Make the most of each vault hunter so that you can wreak havoc.
BDL3 steps up the mayhem with an array of new and insane skills customized for each of our vault hunters.
Gamers can easily waste their time and go broke; resetting and respeccing their characters in the quest to find the perfect build. Lucky for you, from Amara to Zane, this article outlines the best builds to help your vault hunters wreck hard and deal some major carnage.
5. Amara's Melee Build
Amara Phaseslam
Amara’s abilities are reminiscent of her late predecessor, Maya. Old habits die hard, and it’s easy to want to play Amara like Maya, as they both share the same phasegrasping abilities. Although Amara can deal considerable damage with this strategy, there’s a reason why she boasts several massive, ethereal fists. Melee is her game.
What Amara's Melee Build is good for:
- Melee Combat
- Elemental Damage
- Area Damage
- Health Regen
How to build Amara's Melee Build:
- The Blitz action skill in the Brawl tree is your goal. This action skill grants Amara a unique melee attack. If the attack kills your enemy, Blitz’s cooldown is immediately reset, ready for its next victim.
- Load up on skills such as Arms Deal and Personal Space to enhance your melee game. Arms Deal will increase gun damage the closer you are to your enemy, and Personal Space will create a splash damage radius that, when coupled with Revelation, will deal massive damage to groups of enemies.
- Clarity and One with Nature will increase both health and health regen; both skills will be vital when dealing with melee combat.
- The Fist of the Elements skill tree should be your next target. Skills such as Catharsis, Conflux, and Anima will add devastating elemental damage to Amara’s attacks.
4. Master Stalker
Fl4k and his pet
Fl4k is a favorite of many BDL3 gamers, mainly because Fl4k’s new use of animal companions offers a variety of new gameplay options. This build for Fl4k is post-nerf and focuses on skill building for their Skag and health regeneration for both vault hunter and pet.
What Master Stalker is good for:
- Ideal for Solo Gameplay
- Health Regeneration
- Deadly Companion Animal
- Increased Action Skill Duration
- Decreased Action Skill Cooldown
How to build Master Stalker
- The Master skill tree takes priority in this build as it focuses on your pet. Improve this tree until you reach the Dominance skill. The Dominance skill allows Fl4k to turn an enemy into an ally for several seconds, double if the enemy is a beast.
- In the Master tree, give special attention to the Focus and Pack Tactics skills as they will increase pet damage. Go For The Eyes is essential as well as it guarantees your pet’s first attack will be a crit hit.
- The Stalker tree takes next priority, Focus on health regenerating skils such as Self-Repairing System and All My BFFs. Make sure to increase this tree until you can unlock, Lick The Wounds, as this will allow your pet to revive you when fallen.
- Save some points for the Hunter Tree. Here we will focus on Head Count and Hunter’s Eye, both of which increase crit damage. This will also decrease the action skill cooldown rate.
3. Hitman
Zane may be the most versatile character in the Borderlands series fans have yet seen. Deployable defense barriers, a digistructed clone, and a defensive barrier are just some of what this Operative has to offer. Unlike previous vault hunters, Zane has the capability of equipping two action skills. This section will teach you the best build combination possible.
What Hitman is good for:
- Agility
- Speed
- Increased Gun Damage
- Increased Fire Rate
How to Build Hitman:
- This skill focuses on the Hitman and Double Agent skill trees. Your first priority will be the Hitman. As you will be sacrificing your grenades for a second action skill, do not waste your points on any skills that have to do with grenades.
- This build is all about offense. Go all-in on Violent Speed, Violent Momentum, and Violent Violence to increase speed, gun damage, and fire rate.
- This tree is capped by Death Follows Close, which increases the effect and duration of all of Zane's kill skills. This, coupled with Good Fortune, which you will also max out, will give Zane max DPS.
- Focus on the Double Agent Tree next. Immediately max out on Borrowed Time, which will increase your action skill duration.
- Focus on Supersonic Man, Donnybrook, and Synchronicity as they will all increase your gun damage and speed even further.
2. Zane Defense Build
Zane is so versatile that he had to be included on the list twice. D-Fence, as the name implies, relies heavily on the defensive abilities of the Undercover skill tree and so, is ideal for solo gameplay. With this build, Zane will never die.
What the Defense Build is good for:
- High Shield Capacity
- Improved Shield Recharge Rate & Delay
- Increased Gun Damage
- Cryo damage
How to build Defense:
- Most of your skill points will be going into the Under Cover skill tree. Maxing out Ready for Action, Heart Stock, and Stiff Upper Lip, improve shield recharge rate, delay, and capacity and also provide damage resistance.
- Max out Best Served Cold to create a deadly cryo nova that erupts when Zane kills an enemy. This, in conjunction with Binary System, will be sure to freeze enemies in their tracks.
- In the Double Agent tree, spend all your points on the Borrowed Time skill which will increase the duration of your action skill; and in Synchronicity and Donnybrook, both of which will increase gun damage (well, he can’t be all defense).
- Maxing out the above traits will open New U. This skill is ideal for solo gamers as it allows your clone to revive you.
1. Grenade Bear
Moze the gunner
When it comes to damage, explosions, and mayhem, Moze is the queen of destruction. Great for solo or team play, the Grenade Bear build will annihilate scores of enemies while maintaining a full shield. This indestructible build puts Moze at the top of the list.
What Grenade Bear is good for:
- Grenade Damage
- Crowd Control
- Solo or Team Play
- Restoring health
- Critical Hits
How to build Grenade Bear:
- The Demolition Woman skill tree is essential to this build. If the skill has the word grenade in the description, max out on it. Your grenades will be able to score crits, restore health, and increase grenade capacity.
- Max out Fire in the Skag Den and Torgue Cross-Promotion to increase the size and of splash damage and add fire damage.
- In the Shield of Retribution Trees, max out on Armored Infantry and Vlad of Ingenuity, these skills will increase shield capacity, resistance to shock, gun damage, and decrease damage taken.
- Spend one point each on Experimental Munitions and Full Can of Whoop Ass. These will add fire damage to your crits and recharge team shields when Moze enters Iron Bear
- Only six skill points will be added to the Bottomless Mags tree. Spend them on Dakka Bear and Cloud of Lead until you reach your goal of Redistribution. This skill will return bullets to your magazine for every crit you score, which, thanks to Pull The Holy Pin, will take no effort at all.
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