‘We will lower the health, armor, and shield stat bonuses that enemies receive in the higher levels of Mayhem’
With a game as massive as Borderlands 3, there’s going to be a lot of opinions on how the game could change for the better.
But as is customary, Gearbox is doing a lot of the changes on the fly, and not all of them stuck the landing. Well, on the latest news update for the game’s official blog, they’ve taken a lot of the criticisms for the new Mayhem 2.0 mode to heart, and will begin implementing changes now, and over time.
“Phase 1,” as Gearbox calls it, is being introduced sharpish, and will address scaling concerns. At higher Mayhem levels enemies are just becoming bullet sponges, soaking up endless amounts of damage, which makes for boring gameplay. As a result Gearbox is “lowering the health, armor, and shield stat bonuses that enemies receive in the higher levels of Mayhem,” while buffing underperforming gear and bringing overpowered ones inline with one another. The ultimate goal though is to make gear “more viable” at Mayhem Levels 7 and above, where most of the issues lie.
Phase 2 is focusing on the characters, which addresses Borderlands 3 as a whole, really. More build diversity is coming, which includes scaling of non-weapon sources of damage with Mayhem Levels. In other words: your skills will actually define your character more, instead of relying on weapons any class can use. If done right, it’ll make Mayhem a lot more exciting and could be the single best change Gearbox has made, balance-wise, since the game was released.
Another custom change is coming too: good old performance and stability, which Gearbox is still trying to catch up with on PC in particular. Quality of life changes will be introduced too, including a better Fight for Your Life mechanic (coming back to life after being downed) and enemies owning their own loot tables (this seems ambitious, but welcome). There will also be more opportunities to buy things with Eridium.
Yep this all checks out! Now let’s see if everything is implemented the way it’s described.
Dev Update [Gearbox]
