Who said spellcasters can't be tanky? People who believe that haven't played Outriders. And if they have, they haven't been building their character correctly. The Devastator has a tank build (Warden), but don't sleep on how well the Seismic Shifter can shrug off damage, too. In fact, the goal of most classes is to push enemies away, while the Seismic Shifter thrives on getting every enemy in a tight ball of death around them.
The community has largely been confused about how the Seismic Shifter is supposed to work. Is it a tank with lifesteal? Is it a ranged spellcaster? Is it a melee specialist? None of these is technically accurate, which is why this build is so underrated. With the right mods, nodes, weapons, armor, and skills, the Seismic Shifter becomes a high-damage gravity well and crowd control monster that makes high Apocalypse Tier enemies in Outriders terrified.
Updated on July 4th, 2022 by Hodey Johns: Many will look at the new endgame content, new weapons, and additional talent trees and already get a sense of how the builds have updated since Worldslayer. But this is only a fraction of the equation. The new foes and bosses employ different moves and tactics. These types of targets should not be a second-hand consideration. This build has been updated to account for the new opponents, giving players the skills and gear that best counters anything Worldslayer has to throw at them.
Class Points
|
Node |
Points |
Effect Per Point |
|
Anomaly Reservoir |
5 |
+6% Anomaly Power |
|
Endless Tremors |
2 |
-15% Skill Cooldown |
|
Pure Anomaly |
2 |
+15% Resistance Piercing |
|
Anomaly Bullets |
1 |
Increase Firepower by 15% of Anomaly Power |
|
Red Rivers |
2 |
+30% Bleed Duration |
|
Executioner |
1 |
Deal 30% more damage to enemies with under 20% health |
|
Bloodbath |
2 |
+30% Bleed Damage |
|
Blood Donation |
1 |
Heal by 25% of Bleed damage |
|
Rejuvenation |
1 |
+6% Skill Leech |
|
Protected By The Anomaly |
1 |
Increase Armor by 40% of Anomaly Power |
|
Skilled Sentry |
1 |
When any skill ends, increase Armor and Resistance by 20% for 10 seconds |
|
Earth's Heritage |
1 |
+50% Seismic Skill damage |
Most builds benefit from dipping a little bit into other trees, but the Seismic Shifter has everything exactly where it needs to be. The build requires turning offense into defense and that can be accomplished by checking off a few select nodes.
There is one notable exception in that the Paladin skill is not selected. It would boost Anomaly Power by 45% for 5 seconds after using a Protection skill. Unfortunately, Protection skills have long cooldowns, making it so that sticking to purely Seismic skills with a 50% damage boost to each is the better option.
There are many games that are fun to play with a friend on the PS5 and Outriders is one of them, especially for players who use these nodes. With tanking and damage combined, teammates are going to be grateful to have a buddy that can do it all.
Pax Points
|
Node |
Effect |
|
Impact Point |
Seismic and Kinetic skills damage increased by 30% of Anomaly Power, split among damaged opponents |
|
Puncture |
Seismic Skills inflict bleed, anomaly damage against bleeding opponents increased by 10% |
|
Earthen Shell |
Damage dealt with skills is converted to a shield |
|
Upheaval |
Enemies damaged by Seismic skills become upheaved for 2 seconds, storing 10% of the damage received during that time and releasing it at the end of the effect |
|
Multistrike |
30% of damage dealt by Seismic skills is stored and added to the next Seismic skill, effect resets when damage is released |
Pax Points are valuable for every build, but the Seismic Shifter receives a larger boost from the nodes in this Pax tree than any other Devastator and perhaps every other build across all classes. The massive area damage and boosts to Seismic skills speak for themselves.
That small Earthen Shell node is as important as the rest of it. Unlike many other casters, the Seismic Shifter needs to be in the middle of combat. Survivability can be tough and, before, the build just about demanded a pocket healer. Now, the Seismic Shifter hardly ever takes damage, turning all of that offense into a defensive shield.
Ascension Points
- Most important nodes: Anomaly Damage, Anomaly Power
- Most important category: Anomaly
The nature of Ascension points is that every class and build, given the time to farm, can max out every node. So this build only provides an accurate starting point for gamers. After that, the rest of these points have more to do with luxury than necessity.
No surprise here, this casting build wants to boost its casting damage before anything else. Remember the symbiotic relationship between dealing damage and gaining a shield. Take advantage of this early and invest the first points into the Anomaly category.
Skill Selection
|
Earthquake |
Deals damage and interrupts enemies in front of the Devastator. |
|
Impale |
Nearby enemies take damage and are interrupted. Enemies that are killed this way give allied units armor and health regeneration for nine seconds. |
|
Tremor |
A series of explosions go off in a moderate range around the Devastator. Damage done will heal the player. |
Predictably, the Seismic Shifter makes use of all three Seismic skills. Kinetic and Protection skills have their place, but they are mostly used for survival. For the Seismic Shifter, all survival is rolled up in doing more damage. More damage leads to more healing and more Armor and Resistances.
Some players might try to sneak in Endless Mass because of its Bleed application. While it is core to the build to keep Bleed up on all enemies at all times, this is better accomplished via weaponry mods than skills with long cooldowns and limited vectors.
Games like Outriders usually understand that lifesteal is extremely powerful, but this game decided that it was alright to be very liberal about the amount of health received while doing damage. Oversight or not, it's a loophole that players should exploit to the highest degree and these are the skill to do it with.
Weapon & Mods
|
Weapon |
The Migraine |
|
Mod 1 |
Ultimate Bleeding Bullets |
|
Mod 2 |
Ultimate Vulnerable Bullets |
|
Mod 3 |
Unstoppable Force |
It's very core to this build that the Seismic Shifter is able to apply Bleed effects regularly. The skills don't do it with any amount of consistency, so the way to do it is through weapons. There is only one legendary weapon mod that applies the Bleed effect without a long cooldown and it's on The Migraine.
The weapon could use a small bit of work, so when players learn to craft, they should make it a priority to replace the second mod slot with Ultimate Vulnerable Bullets. This mod applies Vulnerability to enemies in addition to the other mod's Bleed application, combining for two nasty debuffs, both of which will send the Seismic Shifter's damage through the roof.
Armor & Mods
|
Head |
Seismic Commander’s Helmet |
|
Mod 1 |
Ultimate Impaler |
|
Mod 2 |
Blood Shock |
|
Torso |
Seismic Commander’s Armor |
|
Mod 1 |
Palisade |
|
Mod 2 |
Earth’s Legacy |
|
Legs |
Seismic Commander’s Leg Armor |
|
Mod 1 |
Crush Sequence |
|
Mod 2 |
Rivers of Blood |
|
Hands |
Seismic Commander’s Gloves |
|
Mod 1 |
Asunder |
|
Mod 2 |
Ground Crush |
|
Feet |
Seismic Commander’s Footgear |
|
Mod 1 |
Second Quake |
|
Mod 2 |
Sharpened Spike |
The Seismic Commander Set increases damage against enemies with the Bleed status effect by 150%. Need any more reasons to get it? All but one of the mods boost Impale or Earthquake. These mods are generally considered the best mods available for those two skills.
The only mod in need of replacing is the first slot on the legs. For that one, the Crush Sequence mod is helpful because it gives Tremor, the lone neglected skill with this armor, some extra bursts of damage.
Outriders is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.