Mordecai

Mordecai is the game's "Hunter." He relies on damage dealt with precise marksmanship and the use of falconry to defeat enemies and acquire loot.

Background
At the age of 17, Mordecai won an Interplanetary Sharpshooting competition with a pistol. The other competitors, who were using sniper rifles, accused him of cheating and eventually got him banned from the competition for "unsportsmanlike conduct," although many witnesses noted that he didn't display any unsportsmanlike behaviours until after the accusations began. He now travels from planet to planet with his trusty companion Bloodwing, searching for "everything this freaking universe owes me," which Mordecai has defined as a better gun and unlimited cash.

(Information taken from the Borderlands manual)

Gameplay
Mordecai's play style is that of a sharpshooter. He is well suited for ranged combat, being able to have improved accuracy and dealing the most damage with well placed critical hits. Based on how his skill points are distributed he is also able to do high damage with other guns, though most of his skills lead to a preference of sniper rifles and pistols. His melee weapon is a sword, which can also be a tool of great harm. All of these advantages come at the expense of his own durability under fire. Mordecai's active ability calls his bloodwing, a red-eyed alien bird that can be a very helpful companion along your search for the vault.

His three skill trees are Sniper, which increases his skills with sniper rifles as well as group experience bonuses and accuracy; Rogue, which mainly focuses on increasing the potency of his Bloodwing as well as gaining loot; and Gunslinger, which improves his usage of pistols, as well as his melee weapon. Playing Mordecai involves making extra use of shields and evasive maneuvers, more than any of the other classes. Fighting in close quarters and boss battles can be difficult, while many fights in open areas will be much easier.

Active Ability
Mordecai has a Bloodwing as a pet, which is a deadly winged predator that can be unleashed upon enemies to damage or kill them.

The Bloodwing can be commanded to attack enemies and can also be upgraded for increased damage and speed as you progress through the game. If you place your crosshairs over an enemy and the crosshairs turn red, then activate Bloodwing, it will attack the target you had in your sights. If you blind-fire Bloodwing, it will seek out the nearest target in the general direction you're looking in. Bloodwing's attack range is limited however, and more suitable to close combat conditions than for supporting long range sniping.

Bloodwing can also be equipped with artifacts to give him elemental damage bonuses.

Bloodwing bears the unique ability to be called back which allows him to be used again immediately if he hasn't attacked a target. Even a single attack forces you to wait for the full cooldown.

Bird of Prey isn't quite as useful as it could be. It would appear that the Bloodwing AI will never attack the same target twice in a row. It will only rarely attack the same target more than once even when multiple enemies are present. A useful tactic when using the Bird of Prey skill is when there are two enemies remaining, The Bloodwing will constantly attack the two enemies back and forth until it's reached its limit. This is especially useful when fighting Crimson Lance Engineers after they send out their scorpio turret.

Bloodwing Tips

 * 1) You can launch Bloodwing immediately before entering a vehicle and it will continue to follow until the skill timer expires. It will attack enemies you pass as Bird of Prey permits.
 * 2) Bloodwing doesn't handle obstacles such as big rocks very well, so put some thought into which direction you're facing when you launch it.
 * 3) Bloodwing can be recalled by pressing the action skill button while it's deployed, returning it to you before it's duration is over and interrupting it from attacking any additional targets with Bird of Prey. This can be extremely useful if you're running low on health and need the life from the Out For Blood skill.

Skill Tree Calculator
Check out the skill calculator at the official Borderlands site

Class Mods

 * See Article: Class Mods for more info.

Quotes

 * "Sure is great, standing here. I LOVE IT! (sarcasm)" (If the player is idle for a lengthy amount of time)
 * "Now that you mention it, I DO love standing here doing NOTHING!!!" (Idle)
 * "Boom! Hehehehehehe..." (After getting a Critical Hit kill)
 * "So, you want me to share?" (Upon opening a Chest)
 * "Lady Luck be kind." (Upon opening a Chest)
 * "Let's get our feet out of the dust" (Upon spawning an Outrunner)

Trivia

 * The name Mordecai may be a reference to a pet falcon named Mordecai (seeing as Mordecai has a bloodwing which is similar to a pet falcon) in the movie "The Royal Tenenbaums" By Wes Anderson.
 * A bug existed in the initial release of Borderlands that enabled the Hunter to spawn multiple Bloodwings at once. The glitch in action can be viewed here.