Tbh, I could use the Stalker and BH interchangeably with the Rakk Pak and the difference in performance is negligible. I would even contend the Stalker and BH would outperform it in most sitiations.
I consider Red Fang one of his best COMs - but rather than being incredibly inherently powerful, its utility is basically necessary to make Gamma Burst into an Action Skill. Its not really the same ‘power’ as the Blast Master, Driver or Seein Dead - which actually elevate the class.
With Fl4k, the only thing I wish I had was a dedicated Fade Away Com. I use St4kBot with R4kk Attack quite a bit, especially with my roll of 25% weapon damage, 45% Hyperion Critical Hit Damage and 10% Jacobs Weapons Damage.
GB has Red Fang specifically for it, R4kk P4kk for R4kk Attack. Let’s get a mod that only works with Fade Away. Something like, when using Fade Away, Fl4k can fire an additional shot and GITM gains an extra 1.5 seconds of duration or when exiting Fade Away, Fl4k emits a nova to all surviving enemies around him that applies a debuff for 5 seconds. Idk, something special to Fade Away. And I like the nova coming out of Fade Away idea but I’m not gonna waste an annointment slot on my shield or grenade.
You really feel this with the Purple COMs. Without set passive bonuses, no legendary effect, and only 5 total skill points to work with, they needed to be on point with class mods in order for them to be worth using at all. And none of them feel like they are, everything is a placeholder for a legendary COM.
BL2 had great purple COMs. Grenadier, trickster, Rougue, Monk and Raider, Zapper, Crunch, and a bunch of others either directly competed with a legendary counterpart or offered bonuses for a play style that legendary mods left out.
Same with TPS. A lot of times purples way outranked legendary COMs entirely (Athena’s unrelenting COM, Crap Shooter, CEO, Aurelia’s holodome mod, Claptrap’s explosive COM, Wilhelm’s laser COM).
What purple COMs does FL4K have that compete with legendary? Out of 10, four are tank mods and 2 are pet COMs. None of them besides the Automaton boost 2 DPS skills in the stalker tree. None boost DPS skills in the Master tree (no Frenzy or Pack Tactics).
Bushmaster and Headcase are the same COM apart from 1 skill. 3 out of 4 tank COMs boost Who Rescued Who. A lot of them feel redundant.
Fade away gains 2 extra shots and 3 extra seconds of duration. Boom
I think the lack of bonus rakks is noticable, comparing BH and stalker to rakk pak is like that whole apples and oranges thing.
A COM being viable or powerful doesn’t make it gamechanging. Especially when we are talking about Fl4k - who has so much inherent power that its easy to mistake that a COM has a major contribution to his power. The Rakk P4k obviously isn’t the same type of COM as any of the 5 COMs I mentioned were gamechanging. Just because it has a unique capability doesn’t make it a great COM - lots of Legendary COMs have unique capabilities as well, the Nimbus, Infiltrator and Dragon to name a few, and some even have very powerful builds associated with them - but they don’t belong in the same sentence as a Driver or Seein Dead. Because ultimately they do not elevate the class strength nor do they completely change the way you view the class. The Rakk Pak has a nifty ability which can be powerful if used correftly - but otherwise it just isn’t much different in actual performance to a purple thrillbot.
Yeah, it is tough to say everything that you are thinking in an online forum like this, but that definitely is part of my complaint.
There were lots of reasons to choose a purple or blue COM in BL2 or TPS. Skills boosted, passives, etc. I never played a legendary COM with Jack in TPS, only ever a CEO or Projection (that is the correct name IIRC). There is literally no reason to choose a purple or blue COM in BL3, especially considering the non-RNG passives on the COM.
If there is a level cap, maybe some of this will get sorted - but I am not sure. Again, for me, the biggest issue is that the COMs don’t really dictate the build or playstyle as much as it feels like they should.
Thrill bot doesn’t beef up your action skill damage and spread like rakk pak which in turn helps with the rakk debuff anointment, even though it seems a little buggy.
I also forgot about the healing effect the rakks can have.
Ooh, or a Fade Away Mod that slows down everything as soon as Fl4k enters FA, kinda Liliths Phasewalk ability. Idk, but I agree he needs one other Com that targets FA specifically.
Fl4k’s defining feature is their pet, so I think all the class mods that Fl4k gets, should be built to enhance both Fl4k and their pet in some ways, instead of being exclusively boosting just Fl4k or the pet and I think that could potentially make the class mods feel more unique.
Like say, with the Rakk oriented mods, what if they allowed the Rakks to persist and continue following and attacking until killed? Or for Red fang, it makes Fl4k’s pets tankier, more disruptive/able to knock enemies around, and grabbed more enemy aggression even outside of gamma?
To be fair, zanes new class mod doesnt have a 25% chance to trigger
What i heard its about 4% (about 5% in my personal testings - just take a gun with one normal bullet and a mag of 10/20/40 or what ever. You will see with a mag of 20 it triggers mostly once per mag)
But, if you now take a gun with mullti pellets you can easy trigger it every 2/3 shot
Not to mention synergies like the brainstormer, banjo, etc to chain enemys and count as multiple hits.
That (plus the fact that clone/drone can also trigger it) is the reason why the chances feel so high. But actually they are not
Seein’ Red made my Zane on par with my Bounty Hunter Fl4k,…
I have only kept 1 of each of Zanes previous Mods in hope they will make them better, but I have not touched one since the new DLC.
Fl4k I still change mods, even to friend bot to get my pet back up for the bonuses, even to stack bot with a regular lyuda on an annointed to kill it quick.
Zane he just has that one mod equiped,… like forever,…
Honestly the most useless Fl4k com is Rakk Commander, who ever thought of it was lazy.
Naw bad takes since fl4k already does great things with his current mods lol. He has the most well rounded tree and his mods can change how I do his build yall are probably just bad. His last class mod actuall solved the 1 problem he had no class mod that really helped the green tree. Once they fix the issues of what resets it hes golden. Only real changes he needs are pet damage so a full on pet build where ur pet does 90%of the damage becomes viable
Most COMs on launch BL2 felt the same way. Some never got better and some only got better with a level cap increase.
The bounty hunter mod triggers any kill skill not even ones you spec into…sometimes. I’ve noticed it will rez my pet when I hit enemies with it equipped which is another mod’s kill skill
But bounty hunter also doesn’t trigger the badass kill skill unless your shooting a badass. The mod is wonky and I only use st4kbot if I run a terror lucky 7 build, rakk pak, or cosmic. Cosmic has always been underated and never mentioned but it is his best starting mod
I don’t think anyone is underrating the Cosmic Stalker COM. It is a fantastic COM. The Bounty Hunter tends to be better at higher level play, IMO, because of the proliferation of badasses all over the map. But a Stalker COM with fantastic passives can rival a Bounty Hunter COM with lesser passives for certain.
I just see people only saying get bounty which is for bossing sure but for takedown its about stalker, st4kbot, or rakk