Nisha – Fan the Hammer issues

Nisha’s trees can all be easily described in a sentence:

Law and Order: taking damage makes you more powerful
Fan the Hammer: maximizing speed and showdown
Riflewoman: accuracy without aiming

I want to talk about fan the hammer, and how it’s the only tree you cannot really use as your main tree. Why ?
because you’ll run out of ammo
simple as that.
Try it with a Vladof pistol… you’ll be done in less than 5 minutes.
Salvador was the undisputed master of fire rate in BL2, and he had the means to back it up: ammo regen from both his action skill and a COM, ammo regen through 5so6, Inconceivable, and Filled to the brim all made sure he could take full advantage of the blazing speeds he was capable of.

Nisha fills that roll in TPS: Between Faster n you, Hell’s coming with me, OFEOY, Quick shot, Unchained and Showdown, she is capable of outputting lead as no one else can in this game.

Yet… she has NO tools to take the edge off … no ammo regen, no skill that allows for free ammo… all she has is the Cowgirl COM: 55 extra bullets… that’s it. From the COM that boosts fire rate the most.

Needless to say that it seems like there is a piece of the puzzle missing. A whole tree that CANNOT be used as a basis for sustained gameplay.
I really want to love FTH… but most of my testings revealed it to be very limited in options and filled with ammo issues. Even when tailoring my build and gear around ammo consumption, it’s still lackluster.

So
What can be done ?

From a programmer’s perspective: plenty.
The could increase the extra ammo granted by the Cowgirl COM (at LEAST twice as much…)
Bring back the infinity
Rework Gunslinger so that the reloaded ammo is free (not taken from your ammo pool) and will reload both guns. (Gunslinger is a piss poor skill if you ask me: Gunzerking did it for free on any gun for any amount of ammo… 5 skill points for that ?)
Make gunslinger reload said number of bullets after every kill during showdown too
Make showdown regen ammo
Make the second gun you get with OFEOY not consume ammo

From a player’s perspective?
well, most of us who tried to make FTH work went the same road: using the most powerful pistols available to maximize each bullet’s value.
That usually meant Jakobs pistols.
Yet Jakobs pistols don’t get any advantage out of about one half of the tree (or maybe…they are awesome enough to not need them… your call)
For those of us who wished to unleash the true potential of Nisha’s fire rate bonuses, you either run out of ammo in 5 minutes or learn to hold your horses… which is kinda sad considering it’s supposed to be the point: it’s fun to shoot like crazy…
Other options are to use FTH with other guns besides pistols (which works great) but it’s kinda beside the mark, especially considering the nature of the capstone.

(Also… Gunslinger is probably the worst skill in the game, and rivals Cloudkill for the worst skill in the whole franchise… )

Here’s a little rundown of your options for pistols:

Dahl: Bad
Semi-auto guns do not work well with a fast fire rate tree. and if you want to fan the hammer, you’ll use a Jakobs.

Jakobs: Outstanding
Best bang for your buck. too bad it’s beside the mark when it comes to shooting fast… still, a very solid workaround.

Scav: Average
Decent damage, average accuracy, big mags. Not bad choices, but not the best either

Maliwan: Good
Despite costing 2 ammo per shot, they have splash and a pretty slow fire rate to make up for their increased damage, and a high elemental effect chance… too bad the cryo versions are bugged and won’t drop… another knock on FTH

Torgue: Outstanding
Would probably be the best choice (low fire rate, high damage, one ammo per shot) if not for the slow bullet speed they are plagued with. still, probably the best way to maximize each bullet’s value.

Hyperion: Good
High damage, low fire rate, decent stats overall and an accuracy gimmick that works well with OFEOY’s hip firing. there are better options on the table, but it’s a solid one.

Vladof: Bad
Yes: Bad. Vladof pistols are way too wasteful and cannot be used for more than 2-3 minutes. they are IMMENSE fun for that 2-3 minutes, but they are not a good choice…

Tediore: Average
Average damage, fire rate… average everything.
Chucking those mags by accident is the kind of thing that we just can’t afford though…
The Shootarang is pretty good though, as it has increased damage and has “extra bullets” when you reload.
other than that… bleah.

as we can see, the range of options for a Pistol FTH build is severely limited…
Nisha needs FTH to have ammo use mitigation in some form, or the Whole tree is gonna stay gimped in gear choice.

I hope this doesn’t come off as whining.
I love this game, and I love this character, but I can’t help but think there is a bit of bad design at work.
An entire tree’s playstyle is lacking fundamental tools to be used fully, and it sorta leaves the impression that not a lot of thought was put into that part of the game.