User talk:98.228.163.110/Enemy at the Gates

Enemy at the Gates: Build Explained

This build is for true snipers (the name referring to the 2001 film) - the ones who love dealing death with well-placed critical hits. The problem with using Mordecai this way is that Borderlands doesn't really accommodate this style without some adjustments. You're constantly rushed by swarms of enemies. Even when you're playing co-op with others, you're overwhelmed enemies that won't keep their distance. This build gets around some of those drawbacks. What I like about playing Mordecai this way is that this build gets better as enemies get tougher - and it's the only build I know of that accomplishes that.

There's a lot of emphasis placed on Focus/Caliber, fundamental sniping skills. To augment these, Deadly is essential to make the most of your critical hits and open up the Gunslinger tree a bit. Unfortunately, Mordecai is sort of weak and susceptible to damage. I get around this two ways: I use Mordecai's action skill, and Riotous Remedy. The latter is minor, but gives you some health with each kill. Bloodwing is a great asset that will become invaluable as the game progresses, so I maximize his damage and speed with Swift Strike. By then maximizing Out for Blood, you have a great way of making up for Mordecai's general frailty because Bloodwing replenishes your health depending on how much damage he does - not on the enemy's health. If this skill is maximized, one strike with Bloodwing is usually enough to completely fill up your health bar. To make use of these Bloodwing abilities even more, I maximized Carrion Call. By pumping my enemies with sniper rifle fire, I get Bloodwing back that much faster, fill up my health, and send him out again. I also maximized Aerial Impact because that lets you daze your enemies, which makes it that much easier to get Critical hits while reducing your enemies' ability to hurt you. This also opens up Bird of Prey. I only put one point in this because having Bloodwing hit 2 targets is enough to accrue a lot of damage (remember, the percentage of health you get back is a function of damage Bloodwing inflicts) and having him strike more than 2 targets makes the turnaround time longer. Better to keep the turnaround time short so you're sure to get your health maximized, and good to be able to hit multiple targets for those times when you're dealing with a swarm of foes.

From here, you can choose to put some points into Trespass (but if you have a good enough gun, you're racking up one-shot kills) or into Predator to reduce your Bloodwing cooldown even more. Another variation would be to put points into Lethal Strike so as to make your melee skills more effective (like I said, Riotous Remedy is only a small fraction of the health you'll regenerate), but in my experience, Lethal Strike doesn't work well for my style of gameplay.

Weapons

My primary weapon is always a high-power sniper. My secondary weapon is usually an elemental-enhanced sniper rifle (Incendiary or Corrosive). For close range work, I actually use a shotgun more often than pistols because shotguns point blank almost always achieve kills in one or two shots. My fourth sort of depends on the situation, but is frequently a high powered rocket launcher with elemental damage. In my backpack I have a top tier weapon from all the other categories though to keep the 4th slot a little more flexible. I rarely use grenades, but I often have a Transfusion mod and use them for health regeneration. I'd recommend a mod that gives you something in the way of finding rare items to improve your loot collection. Your critical hits will be doing upwards of 2000-3000 damage per shot, so it's wise to use a mod that addresses other areas.

Examples

Let's say I'm playing alone, walking into an area populated by multiple enemies. I open with Bloodwing, who will either damage or kill outright the first two enemies. I then start picking off enemies with my sniper rifle, and I get Bloodwing back shortly so I can repeat the process in short order. I love it when there are Bruisers/Brutes or Badass/BadMutha enemies, because I continually pump them with sniper rifle fire and my cooldown for Bloodwing will actually be 0 seconds. Even if I get hit hard, it's only a few seconds before I have a full health bar again. Meanwhile, every time Bloodwing hits them, they get dazed and slowed down, so they can't hit me as well and it's really easy to get Critical hits on them. The tougher they are, the easier this process is, and the easier it is to rack up XP. As part of a team, you can take down the heaviest enemies while your teammates take care of the lower tier guys.