I was generally curious how the characters rank in the OP8 Meta. I know Salvador is easily the best character in the game and there are a few raid bosses that Zer0 can bore easily and what not… This game is hardly linear so a list is hard since you would have to categorize it… But how would you rank the characters in terms of tiers (Salvador being Top tier).
InB4 every character is useful it just depends on your playstylen blah blah blah.
Depends on your criteria for the ranking. Are you talking your favorite to play, general damage dealer and survivability, most/least weakest skills at level 72/OP8, noob friendly usability? I think it’s been shown that every character can handle just about every situation in the main game and all dlc (some easier than others of course). But to answer your question (sort of) here are my favorite characters to play:
1- Sal: he was the first character I tried when I visited friends about 2 and a half years ago and I like the little sociopath…
2- Zero: the most challenging character for me to play (mainly because I tend to forget he’s not Sal or Krieg) but the second character I tried when I visited those above mentioned friends. Easy is nice but challenging is more rewarding…
3- Axton: he’s the first character I played when I got the game for myself plus, like me, he’s ex-military (another reason I hated the AR’s in this game the first time I tried them- seriously, a weapon that fires in an arc that’s not a grenade launcher? Bull).
4- Krieg: I love the chaos and insanity of Krieg- plus when played right he’s damn near unkillable…
5- Gaige: another chaotic character, I actually started in her LBT tree first before trying Anarchy…
6- Maya- what’s not to like? She can snipe almost as well as Zero and can (with the right set up) deal out amazing amounts of damage- a real boss (and raid boss) killer…
in order of what? killing power? fun? DPS output?
Fun Order.
I mean actual meta discussion. Like if you had to choose 1 character to beat a certain thing at OP8 (which wouldn’t be specified to you until you picked your character) and if you didn’t your console/PC would explode which would you choose to be sure to prevent that from happening?
Krieg, every thing, every time.
Axton and Sal would be dead last for me.
Numbers 1 and 2 go to Gaige and Krieg respectively.
The rest? Well, Maya is better than Zer0, but that has more to with the fact that I lack the finesse required with Zer0.
1.-Krieg
2.-Krieg
3.-Krieg
4.-Krieg
5.-Krieg
6.-Sal
7.-Gaige
8.-Zero
20.-Maya
999.-Axton
There’s no objective best or worst character, it’s how each character caters to your playstyle that differentiates them. Or something like that.
That being said, for favorites in terms of gameplay I’d rank them:
And character-wise it would be:
edit: just saw OP’s inb4, ayy lmao
Fixed that for ya. 
Let’s see.
For ease of use:
For DPS:
For the fun factor:
I like Krieg. 
We have to be unbiased. Believe Gulf, there is no bias in here.
xD
Biased? Me? Nah. 
i don’t have experience with Krieg, but I’ve played all of the others over 72.
Order of favorites:
Order I’d take them in to try to solo the tough stuff:
Axton. The first character I capped out, he’s my favorite character. He is easy to play, fun to play, and when built right he can deal astounding amounts of damage.
Sal. The second character I capped. Unkillable with the Grog, he is the only character I have solo’d al the raid bosses with, and my only character at OP8.
Zer0. At only lvl56, I am really enjoying playing Zer0. I used to hate him, but once I learnt how to play him properly, I started having fun. With the right build, he can be a powerhouse. At the moment I keep running him through SSaP just to see how quickly I can get through it with him.
Krieg. The most metal character of the Borderlands series, his style can only be described as “grindcore influenced hacking and slashing”. While only at lvl40-something, I can already see his powerful AS becoming even more powerful, and with the right build he can deal as much damage as Sal.
Gaige. The second most metal character of the Borderlands series (come on, who doesn’t love summoning a killer robot to the sound of Megadeth’s Sudden Death or Sepultura’s Refuse/Resist?), I have seen ridiculous amounts of damage being dealt with her. Anarchy is a great skill, and no good Gaige build should be without it.
Maya. Again, Maya can deal stupid amounts of damage with the right build. However, I think her playstyle is not for everyone. That being said, I do love Phaselocking enemies during the BNKR fight and unloading my fire-rate boosted Plasma Caster into the great flying machine.
There’s my list. I know some people will disagree etc. but that’s to be expected.
Just going by my favorites?
Sal and Zer0 I can’t say yet. I haven’t reached max level with Zer0 yet, and I’ve only played 72 Sal with @xmngr so far, so I can’t judge him solo.
Go rampage or chain bloodsplosions with this.
I’m basing my ranking on how well I like the design and mechanics of each character. We all know that Sal is the best at Raids but Krieg and Maya are the best at mobbing which is where the majority of the game is won and lost.
Nailed it!
In my opinion Axton and Maya are the two easiest to mob with.
Talking about damage, Salvador, Gaige, Krieg, Zer0 and Axton are the ones you look for.
Also, Zer0 is the hardest to master.
It is hard to rank the VH, but Maya is a step behind in raiding and one step foward in mobing. The rest is kinda balanced.
A cunning/b0re build is fairly easy to master, but a full melee or sniper build is very difficult to master, especially in UVHM.