That should dovetail nicely. With the Guardian ranks apparently fixed I'll take it back down off the shelf and finish it up. We should both be within a level or two of one another at that point. Not sure how long the final two missions will be, or if I'll struggle against the last bosses. BL3 missions seem shorter on average than BL2. In BL2 last night I did both the Firehawk and Dam Fine Rescue missions, and those are quite long.
A few more of my random thoughts and observations, mostly compared to BL2. Eridium and storage deck upgrades are both reworked and better in my view. In BL2, eridium is used to upgrade your storage and backpack. In BL3 it can still be used to buy things from Crazy Earl, but it's mostly cosmetic stuff like skins. I don't care much about that. But you can also spend eridium in his vending machine, which gives annoited gear. This is nice and helps fill the gaps when RNGeesus is failing to shine down upon you. I've gotten most of the shields I have used from that vending machine. Although I now have a shield called the Red Suit and it's really cool, it gives constant radiation damage to any nearby enemies. Storage upgrades now cost cash, which I like. Money meant little in BL2 after the early game, but at least now there are some very expensive upgrades to spend it on.
The inventory system is mostly the same, but a little better. The biggest improvement is surely the bank. In BL2 you start with about five slots, and can increase it by two slots for increasing amounts of eridium. In BL3 though, you start with 50 slots and can grow it to 300 with cash. That's a huge change. If you just play through once it won't matter much. But if you want to be able to swap stuff between characters, or just to save your best guns and items after they've been outleveled it's great. There's no equivalent to Claptrap's secret storage, it's just a shared bank between your mains. At least I think that's how it works. I'd need to start a new character to see for myself. You can also decorate your room on Sanctuary, and store/display weapons and other things on the walls.
I said earlier that I like the vaulting, but I think mantling is a better word, right? Regardless, it's a nice addition, as my multiple attempts to scale some verticals in BL2 can attest.
One of the changes I like best in BL3 is the fact that you can customize and switch your action skill(s). You can swap out the skill on the fly to suit the situation. I've only dabbled with Zane and done a full playthrough (nearly) with Amara. With her, I have several actions skills to choose from, whether it be phasecast for a ranged attack, phasegrasp for CC or phaseslam for close range. I can swap shock for fire, and there's also an augment to further enhance the action skill, such as the Allure augment which acts like a singularity grenade from BL2. These must be unlocked through the skill trees, so there's some opportunity cost involved. You can respec anytime on Sanctuary to try out new combinations.
Slag is no longer a thing and the the New Game ++ will be better for it. That was a tedious mechanic.
I think just about every change has been for the better. It just needs to catch up content-wise. DLC like Captain Scarlett, Mr Torgue and Tiny Tina made BL2 a better game for me, not to mention the UVH upgrade packs for higher level caps and new mains. Gearbox has said they plan no new mains for BL3 but hopefully that changes. I'd buy a DLC that simply imported previous game's mains in to BL3.
