Is later UVHM progression feasible without exploiting?

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

I have an appreciation for the action-rpg style games and there’s something about the core of Borderlands gameplay that has appeal over the alternatives that might be considered patron influence (the diablos and all their clones).

I enjoy settling into a niche style of play with these titles that includes a great deal of replayability: upping the ante, finding new challenges - rinse and repeat. And, while I generally still enjoy borderlands at my current place (level 72 UVHM sans-OP levels) the more I look over the state of he endgame the more something (a lot of things) seems wrong.

With a friend with a more, or less, mirrored play experience; I recently killed Terramorphous for the first time and the preparation required smacks somewhat unsatisfying. A collection of the token-good-weapons were acquired from a few quest turn-ins & torgue machines. Getting those items through normal play would have been impossible, though. We had to use read-only save exploits to repeat turn-ins in order to get the right weapons - as playing normally would have certainly resulted in the wrong weapons.

I can’t imagine anyone doing these quests or farming torgue tokens sufficiently to repeat the results acquired from hundreds of repeats. And our Terramorphous kill would have been simply impossible without those hundreds of turn ins.

Furthermore, flagging save files read-only to repeat quest turn-ins hundreds of times to save thousands of hours is still time consuming, repetitive, and tedious. And I have to wonder: with a general goal to run through end-game content as max level a time or two is there any reason not to just use a save editor at this point because engaging the content in a normal way that would consist of just playing the game seems completely impossible (not strictly impossible but again; is it really reasonable to expect someone to do full quest completions hundreds of times?).

This complaint has cropped up before entering OP levels where the damage reduction of everything becomes extreme and the incoming fire no doubt approaches the level of getting 1 shot (or brought to near 0 health as the health-gating control gives some level of reprieve from poor scaling).

My question to all of you that play UVHM at max level, and into the OP levels, is this: how much exploitation do you feel is necessary to enjoy borderlands game-play? How much is normal?

#2

Exploitation? Whatever are you talking about? There’s no exploitation going on here, no-sir-ree. image

#3

I don’t think op levels should be balanced, they were meant to push scaling higher than intended just for the sake of more difficulty.

About getting one-shotted at op8 you could start using builds focused on survivability with more health, shield capacity and regen. That dps-focused build that used to easily stomp everything at uvhm might not be the best approach at op8 (unless you have the reflexes of a hardcore diablo 2 player). A properly built psycho with more than 3 million health and 66% damage mitigation can even kill without weapons (except during ffyl).

For the necessary exploitation needed for me to enjoy bl2 at op8, here’s the stuff:
skillpoints, op8 rough rider, any level slagga, lvl15 sluj biddy, higher-than-lvl61 sickle classmod (may even be a blue, preferably a legendary though), higher-than-lvl61 vitality/blood of the ancients relic, an op8 unkempt harold (preferably DP) and a bit of practice to chain RtB’s together.

… but I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, my issue with op levels is that it allows op leveled gear be used at non-op games.

#4

Just play to where you feel comfortable at, yes it is feasible, no it is not easy and it is not meant to be easy.

It’s not true that you have to build to healthgating build, you can build tanky instead. The whole misnomer of everything one shoting you is from people running glass cannon builds, you don’t have to be a glass cannon and if you are a glass cannon you should expect to feel like one.

Quite a bit, I have yet to stop exploring pandora over 3 years and 1000’s of hours. That to me is the fun of the game. Exploring new gear, new combos, new set ups, etc…

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#5

[quote=“awakeandunder, post:1, topic:702767”][H]ow much exploitation do you feel is necessary to enjoy borderlands game-play?[/quote]It’s certainly not necessary, but people enjoy different aspects of the game, so the answer will vary depending on whom you ask.

First, remember that the OP levels were made as a kind of, “okay, tough guy, let’s see how you like this” difficulty. Like it’s not supposed to exist, but the developers went ahead and provided that DLC anyway, knowing how hard it would be, that the scaling would render some game mechanics and skills ineffective to the point of uselessness (and they still threw us a bone with the swap speed/slag duration buffs). This is not just the next the next step in the progression from Normal to True… this is something else.

That said, it is quite possible with run-of-the-mill drops. From the low-end items found in the vending machines to the high-end items found in the Golden chest. That said, not everyone will enjoy the shift in play style needed to run through UVHM/OP levels who isn’t coasting along on some overpowered game mechanic (Shamfleeting, Beehawking, DPUH Nozzling, whatever). Seriously, no more steamrolling through enemy camps (you go running into a mob of chump Bandits, and you’re very likely to get dropped). No more shrugging off DoT (you see someone firing an elemental weapon, you get to cover quick, and shift priorities). No more whittling away at an enemy’s health until they expire (unless you get lucky with a weapon drop, the health regeneration will outpace this until you’re out of ammo). You’ve got to maintain a lot of cover, debuff your target as much as you can, and lay into him until he’s dead, then move on to the next. Doing it with basic world drops is possible, but is not for the squeamish.

I don’t know if you ever saw this post? 100 is kind of a lot, but there is some truth there.

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#6

It’s possible. It’s feasible if you have the time.

1 Like
#7

Once your character reach level 72 and you got some good gear to boot (even purples). UVHM is pretty much the new TVHM, where OP8 actually feels more like UVHMish. There are plenty of ways to play a character with lot of different variation of loot, slightly less at OP8 but there are still some diversity there.

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#8

Define ‘exploit’- if you mean getting ‘perfect’ parts quest rewards by going thru read only files on a PC or quitting/signing in to your profile (a much faster way than dashboarding) to get what you want then no- I don’t see that as using an exploit. Weapon merging would be an exploit (and something that is only being mentioned as an example, not being advocated for!). If it’s something specific I really want- like a 3 round mag ROM- then spending several dozen attempts at getting it is just the price of doing business as I see it…

#9
#10

This isn’t an appropriate forum to discuss how or why you cheat.