User blog:Itripped/Marley and Moe become Test Subjects

I felt a little rushed this morning and didn't get a lot accomplished. I went into the Arid hills looking for three things: Marley, Moe and Sniper Rifle parts. My plan was to test out my current weapon load out to see if it was adequate. While the mission was successful, the data gathered is not encouraging.

I knew going in that my Volcano was going to be less than useful against Moe, but I figured this would be a great way to compare it against my Liquid sniper. Entering the Arid hills I knew I had a litter of skags to clean up at the entrance. While this was enjoyable I had forgotten just how many of these skags gathered here! I sat at the end of a drain pipe and funneled them in to what quickly became a fire-filled pipe. With the bulk of the skags gone it was easier to pick off the stragglers. The volcano was still pretty good against the rank and file skags, at least.

I switched to the Liquid sniper and advanced to the first bandit camp. Here I started to notice a few minor....I won't call them problems as such, but the overall performance of the gun wasn't that great. I was needing five or six rounds to take out a single bruiser. While I was able to clear the camp, I wasn't pleased at the efficiency loss. Undeterred I moved on to the second bandit camp, where I would find the sniper rifle parts scattered about.

For some reason I always have trouble finding the final piece of the gun, no matter which one it is. I've done this mission a few times now (so I should already know that it's a waste of time, as the rifle I get is generally crap) but I can never quite remember the placement of all the pieces. I doubt I will forget the revolver placement though, although time will tell there too. I did manage to find the gun parts and cleaned out any remaining bandits - this was important because I had plans on leading Marley and Moe here and didn't want distractions.

Things went according to plan, mostly. I ran over, cleaned out some more skags until M+M showed up, at which point I was able to harass them enough to chase me back to the bandit camp. From here I am able to put some distance (and elevation) between me and the two skags, which really let me put the rifles to the test.

The result? Well I ran out of sniper ammo while taking out two boss level skags. That's a big problem for me. I still don't have ammo regeneration for sniper guns so I need to make each shot count. Clearly I am not yet dealing enough damage on a per-shot basis. Also keep in mind I have my Scavenger mod equipped, so I am not getting any critical hit bonuses from that. I do have an Equalizer revolver that regenerates pistol ammo and that is what I used to complete the job, but wow, it took a very long time. Part of the problem was that Marley wouldn't give me a good face shot so I couldn't get critical damage on him.

The short assessment is clear: I need a better gun.