Let's stop 'fixing' what isn't actually broken

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

This is in reference to the changes to ASE and fakegrasping.

I understand how it may not have been “intentional,” but that doesn’t change the fact that many players enjoyed having it in the game. Besides giving Amara a much needed damage boost, it also allowed her to reach 25 mindfulness stacks easily. Considering here lackluster bossing capabilities, this doesn’t seem broken in any regard.

Part of what made BL2 so fun was that people found exploits and were able to make builds around them without fear of them being removed from the game. The Gunzerker thrived off of abusing game mechanics and it brought joy to many players, including myself, and it didn’t take away from peoples experience considering you could either choose not to do it or not play with friends doing it.

It doesn’t even make sense from a tactical standpoint considering these fixes often infuriate large swaths of the Borderlands fanbase and drive many players away from the franchise. Instead of fixing mechanics that aren’t overpowered or gamebreaking, why doesn’t gearbox focus more energy on fixing what is broken and does hurt the games playability, such as weapon balancing and unusable/not working skills? It makes more sense to address these issues first rather than target elements of the game that make for a fun play experience for those choosing to use them.

Less nerfs and more buffs and needed fixes are the way to keep the game healthy and keep the playerbase satisfied. Gearbox should focus on doing that rather than fixing skills that are enjoyable to many players.

11 Likes
#2

tbh, that should have been fixed since it says “Action Skill End” and fake grasping is not action skill end.
They could have fixed it another way though, by returning to how it was when fake grasp would actually end the skill and you’d have to wait for the cooldown.
That would make more sense because of how using for example phasecast and missing would proc the anoint. Same thing now with MNTIS, though it’s easy to manage MNTIS cooldown so you can spam it…

Also, just to be clear, I was also using a fake gamma burst recently for the terror anoints but otherwise I don’t see a reason for fake gamma burst anyway, just to start the cycle maybe, but with phasegrasp/ttb, it’s a bit too spammable.

1 Like
#3

I don’t care. I care about having an enjoyable game and having an active userbase more than I care about technicalities. The new cryo element doesn’t work with Amara’s infusion ability. Ascendant doesn’t buff expedite from Amara’s new tree. These are much more significant issues that should have been prioritized over ASE’s proccing off of fakegrasp. Instead of fixing the issues with the new trees, they prioritized something that pissed off some of their fanbase and effectively nerfed two characters.

6 Likes
#4

Sure, I can agree with you on the other stuff you just mentioned, and I’ll add to that, Commitment still stacking endlessly is sort of a bug since it doesn’t say it (But tbh, funny thing, while leveling my Phaseflare Amara I’m using a COM that boosts vigor and I’ve learned that it also has some stacking even though it doesn’t say it on the card, though I remember pre-launch they did have a description with stacks…)

If you want an answer why all this happens is because they’re trying to make everyone happy but in the end are failing at that because they can’t sit down and make their own design that makes sense but listen to people that want broken gameplay and people who want balanced gameplay.
Just saying…
Here’s a quote by one of the customer service people when I wrote to them about some Bugs:

“I can assure you that we go through all the reports which are sent to us by our players and community from the forums and social as well! Which is the basis of all of these numerous and continuous changes to the weapons and game mechanics and characters! All these nerfing and buffing of the characters and weapons and interactions. The whole thing is rather dynamic.”

1 Like
#5

Imagine them spending their time ACTUALLY “fixing” something and it was this instead of making sure the game was playable for an entire platform upon release of the latest content.

4 Likes
#6

I for one enjoy that the bear cub has no mayhem scaling and sucks at m10. Imagine if they made it usable upon release lmao

2 Likes
#7

the endless noodling of VH skills, gun damage and other nitpicks, often in the form of stealth nerfs, has been a pet peeve of mine since the game dropped.

4 Likes
#8

I remember how royally pissed players were with the nerfs early on in this games lifecycle. My attitude is focus on fixing real issues (like game lag in inventories/ recursion shots) and let players have fun with exploits in the meantime. If something is too insane (like the old school bee shield) take it down a notch. Them nerfing the flakker, Moze, Spiritual Driver, etc. was a bad call and angered the fanbase, which was already upset by the amount of bugs that were in the game at launch.

3 Likes
#9

It’s why I don’t play the game anymore… BL2, I can pick up and enjoy. BL3 just makes me mad…

5 Likes
#10

Ya know the people working on balancing aren’t the ones working on bug fixes right? It’s not like it’s one person or even one team working on EVERYTHING.

Balancing can be done much faster then bug fixing.

3 Likes
#11

Uhhhhhhhh

6 Likes
#12

Or, they could have fixed the skill card description to say what it actually DID do, whilst keeping the fun intact.

But that’d fall in line with Basics of Game Design 101, and go in diametric opposition to their vision for this game.

Re: Vanilla Game<hotfix<DLC<hotfix for next DLC<next DLC<hot fix for next Season<next Season DLC<hotfix for next DLC<ad nauseum…

…wherein hotfix* is “code”** for massive nerfs to all of the current top end gear, in anticipation of the next gamebreakingly l33t items available only if the next paid upgrade is purchased.

*no actual fixes implied

**code not valid where defined as viable 1s or 0s.

1 Like
#13

I mean it now just means amara players have to play more intelligently rather than mindlessly fake grasping chose the 200% damage while active and pick the right enemy to phase grasp rather than just mindlessly spaming you buttons and hoping for the best

2 Likes
#14

Problem is that perhaps things like these should have been fixed right as they were found since the release days? Not letting players use these ‘mechanics’ for almost a year and then take that away.

7 Likes
#15

The lead on the team that fixed it is an amara main might tell you something about why it went untouched for so long lol

1 Like
#16

Ah, I’ve heard the same 10+ years ago in World of Warcraft. “Ghostcrawler (Lead Designer) plays a Mage because he keeps buffing them” and that “he must really hate Paladins, he constantly nerfs them” which became almost memes of those days.

Then eventually it turned out he mostly played Holy Priest. :smiley:

#17

The drip drip drip of “we didn’t mean it to work that way” has definitely been a big minus in this game.

2 Likes
#18

I do not main Amara.

She remains my least played BL3 VH, to this day.

And I have 2 Amaras at level 65.

I just find her meh, all around - a far less interesting, if a [only in her own game’s mechanics] more powerful version of Maya.

But I DO think that she ought be/remain as fun as possible for the people who do main her.

My main is the only other female VH in BL3.

I was going to main Zane, the only he in the game, as I identify… but the pre-launch nerfs butchered him, and by the time the Seein’ Dead Patch came out in DLC1, my fvcks were already better spent elsewhere.

The it of the game has been on and off really interesting, depending on the batch of nerfs/buffs/DLC of the Day, at the time, but has always been in second place to the ginger midget. Speaking of it/FL4K, I find hilarious that the walking AI of the gsme, identifies as NOT 1s and 0s. Also: mad props to the person who decided to put the 4 in its name… L+G+B+T=4 is a pretty slick maneuver.

#19

Yeah except the lead on this team was in one of the earlier borderlands show videos stating he mained amara that was gearboxes own stream they organised lol

1 Like
#20

And I stand by my earlier statement it was aimed at every one not you before this change I would always choose my anointment was I going to get better use out of 100% or 200% and I would play accordingly the simple reality is though for amara if you’re using 100% you likely do not need the anointment as things will be dying to quickly for it to be worth while if you really need the extra damage than enemies are likely alive alot longer thus 200% is still better