Borderlands 2 is much like its predecessor in that it takes place in a pseudo futuristic wild west kind of settings. A series of corporations produce droves of wildly varying types of guns, though all fall under umbrella categories like shotgun, assault rifle, pistol, and what have you. I'm no expert on guns by any stretch of the imagination, but Borderlands 2 spices up what I typically would find to be somewhat boring gameplay by adding various fantastical effects to these guns. Rounds fired from these guns will often electrocute, burn, or corrode enemies. There are many reasons to consider the usage of specific types of elemental weaponry.
Heavily armored opponents will often be a pain to take down, but corrosive weaponry goes a long way towards chewing through their thick hides. By the same token, humanoid opponents of flesh are very weak to being burned, so fire-elemental weapons will be very effective against them. Electrical weapons, on the other hand, are not necessarily especially effective against certain types of enemies, but they are very handy for almost instantly removing shields from enemies that might have them. Explosive weaponry will generally cause a great deal of splash damage and is strong against just about anything in the game.
There is only one other type of elemental weaponry that I know of and that is the "slag" element. I'm not certain what it's supposed to represent but it is quite useful. Once an opponent is slagged--and you can tell by the bright purplish hue--an enemy will become more susceptible to other types of damage. This adds an extra layer of strategy and encourages the player to switch weapons for optimal damage. Slag can be applied by many different weapons, but also from grenades and some abilities.
One frustration I have with the game so far is the fact that I spend so much time reloading. I've lost count of how many times I've died while trying to stall during an extremely long reload animation. I suppose this is more my fault for electing to choose weapons that typically have long reload times--particularly shotguns and assault rifles--but it's still annoying and I wish there were better ways to circumvent the problem. My class (Mechromancer) has a talent that significantly reduces reload time, but the delay is still very noticeable and bothersome.
I do have the option of using melee attacks during this reload period and I'm grateful for that. It's helpful when an opponent only has a little health left. However, using melee attacks does interrupt the reload animation, so it's generally pointless to do when I need to continue outputting good damage.
I think a lot of my problems with the game stem from my inexperience with first person shooters. I've sunk quite a few hours into it (and into the first Borderlands game) so I feel like I've definitely gotten the hang of it for the most part, but certain of the finer points of the genre continue to elude me. I'm particularly helpless when it comes to successfully landing shots on moving targets, especially when they're airborne--and for extra difficulty, when I'm moving as well. It ends up being just about impossible, even with an accurate weapon like a sniper rifle.
The specialization I've chosen for Mechromancer thrives on high damage and low accuracy. I figured shotgun would be the optimal choice for this spec and so far it has been working out pretty well. Unfortunately, this means to put out good damage I need to get pretty close and this means I end up dying a lot. I think I need to learn to pick my battles and have more awareness of what's going on around me to be successful in the future. I think once I acquire my ultimate skill things will get a lot easier. It's a melee attack that deals a lot of damage and heals me. I think things will start going a lot more smoothly at that point.
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