Borderlands 2 - Page 20

Got bored with the remaining side quests, so I finished. Odd how the kunai I tossed seemed like my most powerful weapon, next to the eridium-firing E-tech Dart I picked up in a chest just before the end.

Hopefully some of the blocked side quests will open up now. That radio guy has something I want...

Turned in one blocked quest that was ready. Will work on the others. The orange Impaler shield I picked up isn't all that durable but the benefits sound nice...
Edited by mikepaul - 10/13/12 at 8:17am

Many blocked side quests open up only by doing other side quests. (The "Clan Wars" side quest line is a good example.) Others open up randomly, such as the "Every Once in a While a Goliath Gets an Idea." Having finished every quest available, I didn't find a single one to be boring in any way, but that's just me.

The Bee is much like your desciption of the Impaler, so while you'll have the game-ruining ability to be able to kill everything with one shot, it's cap is low and only works when it's full. Also, Gearbox is rumored to be nerfing The Bee very soon, which is great. Even non-nerfed, that shield won't last 2 seconds on TVH mode until you hit L50.

Would you consider beating Terramorphus The Invincible on solo in 6-8 seconds "game-ruining?"

If you're doing side missions that are far under your level after you've completed the game, then yes, it's easy. Getting 1-2 EXP (or anything under 50-100, really) from enemies means it's a cakewalk and you can just run through the map to whatever you're looking for. If you did them like I did; work the main story, then do the corresponding side quests, then move forward again, side missions were entertaining and "somewhat challenging." However, if the former is the case, then it's easy...with or without The Bee. No need to worry about getting it, let alone farm for it or other underleveled and worthless crap for hours on end that could be better spent completing the full game and all the fun side stuff.

As I said, The Bee is not going to make a difference with easier PT1 missions, and won't help you one iota on TVH, save for maybe the first area. By the time you get to Sanctuary, it will be beyond obsolete, along with all your other favorite equipment from your first playthrough. (A white L37 SMG from a random enemy with no bonuses is 2-3 times as good as my best Moxxi-given L35 SMG.) Getting a Bee on TVH L50 will make you a god, particularly when paired with the Conference Call shotgun...but to what end? At that point, you don't need it. In fact, you never need it (or anything else) to enjoy and complete the game. You'd have far more fun starting a new game with a new character, imo.

This is where we farmers kinda like it when the target doesn't kill us and cost us money. Demon Hunter is way behind in kills, but even one loss costs me more than I usually get in 4 wins, mostly since the loot quality has dropped along with the XP reward. Doggone rocks sometimes get in the way of a Second Wind despite homing bullets. Boom, die sounds like a deal. Beats standing there listening for it to walk away from the door so when I go in and deploy the grenades I'm not getting hit in the face by its offensive powers.

And I *do* tend to like the reward for leveling up to be that my slightest glance at an enemy causes it to wither and die. Otherwise the work seems like a waste...

I'd say you did it right if you wanted to try the harder mode. I believe you can go back to Normal if it's harder than you want. I stuck with Normal for a while.

Sanctuary does NOT improve after the end fight. Now looking for a place that has better stuff without starting a new continued game.

It took two tries to get it to drop, but I'm underwhelmed with the Level 26 Bee shield. 925 damage protection, and +2758 amping of my damage. That's NOT a giant killer. Sure, the recharge rate will fill the shield in under a second, but the delay of nearly 4 seconds might get me killed. Did the legend of the Bee only start when it was found in Level 50 form, or did I just score an underpowered version?...

Well, LIVE really sucks sometimes. Friends dropped by, saw I could fight Terramorphous now and offered to 'help'. Turns out one of them has a Bee and a Conference Call that take about 20 seconds to down him, so all I did was avoid getting killed. Then something happens to LIVE and they drop out, with like a million dollars worth of loot left from several runs to pick up. Lucky for me the machines there are like 4 levels above Sanctuary so it was a good learning experience. If only the per-death rate were lower, I'd go get some loot then die to exit, but that's not the way it works.

Gave away my lame Bee to a friend. Will try again in hopes the specs are random and I got a low-end model...

I was invited to a game and dived in, and now I'm not sure joining random games is such a good deal. Sure, I got plenty of XP out of it, but it was apparently a TVHM game based on these incredibly hard-to-kill dudes. It was the Firehawk mission, and there were quite a few normal Psychos running around, but the big ones sucked up everything I could throw at them and mostly laughed. I'm fairly sure I didn't kill one of them all by myself, but since there were 4 of us playing I was seeing them about as tough as I could without being the third time through. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on ammo and dying, but I had it and still have like 2.6 million left so it was just another learning experience.

Farming Terramorphous is over for today. One E-Tech sniper rifle dropped. Auditing Hybridfication, 29019 damage, 3605.9 electric damage per second. Now in storage for later. Level 40-1/2 now, hoping to get to 50 if my friends continue to drop by carrying their even-better equipment. If I'm going to go into TVHM games to help folks, I want to DO more help than I NEED...
Edited by mikepaul - 10/14/12 at 11:23pm

You did the right thing. As I've said before, starting a new TVH game will net you FAR better stuff than you'd ever find on Normal. Give it time. It's not like orange items are ever going to just fall from the sky, but a white L42 gun found on TVH mode will make a L42 gun on normal look like a child's toy. A white L44 gun will make that same L42 gun look pathetic. By the time you get to L50 and get a rocket launcher that does 300,000 damage, you'll laugh at the memory of what you thought was a "good" weapon that did a paltry 10K.

Gearbox absolutely nailed the progression system this time around.

If you finished the first playthrough but don't want to move on to another Normal or harder playthrough before wrapping up side quests, the best place I found for shopping in the machines is Terramorphous Peak. While in my game Sanctuary is at Level 30 at best, the Peak maxes out at Level 34. These levels will probably be relative, since plenty of people have finished before 30...

MASSIVE damage is required. I make a valiant attempt to hurt him with my Level 34 Dart and my Assassin's kunai toss, but nothing I have will actually hurt him much. Only the friends I hang with have Level 50 equipment that'll work, so I do have the Achievement.

There are always phenoms in every game who accomplish tough things easily, like beating him at a fairly low level. Perhaps it'll work for you, perhaps not. Jump in and try, then win or lose you'll know...

Friends, especially friends at higher levels, do make this game great. Having trouble? Invite the proper friend.

I'm at Level 46 now. Dozens of Terramorphous runs, loot galore so I've got more than 7 million, amusement over how badly some runs go. I'm probably going to have to move a game save off somewhere to keep my mid-range gear safe while preparing to load up on the stuff that falls. No WAY I'd be enjoying it this much on my own...

For solo, only L50 will do. Those that beat him at L40 are either lying, had help, or ground it out in the hidey-hole for hours.

For co-op, find somone with a Conference Call shotgun and The Bee and defeat him in 6 seconds, tops.

Couple of interesting game features seen today.

There was this head lying in the pile of loot on Terramorphous Peak. XXX head, mentioned mechromancer in the text. TRIED to pick it up, but I wasn't able to no matter how much stuff I dropped. So I pointed it out to my friends, and they both said "What head? I can't see it.". Apparently it was only in my copy of the game, and stayed there for a bunch of runs until the host did a reset to clear the field. I'd run up to the purple item, realize it was still that head, and walk away. Just odd.

Odder still, I was slow jumping down into the pit and actually got caught in the closing trap door. Other times, I was on it and just had to jump up to break through, but that didn't work. I struggled for a bit and then finally pointing down and pushing forward started to work to lower me, then stopped, then worked again until I hit the ground. However, I was in some sort of turbo-mode where when I ran, it was 2-3 times faster than normal. Teleporting out to reset the farming cleared it up but I worry about crashing when stuff like that happens.

After dozens of runs, I'm at Level 50. Single best drop: Hide of Terramorphous shield, which I begged for and got to keep. Generous friends are nice to have...
Edited by mikepaul - 10/16/12 at 9:27pm

Yea. I keep getting told that it's me going away from them, though. Makes me think TWC doesn't like me...

I decided to go for the DLC deal since it was still there. Downloading now. Not sure where it fits in but I think I'll have to make sure I do it on my own. Still recognizing a few areas in the main game that I was driven through by friends but saw only for a moment...

Terramorphous dropped another orange Pitchfork model sniper rifle, different element this time. I wish I could trade them in for less odd ones. The one Pele sniper I was given was obsolete at 1500 damage when 15000 was more appropriate, but my Mom told me to say Thank You anyway. Prepping for the TVHM game is progressing, but not all that quickly...

DLC so far is absurdly easy...even more so than the cakewalk of TVM. Sure, it didn't hurt that I have 3 different Conference Call shotguns and a Bee shield, but I took those off after about 30 seconds and it's still not exactly what I'd call a challenge even with plain ol' white guns and a bland 60K Turtle shield. That said, I do like the new content, however, as there's plenty of comedy to go around and the enemies (while easy to kill) are varied. Sort of bummed out that the level cap didn't go up though.