New player questions

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#101

Jackenstein is a PITA to deal with IMO, I never liked this fight :frowning:

What ? That’s bogus! Once again the Wiki is full of it (@Gulfwulf another place where the wiki needs some love)

In my experience, shock deals a lot of damage but I don’t have proof of anything.
Just keep at it
it’s a tough fight, one that I don’t do for fun.
Maybe your gear is underleveled ?

Maya’s strength is mobbing, bosses are a harder command for her, especially those where you can’t phaselock anything. All the characters have weaknesses, and bosses are Maya’s. I wouldn’t call her useless though, there is plenty you can still do without phaselock.

#102

My experience with the capacitors is the same. My fastest Jackenstein take-downs have been with a Storm (shock sniper); I’ve also used a shock Rubi, shock plasma caster, and various corrosives on the capacitors. The main thing is to make sure you hit the darn things, and don’t end up sending bullets back at yourself!

The Storm is really effective on J.'s critical spot once the capacitors are off, due to it’s mode of action. Also, quasars (or Teslas or Storm Fronts). Lots and lots of them.

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#103

Ruin will give a bit of a hit, and drop some slag on the target, even if it won’t phaselock. Well-targetted Scorn can got you places too. With both M.Momma and J. there are things you can phaselock to get Wreck and Elated working for you. I don’t remember Rakkanoth, but Arizona went down pretty fast for me. It’s those enemies that make or break you based more on your current gear/COM/relic combination than your build (although the build still contributes.)

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#104

Just wants to point out that I don’t know of a single person who likes the fight with J. Him and master gee are the worst fights in the game IMO.

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#105

For jackenstein, once the capacitors are down, and the robot minions are out, wait for the face to be exposed, PL a robot minion, and chain reaction will take care of the rest (may take a couple PLs). I used a Hammerbuster and a blockade for the entire fight. The fight itself isn’t the easiest as a whole, but I didn’t find it as taxing as I expected. Make sure to abuse elated and sweet release during the early phases, as most of your healing will come from management of the minions when they come out. Until they do, move around, a lot

Motor Mama was a total pain, but I didn’t have issues with Arizona

#106

I’ll take “J” any day over Master Gee, did the 15 times for the BAR challenge (on 1 toon) for Gee, which is why I will never tackle him again.

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#107

I did gee on normal for the challenge and 1 time at lvl 72

#108

1 time each in TVHM and UVHM, the rest in NVHM to complete the challenge

#109

I don’t bother to raid in tvhm lol. Well I did before the level cap increase.

#110

In the sense that I leveled (56) since I was last in Sanctuary or anywhere relevant to gear-farming. :slightly_smiling: Against mobs, level 53 fire Emperor, level 55 Good Touch, level 54 green three-barrel Hyperion fire shotgun, and level 53 Hornet have worked extremely well. The aforementioned blue Vladof shock pistol took care of Bloodtail with no problems. The shield is a purple 53 adaptive from a Sanctuary vending machine a while back.

In non-phaselock fights, my current build effectively has 22 points (Foresight, Immolate, Cloud Kill, Ruin, and Ward). Sustenance will help, but that’s a couple levels away yet.

The capacitors are the only crit spots at the start of the fight, correct? I was definitely seeing “critical” on my screen a lot so I assumed I was hitting the target. Though neither weapon I used is especially accurate, even ADS. If fire works, I could try the Emperor. I think I have a blue Dahl shock SMG as a backup shock weapon; on the other hand it’s level 52 (that’s why I’m not sure if I still have it).

Rakkanoth is the big rakk you summon with the fireworks. Phaselock only applies Ruin, nothing nearby for Wreck/Sweet Release/Elated/second winds. Death put me in the starting cave, so I slowly cheesed it from there.

Arizona wasn’t dangerous thanks to the big pillars to duck around, but it was incredibly slow. Almost depleted my entire SMG ammo pool.

#111

This might be a fight where having more levels (i.e. skill points) would come in handy. You could always try it later and by then, you should have better- or at least higher level- gear to work with


#112

Yeah, probably. I just watched Derch’s video on this DLC and he got Jackenstein into the next phase in a few seconds, where I wasn’t even coming close in several minutes.

It’s just incredibly frustrating that I’ve been playing this game for three months/300 hours and my DLC completion remains at 1/4 (1). I really wish this game made UVHM unlock by simply hitting level 50, not by killing The Warrior in TVHM, so that one could do the main game in NVHM, then do TVHM exclusively within the DLCs. Heck, in most RPGs I do the DLCs before even touching the main story!

(1): which isn’t entirely fair to Tiny Tina’s, since I bailed on that one because Axton hit 36 and really needed to start TVHM. Plus I hate crusher trap puzzles. :stuck_out_tongue:

#113

What about jump puzzles :stuck_out_tongue:

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#114

My own Jackenstein tips, in case these help (some of this you may already know):

  1. Jakobs gear, since they’re generally non-elemental but have high crit damage, are great for the capacitors and face. When you’re working them over, you won’t really see the damage bar move until one pops, so just keep at it. You can tell if you’re making progress, because they’ll start to leak electricity (and, in fact, if you get close to him, you’ll get shocked). Non-elemental Jakobs gear is also good because Jackenstein is, outside of these soft spots, largely reflective of bullets. Elemental weapon fire that comes back at you and opens up a can of DoT can ruin your day fast.

  2. In between capacitor failures, Jackenstein will jump up to his nook and some Loaders will come out. Gank the EXP and ION Loaders first, then whittle them down to maybe just two, then shoot their arms off. This will immobilize them and reduce their only firing solution to their eye burst (which is fairly easy to dodge). Save these immobilized Loaders as Jackenstein blockades. When he comes at you, position the Loader between you and him (you have to be somewhat accurate with it), and he will hang on the Loader when trying to advance on you, basically immobilizing him. Take some free capacitor and/or face shots (you just have to jump over the occasional Loader shot).

  3. When both capacitors are down, the Jack face behind his chest shield is pretty much his only vulnerable spot. At first, it will only really be exposed when Jackenstein rears up for his shock attack (at which point you want to lay into it). Note that if you don’t seem to be able to hit the face regardless of what’s going on, there is an occasional glitch where the face is immune to attacks (like it’s clipped behind Jackenstein’s surface or something). Given that Jackenstein’s health bar doesn’t seem to move proportionally to his actual health, it is easy to be patiently waiting for the health bar to drop when you’re not really doing any damage. Look for the CRIT signs.

  4. The Transformer shield basically negates Jackenstein’s shock attacks (plus ION Loader attacks, and the shock attacks of any immobilized Loaders). If this fight if giving you a rough time, a Transformer shield will really take the edge off. It’ll even absorb some of the weapon fire from regular Gun Loaders.

  5. It’s possible to do this without being strapped for ammo, so I rarely use those two ammo chests, but if you’re hurting, they can also provide a lot of health. When I’m within a sliver of dying, I’ve had those drop like four health vials, turning the game around. Jackenstein is relentless, so I activate them as I run by, then circle back to see what came up. If you stop long enough to check them out and pick them up, Jackenstein will hammer you.
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#115

Is there any way to regain the ability to fast travel without either beating Jackenstein (which we’ve established that I can’t do in my present circumstances) or laboriously fighting my way all the way back through the entire Candlerakk’s Crag map again?

The bane of my existence, in games where they matter. Thankfully all I’m missing in BL2 is the Slab UHF challenge, which is fine by me.

#116

Jerkenstein gave me fits at one point, and as far as I know, you do have to walk back if you don’t finish it out.
As a relative noob myself, I think you may be best off waiting for 72 and coming back for him with an arsenal and full skill set, that’s how Gaige and maya both did it for me.
A shock Hail will do lovely things to his face btw :smiling_imp:

#117

that one I hate, but if you are in a friends game and they get it, you also get credit for it. That’s how I finally got it

#118

Aha, cunning plan successful! :grinning: This game doesn’t track location separately between game modes (which I keep forgetting since it seems far more natural to me to treat NVHM, TVHM, and UVHM entirely separately from each other), so I could load in NVHM where I’d never started the Hammerlock DLC. That put me at the start point in Hunter’s Grotto, so after enduring the unskippable DLC intro movie again Sanctuary was just one click away. Loading back in UVHM, and I’m in Sanctuary just like I wanted.

Cool. Very unlikely to ever happen, in my case, but that’s a good way for a game to do things. In some sense GW2 does it that way if your friend happens to be a Mesmer (they have a short range teleport skill, and can usually get the jumping-puzzle-inept directly to the end of a puzzle that way). LOTRO, not so much - I can still vividly remember the one time I did the Tower of Eaworth back when the cap was 75. Took me over half an hour to finally make it all the way to the top, with my guild leader riding her freakin’ horse up and down the jumping puzzle encouraging me, she was that insanely good at such things
 :stuck_out_tongue:

But I’m getting off-topic, sorry


#119

I use a DPUH for the capacitors. Very effective! And I’ve noticed that a shock Pimp + Chain Reaction is super effective. Phaselock a loader, and hit J where it hurts!

#120

I used a purple shock sniper w/burst for his capacitors and hid around the container in between taking out loaders that were close. Keeping some alive for 2nd winds.
I just wanted to get this over with and finish this DLC and get his drop for my bucket list.
Hiding around the container did alright but about 4 times in a row got trapped by him blocking any shots to the loaders for 2nd winds.
Final straw was he glitched on his 2nd return jump and was stranded where he lands.
I was trying to hit him with slight damage with everything I had (Gunzerking) knowing he wouldn’t do his shock attack.
Accidentally had a RL in slot 4 and well
:smiley:
Saw a vid on the “safe” room by the container area. Used that (Lame I know) and got through him and the DLC. Took about 5 times to get the drop.
Now I have better weapons and might try him legit for fun, But I’d have to be pretty bored at that point.