Poll: So which Borderland's class should I choose?

[The Enquirer]

I picked up this game a while ago and I'm finally getting around to starting it now. I generally do a little research on each class and figured I may as well get some input from you guys. I generally enjoy stealth and close quarters combat so I figured that rules out the Hunter. I can deal without the stealth but I do prefer it, so I'm leaning towards the siren (Lilith) or the soldier. I'm not sure if there are any inherent problems with those classes or how I'm planning on using them.

 

[Bertylicious]

The soldier is probably the easiest to play. Lilith relies a lot on elemental damage and it's all a bit involved. Malakai is a sniper, which is great and all but takes a bit of getting used to in the context of Borderlands. Rocket launchers are rubbish so Brick isn't very good except in multiplayer where his job is to die again and again and again.

 

[Festus Moonbear]

Mordecai is a great class once you get him leveled up enough that Bloodwing gets useful, which doesn't take long (the leveling is pretty fast in Borderlands 1). His sniper skill tree is mostly worthless, though. You can play him as a gunslinger instead of a sniper (focus on pistols and repeaters), and then he's a great close quarters character. Bloodwing is the most satisfying skill for me in any of the ten BL characters. Fly, my pretty!

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I went with Lilith because at high levels she can be completely invincible, and I love being overpowered. Especially when I had a Hellfire and Pestilence, I was unstoppable. Good times.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

The soldier is my favorite class from BL1. If you want close quarters, Brick excels with shotguns.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

The only class I liked in Borderlands was the Siren. Lilith is also my favorite character in the series, though they did weird things with her neck in the second game.

If you like stealth, phasewalking is perfect for getting in or out of a fight unmolested. You don't NEED to use elemental weapons with her to be effective. Some weapons that ARE elemental will proc the effects 100% of the time anyways so you don't need to build her around them in the first place if you do use them.

Brick is a large target, rocket launchers pretty much suck in the first game, and his action ability is not as great as it could have been. I also have no idea why his melee uses a pipe, when he could just punch them. Not as hard as when berserk but it would make sense at least.

Mordecai is nice enough, but I found Bloodwing to be an annoyance rather than an asset. When you use an artifact to give it elemental properties she also looks really stupid. Sniping is doable with any character, and one thing that I don't really care for with Brick, Mordecai, and Roland is how much of their trees are centered around a particular weapon type.

With Lilith, elemental weapons come in ALL types of weapon, and various types of damage. And her skill tree only has one skill centered around them specifically if I remember.

I didn't play much of Roland, because I didn't like having to babysit the turret while it barely helped me aside from pooping ammo. I'd rather snipe from a distance, or rush in and out of the fray causing aoe pain with Lilith.

Also having daze proc on my shots, among many other skills on her list is really OP.

None of the classes in the second game were as fun, or as OP as her. Which may be a good thing. I haven't played Kreig though.

So basically, no matter your playstyle Lilith will have something for you. You kind of need to want to limit yourself in certain ways to get the most out of the other classes imo. Whether its the weapons you will be better off using, or the methodology in which you approach a fight. Nothing compares to the ability to ninja escape a losing situation, or even the simple ability to cover a lot of ground quickly when you need to. Adding in the fact that you can wreck everyone's shields while doing so AND healing yourself in the process it just gets better.

If you want to be able to solo farm the hardest boss in the game without abusing cheap glitches then she is also pretty much required. At least for me anyways, and its really intense to do it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

In all honestly it matters little, a couple of hours in you won't even remember what you chose.
The game was set up to work the same for whatever you pick, all classes can use all items just the same and even when the numbers say there is this and that bonus overall you spray and pray so much it's not noticeable.

 

[shootthebandit]

ive done one and a half playthroughs (one as soldier and half as the big guy) the big guy is so much fun to play as if you put all your skills into melee and find a revolver with a blade on it (usually +100% melee) then find one of those stat boosters that ups your melee again. i literally took down sledge in 1 or 2 punches

the soldier is the best all rounder, my build was geared mostly towards clip size and fire rate. when you put all your stats into clip size you can have an assault rifle with over 500 rounds in a clip with the added fire rate you can just spray everyone.

If you go for build like this (focusing on assault and overload)you can get a really high ammo capacity. along with a decent class mod you can have ridiculous ammo capacities
http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/roland/#01500505000000005050000

 

[bigfatcarp93]

ALWAYS pick Mordecai. Seriously, the Bloodwing is just too cool. And being able to use Sniper Rifles means that you more or less own the open terrain, and most of this game is open terrain.

Really. MORDECAI.

EDIT: And yes, I realize that all classes CAN use snipers, what I meant is, Mord is WAY better with them.

 

[godofallu]

Honestly there is no such thing as stealth in Borderlands. The class choices basically break down to this:

Lilith: SMG expert, crazy mid-short range dps and speed but she is generally low hp/shields.
Mordecai: Sniper or Pistol expert -> great long range or short range. Crappy mid range. Relies on criticals from headshots so you have to aim every shot carefully. Dies quick to focused fire/close enemies so kill things quick and don''t miss.
Roland: Good HP/Shields but his damage is nothing like SMG/Repeater weapons. Decent close with a shotgun and mid with a combat rifle though.
Brick: Uses fists or rocketlaunchers. This is really limiting weapon-wise and you will have to use weapons for which you can't spec into like smg/combat rifles which lowers potential dps by a ton.

I vote Brick if you just want to run around screaming and smashing opponents but are willing to do some extra sidequests to stay overleveled, Soldier if you want it to be like a generic fps where you use rifles and have decent hp, or Lilith/Mordecai if you want to be a super fast glass cannon of death.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Doesnt matter really. Completed the game on my own with a sniper character. You can still use machine guns and pistols. Just that i did my kills from afar and moved in with close combat weapons when everyone was alerted.

If your on your own. Take your time....think Morrowind......no rushing because you will die. Take it slow, chose the character you want and base you playtime around what you like. You like sniping....play sniping, because it will make the game more enjoyable on single player.

If your multiplayer, then chose someone that complements your friend. If they want gunner.....then you chose sniper.

To behonest.....play Borderlands 2 instead.

 

[Fijiman]

I recently got Borderlands too and have basically been playing it for the last month. I picked Mordecai and been doing well with him. And honestly, so long as you don't get nailed down by multiple enemies your fine while using him. I can't speak for the other characters as I've not played with them yet, but as I understand it your best bet is to go with either Mordecai or Roland for you first character.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Brick is underrated. So are Rocket Launchers. Yeah, RL's suck in the beginning of the game but I've come across... some BFG's that will tear anything half to hell.

And while you won't have the perks for using other more frequently used weapons that the other classes have, you can still survive easily enough.

And Berserking can be really nice as well. Can make you practically invulnerable in fact once you really level it up. AND once you hit level 5 and get the Berserk action skill, you can exploit a glitch that will allow you to constantly be able to move as fast as you would if you were going berserk while still being able to use all your weapons normally.
1. Activate the Berserk skill.
2. While Brick is doing the beginning hand animation he does at the beginning of Berserk, quickly hit the Back button to get to your inventory. This will cancel the Berserk prematurely. You must hit the back button before the beginning hand animation ends or it won't have any effect at all besides just canceling out the action skill.
3. If you did it right and you exit out of the inventory, you will walk at running speed and run even faster! To return to normal, just activate the Berserk when it recharges again and wait until the hand animation is done. Once it is, just wait or exit out of Berserk by going to the inventory and it will be set back to normal.

I think I'm the first one to find this glitch actually but who knows. It can be done whenever you want.

 

[Juste Goose]

Not a huge fan of Borderlands, but I played around the first third of the game as a soldier, berserker, and sniper.

Brick was probably my favorite. Whenever things went sour, you could hit a button and just start punching heads off.

 

[OneCatch]

I picked up this game a while ago and I'm finally getting around to starting it now. I generally do a little research on each class and figured I may as well get some input from you guys. I generally enjoy stealth and close quarters combat so I figured that rules out the Hunter. I can deal without the stealth but I do prefer it, so I'm leaning towards the siren (Lilith) or the soldier. I'm not sure if there are any inherent problems with those classes or how I'm planning on using them.

Basically, if you like critical hits, you have to go Mordecai (hunter). He's best with snipers and revolvers, but if you always go for the critical spot and don't like explosives, he's by far the highest raw damage dealer even at close-medium range. Superb at killing bosses and small groups of powerful/slow enemies, not so good at crowd control because of relatively low health. A health regen shield is a must.

Roland is a good all rounder, can go long or short range. Special ability is quite useful though not vital, generally a quite defensive and support class, good for sustained fighting at short or medium range.

Lilith is the best dedicated short range class and is best with elementals and SMGs. Probably the most reliant on the special ability and skirmishing because she is fragile compared to Brick or Roland, but becomes seriously ridiculous at high level.

Brick is the tank. Designed to take punishment and get stuck into crowds, special ability is stupidly powerful, good with explosives, but deals surprisingly low overall damage when not Berserk. Crap at crits. When berserk he kills everything.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Ahh, Borderlands 1. Still a great game and it still does a few things better than its successor. (like Revolvers)

Spoiler: Roland

He's basically the Multiplayer Support Guy.
Run the "Support Gunner" class mod and everyone will love you for the Unlimited ammo.
It keeps their SMGs topped off with ease, and Rocket Bricks can tune up their Rocket Skills as early as possible without having to be as judicious with their initially small ammo reserves.

Apart from that, he's the Combat Rifle and Shotgun Specialist, which are pretty good weapons (though not SMG good).

Spoiler: Lilith

Best character in the game overall. She's quite OP, but not until ~level 25 when her skills really start to matter.
Phasewalk is pretty much your free travel booster and GTFO ability for bad situations.

And of course, she has The One True Build of All Borderlands. So, there's not much variety to be had with her. Get High Velocity, Inner Glow and Hard to Get, grab elemental modifiers, spam SMGs (Hellfire, Pestilence, Double Anarchy) faceroll Playthrough 2 and the DLC.

(it's worth noting that if you want to use Eridian weapons, Lillith is the best character due to High Velocity doubling projectile speeds, making Eridian weapons FAR easier to use and extending their effective range greatly. Incidentally, High Velocity also makes her Sniper Rifles more consistent than Mordekai's as several of them have unusually low shot velocity in BL1.)

Spoiler: Mordekai

He snipes. That's it. Use Revolvers and Sniper Rifles. Revolvers are the second best weapons in the game, thanks to their disproportionally high damage.

(Seriously, I remember finding a Dahl revolver in a secret chest near the start of the quarry area were you kill Sledge, and it was so powerful that I used it all the way to the end of Playthrough 1. It was a 2-shot Masher with near-instant reload, scoped, and INSANE damage per-pellet for a level 14 weapon. And this was on my Lilith, not Mordekai.)

Bloodwing used to be OP due to an abusable glitch, but they fixed it. Bloodwing Mordekai is effective but kind of meh IMO.
His sniping damage is far better.

Spoiler: Brick

-Melee Brick mostly sucks late game, but is perfectly fine in Playthrough 1.
-Rocket Launchers are circumstantially useful for other characters, but only Brick makes them viable all the way to the end.

Don't believe the kids spoiled by their SMG Holy Trinity Liliths; Rocket Brick works perfectly fine all the way through Playthrough 2. I've done it twice, and it was pretty easy (all DLC included). A good Purple Torgue Destructor from around level 15-20 will carry you through most of Playthrough 1 easily as well as trivialize all but one boss.

Rocket Brick's biggest issue is non-explosive elemental damage. While there are elemental launchers, the big problem with them is that most of them are terrible because of how elemental damage works; it can't quite "stack" like other weapons.
(Caveat: the Triple Rocket variants are the exception; they are actually very good elemental weapons)
In any case, make sure you choose a secondary weapon type to train up.

I prefer Revolvers.
Most will whore out SMGs like everyone and their brother (and why not, they are by far the best weapons in the game), but if you want to go Full Schwarzenegger, run Combat Rifles as your secondary and grab an Ogre for late game; its explosive element will work perfectly with your build and provide some much needed fluid fire against other targets, especially in the DLC. (grab a Vladof Revolution for explosive-resistant swarming enemies, like Spiderants)

 

[Mikeyfell]

Lilith becomes an absolute beast at high levels.

As long as you don't mind using mostly light weapons like SMG's or Pistols for most of the game.
I remember her having trouble leveling up proficiency with heavier weapons.

 

[Souplex]

Roland: Pretty standard. Shoot guys, deploy turrets.
Lilith: Phase into another dimension to do wacky shit.
Mordecia: Snipe things and send your bird after them.
Brick: Destroy everything with your bare hands while shrugging off punishment and laughing maniacally.
I think the answer's pretty clear.