Borderlands 4 has a throwing knife-shaped downside, and a nerf is not going to chop it

By now, it is beating a lifeless horse saying that Penetrator Increase ‘crit’ throwing knives are overpowered in Borderlands 4. Inventive director Graeme Timmins has already agreed as a lot, noting the notorious knives “will get addressed”, alongside some unintentional interactions and damaged builds, very quickly.

For these residing beneath a rock, the Penetrator Increase that may drop on throwing knives causes all injury dealt to the goal to turn into assured vital hits for a brief length. With nearly any construct, particularly these specced into bonuses with vital hits or standing results just like the bleed Vex construct, this quick window is greater than lengthy sufficient to burst down any boss within the blink of an eye fixed. Plus, you too can get the Injury Amp Payload impact, which—in the identical vein as Penetrator—causes the goal to easily take elevated injury for a length. Actually, you possibly can even get these two bonuses collectively in the event you’re fortunate for assured vital hits and a flat enhance in injury from all sources.

That is to not point out that throwing knives are already a powerful possibility within the ordnance slot, dealing excessive injury, having a number of costs and a fast cooldown, and even ricocheting on vital hits with a Jakobs producer perk.

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Except you are operating with a devoted ordnance construct, like a Vengeance Amon construct, there’s fairly actually no cause to not use a throwing knife. Its mere existence utterly invalidates total expertise. Why would I would like Harlowe’s Glow Up perk to extend gun vital hit likelihood particularly towards irradiated enemies after I might save a number of ability factors and simply throw a knife? Creator EpicNNG has a video overlaying all the abilities which are invalidated, and it is lots:

Simply How BROKEN Is The Crit Knife In Borderlands 4? (VERY) – YouTube

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The factor is, I do not assume there is a satisfying nerf. Certain, you can scale back the length of those buffs right down to solely a handful of seconds, however once more, you possibly can already kill bosses in a second or two with the fitting setup. It will nonetheless be a supply of assured vital hits, which inherently breaks quite a few builds anyway.

If Gearbox plans to easily knock this stuff down a peg within the hopes of stopping them from being must-have picks, it will not work both. Whether or not the results are decreased in length or efficiency, you possibly can’t change the truth that these throwables supply unmatched, absolute energy with no downsides, particularly in the event you’re not fussed concerning the ordnance slot to start with, which most builds in any other case aren’t.

As a lot as eradicating the Penetrator Increase and Injury Amp Payload results on throwing knives and pretending it by no means occurred would resolve the crit knife conundrum, it’s miles from an ideal resolution. This results in one more difficulty: like all earlier Borderlands video games, there could be little incentive to make use of grenades in customary builds, and they’d turn into out of date. Mockingly, that is why Borderlands 4 launched the ordnance system and extra fascinating throwables just like the knives.

Whereas they’re going to probably nonetheless stay best-in-slot in your typical gun builds, I feel the one actual resolution is to vary the Penetrator impact to be both chance-based, lively on a sure variety of photographs, and even simply your subsequent shot. Irrespective of which one, vital hits would not be assured. It will nonetheless present an extremely highly effective on-demand buff all for simply lobbing a knife, however you’d a minimum of be extra incentivised to speculate a degree or two within the expertise these ordnance at present overshadow.

Both manner, I do not envy Gearbox. I can solely think about how a lot the builders should remorse having ever launched such an merchandise, as as soon as you have skilled such an influence, it’s totally onerous to take it away.