Poll: Borderlands 2, balance issues.

[Argonian alchemist]

Fellow Escapists, I need your help.

I've been doing some research and I am almost positive that the "Mechromancer" is by far the most overpowered class. With a full stack on anarchy a pistol that should be dealing around 30 damage will deal up to 200 instead... And if it happens to be a critical then... Yeah.

Her robot, Deathtrap has much more health than Axton's turrets even when they have their shields and longbow trait (110% extra hp).

Deathtrap has the possibility to stay in the fight permanently due to the perk that lets him stay summoned longer every time you and him get a kill, the turrets have no feature like that.

The reason I am comparing Axton and Gaige is because in my opinion and with a lot of research and testing, Maya and Zero suck. I mean they can be great, just like any character but... They just aren't as good Axton or Gaige.

The Gunzerker also seems a little handicapped in the way of having no accuracy and only dealing huge damage in an enemies face which in a lot of situations isn't that good.

---

TL;DR?

Long story short. Can anyone convince me with mathematics and explanation how Axton could at all be as good as Gaige or possibly even better? (Or any character in the game apart from Krieg, convince me that any are better)

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

A full stack of anarchy will also have your accuracy be diminished by as many percent as your bonus damage. Good luck hitting anything that isn't standing right next to you and takes up all of your screen.

Essentially however, Axton and Gaige are two different kinds of characters. Axton is built to be defensive with his turrets and focus on medium to long range firepower. Gaige is super-offensive with Anarchy making her a DPS powerhouse that has to be at closer than spitting distance to hit reliably and Deathtrap being a melee robot. This also means that Gaige plays a high risk/high reward type of game. She can put enemies down fast but if something goes even slightly pear shaped Gaige is in for a world of pain. Axton meanwhile is all about steadily wearing down the enemies with consistent DPS and the ability to mitigate received damage.

Also I contest your notion that Maya suck. With some proper skill distribution she's a magnificent crowd controller and her ability to create slag effects without needing a slag weapon is a great boon on true or ultimate vault hunter mode.

 

[Smooth Operator]

All depends on the items that drop, my assassin has absurdly stacked melee and critical damage, on top of that attacking out of cloak gives another massive boost, you get a dash forward ability and finally a re-cloak with killing blows.

That stacks up to me melee killing every enemy in one hit and staying in cloak from start to finish, just absurd.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

It's all a matter of how you play them, really. I've heard stories of Krieg nearly killing Raid bosses in one hit when he has the correct setup of skills, weapons and mods. Same for all the characters, really (yes, there are videos of Maya killing Raid bosses in a few seconds with the right setup). So while one character can be seen as doing the most damage without preparation (Salvador, just for his gunzerking), they're all killing machines with preparations, and your example of Gaige with full anarchy stacks won't work for every player due to the way some play.

 

[w9496]

I don't know, my Axton is pretty powerful. I can put my turret anywhere and camp behind it all day, and if anything does kill me, I have a 20% chance to get right back up. I was playing with some friends trying to kill the tough guy from the pirate DLC and although we failed, I was the last man standing every time out of me, a siren, a mechromancer, and a gunzerker.

Really any class can dominate the hell out of anything with the right set-up and class mods.

 

[WoW Killer]

Kunai OP:


But nah, really, other than the obviously broken Salvador, the rest all have their little pros and cons. Actually I've never tried Krieg, but the other four are pretty well balanced. Salvador's the only one that sticks out.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

There really is no right answer here. My Zero can kill a lot of things in one shot with my favorite sniper rifle and revolver. But that doesn't mean that he's overpowered. Generally I think the Siren class has a lot more advantages than others.

 

[RJ 17]

Didn't Gearbox come out and say that the Mechromancer was specifically going to be designed to be rather overpowered? I seem to recall hearing something about the Mechromancer being a "girlfriend class" (either by Gearbox's own use of the term or by what everyone else was calling it)...that is a class that is very easy to play as and very easy to be successful with.

Yeah, here we go:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119029-Borderlands-2-Girlfriend-Mode-Helps-Noobs-Win

So it really shouldn't come as any surprise if she seems a bit OP seeing as how that's how she was specifically designed.

Still, as most people have pointed out, it's all about how you build your characters, what role you're wanting them to play, what weapons/mods/etc. you've got, and all that good stuff. Personally when I played the game I didn't go for kills, I played the role of a healer with my Siren. Her ability to insta-raise any downed teammate from a distance by using her power on them was a godsend.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Didn't Gearbox come out and say that the Mechromancer was specifically going to be designed to be rather overpowered? I seem to recall hearing something about the Mechromancer being a "girlfriend class" (either by Gearbox's own use of the term or by what everyone else was calling it)...that is a class that is very easy to play as and very easy to be successful with.

Yeah, here we go:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119029-Borderlands-2-Girlfriend-Mode-Helps-Noobs-Win

So it really shouldn't come as any surprise if she seems a bit OP seeing as how that's how she was specifically designed.

Still, as most people have pointed out, it's all about how you build your characters, what role you're wanting them to play, what weapons/mods/etc. you've got, and all that good stuff. Personally when I played the game I didn't go for kills, I played the role of a healer with my Siren. Her ability to insta-raise any downed teammate from a distance by using her power on them was a godsend.

What that guy said. I believe she was meant to be both very easy (casual experience for non-gaming friends and family), and also more difficult, depending on how you level her up. I never played the character, though, so I can't speak to how she actually feels in-game. Also, ugh "girlfriend mode", that made me cringe.

 

[piinyouri]

I have at least one of each character. I can agree that Anarchy Gaige can be absolutely devastating (Torgue shotgun + 200 + anarchy + skill that redirects missed shots to the nearest enemy = never have to worry about aiming) but so can just about everyone else.

A "Tediorezerker" build for Salvadore is hilariously strong. Imagine being able to throw those crazy powerful pistol and smg reloads whenever you want, two at once.

Krieg's melee tree is broken fucking fun by any standard. I two shotted Saturn with my buzzaxe.

It's the same for every character, they all have high and low points.

 

[Paragon Fury]

The Mecromancer and Gunzerker are the most overpowered classes; they both deal insane amounts of damage, have high sustain and are easy to play.

The Commando is decent, but lacks raw damage output, can be a bit squishy and his Turrets need to be used properly. That being said his Turrets are probably the best multi-target Action skill in the game. Triple-barreled rocket launching debuffing turrets can do that.

The Siren's solo skills are lackluster except in a few fights. Her best role is Support, but that requires other players....and people who will cooperate. But if you have a team, she can be quite insane in the Support role.

The Assassin is probably the most useless of the bunch. His Action skill is almost pointless in most situations, and the things he can do (Snipe/Melee) aren't terribly useful. He is more of a "just-for-fun) than serious character.

Haven't downloaded or played with Krieg yet.

 

[Festus Moonbear]

Salvadore is by far the most overpowered character when you get into the higher levels, say UVHM onwards, with Krieg probably second although he's better for mobbing than bosses - he can literally handle mobs with no gear equipped at all. For playthrough 1, I found Gaige to be the easiest. They are not really designed to be perfectly balanced, but you will find that all characters have their strengths and weaknesses. But Salvadore is easy mode at the highest levels.

 

[Festus Moonbear]

The Assassin is probably the most useless of the bunch. His Action skill is almost pointless in most situations, and the things he can do (Snipe/Melee) aren't terribly useful. He is more of a "just-for-fun) than serious character.

The Assassin's action skill shows its worth in playthrough 2 and onwards. In playthrough 1 I didn't use it at all, but once I got him to the higher levels I found it indispensable and really noticed its absence when playing other characters. His melee spec is also devastating, although I don't use it myself.

 

[antidonkey]

I started this game playing Zero.....I was constantly getting my ass handed to me. I managed to get about 50% of the way through then got frustrated and started over with Salvador. I had a much easier time with him. Still was a challenge but I got through the game. After taking a long break, I fired it back up to play the DLC but started fresh with Axton. I beat the cat piss out of everything with very little hassle. If things started to go wrong....just deploy the turret and hide in a corner. The turret would chew up the enemies pronto. With that in mind.....my vote goes to Axton.

 

[the doom cannon]

I like playing Zero because of the snipers. It does kinda feel like cheating 1-shoting everything from stupid ranges, then waltzing through the area

 

[mitchell271]

I think the game is actually pretty well balanced. All the characters get stupidly strong by the end, and can mow throw enemies like nobody's problem. I feel like the Siren does the best AOE move though.

 

[spartan231490]

Fellow Escapists, I need your help.

I've been doing some research and I am almost positive that the "Mechromancer" is by far the most overpowered class. With a full stack on anarchy a pistol that should be dealing around 30 damage will deal up to 200 instead... And if it happens to be a critical then... Yeah.

Her robot, Deathtrap has much more health than Axton's turrets even when they have their shields and longbow trait (110% extra hp).

Deathtrap has the possibility to stay in the fight permanently due to the perk that lets him stay summoned longer every time you and him get a kill, the turrets have no feature like that.

The reason I am comparing Axton and Gaige is because in my opinion and with a lot of research and testing, Maya and Zero suck. I mean they can be great, just like any character but... They just aren't as good Axton or Gaige.

The Gunzerker also seems a little handicapped in the way of having no accuracy and only dealing huge damage in an enemies face which in a lot of situations isn't that good.

---

TL;DR?

Long story short. Can anyone convince me with mathematics and explanation how Axton could at all be as good as Gaige or possibly even better? (Or any character in the game apart from Krieg, convince me that any are better)

Main problem I see with your comparison is you're trying to play them the same way. You don't use Axton's turret as a tank, you stack it with rocket turret and watch it kill enemies 5 levels above you in 2 seconds. Axton has huge damage potential, higher than any of the other starting classes, but he isn't a tank. You'd have to compare the robot's damage to the turrets damage to see how Axton stacks up.

Also, I'm not personally familiar with mechanomancer, but remember one of the trees for it was supposed to be an overpowered "easy mode" or "girlfriend mode" so it would make sense if that specializtion is stronger than the others.

 

[Skullpanda]

I didn't think that they were worried about balance, seeing as most of the multiplayer aspect of the game is cooperative, not competitive. Gaige might be OP in certain situations with deathtrap, but the anarchy example is very dependent on actually being lucky enough to hit something. Maya makes any fights against big crowds easy as hell if built any number of ways. Zero definitely plays more towards the sniper aspect, and does a damn good job of it. Salvador and Axton are very much easy mode in my eyes (Salvador because of his massive damage output early on, Axton because you can hide behind a box and still kill everything in an area). Kreig is crazy strong in melee, but has enough risks to challenge players.

Basically, all of the characters are OP. It really just depends on your playstyle of who you'll like (or notice) the most.

 

[New Troll]

The most unbalanced character is Salvadore. He has the most gimmicks, providing the most consistant damage output alongside the ability to never die thanks to Moxxi weapons like the Ruby and Grog Nozzle. But also he is my least favorite to play due to being so boring! No skill needed, no tactics needed, no fun given. The only reason I even levelled him up to OP8 was because he is so extremely easy to do so, and it let me do the loot hunt challenges last month with ease.

I still much prefer to play my favorite character since the very first day she was released, the Mechromancer. The biggest advantage to her is she doesn't require as much skill to effectively play. Which is an extremely good thing because I generally suck at shooters! But on the flip-side of the coin, she can never produce the amount of sure damage that any of the other classes can provide. Still, so much fun!