I would listen to Monkey on Builds for the characters. My Hunter is brilliant thanks to him.
One piece of advice, if you do go to the Zombie Islands, don't use Shock Damaging weapons or skills, and Corrosives are useless.

Siren, I'm still experimenting with but I got a new thing that awards the party extra EXP and greater speed when they kill enimies.

Good idea, Liam. I'd forgotten about the Exp boosting skills.
Smirk does that for Mordecai. I respeced and forgot about it once I reached 50. It does make the climb go faster.
And don't forget about class mods. Last I heard, 5 is only the max rank you can put in skills, not the max they can have effectively. Meaning if you have rank five Smirk and a mod that adds 4, you'll have an effective Smirk rank of 9.
You may want to check up on that. I'm not certain if it was intentional or not, or whether it might've been patched.
We've posted links to the Borderlands wiki before, but I'll do it again as that was a while back. They can probably tell you lots of things. Oh, but mind the spoiler warnings.
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You can find several good character builds there too.

Skill Tree Calculators useful for deciding what way you want your character to be.
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I've got both a Mordecai and a Lilith at 50, with the Mordecai on 2.5, and the Lilith close behind.

I've absolutely loved using a Pistol-centric Mordecai, also spec'd for Trespass. I've tried Bloodwing focused builds, on and off, on my way up to 50, used Carrion Call and Skullmashers, just sat back with a Volcano, and I just can't get into using the bird, unless I'm deliberately trying to farm for gear, with Ransacks.


As for Lilith, I'm having some trouble trying to decide on how exactly I want her to be spec'd. I absolutely love the controller tree, going up the left side, with Diva, Inner Glow and Hard to Get, into Mind Games. Games is just such a silly ability, when you're going into a mob, and spraying Hellfire rounds, or using an Anarchy, to just keep everything suppressed.

Beyond those intial 20 points, though, I'm just not sure. I've tried running up Elemental, and going into Phoenix, and I've tried running up Assassination, and getting Resolve, and up into Blackout.


I've also tried the punchier builds, with Lilith trying to Phase in and out, keep mobs dazed, and consistently phase-striking, but it just left me wondering why I wasn't just using Mind Games. It just didn't feel quite as efficient.



For anyone else using Siren, what do you feel is the best way to spec, for you? I'd be willing to give the punchier builds another try, but I prefer being a little shootier, and SMG-centric.

Im finally falling into a groove in this game.

Slow start for me in general, but Ive made some good progress last night.
Leveled up my dude a couple more times. Found a cool ass gun I like.
Can finally carry 3 weapons.

Has anyone listed yet what the ??? trophies are.
I know Liam and Rx have gotten a couple of them.

Several are hidden from view because they'd reveal Bosses and stuff.
Some are from DLC, again to prevent spoilers.
And a few more are actually just hidden for no good reason. For example, there's the "12 days of Pandora". It's also a character challenge under the quest menu when you press triangle. That'll give you the specifics, but it's for killing so many enemies is a certain way (not in a row, thank goodness). Eg, 12 melee kills, 11 grenade, 10 corrosive.... all the way down to one. Note, I don't think those are the actual ones, just an example.
You can aim for it, but if you just vary your tactics and guns, you'll get it eventually.
Character challenges like that are a good source of experience. Check them out, and try to complete them as best you can to level more quickly, though obviously some of them are out of reach and meant for later playthroughs.

The next bit is a spoiler about the bosses, so I advise you to not read it, Six.
Liam:

Spoiler:

I was checking up on that, turned up with nothing myself.

I, as well as a friend have both done it. I'm pretty sure it's bunk, because there was nothing special that we noticed.

I think it was just the tag line on the weapon that got them all theorising on it like that.
Love how my Facebook page is full of questionmarks for all the trophies I have.
Got in a quick game with Rachet, got himself to a good high level already fair quickly I must say so fair play to him for that.
Going to start my second playthroughs cause I wanna get my Siren and Hunter up to scratch. Now that I finished Arkham Asylums main story I can *** RWoTD: it's what Monday was made for! *** on it.

Well, I finally took my first foray into the first DLC last night.
Nailed the atmosphere, I must say. And there are *gasp* trees! I know, right?
Well, that's not all. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that there are zombies in this as the DLC is called "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned". Everything is the place is pretty creepy, though nothing's been out and out scary yet. New enemies include, zombified versions of most human types, Loot Goons (big guys that carry red chests on their backs), crawling torsos, Suicide Zombies that try to explode on you (The nerve of them!), and elites that carry and throw many exploding barrels at you called Tankenstiens (hee hee, puns). And I'm not that far into it yet either.
The humor continues to entertain. And I like how the few NPCs you meet aren't really just bulletin boards, though they still do that. These ones actually talk to you a bit.
The zombies use mob tactics, can spawn soundlessly near you, and to top it off, the more that are attacking you at once, the faster your bar falls in Last Stand mode. This can keep you from getting a Second Wind. I was mobbed so badly once that I didn't even get a shot off. Keep in mind that I'm in here with my level 50 hunter so the enemies are all level 51.
Gotta say, I'm liking it so far.

Whats the level cap?

For you? 50. For enemies? At least 51, it seems.

Yikes. Can you imagine if your stuck at 50 while they get to sixty?!

Glad to hear that the DLC ups the difficulty a bit, I was definitely hoping that the Zombie Island would be an experience, for PT2.5.

I've heard that Mad Moxxi can get pretty crazy too, and the guys I play Borderlands with, were always down to Survival in UC2, so I'm hoping they're still digging that experience, extended.

Does anyone here have it? I'm curious as to how getting the two perk points works, and how the bank they implemented works.



If anyone here is playing Roland, I'd like some advice, on how to spec him. For Lilith and Mordecai, it was never really an issue. I knew roughly how I wanted to spec, and then confirmed it with some gameplay. Roland is pretty versatile though, and I'm also relatively inexperienced with both of his spec'd weapon-types. I know that either weapon-type gets to play both long-and-close, with the Shotty wanting to use the Jakob's Striker, along with Scattershot, and the Combat Rifle wanting a support-machine-gun or something similar, to supplement the long-range varieties.

Any character build advice is always welcome. My Roland could use some work, honestly. He pales in comparison to my Mordecai. Can't find a good assault rifle for anything. I've also neglected the turret in favor of damage increasing/reducing skills. Once I get enough points to reduce the cooldown I'll likely respec and try it out. Flat reduction, or kill based reduction? Any advice? With my hunter, I went for kill based, but my soldier has a lot more trouble killing things.

got to lvl 22 with my hunter and just unlocked new haven. found a pretty sweet class mod as well.
do those work all the time or is it just when youre doing co-op?
also i keep finding class mods for other classes. should i just sell those cause theyre useless

I tend to hold onto to them for a day or two till I get in game with someone that wants them, if nobody does I sell em

never thought of that. i was finding they just ook up space so i sold them for s good hunk of cash. (sold one for 22k)

Class Mods are odd. Once you find a good one, for PT1, you'll use it almost all of PT2 into 2.5, because that's when they finally get better.

I play with a Roland and a Tank, while I was grinding Mordecai, so I held onto them until a Co-Op, like Liam did, and then just sold them, if they weren't good enough. If you plan to have other classes, they can be worth holding on to, and now I have a 50 Lilith and a Roland that's working his way through PT1, that are using Mods that we've found and just held on to.



As for Roland, I'm not sure. Not knowing how grindy you are, I want to say that I think Combat Rifles are the way to go, unless you have no problem sitting down, and farming for a while. I tend to stick to a weapontype, and if you don't, then I guess it's a bit of a moot point, but I think that Shotguns, initially, win out. The Striker has a super-tight spread, even over a significant distance, and Scattershot only makes it more accurate.


As for general build advice, I have no idea, right now. On the rough map I have, I'm going into Infantry for Impact and Scattershot, and then I'm dancing around the other two, going all the way up Medic for Stat.

Roland is just the most...versatile and generically decent character of the lot, I think. He's good at filling multiple roles, but without having played him, at any great length yet, it appears he can't do multiple things at once, and he loses a bit of overall specialization, compared to the other characters, to have a more fluid and general support role.


Balancing out what class-mod and style you're going to use, and if you're in PvE, either solo or Co-Op, or trying to PvP, are doing to determine how he needs to be spec'd. I don't know that he has a generic default/this is the best for x build, that's as clearly apparent.

btw how do you get co-op tp work. i get the feeling i was going something wrong when i was trying to play with ratchet

From the Main Menu, you can choose to host an online-game, and choose to make it either public, or private. Public games, are...open to the public. Anyone can hop in and out, and usually a decent time is had by all. Private games are closed off, and are invite-only, from your friends list.

You can also invite from a single-player game, by going to the menu, and hitting Lobby, I think, or Friends. There's a specific command, for it, and you just go in, it'll bring up your friends list, and you hit square, and flip them a vite.


That's all there is to it.



Unfortunately, the majority of my attention has flipped back over to UC2, so my Roland hasn't really come along, nearly as quickly as when I was actually playing, during my free-time. He's level 12, on the way to Sledge. My Lilith and Mordecai are both level 50, Lil's on PT1 still, and Mordecai is on 2.5, if anyone's interested in trying to get a co-op run up and going.

When I do play right now, I'm typically farming, so if you're looking for a specific thing, an orange, a class mod/better shield, or something along those lines, I can defintely keep an eye out, and let you know if I find anything.

Doing Playthrough 2 for both my Hunter and Siren, wanna get them leveled to 50.

How awesome is borderlands? So awesome that my girlfriend will play it with me on spilt screen. WHOOOOOOOOOO!

Well, I've finished the Ned DLC. Think I'll throw out a mini review. *minor non-story spoilers*

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned definitely adds some fun to the Borderlands experience, but is it worth the price of admission? Tough call. Everything it does is as well done as the rest of the game, but it really feels like they might've done a bit more.

Atmosphere: 9/10
Genuinely creepy everywhere you go. The humor still comes in too, as you'll often hear over your com announcements from the Jakobs corporation. Very amusing.

Enemies: 8/10
You'll be mostly fighting zombies. Undead townsfolk NPCs, undead bandits, skeletal rakk. They are much like fighting their normal counterparts, with the exception that they will almost all try to close in for melees as opposed to relying on Pandora's abundance of guns. This certainly doesn't make them less dangerous, however. Most enemies have attacks that can inflict Stun slowing you down for several seconds.
There are several different kinds of enemies, but the similarity of their attack patterns makes me feel like I'm fighting the same enemies over and over. I'll list them in a separate post. A little more variety would have been nice, but a somewhat improved quality of the AI goes a ways to making up for this. The look and feel of all the enemies is also very nice and adds to the atmosphere.

Story: 7/10
There's not a whole lot of story to be had, but what is there is funny and entertaining in the same way I've come to expect of Borderlands. If you like the rest of the game, then you'll like this.

Missions: 6/10
Not quite enough variety, nor quite enough of them in general. There are fetch quests, and kill quests. A few are what you'd expect in this setting; survive the zombie onslaught until X way out appears. A couple provide good new minibosses. One fifth (5) of the new quests are just gathering zombie brains for a certain character. This can be done by killing one with a critical hit (most often via headshot, meaning you're literally blowing their brains out, lol. And you can't help but laugh at the role reversal. I recklessly charge the zombie horde with the intent of ripping open their skulls while crying "Brains! I must have more brains!"). More missions in the next installment please, Gearbox? It's a really wonderful set of levels, and I'd much like more reason to run around in them.

Levels: 9/10
Not just the look, but the layout of these levels is really good. At any step you could be surrounded by zombies, but if you look around a bit you can often find cover or good positions from which to defend yourself making the hordes more manageable for a solo player. Some places evoke some classic creepy images, while others are reused, if altered set pieces from the rest of the game. The most obvious one is a remake of Old Haven (including zombie versions of it's inhabitants). The layout is altered with many paths blocked off, you start in a different place, and of course, everything is all undeaded up. Your foray here is fairly short, and Gearbox was honest about what it was calling the place simply "Dead Haven".

Gameplay: 8/10
This is the same as the rest of Borderlands. The slightly improved enemy AI makes you pay attention a bit more. The mob tactics, sneak attacks, stun inducing attacks, and the faster bleed outs can make for a bit of challenge.

Overall: 8/10
The only fault I can find with the game is that it leaves me wanting more. Bottom line, if you like the game, then you'll like this too. If you've got the money ($9.99 American) spare, then getting this isn't a waste of it. If you haven't yet bought Borderlands, then you may want to hold off on getting it as you might (and this is speculation on my part) see a Greatest Hits or Game of the Year edition that already has this DLC included in the future.

I just got the new DLC as well. I've manage to survive the first challenge, but I can already tell this is made with intention of being tackled by a team. If anyone else gets it then I'll be happy to fight alongside them. FYI, the final challenge is 20 rounds (that's 100 waves of enemies! )

Double Post!
As stated in the above post, here's a breakdown of the enemies and their tactics. This I'll put in a spoiler tag as it's only intended for use if you need a little help with these guys. If you find any other good ways to fight them, then post up and I'll edit them in with proper credit.

Spoiler:

Who the hell takes the brains? I musta collected hundreds of the things.