The annointed post and poll

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

Note: please read through the post before answering the poll.

So, I’m going to say it that in my personal opinion, annointed gear is ringing the game… It makes it impossible to balance, instead of focusing on gear people are focussing on annoints, annointments, important things like gear and action skills and skill trees are all taking a back seat all due to annointments. Below is why I say this:

Annointments being the focus:
The dedicated gun you are farming for… Is trash unless you get the right annoint. However and okay gun is bankable if it has the right annoint.

Annointments greater than action skills:
New more powerful annointments are being brought out… action skills don’t scale at all.

Annointments greater than skill trees:
The bonuses on skill trees are all in the 10-40% range while annoints are all in the 100-300% range… and annoints are much easier to sustain then some skills
There are examples below just to showcase the number difference

So here is the question . How do we fix this imbalance… Cast your vote below. Personally I think annointments should be bonuses not focuses… They should give 10-30% bonus. Then balance the game and make it about guns again. Where the gun that drops is what you want you will actually use it and the annoint is a bonus… not a requisite. Suddenly all annoints are interesting… 25% Crit damage while airborne or 30% while health over 90. Interesting debate.

    1. Leave gear annoints alone (even if it means they will always be too powerful and cause endless balance issues)
    1. Leave annoints alone but let the players ReRoll using iridium (even though it makes weapon farming pointless)
    1. Nerf annoints so they all give bonuses that are 10-30% buffs (balance content to this new meta… make content beatable without annoints)
    1. Nerf annoints so they all give bonuses that are 10-30% buffs and allow rerolling of annoints using iridium (balance content to this new meta… make content beatable without annoints)
    1. Remove annointments from the game. They are a failed experiment… we don’t need that calypso BS. (Balance without annoints)

0 voters

I have another two posts on drop rates and annointment overturning and a poll before the takedown release that shows what will bring people back to BL3
Examples as mentions about skills vs annoints
Note1: annoints are incredibly easy to keep up compared to skills
Note2: I know the calculations are much more complex than I’m about to show… And elemental bonus make it even more… so I’ll just show weapon damage as an example

Zane: with Donnybrook (X2) + Synchronicity(X2) + Double barrel swap + Confident competence ( atfull shield) +violent momentum (at default walk speed) = 30%+40%+25%+35%+20% = 150% weapon damage (If you can keep all of those skills full and stacked)
Or
Just have an action skill up and get +200% weapon damage as an annoint

Moze: with click click(at low ammo) + drowning in brass (full stacks) + armored infantry(with shields up) + desperate measures + tenacious defence + phalanx doctrine (let’s say 5 stacks) = 60% + 60% +15% + 50% + 30% + 50% = 275% weapon damage
(If you can keep all of those skills full and stacked)
Or
+200% for consecutive hits for just shooting enemies
Or +300 for enemies over 90% health

FL4k: interplanetary stalker (3 stacks) + The most dangerous game + grim harvest + persistence hunter + Frenzy (10 stacks) + horned slag and barbaric yawp + pack tactics + power inside + the fast and furryous + hidden machine + turn tail and run + furious attack = 30% + 25% + 15% + 12% + 40% + 45% + 21% + 25% 25% + 30% + 25% + 20% = 313% (even though this is impossible due to skill tree dispersion and limited skill points)
Or
Just have an action skill up and get +200% weapon damage as an annoint
Or +200% for consecutive hits for just shooting enemies
Or +300 for enemies over 90% health

(I’m going to skip amara as I’m not as familiar with her and it’s alot more element instead of weapon damage which is a whole new calculation… if someone else wants to do an example I’ll add it here)

5 Likes
Why Borderlands 3 has such a stale endgame meta (and why this isn't an easy problem to fix)
Asking for ideas: how to fix Borderlands 3
Asking for ideas: how to fix Borderlands 3
#2

i wouldnt say rerolling but an other crafting or separate item system but yea
this and nerfing (balancing) them

#3

I’m a bit torn.

Because of the way this game is balanced, I think it would be a bad idea if GB actually did nerf anointments. The big problem when they nerf things is that they often don’t give anything to compensate. In this case, I really don’t think they would adjust enemy scaling to the point where this wouldn’t hurt a lot. I think this option would basically require another redesign of the entire mayhem progressions system.

However, ideally I would be totally OK with them nerfing anointments. The way they work now is silly, since you are correct in that 80% of anointments boil down to “use action skill, get as much gun damage as your character has in all of their skill trees”. They just provide a ridiculous amount of damage as they are right now, and anything that can’t benefit from anointed effects (like a lot of Action skills right now) gets left in the dust.

If the activation requirements or effects they gave were more interesting, then I would be totally ok with having the bonuses so high. But as they are now it’s just kind of boring, and if they insist on keeping the system as it is then at least lowering the bonuses will make it so that they are more of an accessory to a build than the main course.

3 Likes
#4

Remove them. They destroy pacing, cover up itemization issues, and make balancing harder.

14 Likes
#5

What I posted yesterday in a similar post: The developers were experimenting with new additions to the borderlands franchise in the form of anointments. It hasn’t worked. They make or break weapons and builds. They should be removed.

Borderlands 3 needs a strong foundation upon which future content can be built. Adding and piling on to a brittle foundation will only lead to more problems. This game needs to be fun and balanced for levels 1-57, no anointments, no mayhem. When it’s in a great spot start brainstorming ideas for a future mayhem mode or anointments that add utility to the vault hunters, not quadrupling damage.

12 Likes
#6

Anointments take away from build diversity instead of adding to it. I would love to see them gone.

6 Likes
#7

Actually, anointments add to build diversity because it provides another element to builds instead of taking away.

The problem is that there are just WAY TOO MANY anointments that are useless and pollute loot pools making it very difficult to get the best anointment for your particular set up.

If GB just removed all of the useless anointments and only drop anoints respective to the VH being played it wouldnt be so bad.

3 Likes
#8

they did it right in TPS with moonshines. They should have worked on it a bit more instead of the 2-300% damage anointements.

3 Likes
#9

@lolli42 when I put ReRoll that is open ended. Whether it’s an RNG roll of the dice . A crafting ability or some other method of changing the annoint on a piece of gear.

@boombumr I know the thought of rescaling is worrying, however they are still playing with scaling as is… So it would just be number tweaks in hotfixes not full patches so that may speed it up.
If they had a PTR that might help.development as well.

1 Like
#10

Digiclone 130% / ammo regen (time out)
vs
Barrier 70% crit / Elemntal Chance (dmg)
vs
SNTL reload/ FR vs SNTL 100% Cryo

Where is the diversity w/ this on M10?
Most Zanes use 50/150 or SNTL Cryo.

There is no diversity.

That is the thing, most anointments are crap and would rather see them all flushed in the toilet instead of holding on to the few decent ones. If we didn’t scrap them all they would need to to make new better ones to add diversity again and here we are in the GBX failed loop cycle of messing things up again. I would rather this mess up just be gone.

1 Like
#11

@tuck7216
The problem still remains that the good annoints are way over powered and dwarf the ability to make action skills and skill trees useful again. Now if all the different annoints were on the same (lower) level then that could be interesting. Would you take action skill end gives 15% weapon damage or airborne gives 25 % Crit damage? Would you take under 50% health gives 25 % bonus radiation or action skill end gives 25% radiation for next two mags. Even out the numbers and more annoints means more builds available
@jbow2020
Read above … nerfing/leveling perks to a bonus level instead a build dominant level would open up diversity

1 Like
#12

The “useless anoints” would actually be useful for build diversity if the “not useless” anoints were not equivalent to at minimum doubling your damage.

2 Likes
#13

@Jastorm187

I understand your point and have to agree. However, NOTHING is overpowered in BL3 for long. GB has nerfed everything good. Even the 300/90 anointment and have managed to render that useless as well.

I personally am sick to death of nerfs.

2 Likes
#14

@tuck7216
One nerf to rule them all. Change this then get to work on buffing weapons properly… Not the tip toe method of doing 8 out of 200+ legendaries at a time. I think they are so scared to over power the gear they forget people need decent weapons… With annoints nerfed they could focus on weapons I start of ridiculous annointments that there isnt a good way to farm. (At least dedicated gear has a source)

3 Likes
#15

In my opinion, there isn’t any valid excuse for a generic annoint to be more powerful than any class specific annoint. Why doesn’t an annoint that works for any VH more potent than one limited to a VH(and usually an action skill within that VH)?

3 Likes
#16

If all weapons were balanced properly, we wouldnt need anointments. I can certainly agree here but GB cant even spell balance unfortunately.

My concern is that the removal if anointments would be just that. GB would intentionally forget to adjust weapon damage accordingly or it would be a very long time to balance out.

2 Likes
#17

Wouldn’t change the game much :rofl:

5 Likes
#18

@jbow2020

LMFAO

1 Like
#19

@vCarpeDiemv. I agree with that
Zane has “swap with clone and get 130% weapon damage for a short time”
Now he has “while action skill active, get 200% weapon damage”.
Ummm so the swap one is pointless… Harder to keep active for less of a bonus! W … T… F

2 Likes
#20

Action skills as of right now are just good for anointment procs. I think action skills should be really impactful to gameplay and what makes your character special/unique. Action skill end anointments are especially unbalanced. Just get a character with a low cooldown action skill and get ase elements on your shield and grenade and ase damage on your gun and your doing infinitely more damage. Not to mention the extra projectiles the game has to create because that’s how those anointment work. No wonder the game crashes more than it should.

Now they’re balancing the game based off of powerful anointments and new unbalanced cartel weapons and m6+ weapons so 99% of guns are not viable anymore. Bad design and balance imo.

4 Likes