Only a few more days until the long-awaited release of Borderlands 3! It feels like less time, but Borderlands 2 was released an entire seven years ago! So, fans have been starving for new Pandora content. Thankfully, we're going to go through all four of the new Vault Hunter's and let our faithful readers know which ones seem like they'll be amazing right out of the gate. That said, there's a reason there are so many builds for all the Vault Hunters, every skill can be good or bad in the right context so keep that in mind. Now, without further ado, let's look into Amara, the buffest Siren in the known Galaxy.
Disclaimer: This was written before the release of the game, we have not had hands-on with BL3 and these skills are might have been changed for the final release. But, we have played all of the Borderlands games to date and have probably put hundreds of hours into them! That said, we wanted to be fair, so we organized this as such; 1 of each low tier skills from each tree, one of each mid, one of each high, and all three of the tier 6 skills as one entry.
10 Low Tier Brawl: Clarity - One Of Many Tanky Skills For A Tanky Siren
Right out of the gate, Amara's skill trees feature a lot of skills about tanking. The punch-Siren is for sure going to be the default tank character. Clarity, for example, is one of the earliest skills a player will want to nab, as it gives Amara a sizeable 5% health regen per second at max level.
Plus, for about 5 seconds after using her action skill, this regen will double to 10%. And that's just Tier 1, wait till we talk about the higher-rank tank skills. No matter the build, it could always use a little Clarity.
9 Low Tier Mystical Assault: Soul Sap - Powerslams Are Health For The Team
Now, we're supposed to be straying away from the ability augments in this list. Frankly, because it depends on the individual, and we'd rather focus on the skills that'll be a part of most builds. But, Soul Sap affects all of Amara's action skills so it functions a bit differently.
Basically, this skill is a great way for Amara to support her teammates in multiplayer. Why? Because it gives 30% of the damage done by her Action Skill back to a nearby teammate as health. And with some other buffs further down the tree, Amara will be healing much more often than people would've expected.
8 Low Tier Fist Of The Element: Infusion - Bullets Become Elemental Projectiles
Amara's skills are pretty heavily dependant on Elemental damage, which is pretty standard for a Siren in the Borderlands franchise. She can change the element of her Action Skill thanks to ability augments, and a lot of the skill tree buffs her elemental damage.
And, if that sounds fun, then Infusion is a fantastic skill to snatch up. Basically, at max rank, it converts 40% of all the damage done from Amara's weapons into whatever element her Action Ability is. Personally, We're going to be making her into a power slamming Corrosive WMD. But that is just one of many specialized builds for her.
7 Mid Tier Brawl: Mindfulness - Use The Bullets To Boost Your Running
Player's will be running around a lot in Borderlands 3, it's an odd staple of the series really. Though, with immediate fast-travel in BL3, it'll be much less tedious than in the previous games. But still, movement speed is important, especially for melee builds. And Mindfulness is the perfect skill for people who either want to get through areas quicker or give enemies a spectral knuckle sandwich in half the time.
Basically, if Amara takes damage, she gets a stack, each stack gives 4.2% movespeed and reduces Shield Regen Delay by 23%. But, at max stacks, that's 105% speed and almost 600% less delay! Looks like the track team could use this toned Siren.
6 Mid Tier Mystical Assault: Ascendant - The Augment That Augments Augments
Ascendant is one of the best skills on any of trees, even out of all the characters. Seriously, it buffs all of the Action Skill Augments, so it's necessary for almost any build. Say the player was using Soul Sap, that damage-to-health conversion goes from a respectable 30% to an absurd 50%! That's a heal we can depend on.
And remember, all of the augments affect whatever Action Skill the player chooses, so they'll always be handy, which means this skill will be as well. Basically it's the perfect skill to compliment a playstyle where players will be investing in all three trees.
5 Mid Tier Fist Of The Element: Wildfire - Elemental Damage Spreads Like...Oh, We Get It Now
The Slag Element is finally gone. No longer will all the end-game weapons be dependant on a single element-type (we hope). Now, in its place, there's Radiation, which basically does Damage-over-time and spreads to other nearby enemies.
Honestly, it sounds fun! And luckily, Amara has a skill called Wildfire that makes every element similar to Radiation. Wildfire at max rank has a 40% chance to spread any status effect to other nearby enemies. That means one burning bandit can suddenly become ten with just a bit of luck and RNG!
4 High Tier Brawl: Glamour - Use Your Spirit Fists To Confuse Enemies
Borderlands 3 seems to be following the design mantra of "make skills that are similar to older ones, but way better" and we're pumped. In BL2 Maya had a skill called Thoughtlock which made enemies fight each other, and it was seriously great. Now, in BL3, Amara has an augment called Glamour which does basically the same thing.
Except, this time, it also increases her Action Skill damage, and it affects any enemy damaged, not just a single target. Phasegrasp players especially will have some fun with this. After all, the word enemy is just a fun way to phrase "potential new friends"
3 High Tier Fist Of The Element: Indiscriminate - No Bullet Wasted
This next skill is a bit hard to interpret at first, but believe us, it's a good one. Back in BL2 The Mechromancer had a similar skill where every other bullet (it was dependent on skill rank) would ricochet off an enemy to hit another. Amara has something similar now, and it's called Indiscriminate. To summarize it, every bullet that actually hits an enemy has a 30% chance to ricochet and hit another enemy for 50% reduced damage.
But, if that player is using the Phasegrasp Action Skill or has the Stillness of Mind augment, that chance is double and the damage reduction is halved to 25%. Now that might seem specific to players using Phasegrasp, but Still of Mind actually affects the other two Action Skills as well.
2 High Tier Fist Of The Element: Sustainment - The Elements Don't Only Destroy, But Also Give Life
Alright so this is the only time we'll use two skills from the same tree, but really, Indiscriminate and Sustainment are both just so useful! Most of Amara's builds include some sort of Elemental Damage, it just makes sense. A lot of her skills buff Weapon damage and her Action Skill does Elemental damage as well.
So, with the right build, Sustainment could be even better! But let's explain first, at max rank Sustainment Amara gets 20% of the elemental damage she does with her weapon back as health. And remember, skills like Infusion exist, which by default makes 40% of her damage elemental anyway, so this basically means constant lifesteal.
1 Top Tier Winner: Mystical Assault Avatar - Action Skill Is Always Ready For Action
So, after careful consideration, we've decided that Amara's Avatar skill is the absolute winner in terms of her Tier 6 skills. To be fair, it was really only between Avatar and Blitz since Forceful Expression is just not at the same level. But, Blitz is really only "insane" on a melee-heavy build, while Avatar is useful for 90% of builds.
Basically, it allows Amara to cast her Action Skill again while it's on cooldown, but that's not all. It also increases her max Rush stacks and refunds half of them if her Action Skill kills an enemy. Rush stacks are crucial for those heavily invested in the Mystical Assault tree, and this skill basically allows them to keep them constantly at max.