Feb
1st
2016
Borderlands 2: Starlight DLC Skill Discussion · 5:10pm Feb 1st, 2016
On this blog, discuss the pros, cons, and generally your opinions of the skills Quantum came up with for the protagonists of the series. And right now, you can also get entered into a certain contest for discussing below!
And remember, talk with each other about these skills; this is effectively a forum for you guys to think about combinations and talk about what they could mean for the characters.
Quantum: So talk damn you, I can't work in a vacuum, or in the absence of feedback. I also need ideas for Trixie's third skill tree.
Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
3726781 Hey, it's the Fonz!
3726797 Good ol' Happy Days!
Wait, what? Trixie? Is that serious? Cause if so, that'd be AWESOME to see her on Pandora!
3727906 And Ditzy too.
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And Dinky, by extension.
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Oh, THIS oughta be good! Still, how are they gonna fit into all this? Main characters, side characters, cameos, what? And as for skills, if you post a summary or description of the kind of playstyle you're going for with them, maybe I can spit out some ideas.
3727961 Side characters/cameos. Think of it as an alternate timeline where it's not Anthony, Pinkie and Rainbow who get pulled to Pandora but Clark, Ditzy and Trixie.
Sense the great and powerful trixie is unicorn perhaps a elemental damage tree like the sirens could be used. Trixie does like her fire works. Or maybe tree that buffs allies.
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That's for you to decide if you enter... But you gotta look over the skill list and comment on a skill. Or two. Or three. Or all of them.
After all, I'll base their ability trees on their abilities and personality as a character.
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Her trees in general are going to have elemental bonuses galore. This version of Trixie is more than a little capable, and will be doing more than just tricks.
I've clearly been off this site for far too long. You guys have gone and made skill trees for all of these characters, and I can actually view and VOTE on which ones I think will be best? I only wish I could have been here sooner! Well, better late to the party than not show up at all.
Edit: So I've gotten to the point of the group hitting lvl 5 in the story, and being about a week late for that, I'll start voting when I catch up with the rest of the story.
From what's been picked so far I can only say 'oh god, why split into different trees this early? Why!?'. Whenever I've played I've always put points into a single tree until reaching the capstone, to ensure the most potential in the shortest amount of time. But this being a democracy, I'll be working with my fellow fans. Hi fans! It'll be a pleasure to work with you once I get caught up.
3728685 Cool shades actually comes in handy for the party, as well as the candy. As for RD, she didn't know the exact rules of how you access the other skills. She'll have to respec later.
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And the respective option will be available. Remember to comment, and you can get either your OC or a canon character added to the roster, potentially.
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Holy smokes, that's quite the prize. If you guys are up for it, it's something I'd be interested in. Assuming I make the cut anyway.
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Then comment on the skills! That's the point of this blog!
Go, make little comment-babies!
3730721 We were playing BL2 last night and the last thing we talked about was him having some major review to make where he will brutally tear into it and tell us, from a purely-balanced gameplay standpoint, how the skill trees work so expect a full-on review from him sometime today.
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Still waiting on that review, champ.
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Hee hee, excuse my tardiness then. I've had a bit on my plate in the meantime, so I hope it's worth the wait.
First off, Anthony the Starborne, the big man-child himself. His different trees fall into some of the classic different playstyles I think of in Borderlands, a damage based build, a slightly tankier build, and an action skill based build. Each one looks fun to play, some potentially more rewarding then others while others are safer to play. If I wanted to get used to playing Anthony for the first time, I'd think about taking the Survivor tree. While it lacks any kind of scaling health or shield enhancements, it eases and stays off some of the most frustrating parts of the game, the dying. While I think I would prefer to have some sort of extra health or shield to tank some shots to keep me from going down, making it easier to get back up is the next best thing. His Fusion Core tree sounds like hella fun, and as someone who often forgets to use their action skill if it has a longer cooldown, I'd be sure to max this until Star Heart for that dank 14 second cooldown. 12 seconds on and then 14 seconds off? Hell to the yeah. That coupled with Twinkle-Twinkle means I'd feel safe to pop into Spark and charge the shield whenever I feel low. That and increased damage and duration to fire and lightning effects? I'm a huge sucker for MALIWAN guns, (anybody who's played with me is aware of the cooing noises I make picking up a blue or higher MALIWAN) means I can dish out more for doing what I love most. His First Person Shooter tree cracks me up to be honest. Metagaming for the winzo. I would abuse the hell out of Collectors Ed, as I'm a total gun diva myself. Plot Armor would be a huge help against raid bosses and the like, probably enabling him to wear some of the one shot moves some of them have (I'm looking at you Hyperious). I'd probably take Real Skills over Forewarn despite how cool it would be to just stand there and bullet dodge like Neo in the Matrix.
Dashie the Speed Demon, has a nice ring to it. Her action skill reminds me of the vangaurd biotic charge from Mass Effect, but with a longer cooldown and a much bigger splash. I hope it has something to help with aiming, or else I feel like I would miss the skillshot and soar right off a cliff. Sorry RD, nothing personal, I just suck at aiming sometimes. Burnt Rubber tree, built around using vehicles? Something entirely new, and I'm intrigued and enticed by it. Doesn't seem like it would be too helpful in the core Borderlands game, but this is a DLC, so maybe it'll be really helpful later on. I hope for Jet Fuel's sake that it also ignores the fact that armored enemies take enormously reduced damage from fire. Maybe it'll remove those annoying RESIST's that show up too. Bulletstorm sounds like the ultimate skilltree for people who don't play like I do. More bullets faster sounds great and all, it's just not my cup of tea. I would certainly find myself using grenades a hell of a lot more often with perks like Galloping Grenadier and Hailstorm, because who doesn't like blowing shit up? Cover Fire is probably the most helpful in the entire tree in my opinion. Just use guns with tiny mags all the time, spew lead, and never die. Fastest Mare Alive would probably be my starting tree of choice. Movement speed just makes me happy overall, and call me a sick fuck, but I kinda enjoy beating people to death sometimes. I also love the hell out of the capstone, Elemental Loyalty. Allies don't go down at all, coupled with double explosion radius on her action skill. Also FLYING! Do as your heart yearns my dear, and SOAAARR! Kinda feel like there should be a reduce cooldown of action skill perk in that tree somewhere, kinda fitting the speed motif. I'd rather that over Competition. Not sure how I feel about increased experience gain as a perk.
Then there's the Pink Menace, PINKIIIIE... THE REVELEEER!!! That's how Moxxie should introduce her in the Underdome. This character just strikes me as someone you'd want on your team. Tankiness in the Psychosis tree, buffs and debuffs in Party Favors, and just dumb damage dealing in Explosions. What's not to love? NOTHING! Psychosis is great if you wanna fight a boss, just let Pinks take the aggro and everyone else should be okay considering she can heal herself every 20 seconds with Life's a Party on top of Fortitude. And even if aggro slips to someone else, her power will just grow due to Break the Cutie. Party Favors tree will just make everyone love you. Candy pickups as soon as you hit level six, and they will only become more frequent from there. Cool Shades in the Explosions tree, and a heal/stun at the end in Smooches. Not to mention how much damage dealing abilities she has. 13 different damaging skills to chose from, and some of them even stacking with each other. Be glad she's on your side, cuz this chick does some dumb damage. She has crazy dueling potential too. Stuns, silences (None For You!), self heal, enhanced single target damage (Party Of One) all atop a mountain of health.
Personally, I think some of this is taken a bit too far. While all of this is perfectly fair in the creative world that is fanfiction, in-game these numbers would need some serious nerfs. Pinkie for example. Up to a total +75% melee damage, which doesn't seem to bad. It's really the +230% explosive damage, or +330% rocket damage (if using an explosive damage), on a possible 3 shot burst with Barrage of Fun. This is before the possible +300% damage across the board with full rage stacks on Break the Cutie. Oh, and all of those insane explosive damages get an extra 500% range because of Have a Blast so she's not just one-shoting you, but everyone around you too. That's just Pinkie really. The other issues come from Dash's Competition and Anthony's Gamers Mind and Ain't no Hero. Again, from a story perspective learning quickly is perfectly fine, but enhanced experience gain just doesn't sit with me very well. It could put you super far ahead of where you're supposed to be.
All of my gripes aside, I think it would be hella fun to play these characters. Sure some things need balancing, but nothing ever comes out perfect. What they will do for sure, is make for some entertaining ass reading, which is part of what I'm here for. If any of this feedback helped, I'm glad I could do my part. All I can really do is wait and see for now, and continue expecting great things from you guys.
Also, sorry I DESTROYED your forum page. Probably will happen again though. Luv ya!
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YEAH! Today is six days from now is today!
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Thank you so much for the review!
First off, that very in-depth review helps out a lot. The more detail for me, the better. You also called out the basic designs behind each tree perfectly, which makes me happy that I didn't make it too cryptic.
Second off, Forewarn will make you dodge ANY incoming attack, but only some of the time. Enough dakka will overwhelm the RNG, but any huge damage attack (even ones he hasn't seen coming) can be dodged automatically.
Thirdly, I understand your reluctance about the exp boosts, but I added them in because I often find myself out of side quests and stuck grinding to get strong enough for the next area, and I hate that part of the game. Any time the action slows down, there's no story, and I'm just doing donuts in the Dust until I've run down enough bandits to move on is a failure in the gameplay. It's rare, but getting to higher levels is fun I rarely get to enjoy because of that level being hard to reach if you have a dedicated job and a lack of gaming time. Basically, its for when you're a hardcore gamer who is stuck playing casual due to life. Notice that all of them have a more effective alternative, and only one has the effect on everything... And Trixie gets a maximum boost of 5%.
Also keep in mind that there's multiple class mods that increase XP gain, sometimes in excess of 10% and applies to the whole group or to an individual.
Fourth, Pinkie has loads of explosive damage, but keep in mind that she's not immune to her own explosion damage, and her explosive resistance sources don't stack all at once, each applying a reduction one after the other. As such, she can easily take herself out if she overdoes it, especially at high levels where that explosive fussilade can utterly wreck her in close quarters. As well, keep in mind that this DLC would include an upgrade to enemy AI where they'll grab candies and hypos too now, potentially using your buffing items against you.
Fifth of all, with Anthony's Ain't No Hero, he only grants the bonus to quest rewards, and quest-generated money, which are normally pretty slim pickings. The other XP gains are also situational, meager, shared with the group, or some combination thereof.
And finally... Please, review the Time Break group as well! I'd love to hear your thoughts on them as well soon.
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Yeah, Pinkie in close-quarters or a closed in area is very dangerous... to herself. She needs her space in order to safely pull off any of her damage boosts without throwing herself into FFYL immediately.
I also agree with the EXP boosts being only small bonuses, never reaching higher than a 30% increase. From a story standpoint, it's required for a group who can't use badass ranks/tokens to boost their inherent abilities without the usage of skill points. If they were to be put into the game (still looking for people who'd like to help) some of these would get nerfed for sure, but aside from said nerfs the exp boosts aren't available for anyone until mid to late game o the beginning of the game, where your first skill points count the most and your ability to survive is based absolutely on player skill and not level or weapon stats stays where it is. This way, early game can't be over with quickly. Or worse: ignored.
As for Dash's driving tree, yes, sadly vehicle use is not as effective in-game as it is in the story, but if we can make things like the Buzzards pilotable (and upgradeable) as well as introduce several new (and old) vehicles with their own uses and properties, driving will suddenly be much more deserving of a skill tree.
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Oh, something I forgot to mention about Jet Fuel, yes the bonus effectively negates the armor penalty for fire attacks, meaning it does normal damage and a bit more.
So Pie how have you and quantum been doing?