Fan the Hammer: an analysis of a broken playstyle

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Nisha the Lawbringer
#10

They do not need them. The build I use focuses around the maggie and celestial lawbringer and uses 7 out of 11 skills from FTH (well over half). It’s the faster fire rate skills that are useless to Jakobs. That said, Jakobs pistols fire fast enough (just let go of the right stick and slap that right trigger, or click faster). As other have pointed out there are plenty of other weapons that do make great use of it.

I don’t get why this tree should be wholly dedicated to all pistols, which seems to be what you’re making a case for (maybe i’m misreading that). The name is Fan the Hammer: you can only fan the hammer on a revolver, and there’s only one manufacturer making revolvers: Jakobs. Wikipedia about fanning: “Fanning is a revolver shooting technique in which one hand holds the trigger and the other hits the hammer repeatedly.”

So I wouldn’t call the entire tree broken, far from it. It’s just that the faster fire rate bonuses do not make sense since Jakobs weapons fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. Also since fanning the hammer using both hands, one for each of ya does not make sense in this tree. So I agree that the tree is a bit of a mess in terms of skills, but it’s not broken.

#11

Well, I disagree with you, but I don’t know where to point.

On one hand you are saying that the tree is NOT about all pistols, and is about Jakobs pistols
and on the other hand, you say that those fire rate skills do not make sense in the tree.

…well, they don’t make sense only if we use your definition of what the tree is about.
so I would be of the opinion that you are misreading the TREE’s intent :slight_smile: (which would make a lot more sense from a design perspective)

I think some skills are clearly there to benefit Jakobs guns (Hell’s and Mag6) and some are there for other pistols (Faster and OFEOY, which benefits much more auto-pistols than semi-auto)

To me, it appears clear that the tree’s focus is about maximizing showdown and fire rate (in all it’s form)
and it also has a secondary focus on pistols…all of them.

#12

I played some OFEOY Nisha in UVHM today with the ammo regen Moxxtail. Was not able to take down a pair of badasses (Scav and Mugger) in Pity’s Fall without running out of pistol ammo and switching to a meat grinder.

Got a Cryo T4S-R from the Holodome. Of course I got the Redundant prefix.

#13

The tree’s primary intent is to buff Showdown. Buffing pistols, particularly Jakobs pistols and assault rifles, is its secondary intent. Not sure how well a Jakobs build will hold up in UVHM, but in the vanilla game, if one wanted to play with a Jakobs build for flavor (which is really the only reason), it was more than viable. But before Jack came along, beam lasers were tailor made for Nisha, and she is much more powerful with a Maliwan beam than she could ever be with a classic pistol/rifle.

#14

Another very good reason to go with Jakobs pistols in FTH builds is ammo consumption. Jakobs pistols are very powerful and make each bullet spent count. They also get almost nothing out of fire rate boosts skills, so choices are more straightforward.

#15

Stock up on moonstones and visit moxxi’s bar for her ammo regeneration drink every 10 minutes? (10 minutes is how long it lasts, right?)

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#16

That amount of regen can’t even come close to keeping up with the fire rate of OFEOY.

1 Like
#17

30 minutes

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#18

If they’re dropping more ammo I’m sure not seeing it. I’m hitting every crate and still buying more at almost every machine playing one gun Nisha with a Maggie in slot one, a cryo Redundant T4s-R in slot two, Flakker or Meat Grinder in 3 for second winds, and a Fremington’s Edge in 4.

#19

Better get a +10% damage buff, This will decrease your ammo consumption rate by 10%

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#20

So, I know a lot of people use the Titan Robot Plant for testing builds, but actually the best place to test builds is Tycho’s Ribs. The Super Mario Bros. room has a ton of enemies and a bunch of ammo chests for cutting loose with any loadout you choose.

#21

The new Taser pistol will be great for Nisha. Very high elemental effect chance. 24% chance, but being a pistol with such a high fire rate, combined with the fire rate buffs, this gun will pile on the DOT for days.

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#22

I got a redundant so I have to be careful using it with Nisha but it is a nice weapon. I like it way more than Excalibastard?

#24

Mission rewards are farmable, you know.

#25

Yeah, but I wasn’t planning on staying at level 50 very long and didn’t want to invest any time getting a reward I was going to presumably make obsolete.

That said the Cryo T4s-R at level 50 is still very very useful to me at level 57. I hadn’t considered that.

#26

I just read your post. Sorry for being late to the game(per usual). But I couldn’t resist saying “Gearbox listened to you Chuck” They resolved your issue by providing the Luck Canon. You’re welcome! :wink:

And if replying to an old post is frowned upon, they should close them. Just saying…

2 Likes
#27

It was already possible with Jakobs pistols before the LC, but petty much every other brand gets ammo issues. :slight_smile:

And Nisha has so many fire rate boosts, especially in that tree, that are wasted because Jakobs are semi auto :frowning:

#28

Not as efficiently, imo. Luck canon really stood out as the go to because of the ammo issues she faces. The maggie runs through more ammo than the LC, at least with my play style. The LC just seems like the piece to the puzzle that was missing. But again, this is just a gamers glance. I don’t have any depth to my statement. just experience. :slight_smile:

I also feel that there is a little balance involved. She is severely OP.

#29

There is only a 1/3 of one skill that is wasted on Jacobs pistols. After that, like someone said before, I think they didn’t really make a broken skill tree based on the name. As that is what you do with semi-auto revolvers. (Although I do agree OFEoY should have had each Jacobs pistol shoot every time you pulled the trigger. Instead of firing 1 of them randomly.)

Yes some of the skills could have been better, and it could have catered to more pistols than just Jacobs. But just think of it as a Critical Ascension type balance. You don’t have the ammo to really make use of the maximum potential of the skill/skill tree, but it is still plenty powerful without it.

Plus if fits with the whole old west sheriff theme. Which is part of the reason these characters are designed better the BL2’s.

#30

exactly my point in regards to having “balance” in that tree.