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Meet the Gunzerker


dividedbyn1ght

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The Gunzerker, for instance, can temporarily wield two guns at once. Build around these primary skills are elaborate trees that modify how the primary skill works. Gearbox's lead writer Anthony Burch and lead designer Jon Hemingway explain how.

 

So what does dual mean aside from being able to output more damage? According to Anthony Burch, "I can combine a shock machine gun and a fire shotgun and charge with my machine gun firing to drop [enemy] shields and then light them on fire with the shotgun at close range and melt their face."

 

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/gunzerker_2.jpg

 

The Gunzerker gets three skill trees, each of which represent a different style of play. "We certainly added more skills. We wanted the trees to be more unique," said Burch, who went on to explain the Gunzerker's backstory. "Everybody in the first game was implied to have just come to Pandora looking for the vault. Salvador [the Gunzerker] is actually a native of Pandora and the idea is that he sort of protected a town wherever he lived out in the sticks. Once Hyperion came to the planet they've been on this quest to eradicate all the 'bandits' from Pandora, but in their mind that's everybody who is not part of the Hyperion corporate family."

 

His rampage skill tree is "about being a whirlwind of destruction." According to Burch, "A lot of skills are actually based off of movie quotes. With the skill Yippe Ki Yay, "while you're gunzerking [dual-wielding], any time you kill an enemy it increases the duration of gunzerking. What happens is that a really large encounter with lots of enemies becomes exciting. You immediately enter your gunzerking mode and every time you kill them you get bigger and stronger and badder and just completely go on a rampage throughout the fight. As long as you can keep killing things you can just keep on gunzerking forever."

 

There's also the Brawn skill tree, where you can learn the Come at Me, Bro skill. With this, "while gunzerking you can let out a taunt and get enemies to focus on you," said Hemingway. "But then for the next several seconds you get a ton of damage reduction. But also the moment you taunt you instantly go to full health -- and so it's actually fantastic. You're in the middle of a fight, you're not doing so well, so rather than die you just start taunting, go to full health and then proceed to kill them all as they all focus on you. It's a fantastic moment, and a great example of something you do in the Brawn skill tree." While that could be useful while playing alone, it seems especially well-tuned for a multiplayer situation if a teammate is getting beat up and near death.

 

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Borderlands2ScreenGunzerkerBT.jpg

 

You won't be locked into a skill tree, you can distribute points across multiple trees like in the first game. You can't learn every skill, though, and can reorganize your build if you're unhappy with your initial decisions. "We won't talk specifically about how you do respec-ing," said Hemingway, "but our philosophy has always been that it should be very, very easy and very cheap. You know in the first game respec-ing was ridiculously cheap to do and you could do it whenever you wanted. We do everything we can to encourage experimentation so the players can try out the different things."

 

The third skill tree is called Gun Lust, which according to Burch is "all about just doing crazy or interesting things with guns. There's one skill called No Kill Like Overkill and anytime you kill an enemy, any excessive amount of damage you dealt is converted into health for you. Once you have this skill [...] you really want a gun to finish off enemies that does a ton of damage in one shot, so it's not uncommon for us to see gunzerkers go in with SMGs or something -- some, fast, high fire rate but low damage weapon -- because you get a guy's health low and then swap to a sniper riper or revolver and get a ton of health back."

 

Gearbox wants players to use these skills together as well, like using the Money Shot skill in conjunction with No Kill Like Overkill. "Money Shot makes it so that the last bullet fired from any clip does massive damage. So imagine you have a revolver, you're going 'bang, bang, bang, kaboom,' and all of a sudden the guy explodes and you reload and go do it again," said Burch. Hemingway elaborated on the combinations possibilities, "So you have a Money Shot, the last shot in your chamber is super powerful, and then you have No Kill Like Overkill. You can just go from almost no health to completely full health if you just use your skills accurately and are a good shot."

 

http://www.bl2wiki.com/images/d/d9/Merc-tighter.jpg

 

Skill trees aren't the only way to alter how the Gunzerker fights. Like in the original, you'll get grenade types and more to equip for varying effects. A skill called Double Your Fun, for instance, ties into the grenade system. "If you throw a grenade while gunzerking you actually end up throwing two grenades, but the second grenade doesn't cost you ammo. And so what we're really seeing people do is they will collect a grenade mod which explodes and then throws out additional grenades when those all explode. When you combine that with this it's like it's a room clearer. Just very quickly 'boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.' Everything dies," said Burch.

 

"The skills and the loot really have interesting kinds of interplay," said Hemingway. "We were talking about the Brawn Tree earlier, and you can min/max the Gunzerker to just be the ultimate health machine if you find the right kind of shield. There's some shields that have a low amount of actual shield but they increase your overall health and if you want to spec for those then you can just be a walking tank that will never ever, ever die. Your damage won't be as spectacular as someone who is going in the Gun Lust or Rampage tree but you can just be the agro sponge for your team. All the skills and all the loot have been sort of designed in such a way that you can combine them in these crazy ways."

 

There will be more ways to modify your character as well, but Gearbox isn't talking about all the details just yet. The team also isn't talking much about the other classes. So far we know about Maya, a Siren. The Siren class was in the original game, but Maya will not have the Phasewalking skill that Lilith did in Borderlands. Burch promises her gameplay style will be, "very, very different and very, very new."

 

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Meet Borderlands 2's Gunzerker - Xbox 360 Feature at IGN

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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJRhyjAKACw&feature=related]Borderlands 2 PAX 2012 LiveStream - Salvador Gameplay - YouTube[/ame]

 

SKILLS

 

Salvador: skill trees:

 

Rampage - features stat bonuses and new abilities tied to his dual-wielding ability.

All in the reflexes: Increases your reload speed and your melee attack swing speed

Reload speed + 4%

Melee speed + 7%

 

Filled to the Brims: Increases the magazine size of all weapon types. Also increases your ammo carrying capacity of all weapon types.

+5% mag size

+3% ammo capacity cap

 

Last Longer: Increases the duration of dual wield.

+3 seconds.

 

Lay waste: Killing an enemy grants you increased fire rate and critical hit damage with all guns. This effect lasts a short while.

Fire rate +9%

Critical damage +5%

 

Green Fire: When you corrode an enemy who is on fire (or vice versa) you afflict the enemy with Green Fire. On death, the enemy will run at all nearby enemies and light them on fire.

 

Yippie Ki Yay: Killing an enemy while dual wielding increases the time you can dual wield.

Dual wield duration per kill: +0.7s

 

Get Some: Shooting an enemy increases the cooldown of Dual Wield. The effect can only occur every 3 seconds.

-1 second per shot.

 

Brawn - is focused on physical toughness.

Come at Me, Bro: Let's out a taunt that makes enemies focus on you.

Heals you to max health

Several seconds of damage reduction

 

Incite: Taking damage increases your movement speed and reload speed for a few seconds.

Movement speed +7%

Reload speed +6%

 

I'm a Juggernaut: Killing an enemy reduces all damage you take for a few seconds.

+6%

 

Shockingly Acidic: Dealing shock damage to Corroded enemy has a chance to afflict the enemy with Green Lightning, causing him to drop additional loot, if killed quickly.

 

Just Got Real: Increases the damage you deal with all weapon types. The lower your health the greater the damage bonus.

Up to 12% gun damage.

 

Sexual Tyrannosaurus: Taking damage gives you health regeneration for 5 seconds. This effect does not stock multiple times.

Regenerates 0.4 % of your max health per second

 

Out of Bubblegum: Your fire rate with all guns increases when your shields are depleted.

+12%

 

Gun Lust - increases weapon stats and grants new abilities like Salvador’s aggro turret.

No Kill Like Overkill: anytime you kill an enemy, any excessive amount of damage you dealt is converted into health for you

 

skills:

 

Divergent Likeness - If you’re dual-wielding two weapons of the same type, you’ll deal bonus damage. Dual-wield weapons of differing types, and your accuracy goes up.

Down, Not Out - In the first Borderlands, no action ability was able to be used when you were on the brink of death. If you have this bonus activated in Salvador’s skill tree, however, he can dual-wield in his final moments.

Overheat - No matter what gun you’re using, its rate of fire will continue to increase as long as you hold down the trigger.

Die Hard - Increased time when crippled/downed and bonus health upon coming back with a second wind.

Asbestos - reduces negative status effects.

Money Shot - last shot in a clip hits for massive damage

Double Your Fun - when a grenade is thrown while gunzerking two grenades are actually thrown

Edited by dividedbyn1ght
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