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One of the hardest to grasp aspects of Borderlands 1 was the Tech pool. It was a pool of points that elemental "procs" cost. Confusingly this gameplay feature was never directly referred to in the game and it made understanding elemental weapons very complicated (and hard to explain). A key point was that there were different levels of procs; 2x,3x and 4x, each of which did more damage, had larger visual effects and depleted more of your tech pool.

I realized when writing How do I use elemental effects in Borderlands 2? I don't actually know if Borderlands 2 has this. BL 2 appears to have ditched this for a simpler "X% chance of elemental effect"; that makes sense, it makes elemental weapons a lot easier to wrap your head around. Best I can tell, the tech pool no longer exists; there don't appear to be different levels of procs; either a shot causes a DOT effect or it doesn't. Throwing lots of elemental effects down range doesn't appear to drain my ability to cause further elemental hits.

I haven't seen the noticable 4x procs that deal crazy damage and leave blindingly large visual effects. But the tech pool was so opaque I can't really be sure; I may simply not have noticed, or my guns may not be good enough to cause higher level procs.

Does the elemental tech pool exist in Borderlands 2? If it's still around, what are it's mechanics?

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  • Given that elemental weapons actively have %chance of activation, damage, etc. stats right on the weapon card, it's highly unlikely. I don't have conclusive evidence, though, hence comment vs. answer.
    – Rilgon Arcsinh
    Sep 21, 2012 at 18:21
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    @RilgonArcsinh BL1 actually claimed the Siren's ability was a "% chance" boost as well so I'm suspicious. Elements feel too consistent for it to exist though. Like the last game I'm sure someone will figure out the specifics eventually though
    – Ben Brocka
    Sep 21, 2012 at 18:25
  • @BenBrocka You are definitely right about it feeling more consistent, visually and damage-wise. Still hard to tell.
    – Sadly Not
    Sep 21, 2012 at 20:41

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I was hoping for a more authoritative answer, but after >50 hours of gameplay using mostly elemental weapons, I'm pretty darn sure there's no longer a tech pool.

Elemental guns deal consistent damage and elemental effects are randomly distributed. The visual effects are consistent (either a shot was elemental or not, you can tell by watching the bullet impacts).

This means that slow firing weapons are worse for stacking elemental status effect damage than high rate of fire weapons, which is sort of the opposite of how the old Tech Pool worked. The status effect chance % as listed appears to be the only relevant factor for "procing" a shot, though it's affected by skills, class mods and Badass bonus stats.

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  • damn, so I can't proc a super fireball explosion with every shot of a volcano equivalent in BL2 anymore? :(
    – l I
    Sep 25, 2012 at 12:28
  • @yx. nope, though that's a good thing though...those fireballs made aiming a second shot a massive pain
    – Ben Brocka
    Sep 25, 2012 at 17:58
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    usually I didn't need a second shot ;)
    – l I
    Sep 26, 2012 at 11:36

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