Railgun-Capcitive Armature's mechanism

[jhp525 (NEMEsiz)]

Before start, what is ‘Capacitive Armature’ ?

When I saw this skill card description at first time, I thought “Oh, so this is chain lightning like thing in other RPG games.”. But no, It’s different.

(1) Actually, this ‘chain lightning’ always hits only two additional targets.
In this picture, you can see total three targets are damaged by Iron Bear. number 1 target is hit by railgun laser, number 2 and 3 targets are hit by chain lightning. Interesting thing is number 1 target is not hit by chain lightning damage.(2775 dmg in picture.)

If you want hit number 1 target (with chain lightning) too, it needs there is no third target. Then, chain lightning damages number 1 target and number 2 target.

Or number 1 target is alone, you need close to target for chain lightning be occurred. Then chain lightning is occurred between you and number 1 target. Don’t worry, chain lightning doesn’t hurt you.

(2) Chain lightning damages enemies 5 times(ticks).

25K dmg is railgun laser. (thick red square)
17K dmg is chain lightning. (thin red squares)
3013 dmg is status effect.

(For reference, original video)

Iron Bear-Railgun-Capacitive Armature

Now let’s look at skill card description again and calculate.
‘-30%’ means 70% of dmg, right? and I told you it hits 5 times. 70%*5 times=350%.
So can say splinter damage is +350%. Not the -30%.

This is mechanism and why that Capcitive Armature can erase enemies on battle field. …And you will hate this part. I think it needs nerf…or remake? just like general chain lightning.(like can damage number 1 target properly too and weaker than original railgun laser dmg). Or just fix skill card description? …or nothing. Well, that is just my thought.

Thank you for watching, now I have to write(ctrl C, ctrl V) this on 2k support.

[boombumr (Here comes the BOOOOM)]

What about this do you feel requires a nerf? It’s working exactly as intended, and has been buffed multiple times to get to this point where it feels powerful. It doesn’t cause performance issues, there are no exploits associated with it, and it doesn’t deal splash damage for vampyr healing meaning there’s a bit of a trade off to using it. So what would your reasoning be?

[jhp525 (NEMEsiz)]

Sorry and thanks, that’s good point.
From the conclusion, well… personal desire? I know it looks weird. But let me explain. You said ‘intended’, before all IB patch and hotfixes I thought Capactive Armature’s role is major weapon for taking off shields of enemies. Because it’s shock elemental. And it worked really fine as its role.

Of course, that intend can be changed anytime. And I can’t say that I know dev’s intend. I couldn’t, I can’t and I will not be able to. Just all my guess.

If i remember correctly, it was preparing for Mayhem 2.0 patch that CA(Capacitive Armature)'s dmg number be changed. After that, I keep feel weird when I use CA. It’s fun and powerful but splinter dmg can literally erase enemies while original laser cannot? It makes me keep feel weird.

But still I need to deal with this my thought about CA as far as I can try. Because It keep me remind about CA thing whenever play Borderlands 3 and Moze. So even there will be no change, I tried and satisfied. I hope that this is as answer to you!

[13igTyme (RIP Kevin - 11/21/19 - Gone but not forgotten.)]

CA has always had the chaining effect. The base rail gun was buffed before the M2.0 patch, so naturally it made all the augments better. I can also speak from experience that the others are just as good. Sabot is better on a single target and I’ve had the explosion trigger TCP which then kills everything in the area. Hell on rails is just the base turned incendiary. No additional effect, but still good in the right area.

[jhp525 (NEMEsiz)]

Uh… sorry? I didn’t say CA’s chaining effect changes. Its mechanism has been no change. I checked it at about February, and also before writing this topic.

@Noelle_GBX

• Increased the base damage of the Railgun
• Reduced Capacitive Armature’s damage reduction from -75% to -30%
• Reduced Corrosive Sabot Round’s damage reduction from -50% to -15%

These are from hotfix at April, 09, 2020. I wanted to say about second one. And I agree with you about railguns are good IB hard points. I usually placed CA on right arm and placed Hell on Rails and Sabot on left arm. I changed HoR and Sabot when suitable situation comes.

[thepersonwithaface]

I think what we really need to worry about is viable bear fists…

[jhp525 (NEMEsiz)]

Hmm… Yes, however probably I can agree and disagree with that. Let me explain!

-What I agree with you-
Close combat IB hard points. High damage like railgun. But can’t hit critical hit(in other word, no need to aim for critical hit). Last, high fuel consuming like railgun. These are what Bear Fists be. It means hard to use. But I didn’t use BF since… well, too old day to remember it. So my state can’t say it clearly.

Anyway I didn’t say what I agree with you about BF yet. I think IB’s hard point that actually most needed remaking is ‘Close the Distance’. It consumes more fuel than other Bear Fists. But even can’t use to drag out enemies from the cover. I couldn’t find its use while my entire playtime of Borderlands 3. Maybe catching loot enemy running away from player or using on team playing?

-What I don’t agree with you-
I can’t say that BFs need buff because I don’t have actual playing data. I had a plan for BF build Moze with Raging Bear legendary class mod long ago, for playing like beserker in Borderlands. But just a plan.

This picture is another example why hard to use BFs. I think that if player wants to use BFs properly, should unlock and use Shockhammer augment at least for one arm. It means require 20 skill points. Then should purchase Stainless Steel Bear and Vampyr(with Wild Swing) for sustaining IB. And you don’t want to miss Specialist Bear for double Bear Fists. For the end, you need give up capstone skills. But this one has become old problem now. Because max level increased and Mayhem action skill scaling patch arrived. Maybe can give up Specialist Bear instead of capstone skills now.

And… excuse myself, but I think that your saying back up my idea about CA above there. Slightly I guess. Which means “Why don’t we choose to use Bear Fist?” and “Because powerful Railgun is beside of it in the same skill tree. Who need it?”.

P.S For the record, I’m not saying like ‘all Railguns need to be nerfed for make players to using Bear Fists.’. I’m not.

[cailte (NeonSherpa)]

Melee damage bonuses need to affect IB fists. They don’t currently. The devs are probably unaware of this and I’m not interested enough In the playstyle to throw in a support ticket.

I imagine we’ll get it fixed if someone asks.