Borderlands 3’s four new character classes – Moze, Zane, Amara, and Fl4k – each come with their own skills, quirks, and attributes that lend themselves to different playstyles. We examine each of the four Vault Hunters, how their abilities work in both solo play and when fighting as part of a team.
There is no “best” character or build, just different options that lend themselves better to different players. As you progress through Borderlands 3 and become more familiar with your favorite Vault Hunter, you may want to experiment with a new build, or even switch things up with an entirely new class.
Borderlands 3 Action Skills – How to Use Them
The new characters in Borderlands 3 have three different skill trees to evolve through.
The Skill Trees allow you to utilize certain aspects of each character class, such as increased range and melee damage, health regeneration, defenses, elemental damage, or summonable support units like Moze’s Iron Bear or FL4K’s Jabbers.
When you start a new skill tree, you’ll gain an Action Skill, a special cooldown ability activated by L1 (PlayStation 4) or LB (Xbox One).
Spending skill points on each tree unlocks additional action skills, as well as a number of assassination skills (temporary bonuses that activate when you eliminate an opponent), passive skills, which boost things like health regeneration and damage, or the stats and skills of your summoned units.
There are also Action Skill Augments available, which enhance the effects of your Action Skills.
Amara the Siren unlocks Action Skill Elements – which add elemental damage to her Action Skills – and Action Skill Effects, which are functionally the same as Action Skill Enhancements, they just have a different name.
All skills, both active and passive, stack to varying degrees. Learning how everything works is essential to creating the best builds in Borderlands 3.
Moze the Gunner – Best New Borderlands 3 Class for Beginners
Moze is a force to be reckoned with when she’s in her mech
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Moze the Gunner is an ideal choice for beginners. If Borderlands 3 is the first game in the series you’ve played, then go for Moze.
Moze is tanky, but she does bring a lot of firepower to the party and is best suited to those who prefer an openly offensive playstyle. For example, the Bottomless Mags skill tree increases the size of your weapon clips and allows weapons like the minigun to fire for longer without overheating, so if you’re still getting used to aiming that’s fine, just lead her a bit more.
In a style similar to Overwatch’s D.Va, Moze can also summon a giant mech called the Iron Bear, which can be ridden by other players and yourself. This means that Moze adds an extra layer of tactical choice to team play.
As you unlock Moze’s skill trees, the Iron Bear will gain additional weapons, including a grenade launcher, an additional turret, and buffs that increase damage for both Moze and the Iron Bear’s shots.
Players can also try out the defensive Shield of Retribution skill tree, if a tanky build is more your thing.
Since Moze can also have two different Action Skills at the same time, there is room for experimentation.
Zane the Operative – Best New Borderlands 3 Sniper Character
Zane is the only Vault Hunter who can equip two skills at once
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Zane is another good choice for Borderlands beginners, as he is a sniper. If you are used to camping and caping, you might feel right at home here, especially if you were already pretty good with Zero from Borderlands 2. Like Moze, you can use two Action Skills at once.
However, since this Vault Hunter is all about stealth and precise shots, it is not as flexible as Moze, so absolute beginners should not start with this one.
In addition to being able to fire off high-damage shots from afar, Zane can also unlock perks in the Hitman skill tree. These allow him to distract enemy teams with an SNTNL, a drone that fires machine gun fire at enemies and later uses energy beams to slow enemy movement and attack speed while increasing your own, giving you even more time to land that perfect killing shot.
Then there’s the Under Cover skill tree, which focuses on damage reduction and health regeneration, which can also be extended to your allies. In the right hands, Zane has the potential to act as a sort of support sniper.
The most impressive skill tree at Zane players’ disposal is Digi-Clone – as the name suggests, this creates a fake holographic version of Zane that stands still and shoots at enemies, allowing you to cause confusion without getting killed yourself. The Schadenfreude ability, for example, means that every damage the clone takes restores a portion of Zane’s shield.
These perks will take some time to master, so you may want to start with a Zane build once you feel a bit more confident in Borderlands 3. FL4K the Beastmaster – The Best New Borderlands 3 Character for Veteran Players
FL4K the Beastmaster – Best New Borderlands 3 Character for Veteran Players
FL4K has several pets that he can summon for bonus effects
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FL4K is a flexible class best suited for snipers and support players.
The Fade Away Action Skill in the Stalker tree, for example, makes you invisible, allowing you to either sneak up on enemy lines or disappear right after you begin your attack. You can also benefit from increased speed and regeneration when Faded Away, making the Stalker tree a good one to invest in if you’re a stealthy sniper.
The Hunter skill tree places more emphasis on dealing high Critical Hit damage – less stealthy-stealthy, more gun-shooting-gun. Passive buffs focus on reducing ammo costs, reload times, and Action Skill cooldowns, while the Ambush Predator perk nicely increases your critical damage when there are no enemies nearby.
Finally, the Master skill tree emphasizes your Beastmaster title and your ability to summon hound-like horned Skags to unleash on your enemies. Bonuses unlocked here grant your pet more benefits than you do, though the neat Gamma Burst Action Skill essentially turns your poor Skag into a radioactive bomb dog.
You only get one Action Skill to use with FL4K, but as a Beastmaster you get a choice of pets from each of the three Skill Trees. These pets offer powerful passive abilities, granting you benefits such as stat buffs, suppressive fire, or the ability to simply be sent off to taunt and harass enemies.
The Jabber pet, obtained through the Stalker skill tree, can attempt to revive you once the Lick The Wounds perk is unlocked. The simian Jabber starts out with a pistol, but can be upgraded to carry a shotgun or machine gun. The Hunter skill tree lets you command Spiderants, which can loyally regenerate your health or be sent out to attack enemies, while Rakk Attack! – an Action Skill, not a pet – sees you send out a pair of bat-like Rakks to smoke out entrenched enemies. Amara the Siren – best new Borderlands 3 character for brawlers and support players
Amara the Siren – Best New Borderlands 3 Character for Fighters and Support Players
Amara has a lot of firepower
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Amara the Siren is an interesting character because you have the choice of creating a character that focuses on powerful stackable attacks, or a character that is support based, where elemental augmentations deal extra damage, or a character that emphasizes fast melee attacks.
Most of the abilities at your disposal in the Mystical Assault tree are passive. They grant you increased accuracy, critical hits and reload times, and a cooldown for your Action Skill speed. The available abilities are centered around a few different Astral Projections, all of which generally deal large amounts of damage to whatever is directly in front of you.
Most Action Abilities in the Fist of the Elements tree consist of a giant psychic fist that holds enemies in place, making them easy targets for your allies. However, elemental buffs can cause your ranged and close-range attacks to deal additional electric or fire damage to enemies.
The Brawl tree, as the name suggests, is all about fighting. Passive buffs send you into close-quarters confrontations, allowing you to deal extra Action Skill damage and gain temporary speed boosts for yourself and your team when you take out an enemy with an Active Skill like Phaseslam, which has you leap into the air and send shockwaves across the floor when you land.
You don’t get a lot of flexibility with Amara, though, as you can only equip one Action Skill, one Action Skill Element, and one Action Skill Effect. It’s best if you know what kind of Amara you’re going to build ahead of time, and are well-versed in the physics and dynamics of Borderlands 3.
