Poll: Most fun Borderlands 2 character class?

[Zhukov]

Picked up Borderlands 2 in the Steam sale. Heard it's a lot better than the first one, which I found to be meh. Saw some gameplay videos with some actually somewhat funny dialogue, which was a nice surprise.

I doubt I'm going to be playing it more than once, so I wanted to know which class(es) are the most fun to play, especially since the character selection screen tell you precisely fuck-all.

- So... the soldier guy can throw out a turret, making him basically the same as Roland from the first game. Dull but serviceable.

- The "Gunzerker" seems to basically The Tank. His ability is "shoot more"? Sounds a bit boring.

- The Chick phase thingy can just stun a single enemy as I understand it. Is that all she does? Does it work on all enemies, including bosses? Sounds potentially OP, which I'm fine with.

- Zero, the ninja guy, can cloak? Sounds like the pick of the bunch so far. Is he viable to play solo?

Are there any other differences between classes? Can all classes use all weapons and items?

Are there class specific side-missions? Story content? Dialogue? If so, which class would you say has the best?

Answers, I must have them!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I enjoy the Siren the most, I love the phaselocking. You can phaselock almost everything (including bosses), somethings like helicopters can't be phaselocked, instead you do straight damage. Either go into the harmony or cataclysm line first as the motion doesn't really have much except convergence, it's a kinda line that gets good with late game items (as kinetic reflection + a certain class mod can make you basically immune to bullets) and augments the other 2 lines for the most part as phaselock + ruin + convergence is awesome.

A have a melee Zero that is pretty fun to play, you can one-hit melee kill almost everything. He also has the sniping stuff, which I haven't tried out.

Just from that balance thread going on about single player and co-op, someone posted that the Gunzerker is overpowered. I have a pretty low level Gunzerker so I don't know if he's overpowered or not. He is more fun than I thought he'd be though.

I haven't tried the soldier guy, he just comes off as boring to me as well in skills, looks, and personality. He's probably effective and all.

I don't think there's any specific side quests for the characters but there are audio tapes or whatever you find giving you some backstory on each character. You can use all weapons with any class, no class gets weapon bonuses unless there's skills for certain weapons. I think the only items for specific classes are class mods and clothing items. You can solo with any class.

I honestly wouldn't have played the 1st Borderlands for more than a couple hours if it wasn't for my friends as the game starts out so boring. I did enjoy Borderlands after getting to a certain level and seeing how all the skills played off each other, but that wasn't until late game when that happens. Borderlands 2 is a lot better in that regard, I enjoyed the game even at the beginning as your base power's cooldown is a lot lower compared to Borderlands so you can use your power a lot more at the very start of the game. The story and writing is much better as well.

 

[Zhukov]

I don't think there's any specific side quests for the characters but there are audio tapes or whatever you find giving you some backstory on each character.

Can you find all the audio logs with every character, or do you only find ones for the character you are playing as?

 

[5ilver]

I think the Gunzerker is the best for solo. His special ability allows him to dual-wield his 2 guns at the same time (you can usually only use 1), while also recharging his health and ammo at a massive speed.

 

[Plinglebob]

I'd recommend waiting for it to come on sale again (give it a couple of days) and by the Psycho pack. Boss battles are a pain in the arse, but great fun otherwise.

Other then that, I'd recommend against Zero (Sniper/Ninja) for single play as there are often times you get put in a situation where sniping and/or melee are really hard to pull off successfully (oddly, boss battles again).

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

Axton's turret is good for distracting enemies to get out of a tight spot, and he has an easily accessible skill that lets you regenerate health while your shields are full that can come in very handy.

 

[Voulan]

I don't think there's any specific side quests for the characters but there are audio tapes or whatever you find giving you some backstory on each character.

Can you find all the audio logs with every character, or do you only find ones for the character you are playing as?

You can find all audio logs for the characters, but not the one that you have at the beginning of the game that explains why they arrived on Pandora in the first place. That is unique to each character and can be found in your inventory, but only able to be listened to once. So, in order to hear that diary-like audio log, you'll just have to start a new character - or find them on youtube.

As a female, I gravitated towards Maya (the Siren), and I absolutely adore her. I went with the Cataclysm skill tree which is all about elemental damage. This ultimately allows your Phaselock to damage enemies with ALL elements (apart from explosive, but you can always use an explosive gun to see all the pretty colours), allows you to do blast area fire damage and even have wings. When you first begin with her, she'll be one of the tougher classes to start with, but by the end she's a total boss without being too OP. She also has the best healing support out of all the classes, which is fantastic (and almost integral) to co-op. Ultimately, she's just the most interesting playstyle - the other classes are basically just using guns in slightly different ways.

But my actual favourite is the Mechromancer Gaige, because of her personality and how challenging and unique her class can be when you invest in the right things. And having Deathtrap is very useful when doing a solo run, since things get a little difficult (especially if you're an Anarchy user and dealing with enemies that won't stay still). With her it's not just about shooting - it takes a little more skill and tactics, which keeps it interesting.

EDIT: To actually answer your questions about Maya, her phaselock can affect bosses, but not large ones that are too big to hold down - that will do raw damage instead. The whole idea is that you're temporarily holding them in a different dimension so they cannot move. It's not just stunning, though - Phaselock can also pull enemies toward it for crowd control, or cause elemental damage to the person its holding, or even cause a fire blast when activated to affect enemies around it. All with the right skill investment, of course. At least, Phaselock can also do damage, not just suspending enemies.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I've been playing as Gaige the Mechromancer which is a god damned blast. Summoning a giant robot to fight with you and electro-shocking the bejeezus out of everything in sight is way more fun than it should be.

But assuming you don't want to pay extra for the DLC characters I'd go with Axton the Commando, his turret skill adds some good DPS when the battlefield gets a little overcrowded and if (like me) you tend to get a bit trigger happy he has a lot of skills for conserving ammo which make the extended firefights a little easier to handle.

Alternatively, I rather enjoy playing Zer0, largely because it's a very different play experience, he's the only character that seems to be focused exclusively on one weapon type (sniper rifles) and as such you spend more time trying to find good spots to camp out and clear the battlefield rather than the standard "Run n' Gun" gameplay of the other classes.

As for Maya...I dunno, I played the Siren in the first game and wasn't terribly thrilled with her, she seemed more of a support class and wasn't well suited for soloing.

 

[stubbmann]

None of the above.

PSYCHO!

YOU ARE A MEAT BICYCLE! I WILL RIDE YOU WITH MY AXE BUTT!

 

[UrinalDook]

I too bought Borderlands 2 in the sale, and I too didn't get enough enjoyment out of the first to ever finish it (the fact that the first one used up the last of the space on my 360, and I needed some of that space to play Mass Effect's Citadel DLC didn't help).

I picked Maya, for the same reason I picked Lilith in the first one: girl characters are cooler. Having a lot of fun with it so far. In many ways, it's bigger and more refined than the first. More variation in enemy types, requiring more careful use of elemental weapons and more attention given to dealing with certain threats at range. Like ME3, I like that classes aren't bound to specific weapons, but that certain weapons still make more sense. For example, the ridiculous bonuses Sirens get to elemental weapons, and the high frequency of elemental SMGs, as well as SMGs' versatility, make them a pretty natural fit.

At first I found myself missing the 'get out of jail free' card that was Lilith's phasewalking, but honestly with a few skill investments, I think Maya's phaselock ability is more useful. And I guess phasewalking in still kinda in the game thanks to Zero's invisibility.

Having quickly tried Salvador - the Gunzerker - as well, I actually don't think class makes a huge difference to your solo play, especially given that once again (sadly) the playable characters aren't really characters. Lines are limited to the occasional post mortem witticism, along with a little snark while you're playing in the inventory. Given that they made all the classes from the first game into genuine characters in their own right, it comes across as a little incongruous.

That said, I think what swung BL2 into 'good game' territory for me, and by the sounds of it may well do it for you too, is that unlike the first game, 2 fully embraces ridiculous humour. And best of all, does it well. It's a genuinely, and more importantly consistently, funny game that manages the holy grail of such comedy - well written dialogue.

In terms of sheer atmosphere, BL2 is miles above its predecessor, and if you're anything like me, that alone will be enough to keep you playing where Bl1 failed.

TL;DR - give Maya the Siren a spin. Or Axton, he sounds very user friendly.

 

[Bestival]

I started off with Zero, and loved him. Wouldn't really know about solo though, as my best friend and I always COOP. Recently I switched to Psycho, he is chaos incarnate and a real BLAST! (That's a pun, he has a skill that turns the whole world into explosions.)

As for who you should choose, really depends on what you like. I found gunzerker and soldier to be boring as all out hell. Mostly because of their lame actionskills. Oh yay, more bullets... fun.
I liked Maya for the low level solo stuff I did, she has a great feel of control about her. Also, with her spec you can do a lot more with the actionskill than just lock up 1 target. I think she is the most changeable through spec of all the classes. My friend plays her exclusively, and hates all the other classes with a seething passion in comparison.


As for the content, there's nothing tied to any of the classes. All the background story recordings, sidemissions, and weapons are available to everyone.

The only thing linked to characters are the mods, different faces/hats/masks and the clothing colour skins.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I don't think there's any specific side quests for the characters but there are audio tapes or whatever you find giving you some backstory on each character.

Can you find all the audio logs with every character, or do you only find ones for the character you are playing as?

You can find all audio logs for the characters, but not the one that you have at the beginning of the game that explains why they arrived on Pandora in the first place. That is unique to each character and can be found in your inventory, but only able to be listened to once. So, in order to hear that diary-like audio log, you'll just have to start a new character - or find them on youtube.

Sadly, if you use it at the beginning when you get access to your inventory there is a good chance of the audio being overridden by claptrap's talking.

Also, I don't think dlc characters have audio logs. Gaige has some that were released on youtube but none in-game, and Krieg... well, I don't think he has any. If he does, I would LOVE to hear them. I really want to know more about the woman he screams about when I max out the Hellborn tree.

OT: levels for these characters range from lvl 38-52

Maya(Siren) very fun with my build that would phaselock a guy, force pull enemies near it, and do all elemental explosions.

Axton (Commando) was alright, I focused on my turret so encounters usually ended up with me dashing in, tossing a turret, dashing out and sniping. Fun but less so than Maya.

Zero (Assassin) was OK, my least enjoyed. I didn't get a great feel for his playstyle.

Gaige (Mechromancer) very fun, once my anarchy build is maxed out I deal +700% damage but -700% accuracy. The accuracy is countered with bullet reflection making each bullet have a 50% chance to bounce toward an enemy.

Krieg (Psycho) uh... he's... different. I play him completely different from all my other characters. Mania and Hellborn trees are very fun to play but this character is not for everyone.

Salvador (Gunzerker) only lvl 18 now so I haven't seen all he has to offer yet but what I can say is, when in fight for life, my 3 shot shotgun sounds like a machine gun due to a high chance to not consume ammo.

 

[Hazy992]

- The "Gunzerker" seems to basically The Tank. His ability is "shoot more"? Sounds a bit boring.

I thought that too at first, but spec your skill tree for pistols and increasing Gunzerking as much as possible, grab some Vladof machine pistols and just go nuts.

Spoiler: Something like this

The Siren's fun too (it was my main class) and so's the Assassin if you do a melee build. I didn't really like the Commando.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Axton (the Solider) is more multi-purpose, he can spec his turret for rocket pods, slag bullets (elemental damage that incurs a debuff to damage resistance) or a nuke goes off where you deploy it. Pretty good for solo gaming as you can get two turrets with shielding in the Survival tree that increases durability and the turret can be a psudo 2nd player that draws off fire.

Savador (the Gunzerker) is a tank with some pretty interesting abilities that can turn him into a bullet hose. Also good for soloing but some may find him boring.

Maya (the Chick) is more crowd control and healing/support, her phaselock will not pick up some larger enemies and only deal damage to them. Not as good as the other two solo-wise but still fairly viable.

Zero (the Ninja guy) can spec either a sniper or a meleer, not really recommended for soloing but you can try.

All classes can use all weapons but some like Salvador and Zero have skills that increase damage/magazine size for certain weapon classes such as Pistols and Sniper Rifles respectively.

As of this time there are no class specific missions that I know of, and you can find the audio-logs (pre-story fluff about the Vault Hunters) no matter who you choose.

All in all its really up to you on who you want to play, but I personally recommend Axton as his turret is miles better than Rolands and can spec multiple ways as well as retrieved when the battle is over to reduce the cooldown.

 

[Ham Blitz]

Well, I would say that it is more based on how you prefer to play. I honestly love the crap out of the gunzerker, but that is just me. I've played a bit of each character, and I will say mu second favorite of the base characters to play as has been Zero, mainly because I love to stealth back stab the enemies.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I did Zero for my solo run and found him fine. Melee is really important I found, and when you can one-hit the basic enemies it gets really fun. Then when you can go on cloak rampages, it gets really enjoyable. You don't have to use a sniper or pistol, although if you do there's a skill tree for them.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I personally love Axton. I gave him a turret with a shield that can shoot rockets. It;s like rocket artillery with a machine gun on top. Trying to unlock the second sentry so I can have two of those bad boys go wild.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

As somebody who gets a massive kick out of the simple Lizardbrain joy of making a big mess of stuff, I've personally found the Gunzerker to be a very fun class to play as. Granted, I simply enjoy shooting lots of bullets out of rapid-firing guns (I'm one of those gamers who gravitates towards machine guns and shotguns whenever possible) so it's basically fitted to my playstyle like a glove, especially the skill tree that focusses on rapid fire power (the middle one that's coloured blue, I can't remember its name off the top of my head).

Failing that, Zer0 is a lot of fun to play solo if you put points into him having a melee build; the final skill you get for that can mean you can just jump from enemy to enemy in a storm of stabbing, which is an absolute blast if you want to feel like the hero of a ninja movie.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I have a 61 Gunzerker and for mobs of enemies, I have a Slag E-tech Vladof Topneaa rocket launcher and I pretty much do this...


...all day long.

Please forgive the sound quality.