Awful Borderlands 2 Gears

Being part of the loot shooter genre, Borderlands 2 is all about acquiring different gear and trying them out. Borderlands 2’s procedural algorithm which combines various parts to create an enormously large number of possible variations. Needless to say, not all of them are decent.

Common Weapons

E-Tech Pistols, Shotguns and Assault Rifles In General

An example of an E-Tech weapon.

• E-Tech weapons were hyped up a lot in early-game side quests. But having seen actual E-Tech weapons in action, many vault hunters will likely jump off the hype train. The only non unique E-tech weapons that are considered viable in all difficulties are E-Tech rocket launchers and SMGs. The other E-Tech weapons, while viable in early game, becomes overall obsolete when the player reaches True Vault Hunter Mode or Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.
• E-Tech Pistols, namely Spiker and Dart pistols, behave like mine throwers from Resident Evil. The former shoots out a fast energy projectile which sticks to surfaces and enemies and detonating a while later, while the latter shoots a homing projectile that sticks to enemies and explode. The issue with these pistols are A: high ammo consumption (a flaw shared by almost all E-Tech weapons). B: the inability to score critical hits (the Spiker deals no contact damage and the Dart's projectiles always seek out enemy center masses). C: low DPS (the Spiker's projectiles takes time to deal damage even after contact and the Dart's projectiles fly at snails pace of a gun). All of these flaws are simply impossible to counter with E-Tech pistol's above average damage.
• E-Tech Shotguns, referred to as Splatguns (Splasher Blashter in Bandit's case), launch balls of energy in an arc similar to a grenade launcher, and generally have a high chance of inflicting an elemental status effect compared to their normal variants. The problem with them is that they cannot score critical hits since these weapons deal splash damage only. Their arcing projectile pattern greatly limits their range. And their slow projectile speed makes them highly ineffective beyond medium range.
• E-Tech Assault Rifles are named Blasters in-game (BlASSters for Bandits cause they can't spell and they really like ass) and fire elemental energy projectiles. Blasters in general have subpar accuracy, the Dahl variant is especially egregious as it fires some of its projectiles at roughly 30 degrees to either side, meaning that they'll miss your intended target beyond point-blank range and waste your ammunition. Non-Jakobs assault rifles in Borderlands 2 already have the issue with reduced critical hit damage multiplier, this issue is made even more egregious on E-Tech assault rifles that has a critical hit damage bonus of merely 16%, this bonus so low that certain characters like Krieg will end up receiving a damage penalty if certain skills are specced in. The fact that E-Tech assault rifles consumes twice the amount of ammo only to deal around 150% the damage per projectile compared to standard ARs simply makes them not even worthwhile to pick up. The Vladof variant is arguably the better of Blasters as it has better accuracy and ricocheting projectiles.
• E-Tech Sniper Rifles are referred railguns in game (Dahl and Maliwan variants are named Railers, the Hyperion version is named Hybridfication and the Vladof named theirs Moloko). The gimmick of E-Tech snipers is that their projectiles pierce through enemies and ricochets off surfaces. But they suffer from a reduced critical hit damage modifier. Because of this they do roughly half the damage on a critical hit when compared to a same-level, same-brand purple-rarity sniper rifle, and using double the ammunition to do so. The worst of the bunch, again, are Dahl Railers since their burst fire when scoped ability means that you'll empty your entire magazine with one trigger pull.

Assault Rifles with Torgue Barrels

The Vladof Rocketeer is an example.

• These types of weapons usually fire rockets or grenades instead of bullets (depending on the manufacturer). They may look appealing early on in the game, but rapidly becomes obsolete as difficulty increases. The issue with the Torgue assault rifle barrel is that it inflict only splash damage which deprives the weapon of its ability to crit, and being able to consistently score critical hits is essential in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. Another issue is the weapon's horrendous ammo consumption. With Torgue models consuming an egregious 4 round per shot, Dahl and Bandit consuming 3 rounds per shot, and Jakobs and Vladof consuming a somewhat acceptable 2 round per shot. Finally, despite dealing splash damage, the weapon's damage output is benefitted from gun damage bonuses only and is not affected by grenade damage/rocket launcher damage bonus. The only weapon of this type that's even considered worthwhile is the Torgue KerBlaster, but that's only because it's a legendary weapon with increased damage and it spawns an additional grenade upon impact which can be boosted by grenade damage/rocket launcher damage bonus skills.

Hyperion Amplify Shields

• Amplify shields may look good on paper for snipers, since it drains part of our shield to boost the damage output of your shot, allowing you too quickly snipe common mobs with a well placed headshot. However, the amplification will only apply when the shield is full, meaning that you'll have to wait for the shield to recharge until you can fire off the next shot. This will draw out fights in Turn Vault Hunter Mode where enemies become tougher, and in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, enemies will possess health regeneration, which means that the common Amplify Shield becomes pretty much obsolete. The only variant worth using then is The Bee shield, which has zero drain when amplifying your shots, and is essentially the reason why UVHM is such a large difficulty spike. However, the shield also comes with the drawback of having very low capacity and a long recharge delay.

Rubberized Grenade Mods

Example of an rubberized grenade mod.

• Rubberized grenade mods are universally despised due to how counterintuitive their means of being launched are; instead of homing themselves onto targets, teleporting directly to an enemy's location, or simply being thrown like a traditional grenade, these things bounce all over every surface, making it difficult to use them against enemies. Good luck throwing them over cover without blowing yourself up!

Unique Weapons

Hyperion Commerce SMG

• While not exactly a god awful weapon, the problem with the Commerce is that it becomes obsolete way too quickly. If you compare the Commerce with a blue rarity Hyperion Projectile Convergence SMG with identical parts, you’ll find that the Commerce is only superior in damage. But if you then compare it to a purple Projectile Convergence with identical components, you’ll find that the latter is just superior in every single way. Even worse is that the enemy that drops the Commerce, Assassin Wot, can also drop the legendary Emperor SMG, so many players will go for that weapon instead. The advantage of the Commerce is that it’s a shock element weapon that can be obtained fairly early on in the game (when shock element weapons are rare) fairly easily.
  • How to fix it: Increase the weapons overall states, particularly damage, should make it more worthwhile to pick up.

Torgue Landscaper Shotgun

• The Landscaper is best described as a mine layer weapon, it fires four grenades which sticks to surfaces and detonates after a short while or when an enemy comes into contact with it. The problem is that the grenades it fires spread forms the four points of a square, literally firing AWAY from the crosshair, making it difficult to use beyond point-blank range. Also, if you’re not cautious, the “mines” you’ve deployed will blow yourself up. This weapon is one of the main reasons that more players decided to side with the Zafords instead of the Hodunks and endure the Chulainn's self-slag effect.
  • How to fix it: Give it projectile patterns more akin to standard shotguns and remove the self damage.

Bandit Pot O’ Gold Booster Shield

• The Pot O’ Gold’s special effect is that it has a chance to drop money when damaged, however, the money it drops are always worth $1. This makes the shield utterly worthless in higher levels where money picky-ups are worth hundreds if not thousands of bucks. Performance wise, most blue rarity shields can outclass the Pot O’ Gold. Also, the Pot O’ Gold only drops from Peter Zaford who only spawns during the side quest “Clan War: End of the Rainbow”. So even if you want one as a collector's item, you'll have to save scum for it.
  • How to fix it: Just make the amount of money it drops on par with the players level.

Jakobs Rex Pistol

• Most Jakobs weapons are semi-automatic and fires as fast as you can pull the trigger, this weapon forsakes that and capped its fire rate at an abysmal 0.8 (highest possible is 15.0 normally) in exchange for above average damage per shot. This makes the weapon frustrating to use as one missed shot can put the player in trouble, things become even worse on higher difficulties where achieving high DPS is essential thanks to the enemies’ increased health, something the Rex clearly cannot achieve.
  • How to fix it: Lift the fire rate cap to at least 3.0 or higher, or possibly increase its damage even further.

Jakobs Elephant Gun Sniper Rifle

The red text says it all.

• Like the Buffalo from the same manufacturer, the Elephant Gun is more hunting rifle than sniper rifle, sporting high damage but has no scope. However, while the Buffalo features a Jakobs barrel which has an iron sight, the Elephant Gun sports a Hyperion barrel which doesn’t have that, making aiming and scoring critical hits much tougher than it should. Also, being a bolt-action rifle means that the Elephant Gun has an extremely low fire rate.
  • How to fix it: Replace the Hyperion barrel with a Jakobs one, either replace the blot-action loading mechanism with semi-automatic or give it even more damage to compensate the weapon's low DPS.

Jakobs Damned Cowboy Assault Rifle

• Similar problem with the Rex, it trades fire rate (now capped at around 2.0) for above average damage. The problem is that Jakob’s legendary Hammer Buster assault rifle not only sports higher damage, but also doesn't have any penalty to it's fire rate, as well as being much easier to acquire. Making the Damned Cowboy little more than a collector’s item.
  • How to fix it: Lift the fire rate cap to at least 4.0 or higher, or possibly increase its damage even further.

Torgue Boom Puppy Assault Rifle

• Most BL2 players will agree that rubberized grenades (grenades that bounces across surfaces) are too uncontrollable to be practical. So how about a gun that shoots rubberized grenades? Not only is hitting an enemy tricky with the Boom Puppy, but also the grenades may bounce back towards you and blow yourself up. The gun also consumes 3 ammo per shot and cannot perform critical hits.

Hyperion Bane SMG

SWAPPIN' WEAPONS.

• Low accuracy, slows you down to snail’s pace when wielded, and worst of all, emits an irritable, high-pitched screeching sound when fired and an annoying voice of "SWAPPIN' WEAPONS." when switching to another gun then switch back to this gun and "RELOOOOOOAD!" and "REEEEELOADIN'!" when reloading the gun. The noise will still play even when the game’s audio is muted. Best described as a cruel joke from the developers at Gearbox.

Mailwan Crit SMG

• Despite being a weapon with decent stats, high elemental DoT and critical hit damage, and the ability to heal the player by 2.5% of all damage dealt by the wielder. The Crit has a approximate 9.5% chance to fall out of the player’s hand when reloaded, making it very unreliable, since the last thing you want is for your gun to fall out of your hands in a intense shoot out. And don’t even get started on the side quest you’ll need to complete to get it.
  • How to fix it: Give it some other limitation if you have to, such as ice physics, which is easier to handle.

Bandit CHOPPER Assault Rifle

• An exclusive drop from Dexiduous the Invincible, the CHOPPER has insanely high fire rate, insanely large magazine size, awful accuracy, won’t stop firing after you pulled the trigger, and consumes 6 ammo to fire 4 shots (Wait, WHAT?). The high ammo consumption of the CHOPPER makes it very expensive to use (even more costly than rocket launchers in some cases) and limits its utility and effective range. Unless you’re playing as Salvador who has ammo regeneration, the CHOPPER is only good as an emergency weapon to get second winds.
  • How to fix it: At least give it normal ammo consumption rate, or possibly give it some sort of ammo regeneration.

Dahl Dahlminator Pistol

• The name just rolls right off your tongue, right? The Dahlminator is a corrosive element only E-Tech pistol (specifically a spiker type). It might be decent in normal mode, but in higher difficulties, the weapon’s increased damage is no longer enough to counter the enemies’ increased health. Its inability to perform critical hits also makes it inferior compared to the likes of the Teapot and the Hornet. The side quest that needs to be completed in order to acquire this weapon is also long and time consuming.
  • How to fix it: Give the weapon a random chance to crit, which should apply to ALL E-Tech weapons.

Torgue Evil Smasher Assault Rifle

• The Evil Smasher was once one of the most desirable weapons in Borderlands 2, despite having subpar states overall, the weapon has a special effect where it has chance to enhance the power of the next magazine upon reloading (either increasing the magazine size or improving the damage, fire rate, accuracy, recoil reduction and bullet speed for all shots fired from the next mag). A glitch exists which allows the weapon’s special effect to be passed on to other weapons, making them extremely overpowered. To combat this glitch, Gearbox nerfed the Evil Smasher into oblivion and greatly reduced the chance of its special effect occurring. Now the Evil Smasher is one of the most worthless items in the game.

Mailwan Chulainn SMG

• This is the only dual elemental weapon in the base game of Borderlands 2, capable of inflicting both shock and slag damage simultaneously. However, what ultimately ruins a decent concept is the weapon’s self-slagging effect, basically as long as you have this gun in hand, you’ll take twice (thrice in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode) the amount of damage from enemies. After the introduction of the Florentine, the Chulainn becomes even less viable.
  • How to fix it: Just remove the self-slag effect and all will be fine!

Jakobs Tidal Wave Shotgun

• Much like the original TK’s Wave in the first Borderlands, the Tidal Wave is infamous for being hard to use. The Tidal Wave fires 13 horizontal slow moving projectiles in a wave pattern that ricochets off of surfaces once if it does not hit an enemy. The slow projectile speeds and the horizontal formation makes it difficult to land critical hits and the wide spread means that most of the projectiles may end up getting wasted unless you’re aiming at a particularly large target. Also, the projectiles will end up disappearing after a certain distance. The fact that you must choose either this or the Lady Fist makes it even less appealing. While some long time players of Borderlands might want to keep it for nostalgia's sake, many others will think otherwise and approve the UCP's decision of swapping it for the Flayer.

Torgue Midnight Star Grenade Mod

• As its item card describes, the Midnight Star is essentially a joke item added by the devs. It’s a MIRV grenade whose child grenades ALWAYS fly towards to your current position, no matter how far away you lobbed it. While you may get a few laughs with it the first few times you use it, the Midnight Star is an item that you have to go out of your way to use in with great risks.

Bandit Contraband Sky Rocket Grenade Mod

• This grenade mod is a reward for pre-ordering the game, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get one if you purchase BL2’s Game of the Year edition. While the Contraband Sky Rocket scales to your level which is fantastic, the grenade is quite tricky to use as it flies straight up into the air before detonating. Also as the flavour text mentions: don’t use it under a ceiling or you’ll likely blow yourself up. Also, the grenade becomes useless on Overpowered levels as it will remain at your character's level.

Legendary Gear

Tediore’s The Cradle Shield

• Here we have another gimmicky weapon, the Cradle functions much like a Tediore weapon would, when depleted it will be discarded, tossed at an enemy and explodes. However, the Cradle’s blast radius is quite small, and the damage it deals is pitifully low, even on maximum level, the Cradle’s explosion only deals around 10K points of damage, and on level 82, thats like sneezing at an enemy. Otherwise, the Cradle’s performance is nothing to write home about, its capacity is quite low and its recharge delay is rather lengthy.
  • How to fix it: Make the discarded shield homing so it can hit enemies easier, and greatly increase its damage out put (to around 50% of the shield's capacity or higher).

Vladof Shredifier Assault Rifle

• Despite receiving multiple improvements compared to standard minigun styled assault rifles, the Shredifier still suffers from various flaws that plague assault rifles in general. First of all, as it uses the Vladof minigun barrel, the Shredifier requires some time to achieve its maximum fire rate. Secondly, because of its high rate of fire, the Shredifier is extremely ammo hungry. Third and finally, the Shredifier’s damage is far from stellar, so after killing several enemies you’ll be likely low on ammo, plus the Infinity pistol from the same manufacturer is capable of higher DPS than the Shredifier mainly due to the Infinity’s superior base damage. Considering the fact that you can achieve higher DPS on an easier to acquire weapon with infinite ammo, you’ll have to wonder why would you use the Shredifier in the first place.
  • How to fix it: Increase its damage by 15% or so, and possibly give it ammo regeneration capabilities. After all, for pistols there's the Infinity, for shotguns we have the Butcher, for SMGs there's the Avenger, for Grenades there're the "spell" grenades, even for rocket launchers there's the Logan's Gun/The Sham combo. Why not something like this for assault rifles?

Hyperion Nasty Surprise Grenade Mod

• One BL2 player once claimed that the nastiest surprise this grenade can deliver is when it dropped after slaying Vermivorous the Invincible instead of the Norfleet launcher. Compared to other legendary grenade mods which are mostly enhancements of non-unique grenade mods, the Nasty Surprise is a fairly unique concept: when thrown, the Nasty Surprise deploys 4 child grenades which will instantly teleport to an enemy’s location before detonating. What eventually held back the Nasty Surprise it the low damage its child grenade deals. One can’t help but wonder why the developers will reduce the damage of a MIRV grenade that has low child grenade count in the the first place, also, the child grenades will split up and teleport to multiple enemies locations instead of focusing on just one, making the grenade mod much more weaker. Thankfully, a slag element version of the Nasty Surprise can still be quite effective.
  • How to fix it: Increase the grenade's damage output for about 15% or higher, so other elemental versions of the grenade will be more useful. And reduce the fuse time to 0.0 to compensate the low blast radius.

Maliwan Pyrophobia Rocket Launcher

• The Pyrophobia is more or less the spiritual successor to Borderlands’ Rhino launcher which is also made by Maliwan. Its special effect is that the rockets it fire will constantly emit explosions while flying through the air. However, while the Rhino can come in every element, the Pyrophobia, as its name suggests, is fire element exclusive. Its special effect is also tricky to master, you’ll need to have multiple enemy in a near perfect line to get the most out of it. Also, as the explosion intervals are based on time, not distance, so certain parts like Maliwan exhaust or scope, as well as projectile speed increasing skills will make the weapon less effective.
  • How to fix it: Make the blast intervals distance based instead of time based.

Torgue Rolling Thunder Grenade Mod

• Nicknamed the "Trolling Thunder", the Rolling Thunder utilizes only Rubberized deployment, while the grenade does unleash an explosion with every bounce, the unpredictability of rubberized grenades makes it rather difficult for the explosion to hit its mark. While the final detonation is in style of a MIRV grenade, it's still overall less powerful than either the Bonus Package or the Meteor Shower. Overall, while any character with skills enhancing explosive damage may have some use of it, one will still find it hard to justify it over better grenade mods.

Dahl Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Booster Shield

• Most players wear shields to increase survivability, this shield is quite counterproductive. Unlike regular sbooster shields which drops boosters than can restore your shields when picked up, the WTF instead ejects IED boosters towards the nearest enemy, these boosters will then eject three set of powerful shock grenades. While the shield can be quite useful against rats who will rush to pick up the boosters and get fried in the process, most of the time the player will found themselves electrocuted. Things got worse on OP level where the grenades will OHKO you. Some variants of the WTF may spawn with a Grounded prefix (immune to shock DoT), but even then it will not provide protection from these shock charges.

Bandit Madhous! Assault Rifle

• The Madhous! has a minor damage boost and moderate magazine expansion atop its unique projectile effect: the bullets fired will follow a slightly swerving path that swerves back and forth left-right or up-down (orientation is random), then will split into two upon impact and bounce; bullets become faster after every bounce. The swerving projectile pattern makes it super frustrating to hit enemy with it as the projectiles' pattern is so random it's highly likely that they'll miss the enemies entirely, and while the splitting/ricocheting bullets effect might appear useful in enemy rich environments, the fact that the additional split projectiles will always spawn in a 45 degree angel makes it even less likely to hit enemies. Making matters worse is that even Gaige's Close Enough skill will not make it easier for the Madhous! to hit enemies.

Tediore Bunny Rocket Launcher

• The only special trait is that when reloaded, instead of launching from the player's hand like a rocket, the Bunny will instead bounce around the battle field like, well, a bunny all the while spawning small chid grenades. This bouncing pattern can be quite unpredictable, especially in enclosed spaces and rough terrain. Meaning that the Bunny could bounce back to the user him/herself and blow up, dealing damage. The Bunny's self-destruct damage output is about as undesirable as Louise the Zero's bust size, it's just strong enough to cripple your Vault Hunter but too weak to make a difference against most late-game enemies. In terms of overall performance, the Bunny is quite lackluster for a legendary rocket launcher, even an E-Tech launcher from Tediore will likely outperform the Bunny, this is especially egregious considering that the Bunny mainly drops from extremely rare "Chubby" enemies, you'd have though that it would be something awesome.

Jakobs Striker Shotgun

• The Striker was intended to be used as a "shotgun sniper" type weapon, as it sports very high accuracy for a shotgun, low pellet spread and high critical hit damage (50% additive crit bonus and a 15% multiplicative crit bonus). However, the Striker has various flaws that made doing what it's intended to do very frustrating:
  • First and foremost is the Striker's immense recoil and slow recoil recovery, which pretty much limits how fast you can shot or your shots will all simply miss, the tight pellet spread only made things more frustrating.
  • Secondly is the weapon's tiny magazine size, usually it can only hold 2 cartridges but when spawned with a Jakobs grip it can hold 4, which isn't much to begin with. And in an intense shoot out, the last thing you want to do is to reload all the time. On close range, common Jakobs shotguns such as the Quad or the Bushwack can outperform the Striker thanks to their higher pellet count.

Hyperion Invader Sniper Rifle

• Whether the Invader deserves to be on this list is somewhat debatable. Although this sniper rifle has fallen out of many players' favour mainly because it contains two of the least popular gimmicks found on sniper rifles: Dahl's burst fire when zoomed, and Hyperion's reverse recoil. The burst fire function was disliked by lots because of its high tendency to waste precious ammo, and while the reverse recoil means that shots fired by the Invader are surgical accurate, one has to stare down the sight for a few seconds before the gun steadies itself out, and I don't need to tell you why that's annoying in intense battles. If players are not turned off by these factors, the the greatly decreased damage compared to most other snipers most likely would.

Hyperion Logan's Gun Repeater Pistol

• The incendiary only Logan's Gun behaves more like an E-Tech Spiker pistol, and therefore cannot score critical hits, except the rounds detonate immediately upon contact and have a piercing effect. However, when the projectiles strike an inert surface there is a small delay before emitting a small second explosion. Therefore, you'll have to literally defy gun usage logic and aim at an enemy's feet and hope for the best if you want to get the best out of the Logan's Gun. However, the Logan's Gun does have one use: when absorbed by a Vladof absorption shield, the explosions emitted by the weapon's projectiles count as rocket ammo, so expect to see veteran players shoot themselves in the foot with this weapon a lot.

Seraph Gear

Vladof Patriot Sniper Rifle

• The Patriot literally defies the basic principle sniper rifle design. Instead of steady and accurate, the Patriot's projectiles seems to literally veer away from the cross hair, making things worse is the weapon's slow projectile speed, another highly undesirable aspect of a long range weapon. Few players are willing to put up with the Patriot despite the fact that it hits like a truck. While it's high damage and decent rate of fire allows players to use the Patriot as a pseudo assault rifle in close-medium range, the low capacity of sniper rifle ammo and the weapon's minuscule magazine and lengthy reload time makes even that a bad idea. Also, the Patriot mainly drops from Master Gee the Invincible, one of the most hated bosses in the entire game.

Tediore Retcher Shotgun

• The Retcher has earned a lot of "worst" titles: worst E-Tech weapon, worst Tediore weapon, worst corrosive elemental weapon, worst shotgun, worst Seraph weapon, etc. The only positive thing with the Retcher is that it only consumes 1 ammo per-shot, unlike most other E-Tech shotguns which consumes 2. First off, being corrosive element only greatly limits the weapon's usage. Secondly, being an E-Tech shotgun, it cannot crit. Thirdly, like almost all E-Tech shotguns, the Retcher's projectile travels in an arc which limits its range, except the Retcher's range is even shorter than usual. Fourthly, the Tediore reload damage of the weapon is pathetic, when it's thrown, it spawns two child grenades upon detonation, however, the child grenades not only flies straight up in a high arc (guaranteed to hit ceiling instead of enemies in indoor environments), but they also have hopelessly small blast radiuses and deals explosive damage instead of corrosive damage like the weapon they spawn from.

Torgue Devastator Pistol

• The Devastator is supposed to pay homage to the rocket launcher of the same name in Duke Nukem. But it end up being more of an insult to the franchise and the amazing weapon. The Devastator pistol is one of those weapons that seems to defy the laws of physics, the projectiles it fires seems to come out from BEHIND the weapon rather than straight out of the barrel. As such, the Devastator's accuracy is absolutely atrocious and the wielder will struggle to hit enemies beyond point-blank range. Making things worse are the Devastator's decreased projectile velocity, and the fact that it mainly drops from Master Gee the Invincible, one of the most frustrating raid bosses in the game.

Torgue Seeker Assault Rifle

• Yet another interesting but poorly implemented concept. The Seeker is exactly says on the tin, it fires homing explosive projectiles at the enemy. This sounds fabulous, until you remember that all homing projectiles in Borderlands 2 aim at the enemy's torso and therefore cannot score critical hits. The Seeker suffers from an awfully low rate of fire for an assault rifle, it also consumes two ammo per-shot which results in frequent reloading when combined with the weapons below average magazine size, further reducing its rate of fire. All of these traits combined resulted in a highly ineffective weapon, especially in True or Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode where enemies become bullet sponges. This weapon is only good against fast but fragile airborne enemies.

Maliwan Infection Pistol

• This weapon is actually not a victim of poor design like most other weapons on the list, but rather a victim of poor balancing in later difficulties. The Infection mainly deals damage via elemental damage over time and is an exceptionally effective weapon against armored enemies in lower difficulties. But in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode and Overpower Mode, the Infection becomes highly ineffective. As in these difficulties, elemental effects inflicted by Vault Hunters will last shorter amounts of time, meaning that most enemies can simply shrug off the pitiful amount of base damage the Infection deals.

Vladof Sponge Absorption Shield

• When it comes to Absorption Shields, the Sponge is far from the worst, but statistic wise, the Sponge felt somewhat unnecessary, especially when it's compared to the legendary Sham and Transformer shield from the same manufacturer: The Sham is capable of an astounding 94% absorption rate at best and a still impressive 77% at worst, the Sponge on the other hand is only capable of achieving a 54% absorption rate at best. While the Sponge has notably higher shield capacity than The Sham, the latter's higher absorption chance is no doubt more useful against gun totting enemies. The Transformer, despite having lower absorption chance than the Sponge, benefits from the ability to regenerate shield energy from shock element attacks. Another factor that needs to be considered is ease of acquisition, the Sponge can only be purchased from the Seraph Vendor located at the Badass Crater of Badassititude with your hard earned seraph crystals, while both the Transformer and the Sham can be obtained from bosses that can be easily farmed repeatedly (provided that you have the Gamer of the Year edition).

Pearlescent Gear

Maliwan Storm Sniper Rifle

• If weapons like the Patriot proves to us just how awful Seraph weapons can be, the old Storm shows just how awful Pearlescent weapons can be.
• The Storm is a sniper rifle capable of dealing elemental damage to multiple enemies simultaneously at long range. When a shot fired from the Storm impacts an enemy or surface, five electric orbs are placed at random around the point of impact. These orbs deal constant electric damage to any targets within range for a short period. After each electric orb has expended itself it will detonate, doing a total of 10% of the damage listed on the Storm's item card. All of this sounds promising, but the Storm suffers from numerous faults in its design which make it sub-par as both a sniper rifle and a source of group damage. It's widely considered to be one of the worst sniper rifles of all time.
  • The largest problem with the Storm is that as there are five electric orbs produced on impact, this effectively replaces the normal +50% splash damage seen on standard Maliwan sniper rifles. This means that while bullets from other Maliwan sniper rifles deal 150% of the damage listed on the item card for a non-critical hit and 450% damage on a critical, a projectile from the Storm only deals the amount of damage on the card for a non-critical hit and 400% damage on critical. The Storm's base damage is only slightly higher than that of a purple rarity Snider with identical components, this makes the Storm very poorly suited towards traditional sniping.
  • Another detriment to the Storm is the limited range of the electric orbs. The range on the electric orbs is very short, only shocking enemies within about one body length of the electric orb. This not only cuts down on the number of enemies which an electric orb is likely to hit, but the random distribution of the electric orbs means it is more likely than not that none of them will be able to reach the initial target or point of impact. Unfortunately, the range of the detonation of electric orbs is only minimally larger than their effective electrocution range. This makes placing shots with the Storm difficult, due to the unreliability of its group effect.
• Due to the Storm's characteristics, it is weak as both a sniper and a crowd control weapon. This weapon is not designed to be a "one shot, one kill" sniper rifle, and can be easily surpassed by other powerful sniper rifles. However, if one can land a successful shot into a group, the high shock damage can take down multiple enemies' shields in one shot.
• An additional minor issue with the weapon is that instead of having its own unique skin, it shares skin with a common purple rarity Maliwan sniper rifle.

Jakobs Unforgiven Pistol

• The Unforgiven shares most of its flaws with the Rex. It sports very high damage and excellent accuracy, but has a notably capped rate of fire (around 2.0), very high recoil and very slow recoil recovery. What ultimately knocked the Unforgiven down several notches is its very limited DPS, an aspect that's crucial in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode where Pearlescent weapons like the Unforgiven can be obtained, due to the rapid health regeneration the enemies possess. The Unforgiven was supposed to be used like a sniper rifle. But if that's the case, why not just use a sniper rifle instead? If you really want to use the Unforgiven, a character like Maya is your best choice, as she could use her powers to immobilize enemies which makes performing the necessary critical hits easier. But for most other players, the legendary Maggie is simply a better choice.
  • An additional minor issue with the weapon is that instead of having its own unique skin, it shares skin with a common purple rarity Jakobs pistol.

Torgue Tunguska Launcher

• The Tunguska’s ability to “split the sky in two” is pretty much offset by its ability to split its wielder in two. The rocket it fires flies in a parabolic arc similar to a mortar. On impact, rockets deal minor damage, rise a few feet into the air, and explode violently, dealing heavy damage to enemies over a very wide radius. The problem with all this is that the wielder him/herself is not immune to the explosion it produces, therefore it’s quite easy for the wielder to blow him/herself up along with the enemies. If the Tunguska's damage output is so extremely high, then the risk might be worth it. But some legendary launchers like the Maliwan Norfleet or the Bandit Badaboom can also achieve similar damage outputs but being much less dangerous to use at the same time. The Tunguska also consumes two ammo per shot, which is an issue as rocket launcher ammo is quite scarce and costly in Borderlands 2.
  • Fortunately, the weapon is very easy to fix, as the Unofficial Community Patch mod has proven that simply removing the self-inflected damage turns the Tunguska into a very fun weapon.
  • Despite being one of the only two 1st generation Pearlescent weapons that doesn't share weapon skins with a common purple rarity weapon, the Tunguska's color scheme is not very original, as it's highly similar to that of the Unkempt Harold's.

Dahl Bearcat Assault Rifle

• Assault rifles with Torgue manufactured barrels tends to be unpopular in later difficulties, due to their high ammo consumption and inability to deal critical hit damage (as these weapons deal splash damage only). The Bearcat improves over the standard Dahl Grenadier assault rifle by consuming two bullets per grenade instead of the usual three, but is still marred by various flaws.
  • First of all, the Bearcat fires three grenades per trigger-pull, meaning that one pull and six assault rifle rounds are gone.
  • Secondly, the Bearcat's three grenades doesn't travel in a straight line, instead they fly in a spread shot pattern much like an E-Tech assault rifle, forcing the player to use the weapon in short-medium range in order to get the most out of it.
  • Third and finally are the weapon type's inherent flaw: the inability to score critical hits.
• And being a 1st generation Pearlescent weapon, the Bearcat shares its skin with a common purple rarity Dahl assault rifle.
• Thanks to the UCP, the Bearcat can be rebalanced, increasing its damage by roughly 25% and reducing its ammo consumption to just 2 rounds per trigger pull, making it a much more viable weapon.

Maliwan Wanderlust Pistol

• Considered by many to be the worst 2nd generation Pearlescent weapon, the Wanderlust is a highly situational weapon. The Wanderlust is an E-Tech pistol, it has the worst accuracy in the game (-1.0) but all of its projectiles are ricocheting and will home in accurately onto the enemies, meaning that the gun will never miss. But that's where the good stuff begins to end. Having homing projectiles means the Wanderlust can never score a critical hit, the weapons projectiles will also bounce around blindly for a few seconds before homing in onto its target, the fire rate of the weapon is capped at around 1.6-2.3, and finally the Wanderlust consumes 3 ammo per shot. All of these traits results in a weapon that leaves you very vulnerable in an enemy rush (which happens frequently) due to its low DPS and high ammo consumption. It's only useful in battles were there's plenty of cover and all enemies prefer long range attacks. You can simply find a sweet spot and fire the gun randomly while the game does the aiming for you, but don't expect anything but your ammo count to go down quickly, unless you have the Bee shield.

Jakobs Godfinger Sniper Rifle

• Whether the Godfinger deserves to be on this list is somewhat debatable, as there appears to be a love-hate relationship amongst the players. But compared to other desirable sniper rifles such as the Lyuda and the Pimpernel, the Godfinger tends to be very situational and impractical. The gimmick of this weapon is that the further the enemy is from you, the more damage you'll inflect (The weapon damage increase is based on the projectile travel time, as each bullet spawns additional projectiles every fraction of a second. The first 9 pellets spawn at even intervals; at maximum range, a final 4 pellets are added at once, making a maximum pellet count of 14).
• The major issue is that it's extremely rare to find a situation where enemies are far enough for the Godfinger's special ability to truly take effect, as most battles in Borderlands 2 take place in forms of short-mid range shootouts. the Godfinger has notably subpar base damage compared to other Jakobs sniper rifles, and its bolt-action nature makes it a very slow weapon (it's the first purple-or-higher rarity Jakobs sniper rifle to be bolt action). And much like the Pyrophobia's explosion intervals, the projectile split depends on time, not distance. Therefore Zer0 and Maya players who have invested in skills that increase projectile speed will reduce the weapon's already limited effectiveness.
• As a result of the inherent Jakobs critical hit bonuses - which stack poorly with skill-based crit bonuses - this weapon functions poorly with more traditional snipers like Zer0 or Maya, and better with non-traditional snipers, primarily Axton, especially due to his bonuses to non-elemental weapons.