[BL2] Character Balance Patch 1.1

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

Axton the Commando

  • Laser Sight – Additionally, player gains +10% gun accuracy and +2% critical hit damage per level
  • Crisis Management – Gun damage bonus, while shieldless, per level: +7% --> +9%
  • Overload – Additionally, Assault Rifles inflict +5% more damage per level.
  • Duty Calls – Damage bonus for non-elemental guns per level: +5% --> +8%
  • Healthy – Maximum health boost per level: +6% --> +8%
  • Forbearance – Status effect duration per level: -8% --> -12%

Salvador the Gunzerker

  • All I Need Is One – First shot on a swapped weapon bonus per level: +8% --> +15%
  • I’m the Juggernaut – (Kill Skill) Damage reduction per level: +4% --> +7%
  • Asbestos – Negative status effect duration per level: -8% --> -12%
  • Aint Got Time to Bleed – Health regen per second per level during Gunzerking: +4% --> +6%
  • Sexual Tyrannosaurus – Health regen per second per level when damaged: +0.4% --> +1%

Zero the Assassin

  • Precision – Accuracy bonus per level: +5% --> +7%
  • Iron Hand – Max health bonus per level: 3% --> +6%
  • Grim – Shield restoration per second per level upon kill: 3.5% --> 5%
  • Be Like Water – Conditional melee bonus per level: +6% --> +8% ; Conditional gun bonus per level: +4% --> +6%
  • Resurgence – Health bonus via melee kill per level: +4% --> +8%
  • Like the Wind – Additionally, you gain +3% damage resistance per level while moving.

Maya the Siren

  • Subsequence – If Phaselock seeks out a second enemy, it gains +3 seconds in duration. (Note: this does not loop)
  • Thoughtlock – Phaselock cooldown is not increased.
  • Restoration – Healing damage for allies per level: +6% --> +12%
  • Recompense, Helios, Blight Phoenix – Scale damage by player level.
  • Backdraft – Additionally, +10% melee attack damage per level.

Gaige the Mechromancer

  • Potent as a Pony – Deathtrap’s max health bonus per level: +2% --> +5%
  • Made of Sterner Stuff – Damage resistance for you and Deathtrap per level: +1% --> +2%
  • More Pep – Increased chance for Shock is +20% per level ; Corrode/Burn/Slag by +10% per level.
  • Shock Storm – Radius is doubled.
  • Death From Above – Only costs 1 anarchy stack at all levels. ; Additionally (to prevent glitching), it only works if you jumped in the past 5 seconds.

Krieg the Psycho

  • Action Skill should additionally provide 10% damage resistance until level 31 is attained.
  • Blood Twitch – Additionally, melee attack speed is increased by 0.05% per BLS per level.
  • Bloody Revival – Damage bonus applies to all weapons - not just Assault Rifles
  • Pull the Pin – Grenade deployed via this effect inflicts 5x the damage
  • Empty the Rage – Melee bonus while shield or magazine empty per level: +10% --> +15%
  • Embrace the Pain – Fire rate bonus when shields are down: +7% --> +13%
  • Thrill of the Kill – Is +50% per level and goes up to 250%
  • Hellfire Halitosis – Is applied as critical hit damage.
#2

As somwone who is a hardcore Zer0 player, I can only speak on him, but that is BROKE.

When you melee an opponent you apply Death Mark (+80% Multiplicative Damage!!!) AND activate Be Like Water. So your next attack will be +30% without class mods, and +66% Maxed class mods! Then you’ll have HeadSh0t giving you +30% Critical damage (which let’s face it, if you are a veteran Zer0 player, you gotta be a good shot).

If you use kunai for your Melee and get slag, your damage would be INSANE.

#3

Why have you chosen those skills you are mentioning? To me it looks like some skills that could definitely use a buff are not there while things that definitely don’t are. Some explanations would go a long way.

I’m no expert on everything BL2 but here’s at least some thoughts.

Axton

  • Doing those things to Laser sight does not fix it aiming higher and taking more time between bursts, though having some buff would be good.
  • Overload doesn’t need a buff on mag size, it should have something else, like AR damage added to it.
  • The problem with non-elemental guns is that they don’t match up to the damage of elemental matching. Add damage, since that is also already on the skill, not fire rate that Axton has plenty in other skills too.
  • That forbearance buff is too strong, IMO.

Sal

  • That Asbestos buff is stupid strong, sorry. You can already make Sal super tanky and find enough points to put in Asbestos. Slap that on to some of his existing builds and he’s not even going to die to DOTs even if you don’t go heavily into brawn.
  • All out of bubblegum is fine as is.
  • I’m all for buffing the health regen skills and I’m the Juggernaut.

Zer0

  • Like the wind should definitely be stronger and your suggestion is not even cutting it for how much stronger it should be for a tier 5 skill, IMO.
  • Unf0reseen is kind of okay where it is. I wish it would do a bit more damage in UVHM but it performs well enough all the way into OP levels and is still kinda useful there. That buff doesn’t suit it. Just add to what it already does.
  • The other stuff is not really needed but I wouldn’t mind it.

Kunai counts as a melee strike? Damn, I’ve been playing this char since the beginning and I’ve never realized.

Maya

  • That subsequence buff is pretty insane for a character that already wrecks mobs
  • I actually have no idea why Thoughtlock does that but no comment here.
  • Restoration is fine as is. That buff is insanely strong.
  • For Recompence why not add to what it already does and make the reflected bullets do more damage instead of changing the whole skill.
  • Are you saying that your version of Helios is just giving a passive 25 % gun damage buff to fire weapons?
  • Backdraft change is good but more realistically would be to just buff the nova damage further.
  • No comment on Blight Phoenix damage?
1 Like
#4

Neither did I, once I found out it activated Death Mark it was a whole new ballgame! I was dropping Hyperius before he even got the loaders built at times!

Zer0 is pretty tanky damage-wise already. Where he is lacking is Damage Reduction, Shield Buffs, and Health. Any damage buffs are nearly worthless, especially on console where you can cap out. Unless you fix the imbalance people will still find him hard to play.

#5

Please tell me you see the problem with these!

Hint: Infinite Phaselock.

EDIT: Just thinking of how crazy OP your stats would be with Legendary Binder…

#6

His damage is already good enough, insane with a roid shield.

And then slap a Leg. Anarchist and watch her laugh off shock damage aimed at her, no thanks. 60% is already no laughing matter,

Keep in mind, it’s formula is bugged, so this would mean nothing. Adding to that is that MP is ment to be a corner stone for shock based builds, so it stil should have a higher value than the others.[quote=“King_Tadpole, post:1, topic:1553730”]
Shock Storm – Is changed to “Upon killing an enemy, your shock weapons deal +5% more damage per level for 5 seconds”
[/quote]

Shock Storm works fine, except for the radius. That is what should be done, not this.
You’re making it too similar to Evil Enchantress.

Not nescecary either.

Rather, find a way that it cant activate when standing on slanted surfaces.

#7

Yes, I reduced many of his damage buffs and tried to keep them strictly toward skills that are underpowered. I think we can both agree that Like The Wind is underpowered.

Very good point. He’s already good at DPS but needs survivability. I’ll fix my changes accordingly.

To quote a certain somebody, “Wrong!!”

I said it extends the duration for the SECOND enemy - not the next enemy. So it only extends once.

#8

As a Maya user, I would be more happy with:

Mind’s Eye: Increase the melee damage boost greatly, like +30% or more to actually make the melee worth something.

Recompense: Increase melee damage done when taking damage to health by a decent amount.

Backdraft: Also increases Melee damage done along with adding fire damage.

Blight Phoenix: Increase damage done a bit more.

Then include a new mod:

Legendary Bitchslap:

Increase melee damage done
Increases health

+5 Fleet
+5 Mind’s Eye
+5 Restoration
+5 Life Tap
+5 Backdraft

Red Text: Don’t Call me Child…

Honestly would like to see a Melee Maya setup and to be honest, I really don’t see the point of adding all the +melee skills in the trees if they refuse to flesh them out enough to be even remotely viable. They have them on almost all the characters but Kreig and Zero are the only ones to get real use out of them and to a limited extent maybe Gaige with his “With Claws” skill after a few hundred stacks of Anarchy which still required you to kill a bunch of things first to make it even usable.

#9

I’ll just quote myself from a post in the Gauge forum.

#10

This isn’t really much of a balancing thread when it ignores some of the most annoying skill mechanics in the game.

No mention of CA’s unreasonable restrictions.
Nothing on the subsequence bubble floating into outer space.
Nothing on Duty Calls being additive only, or Crisis Mnangement being totally useless for a class that was designed around shields and has Last Ditch Effort.
How about the damage reduction from I’m the Juggernaut being near worthless overall?

Balance isn’t just about tweaking some numbers by a few percents. Fixing core issues within specs should be a priority of any effort to balance classes, otherwise these changes you’ve proposed wouldn’t make these skills any more desirable than they are currently.

2 Likes
#11

Alright I’ll jump as a hardcore Krieg player:

Action Skill should additionally provide 10% damage resistance until level 31 is attained.

It already gives full health per kill.

Bloody Revival -- Damage bonus applies to all weapons - not just Assault Rifles

AR’s fit his theme as a psycho. How many psycho’s have smgs? Now, I could see adding RL’s…

Pull the Pin -- Grenade deployed via this effect inflicts 5x the damage

That would basically guarantee double xp for dying.

Strip the Flesh -- Melee bonus while shield or magazine empty per level: +10% --> +15%

WTF? How dare you try to take my explosive damage??? Assuming you meant Empty the Rage, a permanent 70% melee damage with a Rough Rider is plenty for a Tier 1 skill.

Embrace the Pain -- Fire rate bonus when shields are down: +7% --> +13%

Again, combo’s have to balance. RR = constant 35% FR boost

Fuel the Rampage -- Allies do not damage you.

They might need to drop your health/shields to activate your bonuses.

Thrill of the Kill -- Overkill damage healing per level: 50%, 75%, 100%, 125%, 150%

Honestly TotK should only be a single point skill. The rest of them useless.

Fuel the Fire -- (Kill Skill) Chance for fire attack to set self on fire: +7% --> +9%

At 5/5 that’s a 35% chance of being on fire, per fire proc. You’re damn near always on fire.

Fire Fiend -- Melee ignition chance: 10% --> 15%

You’re asking for a 75% chance of inflicting burn. yeah ok.

Hellfire Halitosis -- Inflicts double damage

What it ACTUALLY needs is to benefit from melee damage.

Raving Retribution -- Additionally, while shields are down, fire weapons inflict +15% more damage.

He does an enormous amount of damage already.

1 Like
#12

These already do that. In TVHM, UVHM, and OP levels, enemies have higher health and take less damage. Deliberately making skills like this less OP, and increasing the challenge for players.

#13

That’s the preferred solution, of course, but I think Gearbox tried and failed. Reducing the cost of DFA seems like a much more reasonable change.

20% and 10% seem a bit high when Flicker is only 6%