http://www.borderlands2.com/

"Borderlands 2 follows the story of four new Vault Hunters as they fight to free Pandora from the clutches of Handsome Jack, the brilliant, charismatic, and utterly despicable CEO of the Hyperion Corporation.
Players will fight across the whole of Pandora to stop Jack from awakening an ancient alien evil known only as "the Warrior." Their quest will bring them into contact with some familiar faces from the old game – most notably, the original four Vault Hunters: Roland, Lilith, Brick and Mordecai. They, along with some brand new characters, will help players defeat Jack, destroy the Warrior, and save Pandora."

The Mechromancer is out! Check out the skill tree here: http://www.borderlands2.com/us/skilltree/mechromancer.html

(Should we do a "What I play on and what level my characters are" section in the opening post? I remember us doing that for the first Borderlands)

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1) My friend and I finished our first playthrough. Maya got to level 30 after defeating the last boss. Muuuuuuuuuuch better boss fight than the original, even if it dragged on for a bit. Got my first orange drop,too. Longbow Homing Singularity Fire grenade. Gonna do most of the sidequests we have left and then probably just level independently.

2) Started with the Mechromancer. Fleshed out thoughts below.

3) Got my second orange tonight. In the Eridium Blight, I climbed up the volcano and found http://oi46.tinypic.com/opjet.jpg http://oi46.tinypic.com/99l9w2.jpg. Says 88 accuracy, but it has 5 round burst fire when zoomed and at a medium distance, it puts all 5 shots on the mark. Really impressed. Plus, 50% melee damage bonus to boot. Definitely a worth while first orange gun.

Thoughts on the Mechromancer: I only played until level 8, so I just got into it, but I think Deathtrap is an awesome skill. My friend and I are both running Mechromancer and it is a force to be reckoned with. He's going to go full out with the "Best Friends Forever" tree, fleshing out Deathtrap's ability to stay in the fight longer and really help out the team. I'm going to go with the "Ordered Chaos" tree and be in the fray. I figured a shotgun would be best for that tree since you get a damage bonus with every time you empty the magazine. Most higher damage / faster reloading shotguns are two or three shots before reloading. With the "Smaller, Lighter, Faster" skill combined with a "Anarchy" and a shotgun, it will be one shot, reload, get buff, one shot, reload, get buff. Someone was worrying that Deathtrap would be a mobile turret. He kind of is, but he is extremely mobile. I thought he had legs, which he doesn't. He floats and can jump like the bad guys do (from level to level and across large gaps). You'll get him before Midgemong and it makes the fight a whole lot easier because Deathtrap can keep up with him. Two Deathtraps on the field at once can decimate a group of Bandits and Marauders. Larger, more heavily armored enemies may have the advantage until your skills buff Deathtrap's health, but once you get the correct skills, I feel you can summon Deathtrap to do the dirty work while you sit back with a sniper or assault rifle. I'm really looking forward to seeing how our two different playstyles of Deathtrap work together.