Mechromancer fun
Mechromancer fun
Rask and I tried the Mechromancer last night.
We didn't have any problems with loss of badass points or any other glitches btw. Rask is running the beta dashboard, I am not. We both had an event free download and game session.
My Mechromancer is only level 13 and just having fun with the character. Anirask and I started a new game at level 1 and threw down co-oping through the firehawk quest line. He started down BFF I went down Anarchy.
We noticed that the Anarchy Mechromancer favored the close weapons, low round count, high damage... shotguns were great. The BFF Mechro would use more of the traditional weaponry with larger mag sizes. Where the BFF build preferred to have fully loaded magazines so he could self gen health, the anarchy build seemed to be the up close and personal build.
The deathtraps in tandum could be out rolling around doing mass damage at the lower level areas. We just walked through Flynt's area. We were in the Firehawk layer in no time and really just plowed through.
The anarchy path is tricky. You have to be careful when opening up chests not to accidentally reload. I lost several x60 and x80 anarchy stacks by doing a reload. Losing those damage buffs really hurt. I also noticed I could offset the accracy hit with some mods that were clearly designed for the BFF character, but helped a lot for making the shotty reach out and grab. The claw swipe upgrade on the anarchy deathtrap turns him into a wolverine! The BFF deathtrap upgrade was throwing out bonus shield restoration. We found the polar opposite builds of our Mechromancers to compliment each other really well as a result.
Most suprising was the difference in sayings. Rask's BFF build didn't seem to talk as much as the anarchy build. In addition, we noticed the anarchy flavor text was definitely more entertaining... like when she got slagged, she goes, "Ulghh, it's in my mouth!" ... or when you perform a compare of gear and she says in a condescending attitude... "ahh, numbers, numbers... math" :)
I may respec with her soon. The Anarchy build is entertaining, but you really have to want to get up in the mix and right in the middle of the mayhem. Further down the tree is Disorder. It allows you to turn off Anarchy it seems for a short bit. Meaning, you will be able to manage anarchy's stacks without losing them all rapidly when you reload. That has it's appeal. Then, you'll be able to switch between close and long range more effectively I think. The middle tree also is quite appealing as you can have deathtrap have lasers. I like the sound of that! So... much more experimenting to be done. I can see respecing this character a few times as she levels up.
For my $$, the pre-order bonus character was well worth it. I didn't know what to think when I read through her skill tree, but happy to report that I was pleasantly suprised with her in the end. I would not have minded at all to pay $10 for this character. As far as I'm concerned, this was really a gift from Gearbox. Hat's off Randy.
If you start to accidentally reload while opening a chest just hit your Y button. You don't actually lose the stacks til the reload completes, so swapping weapons cancels it.
Death From Above is bonkers. If you shoot an enemy while jumping you cause an explosion. So if you roll with a shotgun and shoot it into a group it's more or less like several grenades going off at once with every shot.
I wouldn't get too excited about The Stare though. It's less of a laser that sweeps the field and more a laser that makes sure that dead bandit is extra crispy.
I went down anarchy too, but started off playing with a sniper. I was doing fine getting criticals until i got to about a 90 stack and then couldn't get criticals anymore, had to start body shotting. So i came to the same conclusion.... this class with this tree is a shotgun/melee CQB type class.
I'll have to remember the Y button thing, never though about changing weapons if i do an accidental reload.
Here's what I am noticing. I put one point in the shield regen when mag is full in the left tree. Otherwise I am working down the anarchy tree.
Having reload and use on the same button sucks. So many times I have accidentally reloaded. Mecro is not a class to play with friends that like to team kill :)
The highest I got so far was 125 stacks of anarchy. Damn, talk about being close up and personal. What's nice is you will want the wepaons no one else wants. You will want the revolvers, the double barrel shotties, low mag rockets, and the low mag smgs. Right now my favorite gun is the 7 shot revolver and double barrel shotty that I picked up. You get anarchy quick. If it says Jakobs, I want it. Even if it is a little less powerful than another weapon. I will make it powerful after several stacks of anarchy. Tediore weapons are hte next best, though you will never use their exploding reload feature.
However, you do have to be careful. I picked up a triple barrel low mag shotty. My class mod and right tree skill put me at 2 shots per mag. So one barrel was not being used and thus making it a weaker weapon..
I also had certain weapons when automatically reloading would lose my anarchy. Not sure why so I avoided those weapons.
DT is neat, he can go through walls so he won't get stuck. Some what powerful. REALLY annoying hovering sound that nearly blew out my rear surrounds.
Equally annoying is that DT liks to hover in front of you, really nice when you're trying to scope in on something :lol:
Found a bug though (many have actually) seems like Anarchy glitches playing coop with weapons that reload natively or via skill tree, relics, mods faster than 2 seconds. Seems like your anarchy stack will randomly disappear even though youdidn't hit X. The first few times it happened I thought it was user error. So i started watching it very closely and have seen it reset in the heat of battle without hitting the X button to reload, pickup or use anything.
It only seems to be happening if you're the guest in someone elses coop room. It also only seems to happen if it takes you 2 seconds or less to reload your gun. That's about all I can determine from reading all the people talking about it over in the gearbox forums.
I personally am using a level 30 Acid Conference Call shotgun as my primary weapon of choice and my anarchy was resetting randomly all weekend long as I was playing in someone elses room most the weekend. It got pretty annoying. I think i picked up a reload relic that makes me reload faster so i'll have to try and remove that and see if it helps.
Haven't experienced any serious bugs with the mecromancer yet but have experienced the annoying DT hovering sound and the cock-blocking action that Tank mentioned above. Also experienced Anarchy stacks in excess of 300+ and at stacks that high, it's like trying to play Gears of War 3 with a sawed off shotty. You practically have to stick your shotgun three feet into your enemiy's nostril to get a hit but when you get a hit, it's pink mist for everyone!
http:///www.youtube.com/L0KI619
Here's my current mecro skills. Discord with 300 stacks is an awesome way to finish the night or big boss. Plus discord helps you avoid losing stacks by accidentally reloading early. You can just reload early again to stop the count down.
Putting at least one point into Cooking up Trouble is great. My main weapon is a double barrel shotgun that reloads after every shot so I have a full magazine more often then other guns. It really helps keep your health up.
At 300 stacks, yeah, sniper rifles are out of the question. I was playing with a friend last night and he went off on his own. He got in trouble. I could see him but at 243 stacks I knew I could not hit anything from where I was at - even with my rocket launcher. If you are playing with a mecro, stay close to the mecro. Point blank shotty blasts are instant death to anything. Don't even need elemental damage.
A gunzerker doing his thing with a mecro on discord - room is instantly cleared. WE had fun with that combo last night. Combine with a rocket turret, the amount of damage that can be done is insane. I would love to see a full room with a gunzerker, mecro, soldier, and siren. Lots of damage, lots of health regen. I'm not sure what Zero brings to the table for team work. Death Mark does, but most other abilities focus on doing a lot of damage to a single target.
I did respec once to get Buck Up. It is cool to have DT restore shields. I think I am going to head to that. I don't think I am going to go any further down the anarchy tree. I might invest in the shield ability. 1% health for 20% shields, that's a good payoff. With Cooking up Trouble maxed out that's a no brainer.
I started off going down the BFF tree far enough to get Upshot Robot. Every time I get a kill DT lives for another 5 seconds. Combine that with 200+ anarchy stacks and every time I shoot something, DT gets +5 seconds. Along with Blood Soaked Shield means I can run around the map with impunity. Any shield damage I take running towards an enemy is restored instantly when I kill them, DT is flying around clapping at the enemies I can't reach and making them explode and as long as I'm on a rampage DT lasts forever.
I skipped buck up though. Stupid robot uses it on the enemy as well as you, and with Blood Soaked Shield it's really not helpful for me anyway. Close Enough is a great skill. With high anarchy stacks even up close shotgun shots are bound to go rogue, this way at least half of em hit something. And with teammates shooting stuff this nets you the occasional free kill, which is just great for UR and BSS.
If anyone has come up with decent Mechro build for Hyperius the Douche could you post it please. My Gaige seems to have hard time staying alive once it is her and him alone after the bots are dead.
So I have been playing alot witht he mecro, absolutely love her. Here's my build and I will explaina few things. First, I am disappointed that all the last tier abilities suck. There really isn't any reason to get them. It's not like the two turrets of the commando that just put that class over the top.
You will see I am heavy in the anarchy and BFF trees. At the end of the first playthrough I happen to get the Legendary Mecro mod from a vending machine - I know, right! It focuses on the BFF and LBT trees. I did that for awhile. IT just wasn't fun. Deathtrap did all the work and you just sat back and watched. So I went back to an anarchy build.
The first thing you will notice is I don;t have all 50 points assigned. This skill tree builder is bugged. Blood Soaked Shield is a 5 sp abilitie, not a 1 point. Put one more point in that then 5 into Nth Degree.
Some things you may notice, no points in Typecast. If you max it out it might be worth it, one third of your kills/reloads end up in an extra stack. But at 1 or two points into it it isn't worth it, I would rather get my shields back up quick. I have 1 point in The Better Half because I have mods that increase that. That helps with non-Jakobs guns to get to the reload quicker. Though I run with a Jakobs pistol and assault rifle as my main guns. I always have a rocket launcher on for second wind. And the final weapon slot is my elemental weapon depending on the mission. Usually slag though to compliment the Jakobs guns. So the Better Half isn't really needed, but I have a couple points to work with so I at least put one in there.
Then you might be wondering about the 2 points in Sterner Stuff. Again, some points left over. That ability makes Deathtrap stronger and gives you defense, worth it to me.
The end result with this is Gaige is a a beast with a full stack of anarchy. I have Discord to get around the glitch right now. But otherwise I would not have it. It's neat, but the immense damage from 400 stacks of anarchy (on top of an amp shield like the Bee) is just insane. With the ricochet abilities you don't need to be accurate. 50% of your 400 * 1.75% boost is still over 200% damage increase. But that is also why I increased Deathtrap's speed, abilities, and melee. He has to take out the far targets as I won't be able to hit them that good.
The key componant of this build is Jakobs weapons and Cooking Up Trouble. You will usually have a full mag all the time, so this keeps you alive. Depending on shield my Mecros is either at 25k shield and 60k health (with the Bee on and loot relic) or 45k shield and 88k health (with a health boost shield and 33% health relic). When I farm I use the Bee setup.