage boost splashed damage in plasma caster, explosive weapons, not all though, maliwan pistol such as rubi, tediore reload, etc. It means if you play axton with splashed weapons like casters or rubi, the damage will be boosted by steady, battlefront, BAR grenade damage.

If you manage to get hold of the above gears, legendary not needed, and spec accordingly, you still can’t kill stuffs relatively easily, then you need to read up the guide on how to play turret axton in the oldforum.
You can google it just add ‘oldforum’ after the key words.

#5

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the help. I’ll keep farming the bar room for tokens and try the golden chest for some better weapons (I have 6 keys but I was always afraid to use them) I do need a better shield. The one I’m using now is a level 50 Anshin Invasive Adaptive shield @37501 +12765 max health and 43% elemental resistance. I actually found it on the Loot the World app. It does OK in most situations but in boss fights, or with multiple enemies I go down pretty quickly if my turret is down.

I’m still using a level 32 Sentry Engineer class mod that has +4 sentry and +3 battlefront. I haven’t gotten anything better since that one. I’m also using a level 44 vitality relic @39.5% health increase for the same reason.

I should probably re-spec my skill tree after this. Most of my points are in the Guerrila tree so that I could get down to the slag turret. 9/5 in sentry, 3/5 in willing, 5/5 laser sight, 5/5 in onslaught, 1/1 in scorched earth, 4/5 in able, 0/5 in grenadier, 1/5 in crisis management, 1/1 in double up
In Gunpowder I have 5/5 in impact, 5/5 in metal storm, 4/5 in battlefront, and 1/1 in longbow
In Survival I have 2/5 in forebearance, 5/5 in preparation

I have no idea why my skill trees are what they are except that I read I need to get slag turrets. All the other is just guess work on my part.

Once again, I really appreciate all the help and advice from everyone. And magan22, thanks a ton for the offer. I’ll add you next time I play.

#6

you might also play through the Tiny Tina DLC to get a magic missile grenade mod for slag coverage (and grenade regeneration). they help bunches on UVHM and it doesn’t matter what level they are.

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#8

I specced into an Grenadier/Explosive Axton and I didn’t have too much trouble with UVHM. I didn’t even have to use the turret that often. Toss a magic missile for slag and a good Torgue Spitter got me through ok. What’s cool about Explosive Axton is that his grenade damage skills affect splash damage, which means more powerful EXPLOSIONS!!!

#9

Just spec according to my tree apart from take 1 pt from battlefront and put it in scorched earth.
Trust me other skills you spec in are meh at this point.
Your engineering com is fine as well as adaptive shield. It is your vitality relic that sucks, reason health gating. You do want more shield but not health, adaptive shield is more for resistance and high capacity than health bonus.
Laser sight reduce 50% acc rather than improve it.
my tree give you highest dps possible at this point, longest and strongest turret with rockets and slag. Willing and able give u some survivability (not enough points for third tree at this juncture), no choice you have to play it smart. Let turrets draw the aggro when you are badly out numbers, shoot from a safe distance when enemies attack your turrets furiously. Few enemies turrets not needed as cool down is quite long though your engineering com helps and also retrieve it when idle to save some cool down.
Look out for weapons that have splashed damage too, off my head, plasma casters ( not bandit), tediore smg reload, maliwan pistols (rubi best as it has healing too), torgue assualt rifles and shotguns. If you still have trouble, my psn is kenet888. I can gear you up with those gears i mentioned above. Anything more powerful will take away the fun of achieving something, you know. Your call though if you want to go down that route, not advisable for long term game play.

#10

http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#50535140215005014000005000000000

Just trying to figure out your build- I think you might have either missed a point in the Guerilla tree or you’re no longer level 51 if you have 2 points in Forbearance (need to be at least level 58 for that). This would be my suggestion for you:
http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55055110315005014000005000000000
I think you’ll really notice the change in your shields with Willing maxed out and with the 40% reload speed from Ready you’ll be able to get more lead downrange quicker. As far as your shields go, my favorite type is absorption shields- getting free ammo and not taking damage is a win-win in my book. At all levels I really like The Transformer- a legendary shield dropped by Pimon in the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve. It usually has a good absorption percentage and with its immunity to shock (as well as being recharged by shock attacks) it’s one of my favorite shields in the game…

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#11

Well, let me try to help you! Axton was my first VH, and is the balanced one.
Lets start with the skills. At lv 50, o would use this spec: http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55004100005203011000005050143000. This spec gives you a balance in terms of offense, survivability and turret action. Impact, Onslaught and Metal Storm give you a lot of momentum while Preparation, Pressure and Quick Charge will save you a LOT. Sentry is a must have for the turret and Longbow and Phalanx Shield will give some durability to it. Also, Longbow helps you with deploying the turret a lot better!
The point in Battlefront is to get the COM bonus, and you can fill it with the points that are in Resourceful. I do not advice it, as the turret is a key aspecto of Axton gameplay.
If you think you still need more survivability, swap the points from Ready to Willing. But I do not think that you need it at all, so wait until you level up. You can go down to either Double Up or Gemini, it does not matter. Both are great capstones! Just have a slag back up if you are going for Gemini.
About gear, you do not need legendaries or the DPUH right now. After beating the Warrior, all the sidequests scale up to level 50, so there are some good unique guns to farm for. You can read the top gear thread in Axton’s subforum, but I will list some guns for you:
The Teapot, reward for Tiny Tina quests, is an easy farm and one of the better guns against loaders and amored enemies in general. Try to farm for a twin prefix and aim for the crit spots! The burst is quick and accurate.
You can get the Heartbreaker too. Its an excelent shotgun against flesh! If if remember correctly, you have to turn the Safe and Sound mission into Moxxi to get it.
Also, you can use your torgue tokens to get some purple gear. Ravagers excel at killing things and the Lance or Splitter are really good for sustained combat.
One more thing: do not look down to Jakobs. If you can aim for crits, they are really good guns. Some snipers will help you to pick up some bandits before the battle comes to you. And always carry a slag tool with you! I used to use a Maliwan sniper, pistol or SMG to do it, because I could still use my grenades to strip shields or kill things. Axton swap speed is fast due to Expertise.
The best all around non unique shields are turtle, adaptive and quick shields. If you have an absorb shield with 30%+ you can use it in bullet heavy maps like the Bloodshot stronghold, but its situational. Try to get a cooldown reduction relic, its the best for Axton!
Also, you can use your grenade slot as you like. Tesla for striping shields, Mirv for killing things or even slag transfusions for slaging/survivability. Dahl slag grenades are good when paired with the turret surrounded.
For COM, the Engineer is a good call. If you need more momentum, there is a COM that boosts both Onslaught and Metal Storm. But, back at level 50, I used to use a Tactician COM a lot and really liked it. I killed Terramorphous using it if I remember correctly! All the buffs are great and useful, but the Engineer is a great all around COM too. You can stick with it without problems!

Hope it helps, haha

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#12

I think both of the builds suggested by the last 2 posters are very viable, but i would advise the first build using the slag turret with Double Up if you’re starting UVHM and having some difficulties. They are very helpful and the extra damage really helps if you feel like your weapons are lacking.

That said, a lot of the hype around UVHM and how it makes weapons useless is highly exaggerated, imo. Having a reliable way to slag enemies and decent gear is enough to get by many areas in the game. There are certainly some very tough area but it wouldn’t be any fun if everything was a cake walk right?

As for gear, many quest rewards are very powerful and can certainly help at the start of UVHM. Not sure what DLCs you have, but the Swordsplosion and Kitten are 2 very good quest rewards from DLCs. The Heartbreaker was mentioned earlier and is very powerful. I’m using one as my primary shotgun as I level through OP4 and it wrecks flesh enemies.

If you’re tired of farming for tokens, Savage Lee is easy to farm for an Unkempt Harold as well as Knuckledragger for a Hornet. Buying a nice Hulk or Ravager with what tokens you have is a great option as well. Both are great shotguns for Axton. Also, don’t get too caught up in trying for just a Double Penetrating version of the Unkempt Harold if you do want to farm Savage Lee. Any version will wreck regular enemies.

Also, the Pimpernel is arguably the best weapon in the game and a quest reward from the Pirate DLC if you have that. There are lots of great guides on YouTube or on the forum about using it. I wasn’t much for sniping, but that gun is just super powerful and really fun to use. Best part is that you can get away with hip firing it a lot of the time once you learn its sweet spot for aiming.

Of course if you have the PirTe DLC, the Sandhawk is also a quest reward and is the most powerful smg in the game, even without Bee shield abuse.

Lastly, make sure you open as many red chests as you can along the way. UVHM chest loot is fairly kind compared to TVHM and normal mode, where a high percentage of the loot is green. You’ll have much better chances of finding good blues, purples and e-tech weapons (which are kinda bad, but Plasma Caster SMGs are grat with Axton and his grenade buff skills). You’ll also get lucky occasionally and find legendary loot every once in awhile.

Don’t be afraid to try purples and blues you find once you start to out level your level 50 gear. One thing I found trying out new gear is that Maliwan pistols work pretty good on Axton as they get grenade buffs for their projectiles. At 72, I enjoyed using a nice fire Umbrage Maliwan pistol and ran through Sawtooth Cauldron just using that for the most part. It was a nice surprise and just goes to show that a lot of weapons are very capable in UVHM.

Hope a lot of this advice in this thread helps. At first UVHM can be tough to adjust to, but certainly not impossible and Axton has some great weapon all shield skills to help along the way. His turret is also very durable (yes, even in UVHM) as long as you use Longbow. Good luck.

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#13

I’m on the PS3 and willing to lend a hand w/ gear or gameplay.

UVHM = Slag, Slag & more Slag. It wasn’t necessary in the first two modes, but near mandatory in UVHM. ( wait until you meet your first Rabid Skag )

Legendaries, IMO are not necessarily the best guns in the game. Some are purples, some are
Red-Text mission rewards.

If you have Marcus’s DLC, you will NEVER run out of money after you beat the story and can
farm the presents & Tindersnowflake until the end of time. ( his loot train generally has great gear in UVHM, even more so in the OP levels)

IMO, the only Torgue weapons worth anything out of the machine are the Casual Ravager ( purple )
the DPUH and sometimes the PocketRocket.

…if loot at early game is a problem…

GOLDEN KEYS! Purple gear for free. What’s not to love?