Originally Posted by GUNNM I've never even heard of this bee shield till now.

Same here and I'm seeing no info about it in those threads/tweets. What is it exactly and what makes it so great?

Is this what everyone is talking about?

Yes that's it but its a lot better picked up during pt2

Originally Posted by Brother Daz Yes that's it but its a lot better picked up during pt2

yup, pretty overpowered when combined with the Conference Call or something along those lines. not such a great shield to run around with but perfect for farming bosses.

here's a better idea of it's max stats.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Z-mYf0qdg...600/beebl2.jpg

When combined with the legendary shotgun, Conference Call, people have been able to kill Terramorphous in a few seconds due to the insane amount of damage that the amp damage from that shield adds to the shotgun.

Originally Posted by blindinglights When combined with the legendary shotgun, Conference Call, people have been able to kill Terramorphous in a few seconds due to the insane amount of damage that the amp damage from that shield adds to the shotgun.

yup, i've killed Terra in about 10 seconds playing solo using that combo.

Well maybe people wouldn't cheese the bosses with the bee/cc if the loot drop rates weren't so atrocious. 50 hours at level 40 and NO legendary drops. Absolutely none. Barely even any purples when playing solo. As much as I enjoy this game, it feels a little too clinical in some aspects and the loot is one. The loot randomness of the first game is gone.

I got a Bee Shield from Neds' Machine at the the Slaughterhouse (not the dlc one). Not a legendary drop and stats arent as good. I think it only has 328 for shield. I only grabbed because of everyone talking about it a couple of days ago. Just earned the mission where I can earn the real one. Wonder if it will drop when I have a lower class one.

Originally Posted by panda911 Well maybe people wouldn't cheese the bosses with the bee/cc if the loot drop rates weren't so atrocious. 50 hours at level 40 and NO legendary drops. Absolutely none. Barely even any purples when playing solo. As much as I enjoy this game, it feels a little too clinical in some aspects and the loot is one. The loot randomness of the first game is gone.

Agreed. It really does seem like loot is not that random. I remember in the first BL opening cases which had higher level equipment that I couldnt even use. I have never run across that in BL2 yet. Level 25 now... just seems odd.

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Originally Posted by pimpinc333 Agreed. It really does seem like loot is not that random. I remember in the first BL opening cases which had higher level equipment that I couldnt even use. I have never run across that in BL2 yet. Level 25 now... just seems odd.

Yeh, stuff like that. I've only see higher level loot when there's 4 players and even then it's just white junk. There seems to be less chests in general and most of the time, they're filled with 2 white/1 green. Vending machines are almost always 1 green/rest white unless the deal is a blue. In BL1, you could buy purples out of vending machines regularly. Orange guns could drop from anyone and not just specific bosses that required farming. In BL1, it was the best getting a level 26 hellfire and only replacing it when I got a level 45 one by naturally playing through the course of the game. All of that is gone and I really don't care for the manufacturer' traits. I think they all kinda suck. I think I'm done with BL2 and might just send it back to BBY for $43. Don't even want to wait for the mechromancer.

Not sure if this has been brought up or not but after reading around on the Gearbox boards, it seems that someone did an experiment on PC with the Vault Hunter Relic. Set it to like +10000% rare loot or something and it basically just removed white guns and replaced them with green ones, while having no apparent effect on blue, purple, or orange drops. So if any of you guys are still clinging onto it, you might as well ditch it in favor of something more useful.

I believe Drops in the first game were based off your Weapon Proficiency. Here, it feels like opening a CCG/TCG Booster Pack with a set number of commons/uncommons per chest with a chance at a rare or special card.

It's not a bad system, but there needs to be a way to increase your chances of getting better loot through merit rather than complete luck. But as-is, it promotes a lot of grinding, which in turn detracts from the game's overall enjoyment.

Also, you can't sell the Vault Hunter Relic. The game won't let you.

Originally Posted by pimpinc333 Agreed. It really does seem like loot is not that random. I remember in the first BL opening cases which had higher level equipment that I couldnt even use. I have never run across that in BL2 yet. Level 25 now... just seems odd.

I noticed that too. That happened all the time in the original game and I liked it. It made it more strategic as to what to carry that was useful vs. stuffing inventory with items I can't use until later. It also gave me something to look forward to at "level up" time in addition to my skill point.

So far in BL2 it's happened to me once, and probably only because my co-op partner is about 4 levels above me. I currently have a weapon and a class mod that I can't use for another level or two. Also these came from enemy drops not loot boxes.

This was probably an intentional "fix" as most people probably hated it in the first game.

Originally Posted by KingBroly Also, you can't sell the Vault Hunter Relic. The game won't let you.

But you can stash it in your bank and equip something more useful. That's what I meant.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not concerned with whether or not something is rare. I just want to get equipment that's better than what I have. If its rare and has extra attributes, great. If not, that's cool too.

I've replaced purple and even orange items because I've found better whites. Maybe when I hit 50 I'll worry about finding some rare items. Right now, I want damage and as much of it as possible.

I don't even check stats on white or green guns anymore. I never saw a white or green gun with better stats than a rarer one unless it was higher level and/or different type of weapon (white launcher versus orange pistol, etc.).

Originally Posted by Ziv I don't know about you guys, but I'm not concerned with whether or not something is rare. I just want to get equipment that's better than what I have. If its rare and has extra attributes, great. If not, that's cool too. I've replaced purple and even orange items because I've found better whites. Maybe when I hit 50 I'll worry about finding some rare items. Right now, I want damage and as much of it as possible.

Yeah, I do the same. And I don't know that I'll do the 2nd, more difficult run through, so I probably won't be so hardcore into trying to find uber rare weapons and shields.

But maybe I will since I've got some friends playing this who'll probably do multiple run throughs.

Originally Posted by blindinglights Not sure if this has been brought up or not but after reading around on the Gearbox boards, it seems that someone did an experiment on PC with the Vault Hunter Relic. Set it to like +10000% rare loot or something and it basically just removed white guns and replaced them with green ones, while having no apparent effect on blue, purple, or orange drops. So if any of you guys are still clinging onto it, you might as well ditch it in favor of something more useful.

Wow, that's ed up. That's pretty much the only relic I run with. Thanks for the heads-up

Originally Posted by blindinglights Not sure if this has been brought up or not but after reading around on the Gearbox boards, it seems that someone did an experiment on PC with the Vault Hunter Relic. Set it to like +10000% rare loot or something and it basically just removed white guns and replaced them with green ones, while having no apparent effect on blue, purple, or orange drops. So if any of you guys are still clinging onto it, you might as well ditch it in favor of something more useful.

I read this a week or so ago too and switched over to the xp boost relic. Here is the link to the thread:

http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/sh...d.php?t=159387

Appreciate the heads up on the relic BL. I skimmed through the thread and found the information you mentioned specifically:

So I just investigated the Vault Hunter Relic data. It modifies two attributes: GD_Balance.Weighting.GearDrops_RareWeightModifier: +0.05 GD_Balance.Weighting.GearDrops_CommonWeightModifie r: -0.06 Let's set them to +100.00 and -100.00! Net result: I have not seen a single white weapon drop, greens drop, seen a few blues. Nothing else. So, what I can gauge from this, is that it shifts a 5% of your chance for whites into non-whites. Doesn't touch anything else. Very low impact, perhaps bordering on useless

Thx, that explains it. The relic will not change the absolute droprate, but the probability of drops being rare (>white). So it is basically 5% increase OF the probability to get rare loot, and not 5% more chance to get rare loot. When needing to kill 1000 enemies to get one rare item X without it, you will now need to kill 950 enemies instead to get it. (the other way around would have been totally overpowered because that would mean that instead of 1000 enemies, now you would have to kill only 20 to get a "rare" item.

Even for the early game with new characters the relic is indeed completely useless. Much more efficient to hoard cash for the slots on the come up and only keep it equipped until you've found something better. Once I get back to this game I'll retire it permanently. Not sure why I still use it though when it seems every new profile my drop rate raises from the near abysmal odds during the initial playthrough.

I did score my one and only Orange (a Hornet) in my first profile from Knuckle Dragger though which is something. I had no clue it was legendary until a couple of weeks ago. I've got at least four legendaries between Zer0 and Axton now. Most of which are pretty mediocre due to character level.