As we continue our way through the four playable characters available in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, we’ve covered Claptrap and Athena already. Today let’s look at Wilhelm, the Enforcer. His first appearance was as a boss in Borderlands 2 with a much more cybernetic look about him. It’s through his skill trees that we see that transformation take place. His action skill makes him a really solid option to play solo or co-op, both dealing damage and healing at the same time.
ACTION SKILL: WOLF AND SAINT: Wilhelm sends out two drones, Wold and Saint, for 35 seconds max. The drones can be recalled before that duration is up, and results in a shorter cooldown. Each drone has a different role – Wolf seeks out targets and attacks, Saint stays close and regenerates 2.5% of your max health, per second.
HUNTER-KILLER Skill Tree: The Hunter-Killer skill tree focuses mainly on buffing up Wolf, while also boosting Wilhelm’s elemental effectiveness.
Afterburner: (Tier 1, 5 ranks) Wolf’s air speed is initially boosted by 12%, then 6% per rank; and Wilhelm’s reload speed and projectile speed are boosted 10% initially, then 5% per rank.
Fire Support: (Tier 1, 5 ranks) Increases your gun damage, with all gun types, by +3% per rank, also increases Wolf’s damage by 10% initially, then 5% per rank.
Venom Bolts: (Tier 2, 5 ranks) Wolf’s shots have a 10% initial chance, then +5% per rank, to be Venom Bolts, dealing Corrosive Damage. This also grants +2% Corrode chance, per rank, and +4% Corrode damage, per rank, with your guns and grenades.
Suppression: (Tier 2, 5 ranks) This is a kill skill, meaning it activates when you get a kill. Killing an enemy gives you a +6% per rank, and Wolf a +15% per rank increased fire rate for a short period.
Laser Guided: (Tier 3, 1 rank) When you first activate Wolf and Saint, or press the Action Skill button while they’re active, Saint paints the target under your reticle. Wolf then focuses his attacks on that target. That target takes +25% increased damage from all sources. If a painted target is killed, while painted, Wolf and Saint’s duration is extended by 5 seconds.
Rolling Thunder: (Tier 4, 5 ranks) While Wolf is active, you gain a stack of Rolling Thunder ever 5 seconds. Each stack increases Wolf’s damage by +2% per stack, and increases +2% per rank.
Kill Switch: (Tier 4, 1 rank) Whenever Wolf is recalled, runs out of health or expires, it dive bombs enemies, dealing explosive damage.
Scramble: (Tier 4, 5 ranks) When Wolf is destroyed, it is replaced for once for free, and 30% time is added to Wolf and Saint’s duration. That time bonus is increased +5% per rank.
Cold War: (Tier 5, 5 ranks) Whenever you apply a Shock, Incendiary or Corrosive effect, there is a 5% per rank chance for that target to freeze. You also gain a +2% chance, per rank, to increased status effect chance when using Cryo weapons.
Escalation: (Tier 5, 5 ranks) Increases your critical hit damage by 5% per rank. In addition, critical hits reduce the cooldown on Wolf and Saint by 0.6 seconds, per rank. This effect has a 6 second cooldown though.
Omega Strike: (Tier 6, 1 rank) Wolf will periodically shoot out missiles to attack its targets.
CYBER COMMANDO Skill Tree: The Cyber Commando tree is focused on turning Wilhelm into that cybernetic warrior we see in Borderlands 2. There are a number of Cyborg Augmentations scattered throughout the skill tree.
Laser Focus: (Tier 1, 5 ranks) Increases your gun damage by +4%, per rank, and magazine size by +4 initially, then +2 per rank, for all Laser weapons.
Man and Machine: (Tier 1, 5 ranks) Increases your health and shield capacity by +3% per rank. Also increases Wolf’s health and shield capacity by +5% per rank.
First to Fight: (Tier 2, 5 ranks) Increases your gun damage by +8% per rank, but the bonus is lost 5 seconds after you deal damage; and is regained after not dealing damage for 5 seconds, or you take damage.
Targeting Scope: (Tier 2, 5 rank) This is another Kill Skill. Killing an enemy gives you +10% critical hit damage, per rank; as well as +5% accuracy, per rank.
Power Fist: (Tier 3, 1 rank) This is the first Cyber Augmentation, this one for your arm. It’s a melee skill override. Press the melee button to preform an explosive punch, with an extended range. The ability has a 12 second cooldown.
Emergency Response: (Tier 4, 5 ranks) Whenever your shield is depleted, Emergency Response activates, increasing your reload speed, fire rate and Wolf’s fire rate all for +10% per rank. Your shield has to fully recharge between activations, and the buffs are active for 15 seconds.
Shock Absorber: (Tier 4, 1 rank) Another Cyber Augmentation, this one for your legs. You can now shoot while sprinting. While doing so, you gain +20% gun damage, and suffer no accuracy penalty.
Divert Power: (Tier 4, 5 ranks) When your shields are depleted, and your health is below 30%, taking damage grants you [+50%, +66.7%, +75%, +80%, +88.3%] damage resistance, based on rank; as well as recharging 20% of your shield, per rank. This ability has a 25 second cooldown, and lasts for 3 seconds.
Meteor Slam: (Tier 5, 5 ranks) Increases the damage radius of your butt-slam ability, per rank.
Welcome to the Gun Show: (Tier 5, 5 ranks) This a buff to most of the gun stats – weapon damage, reload speed, magazine size, accuracy and recoil reduction are all increased by +3% per rank.
Vengeance Cannon: (Tier 6, 1 rank) The final Cyber Augmentation, this one is a weapon. Whenever your shields are depleted, you activate your shoulder mounted Vengeance Cannon. The cannon fires Incendiary Laser Blasts along with your equipped weapon for 12 seconds. Your shields need to recharge fully between activations.
DREADNOUGHT Skill Tree: The Dreadnought skill tree is primarily focused around building up Saint’s support abilities, while also increasing Wilhelm’s survival skills.
Auxiliary Tanks: (Tier 1, 5 ranks) Increases Wolf and Saint’s duration by 2 seconds per rank, and the cooldown rate by +3% per rank.
Fortify: (Tier 1, 5 ranks) Increases max health for both you and Wolf by 3% per rank; while also granting +4% increased gun damage while Saint is active, per rank.
Energize: (Tier 2, 5 ranks) Saint will occasionally boost you and your teammates shields by 8% of your shield capacity, per rank. Saint also gains a +0.6% of your Max Health/second bonus to his health regen ability.
Heatsinks: (Tier 2, 5 ranks) Improves shield recharge rate by +6% per rank, and initial -4% shield recharge delay, then -3% per rank. This bonus is doubled while Wolf and Saint are active.
Termination Protocols: (Tier 3, 1 rank) With this skill, instead of Fight For Your Life, you enter Termination Protocols, during which you can walk at a reduced speed, fire your weapons and you constantly shock enemies. If your timer runs out, your power core goes critical and you release a Nuclear Explosion.
Rapid Reinforcement: (Tier 4, 5 ranks) This is another Kill Skill. Killing an enemy increases your cooldown for Wolf and Saint by +4%, per rank; increases your movement speed by +3%, per rank; and your reload speed by +8%, per rank, for a short time.
Zero Hour: (Tier 4, 1 ranks) When Saint is recalled or expires, he explodes, deploying a Healing Zone underneath you. This zone is active for 12 seconds, and you and your teammates regen +8% max health/second in the zone.
Hazmat Containment System: (Tier 4, 5 ranks) If you have an Incendiary, Shock or Corrosive effect on you, you and your teammates gain an initial +17% resistance to that element. That effect is increased +12% per rank. Also, you will occasionally spread that elemental status effect to nearby enemies while it’s active.
Kinetic Armor: (Tier 5, 5 ranks) Increases your max health by +5%, per rank. Also, close range attackers have a +5% chance, per rank, to be struck by Explosive Feedback. The closer the enemy, the more likely he will be struck.
Hard to Kill: (Tier 5, 5 ranks) Whenever you are shot or hit by an enemy, you get a stack of Hard to Kill (max 100) which reduces all damage by 0.1% per stack, and an additional 0.1% per rank. All stacks are removed after a few seconds of not taking damage.
Overcharge: (Tier 6, 1 rank) Immediately after Saint is summoned, he releases an Energy Wave that Overcharges you and any nearby teammates for 10 seconds. Overcharge amounts to a +15% movement speed, +75% fire rate, +75% reload speed and +10 ammo regen buff.
Wilhelm is a really solid choice playing solo – not a lot of his abilities are designed to be co-op focused, and the ones that do have co-op boosts are also pretty effective for solo play. All of his capstone skills are worth building towards, with Omega Strike being the one that you can probably pass on. Skills like Termination Protocols or Welcome to the Gun Show are really powerful, and should definitely be on your plan. We’ll talk a bit about how to play him co-op tomorrow.
Infinite Lives 