Borderlands Wilhelm Skill and Gear Guide

[@banishedbary5239]

I’m pretty sure it’s an Easter egg that Wilhelm has a skill called “Rolling Thunder” and in Borderlands 2, he could drop a legendary grenade called “Rolling Thunder”

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

Wilhelm's FFYL skill is probably my favorite of these in the entire franchise. It just makes FFYL so much more tolerable. You aren't locked to using dynamite like Krieg's Light the Fuse, you get a free Pull the Pin when you die that can bring you up, you emit shock tethers for extra damage (and also to let you know where enemies are) and the movement and aiming is so much nicer. And Wilhelm can kind of make going into FFYL work for him with an aggressive playstyle and all his tank skills. It takes you forever to be knocked into FFYL, and then when you finally do, you just pop back out. You often come out of FFYL before the animation for Termination Protocols can even start. IMO all of his game-changers are great.

[@ovbrook3057]

A little late but it's also worth noting that it's almost impossible to die with it in the claptastic voyage because of all the hard to hit but pathetically weak swarmers. Termination Protocols carries me through the EOS fight by itself and I am surprised they didn't mention that use

[@christophercollins3632]

Love Termination Protocol. Using a controller, I do a lot of fine aiming movements with leftstick. So moving normally, instead of only rightstick, is huge.

[@drivanradosivic1357]

What you said about the difference between Wilhelm's FFYL augments vs Krieg's could work as Community patch improvements for Krieg.

[@Shakercupp]

Axton throwing nades is also very good

[@kunichuck]

The only thing I think you got wrong is your assessment of shock absorber: I understand that you see it as a gun damage bonus that is gimmicky to get like "I have to run to get this" but I feel you're looking at this backwards: It's more "hey, I can shot while running!" Other characters get a big accuracy penalty when they shoot after running and they have to stop running once they start shooting, Wilhelm can not only keep running while shooting but he suffers no penalty on his accuracy for doing so. Forget about the gun damage boost, that's just icing on the cake, the real thing is that it allows you to do moves that no one else can :)

[@JadeHex]

Chuck80 to be fair im the biggest shock absorbers pessimist and I wasn't in game

[@kunichuck]

Also, great guide guys :)

[@LinkMaster5555]

Yes i fully agree wilhelm is op in that aspect no character can do what he can do

[@christophercollins3632]

Additionally, Shock Absorbers damage boost remains if you jump while running, and maneuver correctly. Hold forward on leftstick, but circle around with rightstick. You’ll land, still running, and can immediately jump, circle, land. Repeat. This strat works great against Torks and Kraggon, or any enemy, really.

[@sirpendergast1575]

about bloody time. Wilhelm is my favorite character in aaaaall the borderlands games. he's so unique in the fact that as you go about some of his skills he aesthetically starts to morph, and it fits so well since we know how many cybernetics he had implemented in bl2, he steadily became more machine then man, and the fact that his ability is two surveyors is awesome as well because in bl2, he ms actually capable of digistructing drones himself. he's just so bloody unique it's great, where as some characters like Nisha, Salvador, and zero grow powerful through their killskills and just damage boosts through various ways, wilhelm actually evolves and his skills are perfect. laser guided? he paints the target with his eye, go down? literally become a walking tesla grenade that explodes when you die, have giant ass vengeance cannon, piston arm, and robotic legs? sure why the hell not. it'll make you sound like Darth Vader.

[@sirpendergast1575]

dear lord above that message was huge and I sorta blatantly repeated myself a fee times. oh well. never said I was good at getting my point across.

[@bradley9037]

Sir Pendergast Actually, Saint is the one who paints the targets, not Wilhelm's cybernetic eye. That aside, I fully agree with what you said

[@sirpendergast1575]

+Dr. Dapper Really? I was unaware of that, I play solo only and everytime I paint a target the angle kinda made it look like it was coming from the cybernetic eye. learn something new everyday.

[@massivegat5087]

I agree with you. I think my favorite part about him is how the deeper you get in his middle tree the more he becomes a cyborg and gets physical augmentations. I think we gotta see more things like this in the next Borderlands games

[@christophercollins3632]

It makes sense Laser Guided emanates from Saint. It helps co-op to know exactly what is going on. The can keep Saint in the corner of their eye, and respond, instead of figuring it out through all the chaos surrounding Wilhelm. Vengeance Cannon, Kinetic Armor feedback, etc.

[@DHKrieg]

If I had to disagree, I'd say you guys kinda missed the point of divert power? It's not just a 3 second damage resistance and shield recharge. It's a free, instant second recharge of Emergency Responses and the Vengeance cannon. What I love about Wilhelm (Borderlands in general) is that you have to get into the character flow to really take advantage. Wilhelm is hard to manage and that's what makes him fun, he narrows you down to lasers, which are relatively accurate, plus Targeting Scope and Welcome to the Gun Show, which help you shoot without ADS, then you have the fist, that helps you knockback enemies for a short range, which helps you make a bit more distance, and the run and shoot skill, which has all that damage as a direct incentive to adopt that style. Plus Laser Guided, which is about focusing on a single target at once, which directly plays into the run and gun style. And then the cannon, which receives any gun bonuses, including laser ones and emergency responses. So, again, if you spec it right that thing can take out BIG chunks of health. It's a flat DPS increase. Not to mention it's elemental, so with Cold War you can freeze enemies with it. Plus, with the Hazmat skill, if you fire at the ground you'll set yourself on fire (and deal like no damage to yourself that i noticed) but still spread that. Yeah, it's fire, so it's limited, but still. I will say that I don't know if it can crit. I don't ever recall seeing it crit, but then, it's got this big explosion effect. Guess I''ll test right now LMAO it's doing like 160k damage but I don't think it's critting, still nothing to scoff at, specially with class mods that increase fire rate skills like the Scorcher, that are clearly made for it He becomes a literal walking apocalypse. But you HAVE to play as Wilhelm, and not in a "general way" The way I do it, and I found it to be really fun and have an incredible flow, is to run and shoot, if I get too close, punch, and that'll usually kill them (or you can quickly slam them back to give you more space to run towards them if in vacuum), let shield break, it'll recharge, I have my cannon and fire rate, so even more DPS, and I'm consistently running around killing guys, then when my shield breaks again, I put out Wolf and Saint (you can do it earlier for rolling thunder and laser guided if you wanna, I just do it to take full advantage of Divert Power) and rinse and repeat on every poor bastard that comes your way. What I'm saying is that if you look at the skills on their own they can be weird, but once you get it all to synergize, it works really really well. I will agree he doesn't have any busted crazy skill that breaks the game, but I don't think that's an issue because he can put out really high DPS fairly consistently once you learn to Wilhelm

[@Crip2Knyght]

2022 is a lil over a month away and im here still playing both TPS & BL2

[@saltycomet]

Me too, wanting to get bl1 remastered

[@Crip2Knyght]

@@saltycomet same

[@louisewilliams1258]

'24 + still into Borderlands!!

[@robertbaker4186]

I really wished there was a dlc that added the pre-sequel characters to borderlands 2

[@DemoniteBL]

Writing a comment on this one year later because it will totally be noticed, but I have to disagree with Kinetic Armor being trash. First of all it's not just for melee enemies, but any enemy close to you and second it is boosted by grenade damage, which can stack up to some decent passive damage for mobbing. I wish there was a COM that boosted this to increase the chance of it proccing, preferably the Howitzer instead of First to Fight so that you boost it further with the COM's explosive damage.

[@houseofm9700]

It would be cool if there was a kill skill com for all tps characters

[@brysonhunt729]

Dｅmｏnｉtｅ l

[@brysonhunt729]

Elramos 325 p

[@christophercollins3632]

Just having the high HP gains is great for Divert Power to save you, and since it’s based on percentage, you have a big chunk left to get back on track with. The feedback is fun and immersive, like you’re upgrading his suit. Since it’s explosive damage, cryo/Cold War double its damage on frozen enemies. It’s great for positional awareness, as it hits anything surrounding you, and the sound effect lets you know something is close, even before the blast. It’s mostly flavorful, and fun. And not just a standard boost to gun skills. Edit: correction. No sound effect, or situational awareness. I had equipped the Eddie Oz kit at the same time I specced into Kinetic armor. I thought the zap effect was the skill. I was thoroughly confused later after I swapped out Eddie. I thought my kinetic skill was bugged and not working anymore. I finally figured it out. But I loved the effect. And it made total sense. The kinetic armor should’ve made some effect. It was underwhelming when all that happened is an enemy gets an explosive damage number.

[@Rengrin]

Just a minor correction about something you guys were saying about Shock Absorbers. The Gun damage boost will still apply while you are airborn, so long as you don't double jump, aim down sights, or let go of your forward directional input. You can actually turn completely around and shoot people you've passed and still get the bonus as long as you don't do one of those three things. The skill is still situational, but a lot easier to get the bonus during a fight than was being implied in the video.

[@JadeHex]

That (among a lot of other tiny things) was mostly due to the rustiness on my end. I hadn't been ingrained in TPS as I was when I wrote the TG guides and there were a couple of slip ups that I should have caught at the time (Its hard to convey that I was furiously looking through 7 or 8 docs of notes and threads I had written 8+ months ago through just the audio). Not to mention this was recorded at like 8 in the morning. These are excuses of course and I do apologize for my slip ups, just trying to give you my frame of mind during this recording. Regardless, what I was trying to convey was that its definitely worth it if you practice aiming while also constantly moving forward (as I said 20% GD is nothing to shake a stick at, especially for Wilhelm), but for the average player its a lot more situational and usually more annoying to put up with.

[@Rengrin]

That's fair. I just felt it was worth pointing out. I also feel the need to say this, since looking at my previous post I'm worried I came off as ungrateful. I learned a lot from this video, and I'm really grateful that you guys made it. You got me to go back and tweak my Wilhelm build and try guns I didn't even know about prior. So thank you for putting so much time into this!

[@Derchlands]

I'm going to be busy for quite awhile for the rest of the day so I'll be slow to respond to comments but I'll get to them when I can.

[@kevinshi4915]

Derchlands m

[@saltycomet]

Any updates on your hiatus man??

[@BreitheNua]

It's amazing to me (not in a good way) that the original 4 vault hunters were unable to defeat Wilhelm and he nearly killed them between TPS and 2, but somehow he's the least broken character in TPS. Though I guess maybe that it could be argued the difference was just how crazy Wilhelm got with the cyber augmentations after the events of TPS.

[@matthewfera2954]

I'm 2 years late, but that's kinda how I see it. In TPS he's working for Jack as another vault hunter he hired, but after that he sticks with Jack and becomes his go to killer. So he likely had access to way more cybernetic enhancements of higher quality. Or, the plot point of him nearly killing the OG vault hunters was badly emphasized or shouldn't have been. I can see him taking out Roland or Mordecai, but Lilith and her crazy siren powers and Brick being, well, Brick, could've handled it. And even then Mordecai could have been on one of the many rooftops in New Haven for sniping.

[@bellystraw]

Hazmat Containment System would've been such a disgustingly good survival skill in bl2. Like a must have for the vault hunter that had it

[@Spiran_SphereHunter]

to heck with you guys, termination protocols is an auto include just so you can hum the terminator theme under your breath while doing it :D

[@HerrHoppenstedt]

Style over substance is barely a good choice, but this skills grants you both! Must pick. Especially for plebs like me, who should take any pick me up they can get.

[@leeman27534]

hell, just the walking and decent aiming is nice, but it's also got added damage to help you get out of FFYL easier, it's great.

[@Derchlands]

This just got done processing so all the quality options might not be ready for awhile, and I'm working on adding time stamps but I didn't want to delay posting it longer to get them done. So those should be up in 30 mins or so. I need to eat breakfast first.

[@barthauwaerts8995]

Dang man,3 hours 12 mins. I need breakfast AND dinner to prepare for this. keep up the good work

[@sirpendergast1575]

hey derch, I just wanna point out a couple mistakes I noticed during your explanation of rolling thunder, you said the stacks last five seconds when actually they last the while duration and you get a new one every five seconds, secondly you said wolf has +50% damage increase at 10 stacks, 10×10=50? what. just some things I wanted to point out as polite criticism and also for anybody in the comments to see in case they got confused, love ya derch, keep up the pantsless content

[@IGSA101]

The idea of venom bolts and cold war is that you now have two sources of dots, (your gun and wolf) doubling your chance of freezing an opponent opening them to increased damage from wolf's rockets and suicide strikes. They could have been implemented better since most of your other skills are about keeping wolf alive more, maybe have the one that revives wolf reduce its health too. Venom Bolts should have increased corrosive damage in general rather than just the dots, to make it better though.

[@christophercollins3632]

I’m inspired to build a Wilhelm. Not far, yet, but I started to really enjoy slam attacks. After comparing Meteor Slam to basic, it’s a huge boost. I’ve noticed most enemies stagger and remain in place recovering a few seconds. Having a huge Slam radius allows you to get in damage a stun on more guys. I’m not taking the generic Welcome To The Gun Show until after Meteor Slam. I like the utility, and slams are fun. I’ll edit this later on.

[@christophercollins3632]

Back again, as a 52 in UVHM. Meteor Slam rules. Slams are normally hard to aim well, and having the freedom to quickly pick any spot in the general vicinity makes all the difference. Damaging barrels can be triggered without hurting yourself. Slam damage hits low flying enemies too, so the extra coverage is quite decent. Especially against soldier types, who stand close to one another, but aren’t converging on you, hitting them all for a stun, or even frozen, allows for an aggressive playstyle. Like, it gives time for Kinetic Armor to trigger, or close safely for a Power Fist, as examples. Slam damage is already great. If you can hit for max damage, you one shot all but the toughest. The Juggernaut OZ Kit can even wreck them. Besides, I’m already 2 shotting my vehicles accidentally if not careful. So one mistake and it’s gone isn’t actually fun. Slams are practically free damage, since you can shoot or reload simultaneously. It’s also one of the most fun feeling FPS mechanics, ever. Having the much larger radius makes it more versatile and smoothly incorporates into chaotic action. No need to get it “just right”. Maybe a number crunching DPS scientist would design a more lethal build without it. Likely, in fact. But g*d d*mn, is this sh*t fun to play with. Highly recommend the 5 point investment.

[@leeman27534]

well, i mean, if you're wanting a slam build, go for it but most of these 'rank' skills are iffy, and welcome to the gun show is an overall great boost they're not quite 'free' damage as they need to be in melee range to work decently as well as the going up and down a lot can fuck up your aim - if they're kinda close enough to slam, they're close enough that jumping up and down means you need to adjust your aim. but hell, a cryo laser wilhelm forgoing dreadnought's capstone could potentially do well with a slam build - cryo foe, then explosive slam might ne a nice one two punch, like melee athena might use. the only real problem is it doesn't get boosted by anything else - same problem with a lot of action skills or damage from skill skills, without legendary weapon scaling or skill support, it can kinda fall a bit flat on it's ass, pun slightly intended. it's also at a weird point in the tree - a tier 5 skill, in the tree you might not go that deep into anyway, when it's opposite skill is basically far superior except for a slam build - it's got decent base damage, but not like it's super useful in every situation, it's better for small melee targets - my '238604' slam on my jack was doing around 75k at best, with a DPS of about 75k as slams take time (and o2), whereas my hail was doing like 45k, with a far greater DPS, (slam was doing 135k against frozen foes so there's that, and iirc greater radius would mean more of the slam damage is doable besides being almost right next to the foes which is some of these 'range' skill issues, like 35% damage if you're within melee range and then severe dropoff) they seemed like they wanted it to be an option, it's just not too viable of one as there's no other ways to amp it - iirc there's not 'fuckawesome' legendary oz kits for slamming, there could've been some sort of 'slam + effects' shield, or even a weapon that might interact with slamming somehow, but nope - there's a few skills, but it's like the melee on every character - largely ineffective and mostly not worth the points. athena's got a little more utilit for it as it can generate maelstrom stacks, and nisha's gives order stacks and more order, actually claptrap's can cycle through his random setup but if you go into that tree you're asking for trouble anyway, his is just the damage increased from wider range slams, really - except slamming isn't a hella viable sort of playstyle anyway, so his is kinda the worst.

[@christophercollins3632]

@@leeman27534 Boosting just the slam radius, not even the damage, is not going to be on any top 10 skills lists, but it makes for a fun playstyle. It’s free damage in that you can reload while slamming. That’s something I like to do. Also using weapons like Two Scoops, or rocket launchers, makes targeting easy with splash damage, cutting down on the aiming issue. Your suggestion is close to one of my favorite combos. Two Scoops when jumping to freeze foes, then slam with explosive damage, which gets the damage boost you mentioned against frozen targets. My point about Welcome to the Gun Show is that it was generic, since those kinds of stat boosters are common. Not that it’s bad. In my opinion, Meteor Slam makes a slams more viable, do more, and more fun to use. I like the creativity of how it can be used to do different things, once it’s large enough. Take away WttGS, it’s not going to be missed much. But Meteor Slam will be. Still, it’s not terribly powerful. It’s situational. But hopefully fun and flavorful.

[@leeman27534]

@@christophercollins3632 i understood you were mostly talking for fun not it's a great skill everyone's sleeping on for no apparent reason - also feel like gun show would be sorely missed if it just got removed, than the skill most people don't put a single point into, regardless of how fin it is for you... actually, weirdly moved down and was replying to someone else's stuff about slams, now i kinda want to do a slam ish themed playstyle with claptrap. the cryo exhaust manifold skill adding cryo to slams, the fragmented tree capstone being a rainbow nova when you change subroutines (And boosted cryo manifold will drop up to 11 stacks per slam), then skills like you're going to love me and its a trap card are ALSO nova skills, and the repulsive skill can help potentially fuck up those melee based enemies that'll take advantage of the proximity, and then there's also start with a bang, another nova skill, and lode and splode, boosting splash damage after reloading there's even a com that boosts his cryo slam and elemental skill, that has boosted slam damage. tbh don't liek claptrap kinda, was doing a light tediore ish thing with one that i'm now converting to this idea like you said, two scoops seems to be a great gun for this sort of thing, enhanced elemental effect chance, maybe group foes with a black hole grenade

[@christophercollins3632]

@@leeman27534 A Cryo slam seems perfect for claptrap, since 1 tree is explosive heavy, taking advantage of the damage bonus. Hyperion punch too, for the bonus. That tree might be the most synergistic, but I didn’t like the playstyle, which I recall abused a reload gimmick to create explosive novas. On call novas would be great for cryo slams would be sweet.

[@Entotrte]

I love how this series is going from shorter videos to 3 + hour long videos.

[@aiabby8007]

@Derch, I just tested Escalation, and it is NOT a multiplicative (you call it type B) crit bonus. It is type A.

[@Derchlands]

+Aia bby yeah there is an annotation correcting that and a follow up video

[@aiabby8007]

Ok cool! Also, did you see the message I sent you? It's possible that you already knew about it, but since you're making the Claptrap build/gear guide soon, I sent you a message with some information about Clappy's skill interactions that wasn't/isn't on the wiki or forums that I'm aware of. I didn't want to post it outright because that would be like stealing your thunder or something (lol)

[@AOTLTng]

*Salutes you for spending your time for this vid

[@texteel]

I started a wilhelm, and having a blast with equalizer. Suppression as high as possible, and 1 point in venom bolts, gets boosted to 25%. It may not look much, but when wolf's attack speed doubles, and 25% of a twin blast/second attack/whatever you wanna call it for every shot wolf takes... Still looks like free damage do to me.

[@jafortune]

I kind of wish the Eridian Vanquisher just picked a single tree or focused on pure dps, support, or tanking like a lot of legendary coms did in Borderlands 2. They didn't just have proof they didn't work, they had options that were already proven to be better. So they make a com with slam damage, but then don't boost Meteor Slam? I know it's not a great skill. But come on.

[@chaosmark101]

Been Away from the Pre Sequel and the Borderlands forums so long. Holy Hell. I had no idea Laser Guided was buffed in UVHM. X1.85% from Laser Guided??? Jeez

[@sixtenalin5300]

Oh right, by the way how ive have tested the best shotgun for Wilhelm and its actually the Boganella, It has a very good pattern in shots and boust a high base damage compared to other powerful shotguns, note: Many Scav/Bandit triple barreled shotguns are better than most other shotguns like the quad, coachgun etc

[@DeathBone4656]

Claptrap has the best slam build,His boomtrap tree raises explosive his fragmented tree let's him get a cyro Nova + damage

[@leeman27534]

was actually talkin about someone liking wilhelm slam build, and i pointed out the other three characters with slam based skills can make better use of them, athena stacking maelstrom, nisha getting order stacks (and just increasing order), and claptrap getting better explosive stuff and whatnot but thinking more on it, yeah - repulsive works better at melee range, start with a bang/lode and splode could work good for this, if you're using lower mag ish cryo guns to freeze foes, you're going to love me and it's a trap card are both proximity based novas, it's a trap card maybe synergizing well with a cryo nova shield like jack's sharing shields to allies that then nova does, and if going that deep into the frag tree, slams might be of greater utility if your guns are debuffed, and the capstone is also a nova type thing AND he seems to be one of the few characters with a slam boosting com - that also boost that cryogenic manifold, the movement up skill, and the crazy elemental skill i don't like claptrap, partially because of that frag tree being largely more detrimental than useful with all the modifiers, but this actually sort of makes me want to do one - i can avoid some of the bad rolls with his nova based stuff, just get in close, cryo foes, slam to get to the next subroutine roll, release several elemental novas proccing maniacal laughter to make the next cryo easier, rinse, repeat - potentially with a singularity grenade to group foes easier.

[@KauluMaisas]

Man, respect to GBX for attention to detail @2:26:15. Explosion effect on ice shards looks impressive.

[@GothicSoldier9000]

Cryo + Escalation + Targeting Scope + Power Fist to crit spot = Can you see where this is going?

[@DeathBone4656]

Crit skills don't make your melee crits better

[@mattzayas5340]

Yay I've been waiting for this for so long

[@saltycomet]

Derch come back!

[@tufty7026]

Seconded. Come on man, we saw the hearted.

[@imasiontist653]

I think willhelms capstones look really fun! I just reached lvl 17 on my claptrap but... I'm gonna have to play as him he looks too fun. I can't focus on one character lol. the farthest I've made it is lvl 51 before switching.

[@alexcampbell632]

Zer0 Same here. My highest is my Aurelia at 51, but I have one of each and can't stop switching. Jack's my least favorite, but that's probably just because I use his middle tree and feel kind of forced into constantly running.

[@imasiontist653]

the leveling in borderlands tps is better in my opinion.

[@rdu239]

What specifically? are referring to exp scaling? or skill leveling

[@Isaac-ym8kq]

raymund usi i think skills are better xp is worse

[@ectotrix7399]

@@Isaac-ym8kq yeah probably because there is nothing to do in TPS at some point and it become boring as f to xp

[@saltycomet]

Late af but yes i agree. Just not the xp. That's a Bitch to farm

[@leeman27534]

aside for uvhm exp needs, yes. it's kinda bullshit you'd need like 3 playthroughs in uvhm to hit max level, and to level 'efficiently' it's best to repeat the first quest for like 3 hours, instead.

[@joeykeilholz925]

if there's one thing I wanna see in a new graphics engine, it's a Tediore reload

[@mathyoooo2]

The system purge Oz Kit + O2 luneshine + UCP is insane imo

[@sixtenalin5300]

The Blaster COM can be used for a tediore laser build, magazine size is good + reload speed

[@leeman27534]

i mean, if going for a laser build in general, the blaster com is good...

[@jabezrbrain]

I use the Data Scrubber on him almost exclusively to aid in the raising/lowering of shields - I did this by accident at first. Now, it is quite often that I am doing it plus my grenades stay topped off!

[@mrxmenguy]

Just imagine the Shock Absorbers skill on Salvador. Imagine how fun that that would be... *sigh*

[@taylormade2133]

That dude needs some riddelin or something. Damn

[@RemingtonSteel]

😂😂

[@arhivist3869]

I was waiting for this moment for so long

[@NeostormXLMAX]

THIS IS VERY LATE BUT JUST TO NOTE, THE DEVS CHANGE CORROSIVE DAMAGE TO DEAL NORMAL DAMAGE VS FLESH SO IT DOESN"T DEAL LESS DAMAGE to FLESH ANYMORE IN THIS GAME. they change it DUE TO LESS ARMORED ENEMIES

[@christophercollins3632]

Holy bologna! That is awesome! Frankly, it’s not necessary, since corrosive works in vacuum, but not fire. Essentially, Fire only shines in atmosphere. Against flesh. Rank up Venom Bolts, and Fire won’t ever be needed for best DPS.

[@saltycomet]

Just random scrolling on a old video since I just started playing TPS. This is crazy news I wouldn't have knoen otherwise . Late af but thank you

[@VnikXum]

THAT IS NOT TRUE! Just test this on TPS. My corrosive gun has base dmg 9269 (no perks, mods etc.) aganst flash it deal 5562 (40% reduction), aganst shields 3704 (60% reduction), aganst armour 16220 (74% increase). All works as wiki says.

[@DemoniteBL]

Yeah, that's incorrect. Maybe you were playing in normal mode where the reduction is only 10%? Because in TVHM/UVHM it's 40%. Also I kinda hate the consensus that incendiery damage isn't worth using in a vacuum because it doesn't place a DoT. Unless you're stacking Maelstrom, it really shouldn't matter too much, because it's still 75% extra damage which outshines any shock/corrosive DoTs by far. It is true that matching elements in TPS isn't always optimal like in BL2, but that's not because of vacuums and instead because of skill tree design and the cryo element.

[@HexxuSz]

derch is my favorite filmmaker for this year

[@kunichuck]

Good choice picking Hoyle for that one :)

[@sligordaoust573]

Cold war could of had a higher % but at 25 it can still work often enough with venom bolt + maliwan electric guns.

[@kunichuck]

The Mauler COM makes me want to make a Deputy build out of it.

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

You should, Wilhelm is really cool.

[@ChrisRobinsonNZ]

You reckon Wilhelm's Overcharge skill is ridiculous? Try having both it and Claptrap's Gun Wizard active at the same time. The fire rate gets even more insane.

[@Derchlands]

+ChrisRobinsonNZ I've had that a bunch it's fucking nuts

[@eclipsedarksouls6036]

try funzerker and showdown

[@Derchlands]

Or rubber ducky while someone is in ffyl

[@eclipsedarksouls6036]

Honestly I can't wait for claptrap

[@ChrisRobinsonNZ]

The noise... I still have nightmares.

[@yourfuturedadbob9656]

"Gets a lot more sexy when you play with it" I agree

[@fatmonkey9757]

That's what she said

[@MondoJohnny]

I was let down that all the good Wilhelm stuff seemed to be around his drones. When I think of a badass cyborg I don't imagine a weaker than average character with some cool planes. I imagine a man machine punching through walls, obliterating things with eye lasers! ripping off car doors! But no... spit out some little planes and go hide behind a box.

[@MondoJohnny]

Also this guy giving tips is a real brainiac and I'm loving these detailed descriptions of each skill. That said I'm glad you are there to translate some of the lingo for us filthy casuals!

[@AdminAbuse]

He's a lot of fun to play imo, I see him as a well balanced class, I really like him but there would've been some ways to make him even cooler

[@billyboleson2830]

@@MondoJohnny This is why I play the community patch which helps make Wilhelm much stronger lol

[@DemoniteBL]

Dude basically wanted Richter Belmont but as a cyborg.

[@MondoJohnny]

@@DemoniteBL 🤩

[@grape2941]

Hard to kill can be used with low level blistering grenades by you and friends

[@Jamison-]

"It gets a lot more sexy when you play with it"

[@RemingtonSteel]

Jamison:That's what she said

[@Sodamachine62]

I don't understand why he thinks venon bolts doesn't fit in the 'wolf' tree. It's a skill that specifically affects wolf..

[@TrajGreekFire]

​@ultimatevaulthunterwolf already deals enough damage with roaring thunder stacks, laser guided and omega strike

[@kvetoslavzeleny1764]

I'll just say this. I have build around Boxxy gun and Kala shield(Transformer) that focus on Emergency response and Vengenance cannon. I'll let sit in your mind and imagine how powerfull it is. Also I kinda want to add some thing with Cold War if you don't mind. That cryo bonus is stupid on Slow fire rate weapons. Works kinda with some Smgs and Beam lasers. But some skills and gear have some good synergy with it. Terminator protocols works like tesla grenade, so it's lighting has better chance of freezing and Hazmat Containment System (if you actualy tank) has also nice chance of freezing, but not that big. Items that i want to mention are Cathartic Oz Kit for it's area effect (actualy one of few items working with venom bolts along with Blowfly) and Four Seasons just for it's big damage and you don't need to spam it to have cryo debufing area. I kinda like only two lasers that mostly work with this, but not totaly reliably. Vibra pulse and Tannis Enlightment. PS: Everybody should realy try that Kala/Boxxy or Data scrubber combo on Wilhelm.

[@christophercollins3632]

Yay! A person that liked Cold War. The wiki said it was better when you use weapons with low proc chance, since Cold War can’t trigger on enemies with an active status effect.

[@narfd.8837]

I don't get why Wilhelm has such low values in points of raw damage. They should've increased "Gun Show" to a 20% Bonus, double the bonus on "Cold War" and change "First to Fight" to a static damage-buff of 20% with additional 20% as long as his shield is depleted. Aaaand decrease the cooldown of "Divert Power" to 15 seconds and give "Meteor-Slam" an radius-increase of 30% plus additional shock-damage. Then give "kinetic Armor" a higher Bonus to health (~40%) and increase the damage it does by a LOT. These changes should be enough to make Wilhelm good in terms of damage plus make him a great tank, too.

[@bachyas8888]

cuz laser guided is all he needs thanks to that skill being multiplicative

[@leeman27534]

tbh, i actually liked both canceling and keeping them up, didn't care for kill switch, really, but i could call them, cancel them for both the healing AOE for 12 seconds, can probably activate wolf and saint again before then, and overcharge, to try and tear through the foes a bit faster, while i'm still topped up on reserves and don't probably need healing. i'd ironically be more likely to do this if i needed a little healing from an earlier scrape, given shield and health boost immediately, then wear them down a bit, and go for a longer haul. then, once i'm more beaten up and the remaining enemies are farther away or more adkward to try to get at and its back up, resummon, healing nova, shields recharged, get overcharge again, have a blast.

[@Mrnevertalks]

Is escalation really type B? The last time I asked on the forums, I was told it was type A. Unless they ninja buffed it or I was misinformed. Also, Omega strike isn't boosted by rolling thunder according to Johnrr6.

[@JadeHex]

Hi, I'm Hoyle, I took a look at it after the fact and as of right now it seems that they actually reverted the skill to type A (Calcs that we had previously proven to be type B have basically been reverted to type A), I can't recall when they would have done this change (or Frankly WHY they would nerf Wilhelm out of all the characters, although it could have been the ninja patch that also buffed laser guided). Regardless, I didn't know of this change at the time of recording, and have since alerted Derch to potentially add an annotation to help curb future confusion. As a regard to your second statement. I have NO idea what you're trying to say. (Rolling Thunder isn't boosted by Rolling Thunder clearly makes no sense, unless you were trying to say something like Omega Strike not being boosted by Rolling Thunder, which is something I didn't confirm at the time, and very well might be true).

[@Derchlands]

+JadeHex I'll add an annotation when I get home

[@Mrnevertalks]

I meant Omega strike. Can't edit comments on mobile.

[@rukrawczyk]

41:18 that blast radius tho! O.o

[@jabezrbrain]

I will say that I place 1 point into Meteor Slam to knock back the enemies and then run at them w/ the point in Shock Absorbers to gain the 20% extra damage. Thats the only real benefit I find for it. I wouldn't waste more than one point though

[@Sodamachine62]

Would you take cold war if you only using cryo weapons for the additional cryo chance

[@bugfriendz]

;o; the corrosive goop on the ground im so jealous

[@houseofm9700]

Yo derch , I just made a potent recall wilhelm build AND a found a way to make him broken and keep up with the other characters (not saying he's bad just saying he can be OP )

[@ericledesma4715]

great video. I'm excited for gaige next and timothy

[@imasiontist653]

how do you guys keep my attention for three hours!?

[@spy-v-spy1848]

I give wreck, but Accelerate is in Maya's motion tree, seeing as it increases bullet speed ....not really out of place. Foresight is a better example

[@lordmonochrome9735]

i'd rather watch these types of videos than a movie

[@rukrawczyk]

have you done a deputy wilhelm? i feel like it would work well

[@freeman2582]

Escalation is not "TypeB" tho, its very much "TypeA".

[@Derchlands]

+Сергей Рябов yeah I did a follow up on it

[@drewpwilson7485]

I had to say it because I was hoping you guys would of pointed this out. I kept wondering when I was watching you discuss venom bolts and Cold War if Cold War can be triggered by wolf 🧐 because that would sort of fit the one hit wonder theme of just having small weird chances of things happening by only investing 1 point into all of those off skills. Like a turret my randomly get corroded, and on other guy randomly freezes, then wolf dive bombs out of now where. I dunno what do you think? Maybe they are just for fun and utilize class mods you might be stuck with while leveling.

[@VileLasagna]

Cold War: If only Krieg had that on his Hellborn tree =P

[@madcourier6217]

The fact that you think wilhelm is the worst over Nisha or Claptrap hurts my soul... :(

[@gasdorficmuncher9943]

you would think he would have heavy machine gun skills no....watered down with team buffs in the skill tree

[@moustachemangler9083]

anyone have a absolute zero level 70 on ps3 i can have duplicated?

[@supergaspack]

Sals tank tree doesn't suck. You should understand that. either way great video.

[@supergaspack]

Zerker well said sir

[@rdu239]

Derch, I think you invited Dave Meltzer here...

[@ericmoon2974]

why do these videos keep getting longer XD

[@account3902]

I just realized this videos 3 hours long

[@sixtenalin5300]

Clap-Trap is better with the Hail and Wilhelm have better guns, for example the Flush gatling gun, and even all the Lasers are much better than the Hail

[@Sweetguy1821]

when are you going to do a jack guide, the you always hype up how great he is

[@Derchlands]

+sethredxiii Morrison I'll get to him but not sure on the order to finish them

[@squidinator5708]

Derch save the best for last

[@Derchlands]

I only have the 3 left, clap, gaige, and jack.

[@squidinator5708]

Derch exactly, you say Jack is the best designed character, so I guess it's kind of like a grand finale.

[@Derchlands]

+Squidinator also it might be fitting to leave clap trap for last, since when you pick him the game warns you

[@Sodamachine62]

Why is he acting like welcome to the gun show isn't a great skill. It's one of his best skills

[@bradley9037]

As a Wilhelm main, I'm hyped

[@bradley9037]

I think you mentioned it in the vid, but I actually prefer BL2's skill trees as a whole. Where they got it right in TPS, they knocked it out of the park, but the only characters where I really feel it was done right was Jack and Athena. Claptrap is sort of a 1 trick pony of Explosive+OLT spamming, Nisha is somewhat poorly designed outside of doing damage as you've gone over, Wilhelm is underpowered compared to the rest of the cast, and Aurelia is either heavily specialized, or forced into the few non-specialized skills, and even then she often ends up wasting points. Meanwhile in BL2, Krieg, Axton, Maya, and Zer0 all feel varied and powerful without being gamebreaking

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

Claptrap has a lot of flexibility. I wrote a long reply and YT ate it, but he can use most weapon types well. OLT is just gravy for him IMO and he doesn't need to use explosive weapons when CC procs on most damage types, cryo boosts explosive damage and procs CC, Maniacal Laughter procs on all elemental damage and Clap gets all kinds of general indirect damage boosts. Clap also has crazy good survival with Defensive Subroutines and his middle tree. I like Too Scoops more than the Ravager for Claptrap. Clap and Wilhelm kind of remind me of each other. They have a few synergies but also generally work well with most guns, unlike Nisha or Athena who flat-out refuse to make many weapons work (depending on build).

[@CysticComa]

Does Overcharge stack with multiple Wilhelms?

[@DeathBone4656]

I think it just resets the timer

[@sandrablinder6527]

13:42......"rectile"...tee-hee

[@Sodamachine62]

Take a shot everytime dude says 'targeting scope'

[@Eugene_TEC]

Don't think its fair to call him the worst class on the grounds of not being super-crazy. He's a BL2 class in TPS, and that's not a bad thing to be (He's quite different from Axton and Roland and incorporates more unique mechanics). Someone has to fill that role. And his DPS in mobbing is virtually identical to the rest, and he can do some crazy stuff with bosses as well using Tediore or lasers. He's one of the fastest for the Sentinel and Iwajira, for example. Worst class in TPS would be either Nisha for being an insult to the very basics of FPS gaming, or Claptrap for just being poorly conceived.

[@leeman27534]

agreed, sometimes they look at these skills like they should be on a bl2 character, not a TPS character - TPS goes less crazy with the damage bonuses. most of these characters have 'limited' damage boosts to raw guns, that's more or less 'fine - especially when he's got a class mod to boost laser damage and gun damage, and the prismatic bulwark and eddie are a thing... iirc outside of maelstrom able to stack insanely high or suicide nova digijack spam, with a laser build, he's got THE most general DPS though i wouldn't say nisha's an insult - sure, she's got auto aim as a skill, but ot's still short and limited as hell. and nisha and claptrap both got poor planning issues - claptrap's got a detrimental skill tree - not even 'detrimental skill', skill fucking tree. and that much fire rate on the clearly jacobs leaning character is ridiculous.

[@naytny5819]

Claptrap has a amazing explosive tree and very good for raiding heavily disagree

[@leeman27534]

@@naytny5819 still fairly poorly conceived. just like someone going "but nisha can do crazy shit!" doesn't mean the idea to give her like 7 fucking fire rate buffs wasn't downright retarded.

[@naytny5819]

@@leeman27534 Nah I think his explosive and middle tree are both great, the subroutine tree is heavy on RNG but overall if fits the theme of Claptrap and still has a lot of good abilities compared to a lot of other tree's

[@leeman27534]

@@naytny5819 again, 'has great skills' =/= 'poorly designed'. he's not 'bad'. he's heavily disjointed in some ways, rather. and like the subroutine tree or his coop tree, this can be intentional, but is still sort of not well done.

[@VnikXum]

"Escalation" is type A crit, not B

[@Sodamachine62]

How in the world is this guy saying welcome to the gun show isn't worth 5 outta 5

[@IanImperial19]

Honestly with just 5 points it doesn't give that much, like yes you get Gun Damage, Reload Speed, Magazine Size, Accuracy, and Recoil Reduction all in one skill, but the % are very small, for example 15% Gun damage is actually decent for Wilhelm (since he doesn't have a lot) however there are 3 Tier 1 skills that give more Gun damage and they also give more benefits, like Fire Support, not only it gives the same amount, but it also boost Wolf Damage or Fortify with 20% and it also increases your Max HP and Wolf HP, these skills are Tier 1 and already give more than just 15% Gun Damage. Laser Focus is basically Gun Damage for just Lasers, but it provides with 20% Gun Damage and +12 Flat Magazine Size and again it is a Tier 1 skill. 13% Reload Speed is... not that good, Wilhelm has so much Reload Speed already in other skills and those provide more, just Afterburner being 25% Reload Speed, Tier 1 and also giving Projectile Speed does more, Rapid Reinforcement gives 40% Reload Speed on top of Movement Speed and Skill Cooldown Rate. Emergency Response gives another 30% Reload Speed alongside Fire Rate and Overcharge gives a massive 75% Reload Speed when it is active. 13% is very irrelevant 15% Magazine Size sounds good on paper, until you realize how much it actually provides, on very low capacity weapons like certain Shotguns or Launchers 15% is not enought to give you extra shots, low capacity ones like Snipers usually get 1 extra shot, on weapons with medium capacity like some Laser, some ARs and SMGs it's usually less than 5 extra shots. 15% Is handy for weapons that already have good ammo capacity, but for the ones that you REALLY want to get extra shots it's not enough. 13% Accuraccy is debatable alongside 13% Recoil Reduction, Wilhelm does have massive Fire Rate increases, but not a lot of Recoil Reduction to compesate that Fire Rate, HOWEVER there is 1 skill that nullifies Recoil completely and that is Vengeance Cannon, when this skill is active whatever weapon you have in your hands gets basically 0 Recoil so that 13% is completely irrelevant and the 13% Accuracy is not that notorious considering that Targeting Scope does provide a bigger boost and also Crit Bonus. Welcome to the Gun Show is a decent skill (way better than Ranger in BL2), but is nothing spectacular, is a Tier 5 skill, the bonuses are small even with 5 points and it only gets boosted by 1 Class mod, still a decent skill to get if you are down there in the Cyber Commando tree, don't get me wrong I do use that skill, but it is sometimes not worth the investment and definitely not one of his ''best'' skills.

[@supergaspack]

rec-tile?

[@RemingtonSteel]

goblin123 I used to say rec-tile also.lol

[@imasiontist653]

I think I might like tps more than bl2

[@newyork1975ful]

Does anyone know a good Leveling guide to lvl 70??

[@EmpyreanRose]

Play co-op

[@imasiontist653]

in my opinion divert power could be usefull to get up vengeance cannon and emergency response more easily, since your shield has to fully recharge.

[@imasiontist653]

also, about the game changers, they aren't the most effective but they seem super fun.

[@christophercollins3632]

I put the 5 points in, just for that. I also took skills that beefed up HP, so the remaining HP chunk and 83.3% damage resistance was adequate to get out of almost anything.

[@h-grid3137]

can some one count all "Oh yeah" used?

[@eclipsedarksouls6036]

NOOOPE

[@rdu239]

Thats what she said

[@zachmaclean-guy5796]

THATS A LOT OF DAMAGE

[@gasdorficmuncher9943]

WARNING: 3 hours pacing back and forth in concordia

[@bugfriendz]

three hours oh my god these get progressively longer and longer

[@Shakercupp]

in game cold war is good all it takes is one dot to give you the chance to freeze. and how often do you only apply one dot, a storm front will apply so any dots it will also freeze the enemy, not just apply a cryo dot, anytime you can use one element and get the effects of another that is a good skill. love you derch but you are wrong about cold war

[@MrBewbewbewbew]

I know there is a lot of details to cover for each character and I know you want to go with them as deep as possible, but 3+ hrs video is a lil bit too long. Good thing is that you've added time stamps but next time pls do this kind of video in parts. It would be much easier to understand each topic if it would be presented in separate videos. Like for example I've started watching your Aurelia video but I still haven't finished it to this day. Because I've get bored after certain amount of time and there is too much information to cover at one view. And by this I maybe miss something what can be helpful for me.

[@Derchlands]

+bew_ at this point I've done them all this way so I'm going to finish up with the same format but I am going to go back and add time stamps to the old ones

[@MrBewbewbewbew]

Derch I understand you want to make a complete guide for every character. But there is too much stuff to cover it all in one video. Because some of the details you can forget, not know or just interpret them wrong. As long you provide good information then its ok, but things are starting to get messy when too much things are not provided and/or provided wrong

[@Mrnevertalks]

I agree. The first few vids were an hour and a half-two hours and that was enough to cover everything. I understand Sal and Maya being 3 hours since Sal has a lot of hidden mechanics and Maya is the character you understand best, but Wilhelm is super vanilla. This video could still have been just as good if an hours was cut out. I really feel that almost 3 and half hours is way too long for these vids. 2-2.5 should be enough to cover everything.

[@weirdscix]

if you cut out all the babble the video would be about 20 minutes long

[@weirdscix]

What bit of that statement wasn't clear? *****

[@supergaspack]

agree to an extent

[@YouNeedAHugg]

WeirdScience06 bit of a douche statement

[@weirdscix]

You Need A Hugg my opinion, same as Derch like voicing his

[@YouNeedAHugg]

+WeirdScience06 guess sometimes you just have an opinion that makes you sound douchy

[@kennyrosenyc]

I started watching this video, fell asleep, and woke up and it was still going. Three questions came to mind. First, what the hell is 'most maximum'? What does that even mean? Second, how much time do you have to spend playing a game to come up with acronyms for it? And last, does this guy get paid for this?

[@gasdorficmuncher9943]

hehehe yes

[@D3rOnk3l]

5min on youtube already 31 likes noone can watch an 3:30h video in 5min ^^

[@Derchlands]

+Leon Wunsch lol

[@Derchlands]

+Leon Wunsch lol

[@JamesLee-yn4wj]

How the fuq did you record for 3 hours......

[@RemingtonSteel]

James Lee :the other guy talked for 55mins

[@chadbarris8841]

I was really excited but I could only make it 5 minutes in, way too much babble.

[@gasdorficmuncher9943]

yes you really nailed that comment ....i sat down to try to get threw 30mins very difficult

[@trustcesar]

God can u guys get on with the skills damn I don't want to spend 3 hours to learn about one character

[@ezyride3973]

3h 20 min video? Are you crazy?

[@bmdshred77]

Having hard time even listening to this because of the quests mic. This is just terrible. Doesn’t help he can’t really speak well