Why Weapon Balance is Important
In Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, you are able to fight with guns, melee weapons, and magic spells. Melee weapons are new to a Borderlands game. While Gearbox Software has experience with them during the Battleborn days, they have also been on a long road of balancing the weapons in Borderlands 3.
It’s great to see Gearbox thread Borderlands 3 as a live service game while in fact it really isn’t one.
Short end of the Stick
Cool! We finally get melee weapons in a Borderlands game, however, you don’t want to be on the short end of the stick. The fact that you have to run up to an enemy to be able to hit them puts you at a disadvantage in a shooter game.
So the question is, how is Gearbox going to compensate for that. If you played Krieg in Borderlands 2 you know you can have a ton of fun with his melee action skill. But his whole gameplay is built around that.
Will melee weapons provide a speed boost or damage reduction? I assume there will be a skill tree that focuses on dealing melee damage. But while your skill tree should give you an edge, it shouldn’t be the thing that makes melee weapons viable.
In Borderlands 3, you can kinda dodge bullets, nothing like Neo from the Matrix but if you keep moving you are relatively safe.
Magical Role
Grenade Mods in Borderlands 3 are fun, however, on the higher Mayhem Levels, they aren’t impactful. As the Magic spells in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands will have a bigger role, they should remain useful. I feel like if those spells lack impact a gameplay pillar falls.
Are you team Guns, Melee, or Magic?
MentalMars
