Borderlands 2: Skills Analysis

This page has the results of the testing of various skills and mechanics in Borderlands 2

(Credit goes to Zikel from reddit)

General combat

Kill skills last 7 seconds

Melee attacks crit for 2x damage and none of the critical hit damage bonuses change that.

The melee damage bonus % found on weapons is multiplicative rather then additive, like most % damage increases.

Zero

Deception

Action Skill. Press button to create a holographic decoy and vanish for a few seconds(6 seconds). The longer you are invisible the more Damage your next attack deals, but ending invisibility sooner causes your next deception cooldown to refresh faster (minimum cooldown of 10 seconds before cooldown reduction). Maximum Cooldown 15 seconds.

A minimum of 230% up to +650% Melee Damage

A minimum of 40% Up to +200% Gun Damage

Up to +250% Gun Critical Hit Damage

Lies. Deception does not give any Critical him damage increase at all, it simply increases gun damage by up to 200% before the critical hit multiplier of the weapon. I think this text it there to remind you that maybe you should try to land a critical hit with the deception damage bonus.

Bloodshed

Killing blow

When exactly is an enemy "low on health" ?

When below 30% health.

The damage bonus from this skill is multiplicative rather than additive, that is why you get astronomical numbers when using it.

Execute

How much exactly is this "massive damage" ?

This skill changes the melee damage bonus of deception from

A minimum of 230% up to 650% Melee damage to

A minimum of 460% up to 1400% increased Melee damage

Many must fall

How much time does it add to the duration of Deception ?

~2 seconds

Cunning

Counter Strike

What activates it ?

Bullets and melee attacks definitely do, most likely is any enemy attack that is not damage over time.

Ambush

Do I get the bonus if enemies are targeting my decoy ?

Yes, if you are in deception then you are getting the bonus damage no matter what.

Unforeseen

Do the additional decoys created by Many must fall explode ?

Yes.

Death Mark

The damage bonus is multiplicative or additive ?

Multiplicative.

Death Blossom

You throw 4 daggers at a time and you can do that 5 times. They can have any of the 5 elemental types. This skill is a very reliable way of applying slag and overall it does fantastic damage on its own.

To apply Death mark you have to directly hit an enemy, the elemental explosions do not apply it.

Sniping

Kill Confirmed

How long does it take to get the full bonus ?

~ 2,7 seconds

Critical Ascension

You start losing stacks after 6 seconds.

You lose 1 stack Per second.

Switching weapon, opening a menu(map, inventory, quest log, etc), using a vending machine, talking to a quest giver and dieing instantly removes all stacks.

You can melee,throw grenades and sprint without losing all stacks !

Gaige

Summon Deathtrap

60 seconds cooldown, 60 seconds duration. Time between melee attacks - 1,5 seconds.

Ordered Chaos

Robot Rampage

Cooldown - 13 seconds.

Misleading tooltip. It's not 7 attacks, it's 9+1 attacks.

DT spins for 2 seconds dealing 9 attacks to all enemies near him. Each of those 9 attacks does 62% of his normal melee attack damage. At the end of his spin he does an instant normal attack with no delay for full damage.

In other words, with this skill deathtrap does up to 658% of his melee damage in 2 seconds.

Discord

Cost - 1,33 stacks per second.

Death from Above

Cooldown - 2 seconds.

Sadly this awesome skill was not implemented very well. You don't have full control over when it activates. Shooting while walking on uneven surfaces or getting hit by bullets and getting lifting inches off the ground as result can activate this skill. As a result investing in this skill can makes managing your Anarchy stacks much harder.

The Nth Degree

Do NOT invest more then one point in this skill.

In the best case scenario (if there are always enemies in range) you will get 11,1% damage increase from this skill. This is not a bad deal, however for investing 4 more skill points you will only increase that bonus to 20%. Because of this investing more then 1 is a complete waste of skill points.

With Claws

At the cost of 1 Anarchy stack you do 2 swipes, both doing full melee damage and both healing you for % of your missing heath. At 1% heath this skill heals for up to ~30% of your heath per swipe. At 90% health it will heal for ~5% of your health. Also important to note is that because of both swipes do full melee damage and the speed at which you can use this attack this skill effectively gives you 50% increased melee attack speed.

Little Big Trouble

The Stare

Cooldown - 15 seconds. Does high amount of burn damage to a single target.

Not affected by Evil Enchantress or badass rank bonuses.

Shock Storm

Can activate Electrical burn even if created by Deathtrap.

One Two Boom

Cooldown - 42 seconds.

Cannot be activated with E-tech weapons.

Interspersed Outburst

First stack after 2 seconds of not shooting.

Full stacks after 9,3 seconds of not shooting.

The damage is based on character level and the number of stacks only. It will do the same damage with 1 or 5 points invested. The chance to slag is 2% per rank for each stack. So with 5 stacks at rank 5 the chance to slag is 50%. This is how it works in TVHM, I can't test that anymore but I think before finishing the game in normal mode the damage of the skill worked differently, class mods did not increase the damage, but investing points in to it did.

Make It Sparkle

Each of his melee attacks does additional damage equal to 2x his base melee damage. Because it takes the base damage and not the actual damage Strength of 5 Gorillas, Upshot Robot and Made of Stern Stuff do not increase the elemental damage his melee attacks do.

The elemental damage he does is also affected by the elemental damage type multipliers. So for example if Deathtrap does 1000 damage with his melee attacks and you slag him, now he will deal 1000 normal damage + 2000 slag damage per melee attack. If you set him on fire and send him after fleshy things he will do 1000 + 3500.

But there is more, this thing works with Robot Rampage and that combination is absolutely phenomenal.

This is because it does the full bonus elemental damage on each attack. Let me toss some numbers at you.

My level 39 Deathtrap does 5500 damage with his melee attack. If I send him with no upgrades vs a Super Badass Loader he will do 11k damage in 2 seconds. If he has Make it Sparkle and Robot Rampage and I give him corrosive attacks he will do: 36190 damage normal damage + 192500 corrosive damage.

So from 11k to 229k damage in 2 seconds. And I could slag that enemy for him, so my level 39 Deathtrap can do 457k damage in 2 seconds. I can't imagine what a level 50 Deathtrap can do.

Best Friends Forever

Buck Up

Cooldown - 18 seconds.

Because of a bug Deathtrap will sometimes use this ability on your enemies. In True Vault Hunter Mode it only restores 30% of your shields.

Because of this in TVHM this skill is a complete waste of Deathtraps time and should always be avoided.

I can't test this any more, but while leveling Gaige it felt like this skill was restoring 100% of my shields, or eve more then that, but when

I tested it in TVHM it was only restoring 30%(as the tooltip states). Going back to Normal mode after I have unlocked TVHM does not change that.

Explosive Clap

Cooldown - 25 seconds.

Does pretty good amount of damage in a very large radius.

Sharing is Caring

Deathtrap does not benefit from the special effect of Amp Shields.

Spike, Nova, Roid and Booster work as you would expect.

Absorb shields do not give you ammo, I can't tell if they are protecting DT from bullets.

Don't have a way of testing if Turtle shields reduce his heath or do adaptive shields boost his health and resistances.

Maya

Phaselock

How long does it last by default ?

5 seconds

Cataclysm

Flicker

How does it work ?

It increases the chance to apply an elemental effect that the weapon has by said %. (example, weapon has 40% chance to ignite, with 5 points in this skill it will become 52% chance to ignite)

Helios

Does it apply to targets that cannot be phaselocked ?

Yes.

Ruin

How does it work ?

It creates 3 explosions with the center being the phaselocked target. Slag, Electric and Corrosive explosion in that order. Works on targets that cannot be phaselocked.

Harmony

Life tap

How does it work ?

Instantly restores health equal to x% of any damage you do. Works with guns, rocket launchers, grenades, melee attacks, damage over time effects, any damage you do.

Scorn

How does it work ?

Sends out a slow moving orb that explodes on impact doing minor slag damage. While flying the orb also sends out slag tendrils to all enemies around it, quickly applying the slag debuff to them. Very reliable way of applying slag to multiple enemies.

Motion

Kinetic Reflection

Can I become immune to bullets if I have 10 points in to this skill ?

Yes.

Sub-Sequence

How does it work ?

Once the phaselocked target dies the spell starts moving the same way homing grenades do and seeks another target. While the spell is moving to another target the duration of phaselock keeps going down. Also when its seeking another target Wreck, Elated and

Chain reaction are not active.

Every time it hits a new target Converge and Helios are reapplied.

Thoughtlock

Do Converge, Helios, Wreck, Chain reaction and Elated work with Thoughtlock ?

Yes.

Salvador

Gunzerking

By default this skill lasts 20 seconds and provides 33,3% damage reduction.

Brawn

I'm the Juggernaut

At 5 points the 20% damage reduction you are supposed to get is more like ~16,5%. It's a great skill nonetheless. When combined with Gunzerking it results in 41% damage reduction.

Fistful of Hurt

How much is "massive damage" ?

300% increased melee damage.

Come At Me Bro

How much damage reduction do I get and how long does it last ?

The buff lasts 8 seconds and it increases the damage reduction to 66,6%. When combined with I'm the Juggernaut(5 points) it results in ~ 71% damage reduction.

Rampage

Get Some

It is important to note that this skill also works while you are Gunzerking, this means that by the time your Gunzerking timer runs out you might have it off cooldown and ready to be used again immediately.

Keep Firing

How does it work ?

You just have to keep your finger on the triggers, lift them for more the 1 second and the magic is gone.

Reloading does not seem to affect the bonus fire rate.

Not sure exactly how long it takes to get the maximum bonuses, its not longer then 10 seconds.

Gun Lust

All I Need is One

Best thing about this skill is that it works with rocket launchers.

Money Shot

Does not work with Rocket Launchers.

Not all that great when using TORGUE weapons because of the way explosive weapon damage is calculated.

With 5 points in the skill the damage bonus for clip size is as follows:

1 = 0% (You sttil hear the sound, but there is no bonus damage)

2 = 80%

3 = 120%

4 = 160%

5 = 200%

6 = 240%

7 = 280%

8 = 320%

9 = 360%

10 = 400%

11 = 440%!

12+ = 480%!

I had to farm the Warrior for white items with small clip sizes to test this, but finding out that the optimal clip size is actually 12 makes it all worth it.

Keep It Piping Hot

Because of a bug this skill does not work if you have any cooldown reduction bonuses.

No Kill Like Overkill

How does it work ?

It works exactly as it says, however the bonus damage you can get is capped.

The cap is 5x as much damage as you would do with no overkill bonus. That damage bonus is multiplicative and is applied at the end of the equation. Whatever damage you can do without the overkill bonus you can do up to 5 times as much damage with the overkill bonus, as long as you follow the same rules. For example if you can hit a slagged target for 100k damage with the bonus from "All I need is one" and "Money Shot" and no Overkill bonus, then with maximum overkill bonus damage you should be able to hit a target for 500k, as long as it is also slagged and you have the "all I need is one" and "Money shot" bonuses. At least that is how I think it works, I have not played all that much with this skill so I might be completely wrong on this one.

Axton

Sabre Turret

How long does it last by default ?

23 seconds, but because it takes some time to deploy and start shooting its 20 seconds at best. Also by default it fires 8 rounds per burst.

Gunpowder

Steady

This skill states that it increases grenade damage, that is true, but that bonus grenade damage also applies to the explosive round of TORGUE weapons and Tediore reload explosions.

Do or die

Same thing as Steady.

Battlefront

Same as the two above, but it also gives gun damage, that means that TORGUE weapons double dip with this skill for a massive damage increase.

Nuke

Is there any way to increase the damage this thing does ?

Slag the target before deploying the turret, Death mark from Zero should also increase the damage. Nothing else as far as I know.

Guerrilla

Scorched Earth

Equipping your turret with rocked pods also decreases the damage the gun of the turret does by 13%

Double Up

This upgrade also decreases the gun damage by 13%. This results in a 74% increased damage for having 2 guns rather then the 100% increase that you would expect. If you combine this with rocket pods then you will be only getting 54% increased turret gun damage.

If you take Gemini without pods then you will have 100% increased turret gun damage, with pods - 74%.

All of that does not mean that rocket pods are not worth it.