One ‘Borderlands 3’ Class Still Doesn’t Make Any Sense
One ‘Borderlands 3’ Class Still Doesn’t Make Any Sense
Borderlands 3
GEARBOX
I have returned to Borderlands 3 after at least half a year away, and have now taken all four classes to the new level cap of 72, along with playthroughs of the Director’s Cut content I missed. It was interesting to get back into each class and see where they are now, and one in particular jumps out at me.
What on earth is the deal with Moze in this game?
When Borderlands 3 first launched, Moze was in a weird spot. Unlike the other characters that would have short, burst-y action skills (Amara, Fl4K) or longer follow-alongs (Zane) in between or during gunfights, Moze’s Iron Bear skill replaced her entire kit with a giant mech. The problem? That giant mech was terrible, and you would do far more damage if you simply kept using your guns and never went inside Iron Bear at all.
It took a long time, but after many months Iron Bear was buffed and buffed and buffed. When I last left it, it was overpowered. Now? It’s hilariously overpowered to the point where the concept doesn’t even make sense in the loot-based Borderlands. This isn’t calling for a nerf, but more examination of…what on earth is up with this class?
Borderlands 3
GEARBOX
In its current form, Iron Bear can never die. It just can’t. When I’m in it, it has an overshield plus 2-3 million armored HP. On Mayhem 10, even with the craziest modifiers, I’ve never been killed unless I slipped off a ledge or something. It’s more or less impossible.
Iron Bear can now essentially last forever. All the new changes to fuel usage and duration with new skills or buffs mean that you can clear an entire room of enemies and never have to get out of Iron Bear for any reason. I don’t think I ever finished a single room on the entire path to level 72 with my fuel below 50%. And with buffs to action skill regen, you never really have to wait more than 10 seconds out in the open before you can get it back.
Iron Bear also one-shots nearly everything. My weapons of choice are railguns, but it’s true for most of its weapons. Buffs have taken Iron Bear to simply absurd amounts of damage which blows through badasses like they’re not even there, and it’s a pretty fast boss-farmer too with the added bonus that you never even come close to risking death.
And the wildest part about all of this, it does it with barely any gear at all, which cuts core against the very nature of Borderlands.
Borderlands 3
GEARBOX
When I left the game, there were effectively no weapon bonuses that benefitted you in Iron Bear, so whatever your entire arsenal literally didn’t matter at all. Now? They added anointments like 150% damage to rail guns in Iron Bear, so that means further damage buffs, and you just have to make sure you hop in when you’re holding that one. Iron Bear health and damage scales with level, not gear you use for the most part, so these builds are entirely skill point based, outside of maybe a single class mod that can help boost things further.
In short, I think Gearbox has created the most ridiculously broken class in history, one that doesn’t really need any of the gear that you normally farm Borderlands for, but it’s fun enough where I’m not complaining about it, just spotlighting how weird it is. While I struggled with three other classes as I leveled to 72, fighting 72-74 enemies while I was still mostly using level 65 gear, here comes Moze, bulldozing through everyone like they’re not even there, and farming the final boss of the Ava campaign from the first clear with no problem. Gearbox had to invent an entirely new subclass (Iron Cub) just to give players a reason to step out of Iron Bear every so often. It’s hilarious.
Moze. You make Salvador and Zer0 look like kittens. Keep being you.
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