Verno wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 10:10:
The Assassin requires play style adjustment compared to the other classes. It's almost better for people to just go into the sniping tree until like level 16 or whenever you can unlock Execute in the Bloodshed tree. Deception is both an offensive and defensive ability, use it to position yourself and strategically take out targets by order of importance. The longer you wait to use your ability the more damage it does. Execute lets you dash and hit them which is invaluable, not to mention adding a hefty modifier to the damage totals. Zer0 is probably the most unique character design in the game, the other three classes are heavily derivative which is frustrating to be honest. You shouldn't be doing everything in melee though, I run around with a shotgun between targets and use Deception often. If you're up against bots or something then you just snipe, its way safer.
It depends on how you play the class. I play him as a sniper, so the skill is mostly useless. When I'm at range, I'm almost never in danger, so at best the skill can give me a bit of extra damage from a single shot. Usually not worth it. The only time it's useful is when I'm getting closed on, but then most of the enemies in the game that close on you do it quickly. The 5 seconds of "get away" time you get tend to be eaten through quickly. The best use of the skill I've got is with the shield guys, as it allows me to flank around and get a headshot off. But that's quite situational.
The Gunzerker is just a weird class. He's supposed to be tanky but shit is so lethal in the game that he dies easily. I have probably gained like 20k exp from rezzing my friend who plays one, he dies so often hes started apologizing for it. The Commando in the Survival tree is infinitely beefier which is odd. I've been playing a Commando alt on and off, its super boring but once the turret gets rockets its at least damaging. You basically drop your turret and go hide or snipe.
Yeah, I'm really not a fan of the way they've handled the damage in the game. Too many things have the ability to do massive spike damage which means you can't really ever truly tank. But yeah, the Gunzerker seems like a class I'd probably only want to play with a friend, doesn't seem solo friendly. The Commando seems much more so, even if some people find him boring (I actually enjoy having the turret deal damage, but I tend to like "pet" classes in RPGs, so that's not a huge surprise).
BTW, the difficulty of the second playthrough is pretty intense. I remember doing it in the first Borderlands, and not having much challenge, but it definitely can be here. Which is fun, as I wasn't looking for a cakewalk. I'm definitely not looking forward to some of the boss fights tho' (I just made it to Sanctuary).