Tips for getting the most damage out of your Phasecast and its variants. Phasecasting There is a special technique to getting more damage out of your Phasecasts, more specifically Reverberation. This does not work with Tandava. When you cast at a surface, your Phasecast "splats" against it, whether it's a wall or floor. This is a separate instance of damage from the cast itself, and it deals splash damage. So if an enemy is backed up against a wall and you cast at them, they will take two instances of damage: the first when the Phasecast passes through them, and again when it splats against the wall behind them. This can be done to an enemy that doesn't have a wall behind them, as long as the enemy is on the ground. You can splat the ground just under their toes, and force the enemy to get hit twice. This is especially important for Reverberation, because Reverb's inherent ability is that it gains damage as it passes through enemies. So that second instance, the splat on the ground, will be stronger not only because of splash damage, but because the Reverb buffed itself. This is on top of Reverb's base damage being much higher than the other Phasecast action skills. Watch as a normal Reverb cast is compared to this special Reverb technique: This is especially useful for casting builds vs bosses. Tandava is great for mobbing, but falls far short on single target damage vs Reverberation with this technique. TANDAVA Tandava does have its own special ability, though (along with Phaseslam). Its ability to wrap around or penetrate hit boxes allows you to hit enemies behind cover. This ability also allows it to multi-hit a couple of bosses that have multiple hit boxes. Wotan's bottom half actually has 5 hit boxes: one for Wotan himself, and one for each of his legs. Tandava's ability to penetrate hit boxes allows it to hit Wotan for 5 times the damage. Check out this screenshot: This is a single Tandava cast at Wotan. Note the four damage numbers up top, one for each leg. There's also an obscured one in the middle near the bottom. Another boss that has multiple hit boxes that can be exploited by Tandava is Blue Fire at the end of Slaughterstar 3000. There may be more. HEMOVOROUS & VERMIVOROUS Unfortunately, Gearbox coded Hemo and Vermi in a way that no form of Phasecast makes direct contact with them. If you send a Phasecast at them, it will simply pass on through as if they weren't there. The only way to damage them is to splash Tandava on the ground near them, and hope they are within the damage radius. This can be tricky when they are in their flying stages.

A Driver, Deathless, Infernal Wish, Light Fantastic (but can use any action skill), Terror, Urad, Dark Army build. I'm sure this combination breaks some cosmic rule somewhere. I can't believe this build exists. Unreal Amara SYNOPSIS A Driver, Deathless, Infernal Wish, Light Fantastic (but can use any action skill), Terror, Urad, Dark Army build. I'm sure this combination breaks some cosmic rule somewhere. I can't believe this build exists. INTRO Probably the most wild build on this site. It's the demented cousin of Nightmare Amara. The Dark Army allows for some crazy build concepts, and this build has all of them in one. It will get you killed, but it will kill other things way more effectively. All it requires is a little bit of setup and upkeep in some situations. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Nothing crazy in the skill tree. Fairly standard gun stuff with concessions made for Deathless (no Clarity, Samsara, or Sustainment) and Driver (going far enough into green for Mindfulness). Of note, however, is Burn Both Ends. When you are self-dotted by any means, and if you also have a bonus element active, that bonus element "ticking on top of" your self-dot will stack Burn Both Ends for you, without you having to take damage from enemies. You are self-dotted in this build through both the Spiritual Driver and the Infernal Wish. And you always have a bonus element active in the form of Urad. ACTION SKILL Light Fantastic, but literally anything. Some action skills, of course, will be stronger than others. Light Fantastic is.... fantastic in the Guardian Takedown. Reverberation, Tandava, Phaseslam, and Fracture are all good. There's no reason to use a Grasp skill, but it won't hurt. You don't even have to use your action skill but once every now and then to proc your Terror anoints. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Whatever is suited to your content, yes even including cryo on a Driver build. You don't need to be moving fast while in combat. See the next section. Your action skill element also does not need to match your gun's element. SETTING UP THE DARK ARMY Dark Army drones, when summoned (i.e., when you swap to the gun), retain all of your gun damage bonuses you have at the moment of the swap and summoning. Coupled with the Spiritual Driver class mod and lots of movement speed, you can make the Dark Army drones permanently, hugely buffed. Credit to Skkra on the Borderlands 3 subreddit for this interaction. To prebuff the Dark Army drones before combat: make sure you are not on the specific Dark Army you want. Fire your gun until the Infernal Wish dots you. Wait for your Mindfulness stacks to get up to 25. At max Mindfulness, run and slide and, at the beginning of the slide when you are moving fastest, swap to the Dark Army you want. Now those newly-summoned drones have Driver's movespeed gun damage permanently, or at least until you die, fast travel, or teleport. If any of those things happen, just repeat the process. GUNS Dark Armies in all elements except Radiation, all with the Urad anointment. FFYL GUN The Dark Army drones will get you out of FFYL. However, there is a tiny, tiny amount of situations where they won't do anything for you, such as if you are in FFYL and get teleported during the Scourge fight. In such a case, carry something like a Free Radical with Urad anointment. Note that the Dark Army you hold in your hand is only a small percentage of your damage output. The vast majority comes from your drones and Light Fantastic if you're using it. CLASS MOD Spiritual Driver, with as many points into Mindfulness as possible. This is the core item that will give your drones their permanent power. Recommended passives: action skill cooldown rate, splash damage, splash damage radius, SMG damage, weapon damage, action skill damage. Avoid mag size passives. SHIELD Infernal Wish, with ASE Apply Terror anointment. The Wish does not add a projectile to your Dark Army drones. It is simply there to buff your own gun by a little bit and to allow for easy self-dotting outside of action skill usage. The Driver takes care of dotting you when you use your action skill, but Phaseflare-type action skills do not get activated very frequently. ARTIFACT Snowdrift Deathless. This will greatly increase your slide speed when you are pre-buffing the Dark Army drones. Recommended passives: SMG damage, action skill cooldown rate, area of effect damage in the 2nd or 3rd slot (which will also increase area radius), elemental damage, movespeed. GRENADE Whatever you like, with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. The Hyperion Quasar (non sticky) is very good for grouping up enemies so your Dark Army drones can shoot 'em all at once, and your Light Fantastic can blow all of them up at once. GAMEPLAY LOOP After pre-buffing your Dark Army drones, all you need to do is fire the Dark Army in your hand a little bit. You don't even need to hit anything with it. The purpose is 1. to empty the mag and force a reload, which makes the drones deal elemental damage (according to the gun's element) for a short time. And 2. to proc the Infernal Wish dot on yourself, which will keep Burn Both Ends stacks up. You can stand still, even cryo yourself with a cryo action skill with the Driver; your drones are still buffed, and your handheld gun's damage doesn't matter. However, this being a Deathless build that also procs the Wish on itself, you will get put into FFYL as part of the normal gameplay. But don't let that stop you; this build is a freight train. Your Dark Army drones will get you back up in short order. The only thing to watch out for is if you're going to go down, you're dotted, and the last enemy is about to die. You can't get up from FFYL if there are no enemies left. In that case, stop shooting and let that enemy down you before killing them.

The hardest hitting true melee build I've ever made. This one is for the purists. Emerald Swan SYNOPSIS Formerly the hardest hitting true melee build I've ever made (since eclipsed by Sulphur Swan ). This one is for the purists. INTRO Emerald Swan is one of my three crown jewels of true melee builds, along with Sapphire Swan and Ruby Swan. Emerald Swan is designated as such because it uses a green action skill, Phaseslam. This is my magnum opus, so to speak. I've always wanted to make a true melee build that plays like they did when the game launched: using Phaseslam, the Brawler Ward shield, and speccing down to Blitz. Back then, Phaseslam didn't even kill things most of the time - it was all about punching hard, and Phaseslam only facilitated that. There weren't overpowered melee items like the Stinger and the Fish Slap, and we don't rely on those here. Beware: this principled true melee style will make apparent just how frustrating true melee can be to play , especially in places like the True Maliwan Takedown. You must be very deft with your movement and decision making. This build is very challenging, but also very rewarding. Blitz chaining might be the coolest thing in this game. There are items and skills available to make life easier, even though the build isn't meant for them. Do not feel ashamed of using them. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES There are no wasted skill points here - everything about this spec is important and has a use. ACTION SKILL Phaseslam. Optionally, to make harder areas or bosses easier, you can use a Phaseflare variant. I would recommend Light Fantastic or Shooting Star. When you dot yourself (see "Swap Gun" below), Light Fantastic will "attach" to you, which is quite convenient, if a bit weird looking. Ties That Bind is available, but that strays too far from the principle of the build. But Phaseslam is recommended in most cases because of ease of stacking Samsara and keeping uptime on Find Your Center and your Terror anointments. It will occasionally kill some enemies; more if you decide to swap to the Guardian Angel when slamming. Glamour is an optional augment, if you need some aggro relief at the expense of a longer cooldown. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Fire, shock, or corrosive depending on the content you are facing. Do not choose cryo. PUNCHING GUN Psycho Stabber with Terror Cryo anointment. The cryo will occasionally freeze some enemies, but at all times it is a great damage boost. SWAP GUN Low level Sellout pistol. Anointment not necessary. This gun is for shooting your foot to place a dot on yourself in order to proc the Elemental Projector artifact, giving you a huge increase to elemental damage. You only need to shoot once and then swap back to the Psycho Stabber. Each of the three projectiles from the Sellout has a 72% chance to dot you, so it's basically guaranteed. When you swap back to the Psycho Stabber with Terror Cryo, that cryo bonus element will start "ticking" on the dot you placed on yourself. It won't actually cryo you - it's sort of a hidden damage instance. But that bonus element ticking on a self-dot will stack Burn Both Ends for you, giving you even more elemental damage. Otherwise, self-damage and self-dots would not stack BBE. Since you can use an Ascetic class mod with up to +5 in Burn Both Ends, that combined with Tempest and the Elemental Projector means this build gets up to +309% increased elemental damage! See the "Notes - Low Level Sellout" section below for obtaining the lowest level Sellout possible. Protip: turn dialog volume all the way down if you do not wish to hear Amara screaming from self-dots all of the time. ALTERNATIVE PUNCHING GUN Ionic Disruptor with Terror Cryo anointment. Swapping to this gun and punching with it will convert your punch to shock damage, even if you have it set to a different element via Illuminated Fist. This is convenient for punching an immune Maliwan Heavy, as opposed to switching your action skill element. This can also be a primary punching gun if you choose shock as your action skill element. The shock dot that this gun leaves on enemies will heal you through Sustainment. PHASESLAM / PUNCHING GUN Guardian Angel with Terror Cryo anointment. Swap to this after the Sellout but before the Stabber if you want Phaseslam to kill things more reliably. When your action skill element is set to shock, this is also a great punching gun for mobbing, as your Static Charge chains will become very powerful. But beware, holding this also increases the strength of your self-dot by 6x. You can also shoot this gun at enemies between punches, which, if you land the shot, has 4 possible effects: 1. You can stun them by landing a crit. 2. You can knock them back with high-pellet-count shotgun physics. 3. You get lifesteal to keep yourself alive. 4. You can build up a lot of Groundbreaker and even kill nearby enemies - the Guardian Angel does some wild stuff with Indisciminate. FFYL / FLYING ENEMY GUN Face Puncher or Blade Fury, with Consecutive Hits anointment. Blade Fury can take out multiple flying enemies at once with Indiscriminate, making life a bit easier. As punch-themed as this build is, these guns are still necessary to get rid of things out of reach and for some bosses. CLASS MOD Ascetic (spelled incorrectly on the item card by Gearbox as "Acsetic") class mod with as many points into Burn Both Ends as possible. This purple class mod can only drop with 1 passive but that's fine. Recommended passives: melee damage, splash damage, splash damage radius, action skill cooldown rate, reload speed. Alternatively, until you can get a nice Ascetic, you can use a Muse class mod with 1 point in Illuminated Fist and as many points into Laid Bare as possible. Same recommended passives as above. SHIELD Brawler Ward with ASE Apply Terror anointment. A low level one is recommended, but not necessary. There are a couple other fun options: the Messy Breakup and the Shooting Star (if you use the Shooting Star Fix Mod ). Make sure to match the element of these shields to your action skill element (which means don't use Messy Breakup if you're using fire action skill element, because it only comes in shock or corrosive). Same ASE Apply Terror anointment. The Re-Volter will also be very strong, even though it strays from the OG Mayhem 3 vibes. ARTIFACT Elemental Projector Static Charge. The Elemental Projector will be procced by your Sellout pistol, granting you lots of damage. The Static Charge is not only a nice bonus element for your punches, but the chains will be very strong. The chains will double dip your massive elemental damage stat, and get the Terror Cryo bonus element on top of that. They will kill or freeze enemies and also give you lots of Groundbreaker damage for your punches. An Unleash the Dragon artifact works well with this build, even though the build isn't meant for it. That's Amber Swan's specialty. GRENADE Mesmer, It's Piss, or Hyperion Quasar (non sticky) with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. These are great utility grenades. You can use a Fish Slap if you want to have an easier time with bosses. GAMEPLAY LOOP Set your Sellout pistol to corrosive. This will do less damage to your health bar. You don't need to worry about element matching for Elemental Projector and Illuminated Fist - Infusion will make sure that you're always dotted with your action skill element. Swap to the Psycho Stabber or Guardian Angel and use your Phaseslam. Then start punching with the Stabber. Every several seconds, swap back to the Sellout to keep yourself dotted. Repeat, dotting yourself again before Phaseslamming again. This might seem like a lot of swapping that you don't have time for, but Amara has tons of swap speed. Even though you have a Brawler Ward that you want depleted, keep your Shield Reboot Guardian Rank perk enabled, so when you kill an enemy it begins recharging. It will deplete again immediately because you have dotted yourself. This re-depletion-upon-kill keeps Trust In Yourself stacked, giving you lots of swap speed. In dangerous places like the Maliwan Takedown or Slaughtershaft, you may find that enemies down you before you can reach them. You either need to dodge better or use one of the extra tools available to you: Quasar, Mesmer, Fish Slap, Face Puncher, Blade Fury. This is the pain of the true melee build. But you will have lots of movement speed, and you should use it your advantage. A good general tactic is to punch and then immediately back off a little bit and throw some lateral movement around before coming back in for another punch. This throws off the aim of distant enemies. You can also circle around an enemy bit by bit as you punch, forcing them to turn and delaying their attack. Shooting Star (action skill) and Light Fantastic are always there for you, even if they are a bit too strong and take away from the pure punching nature of this build. Blitz, when it works, is extremely useful for hitting flying enemies or enemies perched on top of boxes/terrain. NOTES - LOW LEVEL SELLOUT A lower level Sellout means less chance of being downed by your own self-dot. Normally, completing the Sellout mission nets you a level 26 unanointed Sellout. There's a few ways to get an even lower one. First, before completing the mission, have a friend join you in the Ambermire with a fresh level 1 character. When you complete the quest, they will receive a level 8 unanointed Sellout in the mail. Second, after completing the mission, the Sellout appears as a mission reward in Earl's Vendor on Sanctuary. Have a friend join you with a level 10 character and shop the item from the machine for you. Level 10 is the lowest level it will appear for them. Third, after completing the mission and receiving your level 26 Sellout, discard it and shop for the item in Earl's Vendor yourself, where it will be your level. You can reasonably get one at level 21, if you go through the story up until that point killing as few enemies as possible.

Tips for understanding and building with Amara's Green Tree at endgame. Green Tree This guide will help you understand the quirks and uses of each of Amara's skills, so that perhaps you can do some build crafting of your own. In this section, we cover the green (Brawl) tree. ROOT TO RISE Mostly useless. Is sometimes taken just to get to the next tier after maxing Personal Space on a Deathless build, because while Clarity is also useless on a Deathless build, at least Root To Rise doesn't take up a buff bar slot. In the rare instance that you have lots of points to spend in green tree, the trifecta of Root To Rise, Samsara, and Helping Hands makes for noticeble tankiness increase. PERSONAL SPACE 54% V2 damage that only applies to guns/bullets, with quite a forgiving range. Very valuable skill for gun builds. Note that this does not apply to the Face Puncher. It does apply to ASE 50% bonus elements on shield or grenade, because those are technically a bullet damage source, no matter how they are applied. CLARITY Good general health regen. Worth taking if you have the points, and very strong at 10/5. Not only is there a bonus for using your action skill, but it can stack twice if you've also specced Avatar. The recommended choice for moving down the tree on non gun builds. ARMS DEAL Decent amount of splash damage. The damage reduction is negligible. SAMSARA Very strong healing and a little bit of gun damage. This is specced for its healing. Note that it recovers missing health as opposed max health like it says in game. It is still very good, though. It does not proc with Phasegrasp, Eternal Fist, or Ties That Bind. It does proc with the Ice Spiker artifact, however, because the Ice Spiker is basically another Amara action skill. The Ice Spiker can be a way to get Samsara stacks on a Ties That Bind build, if you were so inclined. HELPING HANDS Minimally impactful damage reduction, it's not a bad take if you have leftover points or need to get further down the tree and don't need the splash damage from Arms Deal. MINDFULNESS Very useful skill, mostly for the movement speed, which is survivability and, if you're using a Spiritual Driver class mod, damage. The shield recharge delay aspect of it can help with Topped Off uptime. FIND YOUR CENTER A very good boost to melee damage, and a required take for true melee builds. Trying to punch things as a main form of attack can be very frustrating without Find Your Center. VIGOR This kill skill stacks, and it procs from any kill, not just action skill kills. Useful for builds that need a lot of speed, and a good take if you need to get further down the tree. ONE WITH NATURE Mostly useless. Not even in a good place to get down the tree, because there are better skills above it you can fill out if you need to go down further. DO UNTO OTHERS Very weak skill. At most it can be a source for Sustainment healing once every 8 seconds. JAB CROSS Very good skill for increasing action skill damage, very bad skill for increasing gun damage. Good synergy on a melee build that also has Body & Mind in the purple tree. GUARDIAN ANGEL Self explanatory, excellent defensive skill. BLITZ Wonderful and powerful skill for true melee, when it works. Not only is it a good melee damage increase at all times (100%), but when it procs it is a fresh 83% increase (at level 72) to your base melee damage. It can be buggy and fail to connect to enemies. It can also make you fly through your Phaseflare when trying to punch it at an enemy. But it can also allow you to fly up and punch airborne enemies, which is very fun.

A damaging aura-based slam build, with some action skill damage and Terror Reflect supplements. Gone Fission Amara SYNOPSIS A damaging aura-based slam build, with some action skill damage and Terror Reflect supplements. INTRO The Mind Melt is the radiation slam artifact, and while it's not the strongest item by itself, it encourages a rather fun, oddball playstyle. With the Mind Melt, after you slam, you carry around a damaging radiation aura for several seconds. The Ember's Blaze shield also creates a damaging aura. The Terror Reflect anointment, when holding a Guardian Angel, and especially with bonus elements, can make enemies kill themselves. The combination of these three things allows you to basically just stand there and clear content. Almost as if you're "out to lunch" or "gone fishin'". "Don't mind me, I'm just melt ing things." GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Speccing Sustaintment allows both your damaging auras and your reflected projectiles to heal you. Coupled with your class mod (Stone), this build is quite the tank. You have a decent amount of action skill damage to boost Phaseslam, Reverberation, Body & Mind, and Free The Soul. There's some cryo synergies in there as well, because you'll be using the Terro r Cryo anointment on your weapons. ACTION SKILL Phaseslam. Reverberation for bosses. Phaseslam's wide radius will build up a ton of groundbreaker damage to be released on your next slam. And whatever it doesn't kill, it will freeze if you're attuned to cryo. Reverbation, with a particular technique , can chunk boss health bars. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Cryo, to synergize with Go With The Flow, Free The Soul, and Unweave The Rainbow in purple tree. Unweave procs with splash damage (and melee damage) dealt to frozen enemies; Phaseslam and your damaging auras are splash damage. Switch to corrosive for Wotan, fire for Guardian Takedown creatures, and shock for Guardian Takedown guardians. Everything else: remain on cryo. MAIN GUN 1 Guardian Angel with Terror Cryo anointment. Terror Cryo will get added to all of your damage, even reflected projectiles. It will help freeze enemies for the cryo-related skills in purple tree. Guardian Angel, with Indicriminate, can be shot at enemies in a pinch to build up Groundbreaker. MAIN GUN 2 Face Puncher with Melee Apply Terror anointment. Swap frequently to this gun and shoot at enemies to make sure you have max (3) terror stacks. Body & Mind will also make this gun pretty powerful, if you want to supplement your main damage before swapping back to the Guardian Angel. Always perform your other attacks, action skill and slam, with the Guardian Angel in hand. OPTIONAL GUN Zheitsev's Eruption (pre-overheated) for debuffing. This can be swapped to and away from to add quite a bit of damage from debuffing. Anointment doesn't matter much, although Terror Health Regen will increase your survivability while you have it out. FFYL GUN Something typical, like a Free Radical or Ember's Purge with Consecutive Hits anointment. CLASS MOD Stone, with heavy preference for a splash damage radius passive. That radius increase is pretty crucial, because all of your attacks rely on it. Skill rolls aren't as important, but lean toward Do Harm and Awakening. Awakening not only boosts the effectiveness of both Do Harm (for damage) and Violent Tapestry (for freezing), but also the effectiveness of the damage reduction on the class mod itself. Other acceptable passives: action skill damage, action skill cooldown rate, splash damage. SHIELD Ember's Blaze, with the Terror Reflect anointment. This shield and anointment account for a lot of your standing still damage and subsequent healing through Sustainment. ARTIFACT Mind Melt, with heavy preference for an Area of Effect passive in the second or third slot, which also increases splash radius. The second half of the artifact can be a few things: Victory Rush, Safeguard, Cosmic Crater, even Pull Out Method. Pick whatever suits you or sounds fun. Other acceptable passives: radiation damage, incendiary damage, action skill cooldown rate, cryo damage, cryo efficiency, movement speed, corrosive damage. GRENADE Anything utility oriented, with the Terror Damage And Fire Rate anointment. Hyperion Quasar (not sticky), Mesmer, It's Piss. GAMEPLAY LOOP When entering a fight, start off with a couple Face Puncher shots to build Terror stacks, then Phaseslam, then start ground slamming with reckless abandon. After that, the order you do things in doesn't really matter. Just don't forget to keep Terror stacks up. For boss fights, switch to Reverberation, and you can use that plus Body & Mind to take them out, while also ground slamming to deliver groundbreaker and take out adds. NOTES - BARRELS & WATER Slam builds are especially vulnerable to barrels and water. Be careful out there and try to clear barrels before approaching them. Avoid water and puddles at all costs. NOTES - HEMOVOROUS You might think a build based on a relatively weak slam effect wouldn't do much to Hemo, but you'd be wrong. While Hemo is kind of a hitbox mess, there's a mechanic in the fight we can take advantage of. The eggs and pods that both Hemo and Vermi launch at you are destroyed very easily by your auras and slams, dealing damage directly to Hemo and building up tons of groundbreaker to be released when you slam near them. Also, the eggs/pods are automatic lifesteal, as Ember's Blaze kills them on approach, and failing that, automatic second winds. Add some Phaseslam into the mix and baby you've got a stew going. This is one of the few builds you can take to Hemo and just go wild with slamming.

True melee and action skill hybrid build. Sapphire Swan SYNOPSIS True melee and action skill hybrid build. INTRO Sapphire Swan is one of my three crown jewels of true melee builds, along with Ruby Swan and Emerald Swan. Sapphire Swan is designated as such because it uses a blue tree action skill, Tandava. It is the simplest of the three gems. The philosophy of this build is to supplement your punches with action skill damage, Groundbreaker, and the melee damage bonus vs frozen targets. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Blue and purple trees synergize very well with a melee and action skill focus. However, you can't cap both of them and also pick up Sustainment, and true melee needs Sustainment. True melee also needs Find Your Center, but you'll get that from the class mod. There's some reload speed taken in blue tree, and that's because there is a strategy for shooting your gun occasionally. ACTION SKILL Tandava. Optionally, Reverberation for bossing or better single target damage, especially with the special Reverberation technique. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Freezing enemies through punching is a core mechanic of this build, so always cryo. Even against Wotan. (There's no points in green tree for corrosive anyway.) PUNCHING GUN Psycho Stabber, with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. CASTING / UTILITY / PUNCHING GUN Guardian Angel, with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. Swap to this to cast Reverb or Tandava for more damage. In areas where mobs are weaker, like trials or Slaughterstar, you can get away with casting while holding the Psycho Stabber, if you like. You can also shoot the Guardian Angel at enemies for a couple of benefits. First, it will grant you healing th rough Sustainment. Second, when the projectiles ricochet through Indiscriminate, they will double dip the Guardian Angel bonus. When those ricocheted projectiles hit enemies, they will either kill them or at the very least give you good Groundbreaker damage. Because of that, this is the recommended punching gun against Guardians in the True Guardian Takedown. When you're not Phasecasting, alternate between shooting the Guardians and punching them. FFYL / BACKUP GUNS Face Puncher and Blade Fury (masher preferred) with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointments. The Face puncher is for killing enemies out of reach or to help with bossing. It will also get you out of FFYL if you still have Body & Mind active. The Blade Fury is a backup FFYL gun for when Body & Mind runs out and you're still not back up. CLASS MOD Breaker, with a required point into Find Your Center. True melee builds don't function well at all without FYC. The remaining points should go to Jab Cross, which adds action skill damage to your attacks. The most important passive is Splash Damage Radius. Other recommended passives: action skill damage, action skill cooldown rate, splash damage, melee damage. SHIELD Re-Volter, with Action Skill Start anointment. This adds tons of shock damage to all of your attacks, allowing you to keep cryo as your action skill element, even against blue HP bar bosses. Defensive augments are recommended, such as absorb, health charge, shield charge, turtle. ARTIFACT Cryo Stone Static Charge. The Cryo Stone further helps your punches freeze enemies. The Static Charge is the best all-around artifact suffix for melee. The most important passive is Area of Effect in the 2nd or 3rd slot, which will also increase area radius. Other recommended passives: elemental damage, action skill cooldown rate, melee damage, movement speed. GRENADE Mesmer or Hyperion Quasar (non sticky) or radiation Fish Slap (for immune Maliwan Heavies; see "Notes - Immune Maliwan Heavies" below), with ASE Apply Terror anointment. GAMEPLAY LOOP Phasecast at something to get your kill skills and anointments rolling. Throw a few punches, then repeat. Try to kill lots of enemies with your cast, to get more stacks of Expedite. If you fail, you still have other skills that will proc Expedite for you: Remnant, Unweave The Rainbow, Free The Soul, Body & Mind. There's also Combo Breaker, which comes in clutch every so often. Beware of the timing between your casts. Sometimes you don't want to cast twice in immediate succession. Since this is not a Phasezerker build, Rush stacks will need to be accrued manually. This isn't hard, but it's something to keep in mind. If you have 20 Rush stacks that are converted to Do Harm stacks when you cast, and your cast kills something, Avatar will refund you 10 Rush stacks. Then you can build up another 10 to get back to 20 before casting again. For bossing and tankier enemies, you will be relying more on your Reverbs and Tandavas than you will on your punches, but you can still punch down even the toughest mobs if you desire. For raid bosses, you can use a Phaseflare variant such as Shooting Star. During the Wotan fight, keep using cryo Tandava, and wait for some mobs to spawn. Tandava hitting Wotan and also killing those mobs will either 1. make Free The Soul and Remnant target Wotan or 2. give you enough Groundbreaker to shoot Wotan with the Face Puncher or Blade Fury. NOTES - IMMUNE MALIWAN HEAVIES The two elemental damage types you deal with this build are cryo and shock. There are no others. That means both Cryo and Shock immune Heavies in the Maliwan Takedown pose a problem. For Cryo heavies, your punch will essentially have zero effect, not even for delivering Groundbreaker. Cast at them with Reverb or Tandava and let the Re-Volter damage kill them. If it doesn't, ground slam at them to deliver Groundbreaker. You can also deliver Groundbreaker this way from damage you dealt to other enemies. Shock heavies are less of a problem. Your attacks will do significantly less damage to them, but it's still enough. They can be punched directly to deliver Groundbreaker. They can also be frozen. NOTES - MAYHEM 10/11 Most of the time, true melee builds should play on Mayhem 10 take advantage of Speed Demon, and this is one of those times. Other benign Mayhem 10 modifiers: Medium - Healy Avenger, Hard - Drone Ranger or Ticked Off, Very Hard - Not The Face.

All possible locations of breakable crystals in the Guardian Takedown, useful for eliminating enemy knockback.

Tips for how to best utilize powerful and underrated grenades at endgame. Grenades Grenades are an often overlooked form of attack, at least on Amara. I will cover some useful grendes here, dividing them up into damaging grenades and utility grenades. DAMAGING GRENADES Check out the Phase Yeet build to see what Amara can do with grenades. With the right build, she can make use of the Fastball, Whispering Ice, Hex, Porcelain Pipe Bomb, Ghast Call, Core Buster, Doc Hina's Miracle Bomb, Lightspeed, and purple grenades with 2 or 3 Sticky parts. These are of varying strength, but the top tier of them can defeat raid bosses rather handily. The Fish Slap, of course, can be used to wipe out anything. It's the most powerful item in the game. Spec a few melee skills, a few splash skills, a few elemental skills, and grab a Guardian Angel and your Fish is now a destroyer of worlds. I tend to avoid that, however, because it almost completely removes the need to have a build. UTILITY GRENADES More often, though, I recommend grenades for utility on Amara. Two grenades in particular are great for crowd control: Mesmer and Hyperion Quasar (non sticky). Both of them, when used well, can make an off-meta build go from barely playable to breezing through content. Proper grenade usage increases build diversity for you. A simple Hex grenade can also help keep you out of FFYL, if you're specced Sustainment. Sustainment is not a cheat code; Amara does get put into FFYL, and it's often while she's reloading. However, if you're throwing Hex grenades (or any grenade that deals many instances of elemental damage) every now and then, they can Sustain you while you reload and find your next target.

A close-quarters, chaotic Driver gun build. Cold Hearted SYNOPSIS A close-quarters, chaotic Driver gun build. INTRO This build makes use of the anointment, "While Phasegrasp is active, Amara constantly triggers novas that deal 24756 damage." When you put this anointment on the Frozen Heart, these novas take on properties of that shield, in that they freeze and heal you. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Unweave The Rainbow is the star of the show, as it will greatly increase your damage against frozen enemies, provided you're using a splash gun. Unweave is boosted by action skill damage, so maxing blue tree is a necessity. ACTION SKILL Eternal Fist, for potentially the longest grasp time, for more nova destruction. It's also one of the grasp variants that begins and ends immediately when grasping a non-graspable target, and begins cooling down. This is useful because, for the most part, targets that cannot be lifted also cannot be frozen. With Expedite, every enemy that gets grasped and kills gives you a stack, and any enemy that gets killed by Unweave The Rainbow also gives you a stack. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Whatever element is suited to your content. Unweave The Rainbow will be that element, as will your "constant novas", even though those novas still have the ability to freeze enemies. You should also match this element to the gun you're using. GUNS Anything decent that does splash damage, in fire, shock, and corrosive. Anointments: Killstack, Consecutive Hits, or ASE 125% Splash if applicable. Suggested guns: Plaguebearer, Backburner, Beacon, Sand Hawk, Free Radical, Major Kong, Guardian Angel (yes, as a gun to shoot), Kaoson, Prompt Critical. Try the Firecracker for a bit of fun. CLASS MOD Spiritual Driver, with as many points into Mindfulness as possible, and also with a recommended Splash Damage Radius roll. Other recommended passives: action skill damage, splash damage, action skill cooldown rate, weapon type damage. Protip: turn dialog volume all the way down if you do not wish to hear Amara screaming from self-dots all of the time. SHIELD Frozen Heart, with the anointment, "While Phasegrasp is active, Amara constantly triggers novas that deal 24756 damage." As mentioned at the top, these novas on this shield makes every nova have the freezing and healing properties of the Frozen Heart. They'll freeze everything around you while Eternal Fist is doing its thing. ARTIFACT Elemental Projector Victory Rush, with an Area of Effect Damage roll in the 2nd or 3rd slot, which will increase the radius of your novas. The Elemental Projector means your action skill element needs to match your gun's element. Other recommended passives: weapon type damage, action skill cooldown rate, movement speed, elemental damage. GRENADE Anything useful, with an ASE 50% radiation bonus element. The radsplosions will help obliterate frozen enemies. For utility, It's Piss, Hyperion Quasar (non sticky), Mesmer. Something like the Lightspeed can also deal decent damage with Unweave on frozen enemies, especially if it matches along with Elemental Projector. GAMEPLAY LOOP The novas from your shield anointment aren't as large as the regular Frozen Heart novas, so getting good damage with the Driver usually means staying close and strafing around a grasped, frozen enemy. Once that enemy is dead, everything around you will also be frozen, and you can finish them off, then go looking for the next enemy that Eternal Fist found. Generally, like any Driver gun build, move quickly and shoot. Because this is a fairly close-quarters build, the only thing you have to look out for is splashing yourself in the face. NOTES - IMMUNE MALIWAN HEAVIES Because of Elemental Projector, nearly all of your damage is stacked on one element, which can create problems with immune heavies in the Maliwan Takedown. Either punch/ground slam to deliver Groundbreaker to kill them, use a different element gun, or briefly swap action skill elements. NOTES - RAID BOSSING This build has the old Amara-bossing-with-guns problem, at least when it comes to raid bossing. To overcome this, change over to a regular Driver build by swapping your Frozen Heart out for an Action Skill Start Re-Volter and move fast while shooting strong gun. If you wanna get really strong, put your action skill element on shock, swap to Phasecast, and use a 250% Phasecast Free Radical.

Hellfire-only build. It's only half a joke. Inferno Amara SYNOPSIS Hellfire build. It's actually pretty good! INTRO This build started as a meme, a proof of concept, the concept being just how far theorycrafting and optimizing can take you. The Hellfire is widely considered to be a very weak, very terrible gun. But it can still be built around to make it kill True Guardian Takedown enemies, even without Ties That Bind. It's also, actually, a pretty fun build, because the Hellfire has a great feel to it, as do most Dahl SMGs. The core interactions that make this build work are down toward the bottom in the "Notes - Hellfire Advantages" section. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Note no Sustainment. Samsara is your sustain. Unweave the Rainbow is your damage. Violent Tapestry allows you to access that damage. ACTION SKILL Reverberation, usually. Tandava can also be used, but beware the longer cooldown. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Almost always cryo, but you can experiment with matching your element to your content. Even against Guardians in the True Guardian Takedown, I tend to stick to cryo for the faster freezing, even though shock makes for much stronger Unweave damage. When bossing with Reverberation, element match the boss (cryo can often be used in place of corrosive, unless you're fighting Wotan). GUN Hellfire, with Phasecast 250. I recommend going for max dot damage, single projectile. Get as low of a mag size as possible, because mag size passives are preferred on your artifact to make up for this. FFYL GUN Free Radical with Consecutive Hits anointment. Even though you can often get up from FFYL with the Hellfire on this build, sometimes it just isn't enough to cut it. UTILITY / BOSSING GUN Guardian Angel with 200% Astral Projection anointment. This is for big bossing Reverb/Tandava damage. CLASS MOD Phasezerker. Skill points aren't too important, but lots of points into Clarity does help your survivability. This, and also the artifact, are where optimization really goes a long way toward raising up the Hellfire. Passives such as SMG Damage, Action Skill Damage, and Dahl Weapon Critical Damage, Weapon Damage, and Mag Size really make a difference. Splash Damage Radius is very helpful for Hollowpoints, which greatly help with area clear. Action Skill Cooldown Rate is also not a bad passive. SHIELD Re-Volter, with Action Skill Start anointment. ARTIFACT Dahl Company Man, with damage, crit damage, and mag size top passives. Good passives for the bottom: mag size, action skill cooldown rate, area of effect damage, cryo damage, cryo efficiency. Mag size passives are highly preferred because you don't want to spend precious time reloading while an enemy is frozen. Backup artifact, until you get a good Company Man, would be a Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge with a mag size passive. GRENADE Whatever grenade you want, with ASE 50% bonus cryo damage anointment. It's Piss, Mesmer, Hyperion Quasar are all good utility. Fish Slap if you want to incorporate it into your bossing strategy. GAMEPLAY LOOP Cast Reverb at enemies, then shoot them in the face. That's the basics. Always be casting as soon as you can, because the more you cast, the more Violent Tapestry and Do Harms stacks you build (because of the Phasezerker's Rush stacking method). I often cast twice in a row whenever it's available. See the "Notes - Hellfire Advantages" section to learn why both Do Harm and Violent Tapestry are critical to this build. Always be aiming for crit spots. Unweave the Rainbow can crit, making it obscenely effective. A nice bonus to killing with Unweave critical hits is more Hollowpoints. NOTES - HELLFIRE ADVANTAGES So how does Amara make the Hellfire kill True Guardian Takedown enemies? By dealing damage to them via Unweave The Rainbow. Unweave The Rainbow is a form of action skill damage, and it gets mayhem scaling and is increased by Do Harm stacks. UTR requires two things: splash or melee damage, and for the enemy to be frozen. The Hellfire is actually a splash gun. But why does this build go this route for damage when the gun is fire-locked? Because the Hellfire has a very high cryo efficiency. A gun's dot damage listed on the card divided by its projectile damage listed on the card is its cryo efficiency. You can confirm this if you have two versions of a gun, one cryo and one of a different element. The Hellfire has an extremely high listed dot damage relative to its projectile damage. The one in this save file lists 90,786 dmg/second with a projectile damage of 7,205. If this gun were cryo, it would have over 1,200% cryo efficiency! So how about we just add some cryo? And Amara can make any gun cryo, through Infusion. It's only 40% of the damage at 5/5 points, but that still makes for an effective cryo efficiency of about 500%. The 50% Cryo ASE bonus element also inherits the Hellfire's efficiency. The Hellfire freezes very fast for as little damage as it does. And when the freezing occurs, Unweave The Rainbow kicks in to finish the enemy off. This is why constantly Phasecasting is recommended in the "Gameplay Loop" section above. More stacks of Violent Tapestry means greater cryo efficiency and faster freezing. More stacks of Do Harm means stronger Unweave The Rainbow damage. Beware that going into FFYL makes you lose all stacks for both of those skills. So don't act like you're invincible or anything. Remember: no Sustainment. NOTES - BOSSING The Hellfire is not a bossing gun, even with this build, because bosses cannot be frozen. That's why we have the Guardian Angel and use powerful action skills like Reverberation (learn more about Phasecasting technique here ) and Tandava. Add on the Fish Slap if you want. You can even get an Orb Damage anointed Guardian Angel and use the Shooting Star variant of Phaseflare. Equip a Snowdrift when bossing, if you like, because it's not like a Dahl Company Man or Pearl are going to help your action skill damage.

A very strong Spark Plug slam build. Teslamara SYNOP SIS A very strong Spark Plug slam build. INTRO The ultimate evolution of the original Amara Spark Plug build , it has grown almost too strong. It can speed through nearly any content. And it's very simple to play. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES There are some gun-related skills for your the Face Puncher, your FFYL weapon, or shooting the Guardian Angel (see "Notes - Shooting the Guardian Angel" section at the bottom). Transcend also is beneficial for the Spark Plug, because the Spark Plug can crit. Burn Both Ends can be self-stacked by the Spiritual Driver self-dot and an active bonus element (Terror Cryo). Normally, self damage does not stack Burn Both Ends, but a bonus element "ticking on top of" a self-dot will. ACTION SKILL Ties That Bind. Optionally base Phasegrasp for bosses for the lack of duration and shorter cooldown. You can actually use any action skill you want, just be aware that waiting too long between activations will make you lose damage. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Always corrosive. Nothing of importance changes if you change your action skill element, so corrosive is chosen for the longest dot length. The longer the dot is on you, the longer you have Mindfulness movement speed and the longer you have Burn Both Ends damage. MAIN GUN Guardian Angel, with Terror Cryo anointment. Hold this, slam, and move away for increased Spark Plug damage. FFYL GUN If you have any still going, your Spark Plugs will get you up from FFYL most of the time, but it may be wise to carry something like a Free Radical or other strong gun. Anointment possibilities: Consecutive Hits, Terror Cryo, Terror Crit. BACKUP GUN Face Puncher, preferably x14, with Terror Cryo anointment. With Body & Mind active, this gun can help you quickly take out distant flying enemies or get you up from FFYL. CLASS MOD Spiritual Driver, with as many points into Mindfulness as possible. Movement speed is quite important for slam builds. Otherwise, it's used to self-stack Burn Both Ends, in conjuction with an active bonus element. The most important passive is Splash Damage Radius, as that will increase the radius of your slams, and thus increase the area over which you can apply Groundbreaker. Other passives: action skill cooldown rate, splash damage, action skill damage. SHIELD Re-Volter, with ASE Apply Terror. Your Re-Volter will break naturally, and reproc every time you kill an enemy, via the Shield Reboot Guardian Rank perk. This frees up an anoint slot instead of using Action Skill Start. Another favorite of mine with this build is a corrosive Messy Breakup, with the same ASE Apply Terror anoint. Like the Re-Volter, this shield can re-break over and over again with Shield Reboot, giving you lots of drones. The drones are very helpful for bossing, distant enemies, and shock-immune enemies. ARTIFACT Spark Plug Static Charge. The Static Charge bonus element applies to the Spark Plug. The most important passive is Area Of Effect in the 2nd or 3rd slot, as that will also increase your splash radius and the radius of your slams. Other passives: action skill cooldown rate, shock damage, cryo damage, movement speed. GRENADE Fish Slap in various elements, with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. Use the Fish if you want to more quickly deal with immune shock heavies or dispatch a boss. GAMEPLAY LOOP Grasp immediately when it's available, then slam with reckless abandon. Move away from your Spark Plugs to increase damage from Guadian Angel. When out of combat, get into the habit of swapping away from your Guardian Angel, perhaps to something like the EMP5. The Guardian Angel increases all self-damage by 6x, so with the Driver self-dot active, you can actually down yourself while running between fights with no enemies around. NOTES - SHOOTING THE GUARDIAN ANGEL Guardian Angel with Indiscriminate makes the Indiscriminate ricochets double-dip the Guardian Angel bonus damage. The ricochets are very powerful. Randomly shooting the Guardian Angel at an enemy will sometimes clear all of the enemies around you and give you huge Groundbreaker damage for your next slam. This is a great technique for speeding up the Anthema fight: as you approach Anathema to slam a Spark Plug, shoot the Guardian Angel at his face. The bullets will ricochet and kill the mobs all around the arena, and your next slam will take a huge chunk out of Anathema. NOTES - SPECIFIC BOSSES The Spark Plug can completely meme on some bosses: Scourge, Rampager, Tyrant of Instinct (even the True version). Try and and see for yourself. Beware that during the Scourge fight, slamming a Spark Plug too close to the center of the arena can automatically chain-kill the Diadems that he spawns. Instead, place the Spark Plugs near the top of the center diamond on the side you enter the arena. The Spark Plug does not work at all against Hemo and Vermi. For that fight, equip an Elemental Projector Static Charge, and corrosive Fish Slap, and just Fish them to death. This build has a great damage formula, and this will make very quick work of the fight.

Simple yet very effective Phasecast-centered build. Sorceress Queen SYNOPSIS Simple yet very effective Phasecast-centered build. INTRO This was the build, years ago, that resulted from my discovery of the Reverberation technique. After DLC6 gear, level 72, and Expedite fix, it's quite a bit more effective and easier to play. The Reverb technique is now only needed for bossing, as Tandava is strong enough to be used for quicker mobbing. This build's damage is entirely cast-centric, and it gets recycled through Groundbreaker and Remnant. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES This is basically blue tree carrying, with a little support from each of the other trees. There's some cryo-related skills for use when your action skill element is cryo. ACTION SKILL Tandava. Reverberation for bossing, with the Reverb technique. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Whatever element is suited to the content you are facing. MAIN GUN Guardian Angel, with Astral Projection anointment. There is a Urad version of this build, in which case, also have a Guardian Angel with Urad anointment. SECONDARY GUN Face Puncher, x7 simply for less reloading, with 150/90 anointment. This is your tool for delivering Groundbreaker after you cast and again after Remnant lands. The 150/90 anointment helps assure enemies are 1 shot with Groundbreaker. For the Urad setup, another Face Puncher with Urad anointment. FFYL GUNS Because you can't cast while in FFYL, and Groundbreaker and Remnant might not be available, you have room for a couple FFYL guns, all with Urad anointment: Free Radical, Backburner, Plaguebearer, Plasma Coil. CLASS MOD Phasezerker, preferably with points into Clarity. The most important passive is Splash Damage Radius, to make your Tandava explosion larger. Other recommended passives: action skill damage, splash damage, action skill cooldown rate. SHIELD Re-Volter, with Action Skill Start anointment. This massive shock bonus element will not only apply to your casts, but also to your Groundbreaker. Groundbreaker is at 40% effectiveness relative to its power when this build was made, and this bonus element helps make up for it. Frozen Heart with Action Skill Start anointment is a good option for the Deathless/Urad version of the build, where crowd control may be necessary. This will also allow Unweave The Rainbow to give you a bit more damage, as well. The original shield option is still viable: Band of Sitorak, this time with ASE 50% Cooldown anointment. The Band of Sitorak has an extremely short recharge delay and an extremely fast recharge rate, making it the optimal shield for Topped Off uptime. So while this shield won't give you more direct damage, it will allow for more casts overall. ARTIFACT Snowdrift Victory Rush, most preferably with an Area Of Effect passive in the 2nd or 3rd slot, which will also increase area radius. The Snowdrift is important for mobility and avoiding damage, so that your shield can remain undamaged for Topped Off uptime. It can be swapped out for a Last Stand if you feel you need more survivability, or an Ice Breaker if you're running cryo action skill element. If using the Urad loadout, this can be a Snowdrift or Ice Breaker or Last Stand Deathless. Other recommended passives: action skill cooldown rate, move speed, elemental damage, health regen. GRENADE Hyperion Quasar (non sticky) or Mesmer, with ASE 50% radiation bonus element. This bonus element will apply to Groundbreaker, and the radiation dots, in tandem with Violent Tapestry, will keep your Rush stacks topped up. If you want to throw a grenade for damage, even though it's not the theme of this build, you can use a Fish Slap. GAMEPLAY LOOP The basic loop is to cast, shoot for Groundbreaker, let Remnant hit something, shoot for Groundbreaker again, and then repeat all of those steps. Then await your cooldown by either stunning enemies with the Face Puncher's melee, throwing a crowd control grenade at them, or simply dodging out of the way with your Snowdrift. Once you are familiar with this build, you should start aiming your Groundbreaker more deliberately. If you cast, then shoot your Groundbreaker at the same enemy that Remnant is going for, then you effectively lose two attacks. Remnant will always go toward the enemy closest to you, so get in the habit of aiming for mid-to-far enemies. You can then stun the enemy closest to you while Remnant closes the gap. NOTES - HEMOVOROUS FIGHT Phasecast, any variant of it, will not make contact with Hemo or Vermi's hitboxes. Use Tandava to splash the ground below/next to them, and then shoot them with the Face Puncher. Usually, Remnant or the Groundbreaker damage after Remnant are the things that end up finishing the fight for you. NOTES - NON-DLC LOADOUT This build can be made without DLC, and it will only be slightly less powerful. Hold the 150/90 Face Puncher at all times (or the Urad one, if going Urad), except in FFYL, and use the Frozen Heart or Band of Sitorak. Use this skill tree and pick any augment between Revelation, Soul Sap, and Glamour. You may have to use the Reverb technique against tougher content such as True Guardian Takedown.