Jane of All Trades

I've played Mechromancer since it released, and have completed both playthroughs with it. ? While I consider myself a casual player, I thought that some extra thoughts on the matter could come to light, so here goes.

As always I think a skill rundown is in order, in terms of my own opinion, but first, I think my own playstyle needs to be mentioned. ? I generally enjoy all-round combat, ie: up close and long range. ? I enjoy most all weapon types except pistols, and I hate Jackobs in anything except sniper rifles. ? I prefer a high rate of fire to my guns, as things close in quick, and I need some dakka to get them dead. ? If I can't have a high RoF, a great reload speed works. ? I enjoy faceshots, exploding barrels and leaping rocket shots to the ground. ? I rarely use grenades except to transfuse some health.

That said, let's look at the skills

Close Enough - its a useful skill, especially if you throw a lot of bullets. ? I know some people just love it due to how Anarchy drops your hit chance severely! ? I live without it, and I don't see it as a good investment unless you go 5/5. ?

Cooking Up Trouble - I always sink at least 3 points here, regeneration is harder in BL2, and if you're an Anarchy user, you always want one full weapon when you go loot hunting, (else you reload and lose all your stacks)

Fancy Mathematics - I consider it unnecessary when Blood Soaked Shields is available

Buck Up - Still bugged last time I checked, until its fixed, unnecessary, even later it'd be nice but not a must have

The Better Half - If you focus on high clip weapons, It is a nice place to sink extra points, but by no means necessary either.

? Now, I only dabble in the BFF tree, I don't go further than maybe a little Fancy Math, so the rest of this stuff is unnecessary in my view. ? That said, all these things do increase your survivability anyway.

Potent as a Pony - Again, not a big deal, unless you are on playthrough 2, then it may let you soak one more hit, but not much more than that!

Upshot Robot - A great tool for DT lovers, I'd get just enough BFF points to get here. ? However, as before, on playthrough 2, DT will die more often than not and you may not see extra lovin from this skill

Unstoppable Force - I find this useless with BSS available.

Explosive Clap - very powerful, a bit slow but impressive. ? DT usually offs enemies well enough that it is unnecessary

Sterner Stuff - DT does good damage, and even when maxed 5% damage reduction is hardly amazing. ? Things on TVHM will eat you alive with or without it

20% cooler - 24% faster Deathtrap. ? I just don't see the need

Sharing is Caring - Useful with Upshot Robot! ? I'm not sure if the shield given is a true copy, When I wear the Bee, I don't know if DT gets the amp bonus

More Pep - With my high RoF, this isn't too necessary, but I sink 5/5 into it to ensure that my elemental SMGs hit their mark and fast, and boy howdy does it work, especially with later skills in the tree.

Mylein - Feeble Shock resistance, only go here for a few points if you need to get to the next rank.

Shock Storm - Awesome skill, but it needs a crit to hit. ? Considering how I jump around and faceshoot a lot, this procs often.

The Stare - I've used it, but I haven't seen much of it really, I withold judgment

Five Gorillas - I only add one here if I have a MOD for it, TVHM is no place for melee

Electrical Burn - Massive damage, just sheer awesome, this combined with More Pep gives a LOT of DoT

Shock and AAAGGGHH - High RoF = lots of reloads ? it partners so well with Electrical Burn!

Evil Enchantress - To be fair, I don't use this much. ? I feel that getting the elemental damage to hit is bigtime, but not so much needing to boost it.

One Two Boom - hard to predict, lame

Wires Don't Talk - A great place to sink your extra points, with E-Burn, Lightning Storm and AAAGGGHH, you're always spewing lightning

Interspersed Outburst - Handy, extra damage, procs on Conf Call (before update) so it can do tons of damage with the Bee. ? Handy, as I said.

Make It Sparkle - DT does good damage no matter what, I think it is irrelevant, but I can see a point going here

Anarchy - the ability that teaches you not to instareload. ? So much potential, and necessary if you want to climb the 3rd tree.

Lighter, Faster - again, necessary. ? Hurts the Infinity Pistol, but overall, barely noticable

Preshrunk Cyberpunk - Great in PT1, but not TVHM unless you are really good at not dying. ? I find I only get about 60 Anarchy on TVHM or so.

Robot Rampage - great damage, but that sound bug drives me nuts. ? It really needs fixed

Blood Soaked Shields - Every review I have read knows that this is awesome, and it is. ? If you can oneshot enemies, you can get full shields back immediately. ? It is a cornerstone for Mechromancer

Annoyed Android - Useless

Discord - More of a good protection against accidental reloads, but has its own uses. ?

Typecast Iconoclast -speeds up Anarchy, its worth it

Rational Anarchist - Gets you a leg up and only one point, snag it

Death From Above - totally useless, the damage isn't that much, if it were upped to Interspersed Outburst levels, I'd snag it

Nth Degree - If you use shotguns or high ROF, it may work for you, I don't bother because I don't go for the next ability

With Claws - okay, the damage is nice, the regen is nice, but it also means you waste anarchy if you for some reason want to bust open a pile for more ammo. ? TVHM is too dangerous for this

Summaries to come