A New Set of Vault Hunters for a New Adventure

When Borderlands 2 was announced, one of the first things the game established was that you wouldn’t be playing with the same characters you saw in the first title. Those original, playable characters from the first game would be NPCs in the second title, passing the torch onto a quartet of four, new Vault Hunters for the players to experience. Although some of us might have been sad to let our old characters go (Lilith mains would be hard pressed to find another character quite as broken as her), this was a smart movie from a design perspective. There was no need to explain how your characters were suddenly depowered for an all new adventure when four new characters, at low levels, could be brought in instead. Power levels were sidestepped, and a new adventure could begin.

But this meant that we had four new characters to play as, and learn, and that also meant that we had to decide who was the best, and who was the worst, of the set. And, unlike in Borderlands, this wasn’t such an easy choice to make. The first game was pretty imbalanced, with one absolutely over-the-top useful character (Lilith), a decent support character (Roland), and two guys that you only played once you were bored with everyone else (Mordecai and Brick). But this second game made each character interesting and fun, and suddenly the choice of who to take was a lot harder to make. The four characters were almost equal in their playability, so finding a best and a worst is much more a matter of personal preference than anything else. But we’ll try anyway:

Maya the Siren

I’m going to be honest, I’m not certain I would put Maya near the top all the time, but she’s about as good a place to start as any. Sirens are the BorderlandsConceptually, Borderlands is Mad Max but set on an alien planet, with magic. The game play might be action-shooter-RPG fare, with a bit of Diablo thrown in, but the aesthetic is pure, Australian post-apocalyptic exploitation. series’ main creative character class, the distinctive and iconic playable type that appears in (almost) every game and who generally have some major associations with the plot. If not for the sirens, the Borderlands series would feel like just another generic looter-shooter. They bring the magic, and the mayhem, wherever they go.

But Maya isn’t just iconic; she’s also very strong. Her main power is Phaselock, the ability to grab and lift enemies into a giant bubble, locking them in place and (as the player powers up her skill trees) do damage to them while locked down as well. This power alone makes her useful both as a main character to play, and as a support character in group settings, and that alone gives her a strong case to be one of the characters you simply always have in your party.

Her strongest skill tree as a solo player is certainly the Cataclysm tree. Here we find powerful skills that boost her damage and, more importantly, her elemental effects. Flicker gives increased elemental effect chance. Immolate adds fire damage to all shots when Maya is in Fight for Your Life. Helios causes a fiery explosion to occur when an enemy is Phaselocked. Backdraft adds fire damage to melee attacks, and it causes a Maya’s shields to go nova whenever they are fully depleted. Cloud Kill is probably Maya’s single best skill, period, causing an acid cloud of corrosive damage to occur when she shoots enemies, and this effect is really strong (and even scales with OP levels). Blight Phoenix causes fiery, corrosive wings to appear around Maya whenever she kills an enemy. And there’s Ruin, which adds shock, corrosion, and slag damage to her Phaselock, functionally adding every element to her best attacks. In short, Cataclysm is overpowered.

Not that the other two trees are bad, mind you. The Harmony tree puts an emphasis on survivability. This tree finds multiple ways for Maya to increase her health, buff her healing, and heal those around her. Res even lets her revive allies that are in Fight for Your Life instantly, which is very nice to have around. Meanwhile the Motion tree is all about buffing her basic abilities and skills, allowing her to move faster and do more damage. Two key skills stand out here, though. The first is Converge, which drags all enemies towards the Phaselock orb, granting a solid amount of crowd control. And then Sub-Sequence will send the Phaselock bouncing off towards a second (and third, and so on) enemy when a Phaselocked enemy dies during the lockdown.

In short, once Maya has boosted her Cataclysm tree, adding points into Harmony and Motion increases her powers and survivability even more. Maya is great on her own and with friends, being a real force on the battlefield in all situations.

Axton the Soldier

The easiest way to think of Axton is that he’s Roland Plus. In a similar way that the second game features a Siren, just like the first, Borderlands 2 features a turret-throwing soldier, just like the first game. But Axton is much, much more powerful than Roland in just about every department, making him a much stronger force on the field, and that’s all because his gun is better than Roland’s from the outset, and only gets stronger as you boost up his skill trees.

Unlike Maya, who arguably has most of her great skills in a single section of her overall skill tree, Axton’s power is spread all around his skill trees. You have to pick and choose your way down his paths to really get his full potential, but if you do you have a character that can hard-carry most situations by a certain point in the game. That means that with an Axton build you are likely going to target certain skills early on, and then respec your skill points at certain stages to realign powers and boost new things to improve performance. Axton is a character you’re going to optimize, and then optimize again, as new abilities get unlocked.

His best skill tree would likely be the Survival tree, especially early on. Early skills boost health, shields, and survivability, letting players last longer while they improve. Later skills, meanwhile, begin to add real boosts to the turrets. Phalanx Shield gives the turret a bubble shield for players to hide within. Resourceful increases action skill time, letting the turrets stay out longer. Mag-Lock lets the turret connect to walls and ceilings, improving where and how it can fire. And Gemini lets you throw out two turrets, instead of one, for double the damage.

The Guerrilla tree then adds more boosts to the turret, as well as Axton’s survivability. Sentry increases the turret’s shots and its duration. Laser sight improves the turret’s accuracy. Scorched Earth adds rockets to the turrets for massively increased explosive damage. And then Double Up adds a second set of guns to the turrets and lets them deal slag damage. So between two trees we have two turrets, with more than doubled shots, explosives, and slag. And that’s before we even check in on the third tree that improves Axton’s handling with multiple weapon types, and also lets him throw the turrets with longbow accuracy (Longbow) and causes the turrets to set off nuclear blasts when thrown (Nuke).

In short, Axton is a beast. When his guns are out he is all but unstoppable. But his power mostly comes from his turrets. His Gunpowder tree does power him up specifically, but once you dump points into his turret you’re basically never looking back. Axton is a full army all on his own.

Zer0 the Assassin

It’s easy to make arguments for both Maya and Axton. They are easy carries that can take you through the game with little effort. They are strong, bulky, and very powerful in obvious ways. The other two starting characters, though, are no less powerful, they just take more effort and finesse to get to their best selves. They are, in my mind, good characters for experienced players looking to break the game and not ones that you start without a bit of time under your belt to really get a feel for all the surprises Borderlands 2 has in store.

Zer0’s main skill is Decepti0n wherein the assassin cloaks himself, leaving a body double on the field while Zer0 gets five seconds to run around and plan his next attack. It’s a ninja skill, in effect, using invisibility and stealth to strike. This is a useful skill, but it is much more of a support-style skill. You won’t find yourself using Decepti0n all the time, simply because you’ll need to let it recharge between uses, and that’s when Zer0’s abilities as a ranged assassin become far more important.

His Sniping tree is really his most useful skill tree overall. Headsh0t boosts critical hit damage. 0ptics improves zoom and aim steadiness. Killer gives you more critical hit damage as well as reload speed after killing an enemy. Precisi0n increases accuracy again. One Sh0t One Kill gives boosted damage from the first bullet in a magazine. Vel0city improves bullet speed, critical damage, and gun damage. Kill C0nfirmed improves critical damage the longer you stare down the barrel. And then Critical Ascensi0n improves critical damage and sniper damage when you score critical hits with sniper rifles. Oh, plus B0re gives piercing damage to bullets, letting them deal increased damage the more targets they hit. In effect, you could spend all day boosting Zer0’s sniper and critical damage and never once touch anything improving Decepti0n, not that you’d need to.

In comparison, the Bloodshed tree focuses Zer0 on melee damage. These skills can greatly improve melee damage, like Killing Bl0w improving overall melee damage, Backstab boosting damage when you melee an enemy from behind, and Resurgence granting healing when you damage enemies with melee. Bear in mind, though, that Zer0 is, overall, kind of squishy but using melee means you need to be up close and personal with enemies. The two factors work against each other, so you’ll want to use melee when pairing it with Decepti0n. But if you do, and you get Many Must Fall, you can link one Decepti0n into another instantly, so long as you’re killing each target with melee. Risk and reward is the name of the game here.

And finally there’s Cunning, which is all about boosting the other two trees. You can boost gun damage (Fearless) and melee damage (Death Mark). You can also get explosive holographic decoys (Unf0rseen) and slagging Kunai (Death Bl0ss0m). And all of this is why you’re constantly boosting everything else you’d normally do anyway. Zer0 is an interesting character, and they can be very powerful, but you really have to find that balance between ranged and melee to make him work. He is, otherwise, very hard to handle.

Salvador the Gunzerker

And then we go from the hardest character to handle to probably the easiest. That’s because Salvador is a pretty brainless character to play. He’s pick up, aim, and go in his function, and that’s all because of his main skill: Gunzerking. Functionally you get a second gun when you’re in Gunzerk mode, and you control it with the left trigger while your main gun remains on your right trigger. There’s no thought, no aiming, just pure hold the trigger and watch the damage numbers rise up gameplay when you’re playing as Salvador.

If shooting brainlessly is your thing, you’ll instantly want to look at the Rampage skill tree. This tree is devoted to making your Gunzerk last as long as possible, dealing as much damage as possible in the process. Last Longer improves Gunzerking duration while I’m Ready Already increases the Gunzerk cooldown rate. 5 Shots or 6 occasionally adds another bullet while firing, while Double Your Fun lets you throw grenades while Gunzerking (and gives you a bonus second grenade thrown for every one you toss). You can then extend the amount of time you’re in Gunzerking even longer by killing enemies (Yippie Kai Yay) and then decrease Gunzerking cooldown by shooting enemies (Get Some). And then there’s the capstone, Keep Firing…, which increases Fire Rate and Reload Speed the longer you hold the triggers while Gunzerking. In effect, this tree wants you to get into Gunzerk as fast as possible, and then to stay there blasting away for as long as you can.

From there we then move to Brawn, which improves Salvador’s survivability, especially while Gunzerking. Hard to Kill increases health and grants a low level of health regen. I’m the Juggernaut increases damage reduction after killing enemies. Ain’t Got Time to Bleed grants more health regen while Gunserking. Bus That Can’t Slow Down improves movement speed while Gunzerking. Sexual Tyrannosaurus (the best skill name in the game) gives you health regen for taking damage. And Come At Me Bro lets you taunt enemies while Gunzerking, fully healing Salvador and reducing damage taken for a short period of time. It makes the Gunzerker into a tank, full bore.

And then the Gun Lust tree is all about guns, as if Salvador wasn’t already there to begin with. Many skills in the tree improve damage or fire rate, giving Salvador better baseline stats all around. Divergent Likeness then rewards you for using two of the same gun while Gunzerking (with improved damage) or two different types of guns (with improved accuracy). Auto-Loader instantly reloads your guns when you kill an enemy, while Lay Waste gives you improved fire rate and critical damage after killing an enemy. Down Not Out lets you Gunzerk in Fight for Your Life, which makes it far more likely you get back up. Keep it Piping Hot gives you boosted stats while your Gunzerk is in cooldown. And, finally, No Kill Like Overkill gives you boosted damage to your next shot based on how much extra damage you dealt to kill the previous enemy.

Just, all around, Salvador is all about guns. He likes them, he uses them, and he frequently overkills with them. If all you want to do is run at enemies and fire on them constantly, the Gunzerker is perfect for you. No thoughts, only killing.

Final Thoughts

But this is why it’s much harder to say that one character is better than another in this game. Maya is strong as a single player if you want a fun, easy to run, basic experience. She’s player friendly, and has a lot of overpowered skills to use. Axton has turrets that can carry you and get you out of sticky situations when you aren’t able to do it yourself. Zer0 is best either when you are as far from the enemies as possible, or so close they can’t see you. And then Salvador is just absolute, brainless fun. Each has their place, and someone exploring everything in the game will find reasons to enjoy each character.

Is one more powerful than another? Well that really depends on how you play and what kind of guns you like. Each has their place, and their rank for you will likely be different than for anyone else. I’d rank them as Maya top, Axton second, and then Zer0 or Salvador taking the last two slots depending on my list… but even I can see picking any of the four any time I start a new game. Borderlands 2 is really good about that, giving you a ton of options that are all incredibly fun to play.