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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.

Tips for conquering the Guardian Takedown as Amara. Guardian Takedown The Guardian Takedown is one of the best designed pieces of content Gearbox has ever made, in my opinion. However, its difficulty is a turnoff for many. Hopefully, by helping you learn the content, you too can spend more time there and enjoy it. Here are some tips for the Guardian Takedown, in no particular order. CRYSTAL PHASES The objective during the crystal phases is to charge the crystals before they drain and detonate. You actually don't need to kill any enemies. Now, most builds have no other solution to the enemies the game throws at you than to kill them. But there are many tactics, other than killing, for preventing Guardians from entering the charging square. 1. The Mesmer grenade basically makes the Guardians fight each other and ignore you, allowing you to charge the crystal in peace. The enemies that get damaged by this grenade briefly turn to allies, and all nearby enemies, even if untouched by the grenade, will start attacking their new foes. This piece of gear is less effective if you are specced Burn Both Ends, where only the enemies directly damaged by the grenade stop attacking, and most other enemies still come after you. 2. If you have a build that has both Glamour and Ties That Bind unlocked, you can simply grasp a group with that augment, and any enemy touched by the linkage will become an ally for a period of time. This is the same effect as the Mesmer grenade. 3. Alternatively, you can use Ties That Bind with Stillness of Mind to lock the first set of enemies in the air. Then, if you have Avatar, do it again when your first grasp ends. This will take you most of the way to a full crystal charge. You can drag out this tactic longer by waiting to execute your first grasp until the first wave is getting close to you. Do NOT damage the enemies, just dodge their attacks. If they have any damage over time affecting them, they will fall out of the Stillness bubble. 4. A shield with a Safe Space part can send enemies near you ragdolling through the air, completely removing them as a threat until they land and recover. The Band of Sitorak shield is great for this. It can even send Guardians to their death during the second crystals phase. This is not the most applicable tactic, as most builds need a shield that doesn't come with Safe Space, but it's an option. You can use these methods, in combination with other tips in this guide, to reliably get through the crystals sections. Enemies don't necessarily need to be killed, just controlled. And if you control the first wave well enough, no more will spawn. ELIMINATING KNOCKBACK One of the most annoying ways to die in the Guardian Takedown is by being knocked off of an edge by an enemy. And your own movement speed and momentum can exacerbate this problem. So if you're running a fast build, you can feel extra punished. Thankfully, there's a way to eliminate enemy knockback. Any time you punch crystals with the Eridian Resonator, that is, when this animation happens: knockback Your ability to be knocked back ceases. Watch: The above video also demonstrates a way to undo this and allow yourself to be knocked back again: by meleeing an enemy. Therefore, if you accidentally melee an enemy, you must find another crystal to punch to become grounded again. True melee builds or builds that punch a lot for Groundbreaker application will not find much use in this trick, because the effect will constantly be reset. At least Groundbreaker can still be applied via groundslam, which is a better way to apply it anyway, because then it hits a whole area instead of just one enemy. If you want to rocket jump in the Guardian Takedown, this trick prevents the rocket knockback. You must find an enemy to melee if you want to reset it and regain the ability to rocket jump. Another demonstration - watch as I can stand at the very edge of the Anathema platform and fail to get knocked off: I've catalogued all possible crystal locations that I've found in the Guardian Takedown. This resource is for both finding your first crystal to activate this trick, as well as finding further crystal locations in case you have accidentally reset the trick by meleeing an enemy. Click the interactive map below to see all crystal locations. Only a random subset of locations spawn each time you load into Minos Prime. And of those that spawn, some may be invisible (but can still be melee'd while invisible, or can be seen by equipping the Mysterious Artifact). If you find a location not shown on the map, send a screenshot and I'll add it! Always Be Jumping ALWAYS BE JUM PING (well not always...) Two of the Guardian types, Spectres and Diadems, have their AI confused while you are airborne. The Spectres are the ones that have blades on their arms and run directly for you and melee you. However, if you're in the air, they stop their advance and throw a ranged attack at you. If you're constantly jumping, they will only advance forward very briefly when you touch the ground. See below: This is especially useful during the crystal phases of the Guardian Takedown, but can also be used for general damage relief throughout the entire takedown. This is why you see all of the speedrunners constantly jumping during the crystal phases. If you get overrun, this tactic obviously doesn't mean much anymore, but it's something you can use to prevent being overrun. Diadems are a bit more complicated. They basically lose sight of you entirely while you're in the air, and start following a predetermined path. They turn again toward you when you land. During the crystals, their predetermined path is always toward the crystal they're spawning next to, so jumping does not prevent them from approaching your crystal - the Diadem must be dealt with. But Diadems that are spawning for a different crystal than the one you're on can be prevented from finding you by constantly jumping. See below: And this is why during those same speedruns you see the player remain grounded during the Scourge fight when he summons Diadems, so that the Diadems converge around Scourge. Otherwise, they would wander in all sorts of directions and be hard to detonate. In general, jumping is a very effective form of aggro relief during the whole takedown, and it's made easier by the fact that it's in low gravity. HOLD THE POINT Another crystal phase tactic is to hold the point, or the front of the boundary of your crystal's box. That way, as enemies approach and attack you from the from the front, they stay outside of the boundary, while you remain inside. You can use this tactic (in addition to the jumping tactic above) at the beginning of crystals to buy lots of time. When using this tactic, the Wraith Guardians, the ones with the staff that sometimes leap or pole vault toward you, will land in front of you. They will remain outside of the box, and then most of the time they either immediately walk backwards or flip backwards. Their attack doesn't do much damage, and they end up being completely non-threating to you charging your crystal. See below: Obviously, if things have gotten out of control, this tactic can be abandoned, but it's one more tool you can use to prevent things from getting out of control in the first place. PHASEGRASP AND DIADEMS Do not Phasegrasp a Diadem that has begun it's self-destruct animation. If it dies while grasped, your grasp will be bugged and remain unavailable for a couple minutes. You can grasp a Diadem that has not started this animation, and shoot and kill it like normal. CRIT SPOTS Most people are unaware of how to crit the Nekrotafeyo creatures and/or the Guardians. I believe this prevents people from using guns such as sniper rifles during this takedown, and in general enjoying the content. Below, I will outline the crit spots of the various enemy types: Three of the creature types, Vandas, Mantas, and Djira, have the same type of crit spot: on the tip of their nose. This crit spot actually extends onto the top of their nose just a little bit, so a reliable way to hit it is to aim just above the tip. The Korax's tail spike is their crit spot. The Mantakores have big, flashy, flower face as a crit spot. Note, though, that when Phasegrasping a Mantakore, their entire body rotates a little bit relative to their position on the ground, and their face, when lifted, will be about 90 degrees to your left. This is important for positioning yourself before grasping a Mantakore. All Guardians have the same general crit area, a head that sits low between the shoulders. Note that since it does not stick out above the shoulders, you cannot crit them from behind. Also note that, when Phasegrasped, the Seras cover the lower part of their face with their arms. They can still be critted on the top half of their head. SERA LASER The Flying Sera Guardians have a dangerous laser attack, and it can be especially painful during the crystals phases, where there isn't much room to maneuver. They can be knocked out of this attack either with melee (including the Face Puncher) or by critting them. ANATHEMA MOBS The Anathema fight spawns mobs around the arena every phase of the fight. Any mobs that survive Anathema's exploding bubble have radiation applied to them. As you may know, when you irradiate an enemy, they have an aura that damages nearby enemies with radiation. Well, when an enemy (Anathema) applies a radiation status to another enemy (the mobs that survive the bubble), the radiation aura on them now damages you . And that radiation aura is strong, relative to player health. When those irradiated mobs are close to you, you will get health gated. This is instant FFYL for Deathless builds. If you have a strong dot on yourself, you can also go down that way after being health gated. There's no foolproof solution to this. Simply kill and avoid them as best you can if you have a fragile build. WATCH YOUR FACE There are many things that fly towards you suddenly in this takedown, including projectiles launched from mobs, mobs themselves, dead bodies and body parts of mobs. Every one of these things, if it gets in your face, can make you splash and down yourself if you're using a splash weapon. Always be moving, strafing, dodging to prevent this from happening. HAVE A GOOD FFYL WEAPON See the Tips section on FFYL here.

A thematic Blade Fury build. Ragebow SYNOPSIS A thematic Blade Fury build. INTRO The goal for this build is to deal every type and element of damage possible for Amara. Literally, there are damage types in this game, and it's the reason why, for example, grenade damage doesn't increase the damage of the Fish Slap. Despite the adherence to this theme, this build is not weak at all. It's a simple, set-it-and-forget-it, point-and-shoot build. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES It's kind of all over the place, but this build could make use of so many skills that choices had to be made, and some things had to be left out. Burn Both Ends normally does not proc on self-damage or self-dots. However, if you have an active bonus element while self-dotted, that bonus element "ticking on top of" your dot (it doesn't actually deal extra damage to you, but it's there) will stack Burn Both Ends for you. That way, you don't need to always be taking damage to benefit from Burn Both Ends. This build self-dots through the Infernal Wish, and one of your bonus element anointments will almost always be active. It's also notable that Body & Mind is action skill damage, along with being splash damage. These are your first two damage types. ACTION SKILL Ties That Bind. Optionally Phasecast for using an appropriately anointed Blade Fury. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Cryo. This is element #1. GUNS Blade Fury, single projectile, with Consecutive Hits, Killstack, and/or 250% Phasecast gun damage anointments. The Blade Fury deals both gun (or "projectile") damage and melee damage, giving you damage types 3 and 4. It is also non-elemental: "element" #2. CLASS MOD Muse, with as many points into Laid Bare as possible, and hopefully also an Illuminated Fist point. The Muse orb is grenade damage, believe it or not. Damage type #5. Recommended passives: grenade damage, action skill cooldown rate, melee damage, weapon damage, assault rifle damage, mag size. SHIELD Infernal Wish, with ASE 50% Incendiary bonus element anointment. These ASE 50% anointments are technically "bullet damage", and yes, that's a thing in the code, separate from the damage type that comes from your gun. Damage type 6, and element 3. ARTIFACT Corrosive Stone Static Charge. Elements 4 and 5. Note that the corrosive here, the fire on your shield anoint, and your cryo action skill element all can be swapped around. But in order to keep the theme of the build, they all must be separate elements. Shock is always taken care of by the static charge. Recommended passives: assault rifle damage, area of effect damage, action skill cooldown rate, melee damage, elemental damage. GRENADE Anything you like, with an ASE 50% Radiation bonus element. Element #6. Fish Slap does decent work. If you want to make things really interesting, a Moxxi's Bouncing Pair could be put to use. It will regen your Infernal Wish if it damages shielded enemies. However, the explosions are huge, and it'll likely kill you. GAMEPLAY LOOP Activate your action skill and start shooting. Beware that the Infernal Wish dot will grow in strength as you play. Just don't kill the last enemy in the room with a strong dot on yourself. Remember that going down resets the Wish, so you can always just let it happen before killing that last enemy. Don't be afraid of FFYL; the Blade Fury is very strong. Or if there's no enemies left and you're about to burn alive, look around for health vials. For bossing, a 250% Phasecast gun damage anointed Blade Fury is strongly recommended. Consecutive Hits is your reliable mainstay. Killstack is for less dangerous areas, as going into FFYL will make you lose Killstacks. Gun damage, bullet damage, grenade damage, action skill damage, melee damage, splash damage, non-elemental, fire, shock, corrosive, rad, and cryo. All in one very simple package.

💙 Lone, you were always positive, kind, smart, friendly, and generous with the work you did for the community. We all benefited from your mods in a way that increased our knowledge and playtime. And we benefited from you as an example of how to be a curious and helpful community member. In short, you increased our joy. Be at peace in your eternal rest.

Information about quality-of-life hotfixes and other mods for playing Amara at end game. Modding If you're on PC, we can fix a thing or two to increase your quality of life while playing Borderlands 3. Examples include making the Sleeping Giant always roll all of its buffs, or making the Shooting Star shield work on every map. Below, I will direct you to resources for setting up mods, and share what I consider to be essential mods. Open Hotfix Loader (OHL) There are a few kinds of mods. The most common kind is known as "custom hotfixes". To set up custom hotfix mods, you will need to download and correctly place a few files. Go to this website and scroll down to the "Installation" section, and follow the instructions. Essentially, after OHL is set up, you will have a folder into which you place your hotfix files, and when Borderlands 3 is launched, your custom hotfixes are automatically loaded and applied. To add hotfixes to an already launched game, add the new hotfix to the folder, quit to Title Screen, and re-sign in. There is no need to quit to desktop to add hotfixes. On the other hand, if you want to remove hotfixes, you need to quit to desktop, remove the hotfixes from the folder (or place them in another folder within your 'ohl-mods' folder), and relaunch the game. Essential Hotfixes DJIRA BALL! , by CZ47. Do yourself a favor and hop on over to the dedicated page for this , and introduce yourself to the coolest esport within your favorite game :) Note that the Guardian Takedown will not play normally with this hotfix enabled. VENDOR CRASH FIX , by CZ47. You know how sometimes in the Maliwan Takedown (or anywhere, really) your whole game can crash when you approach a vendor to refill your ammo? This mod will fix that basically 100% of the time. REALLY LUCKY 7 , by CZ47. Allows you to use the Lucky 7 pistol at maximum power without spending 25 minutes reloading it. FYI, it is considered in poor taste to run out the magazine with this mod enabled and continue to use the Lucky 7 for the activity you're currently running. It should be treated as if you rolled all of the modifiers yourself and have ammo regeneration tactics to keep it from being depleted. SLEEPING GIANT 100% , by CZ47 (direct link, right click > save as) . Like the Lucky 7 mod above, this mod makes the Sleeping Giant always roll all of its buffs after the first reload. The same etiquette also applies here. SHOOTING STAR SHIELD FIX , by CZ47 and Lonemasterino (direct link, right click > save as) . If only Gearbox fixed this shield, we would have it as a very strong avenue of attack for Amara's gun and true melee builds. Thankfully, we have this hotfix, which also includes a fix to the Hot Drop artifact so that it works in low gravity, like in the Guardian Takedown. PHOTO MODE UNLOCK , by Apocalyptech. Removes the boundaries of the photomode camera and increases its movement speed. Get closer to damage numbers, or simply look around at the beautiful maps Gearbox has created. TERROR NO EFFECTS , by Bra2ha and CZ47. If you are annoyed by the visual and audio pollution created by the terror status, this removes both of them for you. Terror anoints are absolutely wonderful, so I would hate for people to avoid them because of aesthetic reasons. THE FULL LIST of mods for Borderlands 3. Feel free to browse and see if anything interesting or fun catches your eye! SDK Mods A second kind of mod is called an SDK mod. These are much less common but much more capable than hotfix mods. To get SDK mods installed, go to this web page and follow the instructions. Then add whichever SDK mods seem appealing to you. The one that appeals to me the most, however, won't be found on that site. As of right now, it can only be found here. Thanks to the genius modder OhYes10fps, we have an SDK mod that reverts the projectile nerf and brings back the original glory days of the Projectile Recursion and other weapons. Check it out: Download it here. Download the build I used in this video here. Beware: this interaction always resulted in frame drops, and can even potentially crash your game. I would not recommend firing a recursion when there are two immune enemies in close proximity. Examples include first phase of the Valkyrie fight, when they all drop down at the beginning, and Diadems in the Guardian Takedown. Most PCs will be severely lagged or crashed by something like this happening: Save Editor We all know farming in this game can be a pain. On PC, you can save edit your gear with the ZakisM save editor . I urge caution, however. If you don't know how to make legitimate gear, I would stick to changing things like the element or anointment of an item you already found.

Tips for understanding and building with Amara's Purple Tree at endgame. Purple 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 purple (Enlightened Force) tree. TRUST IN YOURSELF Very effective boost for reload speed, swap speed, and charge speed. This skill can stack twice, and when using a shield with Action Skill Start, after activating that anointment, all you need to do is take damage against your shield for this skill to proc. When stacked twice, some of these speeds become almost comical. The swap speed in particular is useful for builds that do a lot of swapping, such as Emerald Swan. NO MISTAKES IN NATURE A basically always-on melee damage increase. Further down the tree is Joyful Freedom, which has a bit more melee damage and can be stacked by multiple action skill uses, however it cannot be activated while in FFYL, which is one benefit that this skill has. HEAVY RAIN Great splash damage increase, and the projectile speed increase is wonderful for many weapons. However, the speed can make some guns such as the Plaguebearer and the Nukem harder to use. GO WITH THE FLOW Minimal speed and gun damage increase. On a build that does a lot of freezing of enemies, this skill can be justified. Otherwise, it doesn't have much value. Note that it also procs on any cryo self damage. UNWEAVE THE RAINBOW Very good cryo synergy skill, whether you're using something like a Frozen Heart shield, or freezing enemies with your gun or melee attacks. It can be applied, for example, to Tandava in conjunction with an Action Skill Start Frozen Heart. Basically, if you're freezing things, you probably want this skill. It is increased by action skill damage. EBB AND FLOW Good but mostly redundant life steal skill. You can grab this if you're not getting Sustainment, but then you're probably attacking with the Stinger or Fish Slap or Blade Fury or Kensei, because true melee without Sustainment is asking for trouble. If you are specced Sustainement (or are using a Knife Drain), this skill is redundant, because your elemental melee damage that you used to kill the enemy will heal you to full anyway. COMBO BREAKER Not entirely reliable, but very helpful when it procs. This skill is somewhat bugged in that it doesn't reset your action skill correctly if its still active, such as when a grasp or Phaseflare is active. But it's not a waste if you have a decent form of melee damage on your build. Like Ebb and Flow, this skill can proc from Kensei damage. JOYFUL FREEDOM Stackable melee damage increase. It also works on fakegrasping, although it is rather inconvenient to do so and the stacks don't go too high before they decay. BURN BOTH ENDS This skill has its own section here. BODY & MIND Very strong skill, when invested into with action skill damage, both as a supplement for true melee damage and for the Face Puncher. The FP will proc a B&M nova for every pellet. It'll proc twice as many novas if you also have at least one point into Infusion. FREE THE SOUL With lots of action skill damage, this skill is like Remnant 2.0, but it can hit multiple enemies and it acts much faster. Of course, you have to be cryo focused to take advantage of it. However, despite what the skill says, an enemy doesn't need to be fully frozen when they die in order for this skill to proc. They only need to be 75% of the way to being completely frozen. ATMAN Decent flat action skill damage increase. If you're investing into action skill damage and this far down the tree, it's a great place to dump points. CLEAR THE MIND Very strong in some situations, however, its strengths are often devalued by the fact that you can often element match. Not every kind of attack can, though, and for those, Clear The Mind is valuable.

Traditional red tree/blue tree Ties That Bind gun build, with a couple small twists. Phasewalker SYNOPSIS Traditional red tree/blue tree Ties That Bind gun build, with a couple small twists. INTRO I avoided making a generic red/blue Ties That Bind build for a long time, because I didn't have anything to add to the concept. After exploring gun dots , I realized I could add a little flair to it. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES The way this build deviates from other builds is you max Anima and Unweave the Rainbow. Gun dots are strong, and getting up to 10 points in Anima really lets you fire and forget, and also increases the effectiveness of Radsplosions. And if you choose to use cryo guns, which don't apply a dot, you are rewarded by Unweave the Rainbow. This build also leans into action skill damage, allowing actions skills outside of Ties That Bind to do work. ACTION SKILL Ties That Bind. Optionally Reverberation, Tandava, or Phaseslam, all of which will deal plenty of damage on their own, and can be matched with a 250% Phasecast or 300% Phaseslam gun damage anointment on your guns for bossing. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Whatever is suited to your content, keeping in mind that 40% of your gun's damage is changed via Infusion and 18% is a bonus element from Forceful Expression. Also note that if cryo is your action skill element, Anima breaks completely and has no effect. So to take advantage of Unweave the Rainbow and also get juicy dots and radsplosions from bonus elements, use cryo guns and have your action skill element set to something else. GUNS Any decent or strong gun, with Killstack or Consecutive Hits anointment. This build and Ties That Bind allows for quite a variety. Some of my favorites: Hellwalker, Free Radical, Crit, Sand Hawk, Bird of Prey, Major Kong, Yellowcake, Guardian Angel, Reflux, Plaguebearer, Kaoson, D.N.A., Kickcharger, Clairvoyance, Beacon, Flipper, Rowan's Call, King's/Queen's Call. Yes, you can actually shoot the Guardian Angel; it's very effective with Ties That Bind and Indiscriminate. For bossing, any of the strongest guns with a 250% Phasecast or 300% Phaseslam gun damage anointment. OPTIONAL SWAP GUN Guardian Angel, with Killstack anointment. The Killstack anointment is the only anointment that attaches to the player instead of the gun, so you can swap guns freely and the stacks will still be there, decaying over time like normal. This allows you to run Reverberation or Tandava or Phaseslam with the Killstack anointment - swap to the Guardian Angel to buff those action skills, and any kills you get will add to your Killstacks. Swap back to your gun to shoot enemies and your stacks will keep going. OPTIONAL BOSSING GUN Guardian Angel, with Astral Projection or Slam damage anointment. For direct bossing damage with just your action skill. Try the special Reverberation technique for even more damage. CLASS MOD Phasezerker, with as many points into Anima as possible. Recommended passives: weapon damage, action skill cooldown rate, splash damage, splash damage radius, weapon type damage, mag size, action skill damage. This is also a build where the Kensei fits in nicely. Utilize Unweave the Rainbow during mobbing by having splash guns that are cryo or having your action skill element attuned to cryo. During bossing, the Kensei damage itself helps quite a lot, so element-match as best as you can. Same anointment philosophy: Killstack or Consec Hits if using Grasp, 250% Cast Gun Damage if using Reverberation. Tandava and Phaseslam are not recommended with the Kensei because of their longer cooldown. SHIELD Re-Volter, with Action Skill Start. Perfect for buffing your guns and your action skills. ARTIFACT Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge with a mag size passive. Other options are an Atom Balm Victory Rush for greater radsplosions, or a Snowdrift Victory Rush for better movement. Recommended passives on these two artifacts: action skill cooldown rate, area of effect damage in the 2nd or 3rd slot (which will also increase area radius), elemental damage, weapon type damage. GRENADE Whatever you find useful, with ASE 50% radiation anointment. If you're bossing, change this element to match the boss, but for general use, the radsplosions enabled by having bonus radiation damage are very useful. Utility grenades: It's Piss, Hyperion Quasar (non sticky), Mesmer. Damage grenades, especially if holding the Guardian Angel: Lightspeed, Doc Hina's Miracle Bomb. GAMEPLAY LOOP Grasp, shoot, and destroy. If you are wanting to deal damage with action skills or grenades, swap to Guardian Angel to perform those actions, then swap back to guns and start blastin'. This is probably the most straightforward Amara gun build, even with the few twists. This sort of build can run into roadblocks when bossing or raid bossing. Either use Guardian Angel anointed to buff your Reverb or Phaseslam, or use a 250% Phasecast or 300% Phaseslam gun damage anoint on your guns. You can also cheese most bosses with Remnant: hold the Guardian Angel, Reverb a nearby mob, and Remnant will fly toward the closest enemy to you. If it hits the boss, the boss gets deleted. If it hits another enemy, Groundbreaker the boss.

The big list. The Builds READ OR DIE. Well, kind of. A lot of these builds require lengthy explanations in order to be properly understood and played. Playing a build improperly may result in a bad time. Most of these builds require intermediate to expert level experience with the Borderlands 3 endgame. If you're not quite at that point, perhaps head over to the Tips section for help. It is assumed that you know how the anointments function, that you have all Guardian Rank perks unlocked, and have a basic understanding of the damage formula . All gameplay footage of Takedowns are in True Takedown mode. Gun Builds Acidwolf Hidden Tiger Queen Mida s Inferno Amara Nightmare Amara Leeloo Dallas Multi-tap Amara Dot Gun Amara Dot Crit Barbie Dahl Phasewalker Cold Hearted Ragebow Beeg Badaboom Agent Amara Mother Chuckin' Amara Action Skill Builds Supernatural Amara Meteor Amara Sorceress Queen Hybrid Builds Fission Amara Oblivion Amara Lame Faker Amara True Melee Builds Emerald Swan Ruby Swan Sapphire Swan Golden Swan Sulphur Swan Steel Swan Amber Swan Antimatter Swan Stone Swan Slam Builds Gone Fission Amara Icicle Amara Magmamara Teslamara Other Builds Phase Yeet Boomfist Amara Dot Com Unreal Amara

Peak single-target true melee. High survivability (for a true melee build). Radsplosions. What else can you ask for? Sulphur Swan SYNOPSIS Formerly the peak single-target true melee (since eclipsed by Steel Swan ). High survivability (for a true melee build). Radsplosions. What else can you ask for? INTRO Can true melee defeat a raid boss? Can the White Elephant hit for billions of damage after being applied by a punch? It's kinda surprising, but the answer to both of those questions is: kinda... yeah. Here we have the first build added to this site after the site's launch. And oh boy did it give all the other true melee builds a run for their money. This build emerged when I tried to build around the Zheitsev's Eruption. The Eruption's reload debuff effect is extremely powerful. And being a debuff, it is a damage multiplier that is double-dipped by any double-dipping effect. Like, say, the White Elephant or the Static Charge. The White Elephant was heavily nerfed a long time ago, but if you throw enough damage formula at it, the double-dipping effect overcomes that nerf. The Static Charge has always been strong, and this build uses it very effectively, but its strength shines more in multi-target scenarios. Perhaps most importantly, this build fills in a gap that most other true melee builds on the site have left: it has radsplosions. Lots of them. (Although Golden Swan is now part of that club.) And it has pretty great survivability. And it can boss, too, so what's the catch? Just a slightly odd gameplay loop as you work with the Eruption's effect. But don't worry, it'll only take a run or two to get used to. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Max Do Harm, one point into Infusion, but no Body & Mind? You don't need it, and it can even be detrimental if you're trying to see if your punch stuck a White Elephant bomb to your enemy. Personal Space on a melee build? Personal Space applies to guns/bullets, and the ASE 50% bonus element anointment that you'll have on your grenade always counts as a "bullet". ASE 50% bonus elements apply to Groundbreaker. With all of your buffs going, your total Groundbreaker damage (including the bonus element) is going to be 7+ times as strong as the damage that built it up in the first place. That's right, this build can take Groundbreaker from 10% of the initial damage to 700+%. So, very indirectly, Personal Space is actually quite a large damage increase for your punches. Do Harm is to buff Phaseslam a bit, and Infusion is for a little bit of lifesteal when using the Face Puncher. Max swap speed is important, but no extra reload speed beyond that (no Alacrity). You want to swap to and from your Eruption often, but you also don't want it to complete its reload animation. ACTION SKILL Phaseslam. Technically, any action skill can be used. But Phaseslam will be the most effective because it will: kickstart your damage, stack Samsara, immediately proc your bonus element anointment, keep your Terror anoints cycling, proc a bit of Expedite, and stagger/ragdoll enemies. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Whatever is suited to the content you are facing, except Cryo. It's a Driver build. DEBUFFING GUN The Zheitsev's Eruption, in radiation only , with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. The work horse of the build. The Terror Dmg anointment will get double dipped by your White Elephant (and Static Charge). Upon starting its reload/repair animation, the Eruption sends out 8 homing splash projectiles at nearby enemies. Each projectile debuffs an enemy for 20% increased damage from all sources for 6 seconds. The animation can be cancelled by the typical means: meleeing, throwing a grenade, using your action skill, swapping, mantling, etc. When the animation begins again, the projectiles get sent out again, except if you cancelled it via melee. All other cancellation methods will reproc the projectiles. So the easiest and most consistent way to reproc the projectiles is by swapping to and away from the Eruption. This is totally fine, because then you get to swap to your punching gun... PUNCHING GUN The Guardian Angel, with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. No, not the Psycho Stabber, although it's not half bad. The Guardian Angel will add another multiplier for the White Elephant (and Static Charge) to double dip. It's also the gun you hold if you want Phaseslam to do some damage and get you Expedite stacks (you generally want this). FFYL /FLYING ENEMY GUN Face Puncher, with Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment. You can also shoot the Guardian Angel at enemies if you're down, and Indiscriminate will have a good chance of getting you back up. CLASS MOD Spiritual Driver, mostly for proccing Elemental Projector with your action skill element. Mindfulness points are also useful for maneuverability and closing the gap. Recommended passives: action skill cooldown, action skill damage, melee damage, splash damage, splash damage radius. Getting a large splash radius means Phaseslam hits more enemies and White Elephant stickies can hit more than just the enemy they're stuck to. Protip: turn dialog volume all the way down if you do not wish to hear Amara screaming from self-dots all of the time. You can actually run lots of other class mods, though they will be less effective than the Driver: Golden Rule with points into Laid Bare and Mindfulness for a bit of damage and faster cooldown, Stone with points into Awakening and Do Harm, Muse with any skill points, Breaker with Find Your Center and Personal Space points, Dragon with a point into Remnant. All of the same recommended passives. SHIELD Red Suit, preferably with two Roid augments, with ASE Apply Terror anointment. The Eruption reload projectiles are splash, and would down you without this shield, especially since you're following the projectiles toward the enemy and ideally boosting splash radius. ARTIFACT Elemental Projector White Elephant. You can also use an Elemental Projector Static Charge for pretty similar results most of the time. However, the White Elephant is what's needed to take down big bosses. The Static Charge will provide more consistency in mobbing and for bosses with lots of adds (like Wotan). The only time the Static Charge truly outshines the White Elephant on this build is when mobbing with Guardians in the Guardian Takedown. Recommended passives: action skill cooldown, area-of-effect damage in the 2nd or 3rd slot (so it also increases area radius), melee damage, elemental damage, move speed. GRENADE Fish Slap, in radiation, with ASE 50% radiation damage anointment. Both aspects are pretty important. Radiation element Fish so that it gets boosted by Elemental Projector. You will almost always have a radiation dot on you (that won't damage you thanks to the Red Suit) from the Eruption projectiles. The Red Suit will also protect you from your Fish, as long as you have the White Elephant and not the Static Charge equipped. Your ASE 50% radiation bonus element will get added to your Groundbreaker when you punch, and it will be even further boosted by Elemental Projector. You're building Groundbreaker all the time via your Red Suit's aura, your White Elephant stickies (or Static Charge chains), Phaseslam, and the Eruption projectiles. This bonus element, when coupled with the Driver self-dot, will also stack Burn Both Ends for you. GAMEPLAY LOOP Before engaging in combat, shoot your Eruption until it overheats, then swap away to your Guardian Angel before the repair animation gets any further. Now it's primed for debuffing. Whenever you swap back to your overheated Eruption, a set of projectiles will get sent out and debuff enemies. (No projectiles will proc if there are no enemies around.) When entering combat, Phaseslam into some mobs while holding the Guardian Angel. Swap back to the Eruption briefly one or two times to send out one or two sets of debuffing projectiles. Then punch 1 or 3 enemies to death. Back to the Eruption again, then back to punching. Keep in mind, the debuff lasts 6 seconds, so you do need to be swapping back to the Eruption pretty often. Luckily, your relatively short window of actual punching will be very productive. Phaseslam with the Guardian Angel in your hand when it's available. Throw a Fish at enemies that are immune to your action skill element. Face Puncher annoying flying enemies. Feel free to follow your Eruption projectiles to the enemy. You want them to proc a radiation dot on you for your Elemental Projector. Standing directly next to an enemy and sending projectiles into them isn't the craziest idea. You have great survivability with the Red Suit aura and Eruption projectiles giving you steady healing with Sustainment. Samsara will pull its weight if you Phaseslammed effectively. You will sometimes get jostled around with this build. Both because you're true melee and because the Eruption projectile explosions can push you a little bit. Just persevere and punch when you can; you'll be fine. NOTES - GUARDIAN TAKEDOWN There are a few areas in the Guardian Takedown where piloting a true melee build can be very risky, for various reasons. For this build, during both crystal phases and during the last mobbing section before Scourge, take a break from the true melee for a while, lest you get overrun and/or knocked off. Instead, continually jump while alternating between reloading the Eruption and shooting the Guardian Angel at enemies. Phaseslam when available. Throw Fish if you feel like it. Maybe when you're on your last crystal you can start punching again, if you want. NOTES - RAID BOSSING The setup for raid bossing with the White Elephant is as follows. Set your action skill element appropriately and make sure the Eruption is overheated. Start with a volley of projectiles from the Eruption, then immediately follow it up with your action skill. You can use Phaseslam or base Phasecast or base Grasp. All you really need it to do is to proc your Elemental Projector and anoints. Once the Eruption is back in your hand, another set of projectiles will proc. Immediately swap to your Guardian Angel, punch 2 or 3 times, and step away. Hopefully, you attached a White Elephant sticky or two. If a sticky of a favorable element gets attached, there's potential for massive damage. If a sticky of massive damage procced, run back up again and punch for Groundbreaker. If not, or after you have punched for Groundbreaker, repeat the process, except your action skill is now on cooldown. Swap to the Eruption a couple times for a couple sets of projectiles, then punch 2 or 3 times again and back away. When your action skill is done cooling down, repeat the whole process. White Elephant is chance-based, of course, but this build is still able to take down raid bosses in a reasonable time frame, in my opinion. NOTES - HEMOVOROUS If you have patience, you can actually punch/White Elephant Hemo to death. Problem is, he's very hard to land a punch on. You have to go for his legs. Keep in mind he will move his legs to both face you and attack you as you approach. It's tough, but doable. You will need to Fish him during his flying phase, though.

Phasecast and gun-based cryo build that creates all sorts of chaos. Oblivion Amara SYNOPSIS Phasecast and gun-based cryo build that creates all sorts of chaos. INTRO Oblivion Amara is one of the two builds I originally made in 2020 after the purple tree came out, along with its sister build Fission Amara. Here it is updated for level 72, and it's very strong. This is a cryo gun and Phasecast build, and has the potential to create some very fun, very destructive shenanigans. Sometimes you might find yourself suddenly wondering where your nearby enemies went and how they died. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE ACTION SKILL Tandava for general usage, Reverberation for bossing, with the special Reverberation technique. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Always cryo, with a few exceptions. You can stick with cryo vs many armor bars, but you much switch to corrosive vs Wotan. You can also switch to better match harder content, such as fire vs Guardian Takedown creatures and shock vs Guardian Takedown Guardians. Your action skill element greatly affects your guns' power, as that is the element Unweave The Rainbow procs as. PHASECASTING GUN Guardian Angel, with either the Killstack or 200% Astral Projection anointment. Killstack is the only anointment that is attached to the player, not the gun, so if you get some Tandava/Reverberation kills while holding a Killstack Guardian Angel, that damage and reload speed will transfer when you swap back to your shooting gun. 200% Astral Projection is great for Reverberation vs bosses. SHOOTING GUNS Anything cryo and splash. Even though you can change your action skill element as mentioned above, do not deviate from cryo weapons (exception: "Notes - Frozen Heart" below) My favorites: Beacon, Recursion, Kaoson, Sand Hawk, Flipper, Plaguebearer, Anarchy, Trevonator. The reason we want to stick with cryo is because shooting and freezing enemies and then hitting them with Unweave The Rainbow is a very strong mobbing strategy, especially when coupled with radsplosions and Free The Soul. The anointment varies based on your preferred playstyle. If you want to swap to the Guardian Angel for your casts, put Consecutive hits or 150/90 on your guns. If you don't want to swap, you can put 250% Phasecast on your guns to get more gun damage. Swapping is not necessary; Tandava won't kill as often without the Guardian Angel, but it will definitely freeze enemies, allowing you to kill them easily with the aid of Unweave. Reverb will still kill if you aim it correctly. FFYL GUN My favorite FFYL strategy is to use my cryo gun to freeze a nearby enemy and get up when Unweave finishes them off. But if you're using a less powerful gun for your shooting, it may not be strong enough to freeze, so carrying something like a Consecutive Hits Free Radical or Plasma Coil may be wise. CLASS MOD Phasezerker, with points into Clarity. This class mod will allow you to automatically stack Rush and Do Harm, leading to more powerful Phasecasts and other action skill effects such as Unweave The Rainbow, Free The Soul, and Remnant. Further, it increases your cooldown and gun damage. Because of the way the Phasezerker works, you should generally cast Tandava or Reverb twice in a row for maximum Do Harm and maximum damage. Recommended passives: weapon damage, action skill cooldown rate, action skill damage, splash damage, splash damage radius, weapon crit damage, weapon type damage. SHIELD There are a few options, but the most important one is the Void Rift, with Action Skill Start anointment. It's the shield that was used for the original version of this build, and it both synergizes so well and helps create so much chaos. Upon break, it will suck nearby enemies towards you (and barrels - watch out) and then release a strong cryo nova. Further, when enemies shoot you and damage it, it responds by sending homing cryo projectiles back at them. Both of these types of damage are cryo splash, further helping us freeze things and finish them off with Unweave The Rainbow. Other options: Frozen Heart, cryo Stinger, Band of Sitorak, Plus Ultra. The Frozen Heart, with Action Skill Start anointment, is easy-mode for freezing enemies. Just cast and then shoot at whatever blocks of snow are laying around you. Unweave will take care of the rest. The cryo Stinger, with Action Skill Start anointment, is just a powerful punch in nova form. The Band of Sitorak or Plus Ultra, with ASE 50% bonus element anointment, is for when you don't want to swap to the Guardian Angel to cast. These shields provide great Topped Off uptime, especially the Band of Sitorak, which then leads to great 250% Phasecast uptime on your guns. The Band of Sitorak is especially fun with a Safe Space augment, able to send basically any enemy ragdolling. The Plus Ultra is a little slower to recharge than the Sitorak, but it doubles your health for better defense. ARTIFACT Ice Breaker Otto Idol. The most important passive is Area of Effect in the 2nd or 3rd slot, which will also increase area damage radius. Other recommended passives: action skill cooldown rate, movespeed, cryo damage, cryo efficiency, weapon type damage. There are a few other options for artifact prefixes: Snowdrift for moving around a boss arena. Last Stand for more survivability. Ice Spiker for another form of attack and another way to proc Samsara. GRENADE Unfortunately I have to recommend a Fish Slap, not in cryo, in order to deal with cryo immune Maliwan Heavies. Shock or radiation or fire, with an ASE 50% radiation bonus element for radsplosions. There's always the option to Groundbreaker an immune heavy with damage done to other enemies, but sometimes the timing for that can be too tight. If you don't have to worry about immunities, It's Piss or Hyperion Quasar (non sticky) or Mesmer, with ASE 50% radiation bonus element. Anything utility oriented like these works just fine. GAMEPLAY LOOP Figure out if you want to be swapping for your casts or not, and choose your weapon anoint and shield accordingly. Then you cast, you shoot, you destroy. If you're using the Void Rift and a Beacon, the OG loadout, there will be tons of things flying around, freezing, and exploding. Sometimes you have to play a game of "Are any of these blocks of ice still alive?". NOTES - FROZEN HEART An exception to using cryo-only guns is if you want to only freeze with the Frozen Heart, and use splash guns of other elements. With this setup, I would also recommend not swapping for Phasecasting, and use the 250% Phasecast anoint on your guns to keep their power up between freezes. You also would not need to use the Ice Breaker artifact. NOTES - RAID BOSSES Builds such as this have an inherent way to take out most raid bosses by Reverbing or Tandava-ing a mob and letting either Remnant hit the boss or letting it hit another mob and then you Groundbreaker the boss. Some of the weaker raid bosses can be Reverb'd directly.

A Nimbus and damage over time (dot) build. Amara Dot Com SYNOPSIS A Nimbus and damage over time (dot) build. INTRO The Nimbus class mod is still pretty weak, but it can be built around to make a fun and interesting build. The damage over time from the cloud by itself is great for mobbing, but would make very slow work of bosses if you don't supplement it with additional mechanics. Notes that the Nimbus class mod has two dots, the tiny one that's listed on the class mod itself, and one that the cloud applies based on the gun you are holding. You can ignore the one listed on the class mod; this guide only references the second one. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES There is an extra point in blue tree, and 5 points in Restless that can be moved as you like. If you want to fire your gun in addition to using the Nimbus cloud damage, you can put more points into Alacrity and/or From Rest. If you want Tandava to deal more damage, you can move 4 into Do Harm. The Nimbus cloud damage that is based on your gun looks at your gun's dot chance. Every tick of the cloud has that chance to apply the dot to an enemy within it. This is why you spec Violent Tapestry and Awakening, to increase that chance. Nothing in purple tree helps except perhaps Burn Both Ends, but speccing that would mean taking a lot more damage and therefore losing Topped Off cooldown. ACTION SKILL Tandava is the best option here, for a few reasons. 1. You need to have an action skill that ends immediately so your anoints kick in and apply to the Nimbus cloud, adding dots in different elements. 2. Having the splash version of the action skill makes you much more likely to land a hit on an enemy and proc the cloud. 3. The Phasecast 250% gun damage anoint greatly increases the cloud damage, because it increases your gun's dot damage. Glamour's aggro-relief is the best option for keeping Topped Off active, which is important because of Tandava's long cooldown. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Your action skill element determines the primary element of the Nimbus cloud, and this should be selected to match the content you are facing. GEARING STRATEGIES There are many ways to gear for this build, depending on if you want to go all-in on the Nimbus dot or if you want to supplement it with a dot from your gun. Before going into the gear recommendations, you need to know how dots work. The cloud's damage over time is based on your gun's listed dot damage. The chance for it to apply this dot is the same as the listed dot chance. All guns have a dot damage and dot chance, even non-elemental and cryo guns. Non-elemental and cryo versions of a gun have dot stats proportional to the other elemental versions. For example, a fire Ion Cannon lists 295529 card damage and 201698 dmg/s for the dot. The ratio of dot to card is 201698 ÷ 295529 or 68.25%. That ratio is the same for all Ion Cannons, and in fact all Vladof launchers. 68% is also the same cryo efficiency you'll find on any cryo Vladof launcher. (The ratio varies based on manufacturer and weapon type.) That means that a non-elemental Ion Cannon, with it's higher listed card damage of 369411 multiplied by 0.6825, has a higher hidden dot damage of 252123 (with the same dot chance). Non-elemental versions of guns create stronger Nimbus cloud dots. And cryo versions are stronger than other elements (dual element Maliwans being the exception). The strongest Nimbus cloud gun is the non-elemental Ion Cannon, while the second strongest is the Masterwork Crossbow. The third is a cryo kickcharger. The Nimbus cloud damage, being based on your gun's dot damage, is also increased by your active gun damage bonuses at the time the dot takes effect. Any skills, anointments, artifact passives, and classmod passives that add to gun damage will be factored in. The cloud dot is also increased by elemental damage. The Nimbus cloud's size and area of effect is increased by splash radius boosts on class mod and artifact, though splash damage itself does not affect the cloud's dot at all (nor does it affect gun dots). The Nimbus cloud applies a primary dot based on your action skill element, regardless of the element of the gun in your hand. The cloud will also apply a dot for each active bonus element, one per element. The bonus elements are applied at 100% of the damage of the primary dot, regardless of the bonus element's strength, whether it's a 50% ASE, a 100% Urad, or a 200% Re-Volter. Therefore, the way to get the most damage out of your cloud is to diversify your action skill element and bonus elements. Similarly, if you also choose to shoot the gun you're holding in order to apply dots from that source, you get one dot per element. Therefore, in this case, match the element of the gun you're holding to your action skill element. Your gun, then, will match your Nimbus cloud element, and be diversified from your bonus elements. Never hold a radiation gun; in all situations with this build, radiation is much more effective as bonus element, and radiation guns have the lowest base damage. With all of that explained, you can now make decisions about your gear. GUNS All guns with the 250% Phasecast gun damage anointment, and all of them single projectile. You want guns with high dot damage, whether it's listed or not. For maximum Nimbus cloud damage, hold a non-elemental Ion Cannon. Vladof Launchers have a movement speed penalty, however, so perhaps the 2nd best Masterwork Crossbow would suit you, or a non-elemental Major Kong. If you'd like to shoot the elemental gun you're holding to supplement Nimbus damage, good options are the Kickcharger, Major Kong, Slow Hand, Recursion, and Storm. The Kill-o'-the-Wisp can have a very high dot damage, but it is only applied by the orbs exploding, not the lightning chains. Shoot the Wisp for chip damage and Sustainment healing. Your non-elemental and cryo guns, if shot, will still be able to apply dots from your bonus elements, but you'll be missing the full power dot from your gun. SWAP GUN Guardian Angel, with Elemental Critical Hit anointment. Swap to this if you want to accelerate the Nimbus cloud dot damage, AFTER the dot has taken effect. Once the Nimbus cloud dot has applied your main gun's dot, swapping weapons won't change the damage of that dot. HOWEVER, if you swap before the dot applies, it will likely apply based on the Guardian Angel's much, much weaker dot value. In practice, this means waiting 2-3 seconds after the cloud has appeared before swapping. The anointment here is for triggering a large status effect explosion on enemies. The best way to do this is with a grenade. Radiation is going to be your workhorse dot for the vast majority of content, so a radiation Hex is great for critting while holding the Guardian Angel. The Guardian Angel is also your FFYL gun. You will likely have at least some dots going when you are downed, so the GA will help finish off those enemies. Additionally, you can shoot the GA at the nearest enemy and Indiscriminate projectiles, which will double dip the GA damage bonus, will kill other enemies nearby. CLASS MOD The Nimbus, with as many points into Tempest as possible. The most important passive is Splash Damage Radius, as that will increase the effective area of the Nimbus cloud. Other recommended passives: weapon damage, action skill cooldown rate, shield recharge rate (for Topped Off uptime). SHIELD There are a few options here, but all of them must have ASE 50% Radiation anointment. If you want to shoot your gun, a triple-amp One-Shotter or Mana Well or 0.m are great options. An Old God will increase a specific element's damage. A Band of Sitorak is great for Topped Off, especially with a Safe Space augment, which will help clear away approaching enemies. The Mana Well offers the most damage for your cloud, although it comes with some complications. If you have any capacity, slamming will give you a shock bonus element and start draining your shield. This can be the fourth element for your cloud, assuming your action skill element and your two anointments cover fire, corrosive, and radiation. However, you need to work that slam into your attack pattern, and you will lose the cooldown from Topped Off. Tandava with Glamour has a base 42 second cooldown, so losing Topped Off is significant. ARTIFACT Again, more options. The highest damage for your cloud is offered by the Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge. The cloud damage will ramp up on the fly as your Pearl stacks accumulate. However, the Pearl does not offer Area of Effect or Cooldown passives. An Atom Balm Victory Rush is great for more effective radsplosions. The overall best, though, is a Company Man of the appropriate manufacturer with a 50% Damage roll on the top. With the Company Man, you get gun damage as well as whole suite of good passives. The most important passive, again, is Area of Effect in the 2nd or 3rd slot, which will increase area radius and the effective size of your cloud. Other recommended passives: elemental damage, action skill cooldown rate, movement speed, shield recharge rate. GRENADE And still more options, with an ASE 50% bonus element anointment that's a different element from radiation and your action skill element. There's always the general crowd control grenades such Hyperion Quasar (non sticky) and Mesmer. But those will not easily take advantage of the Elemental Critical Hits anointment on your Guardian Angel. For proccing the Ele Crit anoint, the most all around useful grenade is a radiation Recurring or MIRV-tacular Hex. If you want to Ele Crit your fire or corrosive dot, a fire or corrosive Lightspeed will work. GAMEPLAY LOOP To be absolutely clear, this build clears slowly. Patience is required. However, at least Glamour allows you to relax while you wait. How you play depends on your chosen loadout. Assuming you're going for just cloud damage, you would cast at some enemies, perhaps cast again at a different group of enemies, let the dot take hold, then switch to the Guardian Angel and throw your grenade for some Ele Crits. Then you have to wait for your cooldown. While waiting, avoid damage in order to keep Topped Off active, and stay on your Guardian Angel and perhaps throw another grenade. When Tandava is cooled down, repeat. If you're trying to get the Mana Well bonus element in the mix, cast once, slam for the Mana Well bonus element, then cast again at different enemies to spread the dots around and put more enemies under the effect of Glamour. Your cooldown will be longer this time without Topped Off. If you want to shoot your guns along with the cloud, equip an amp shield. Cast, shoot, cast, shoot. Then swap, throw grenades, and await cooldown. The caveat here is that you can't swap back to your gun and fire some more, because then you will have lost your 250% Phasecast anointment. You should also, before swapping to the Guardian Angel, space out your shots so that each shot is amped. Even further, wait until an enemy dies before shooting so that your shot gets Overkill , which will increase your gun's dot. You will need to always be mindful of all of your elements: action skill element, gun element, anointment elements, element of your grenade. The Nimbus needs all the help it can get, so forgetting something can make your gameplay more painful than it needs to be. Once you're comfortable aiming your Casts and avoiding damage, you can switch to base Phasecast or Deliverance, use Allure, and equip the Band of Sitorak for a much faster action skill cooldown. NOTES - RAID BOSSING It's possible for the Nimbus cloud to take out a raid boss if you only help it along with Guardian Angel and Elemental Crits. However, it's slow going. The recommended raid bossing setup is to use the gun dot from something like the Kickcharger. Have your elements diversified like normal, equip an amp shield, equip a Toboggan, hopefully have Overkill, and fire a shot after Phasecasting with all of those bonuses applied. If the shot applied a dot, then swap to the Guardian Angel and start Ele Critting. NOTES - BONUS LOADOUT For the actual highest damage cloud dot, you can dot yourself with a low level Sellout and use an Elemental Projector Victory Rush. Gameplay loop would be as follows: shoot your foot with Sellout, swap to non-elemental Ion Cannon, cast at enemy, slam for Mana Well shock, cast again, swap and shoot your foot again, swap over to Guardian Angel and start Ele Critting. This is usually more work than it's worth, and you lose Topped Off. This would be a way to take out a tough boss with just the Nimbus cloud, though.

A Multi-tap-only Ties That Bind gun build. Leeloo Dallas Multi-tap SYNOPSIS A Multi-tap-only Ties That Bind gun build. INTRO The Multi-tap is pretty consistently underrated, so this build is simply meant to optimize and showcase it. The dang thing can get up to nearly 100K damage per bullet with 7 shots per second fire rate, with a mechanic that can make it do extra damage on reload, plus Atlas Critical Hit Damage can roll on class mods. These upsides outweigh the downsides of it being non-elemental and non-splash. Yes, the build name is a Fifth Element reference. Atlas guns sort of look like the guns they have in that movie, too. GAMEPLAY VIDEO SKILL TREE SKILL TREE NOTES Typical red/blue Ties That Bind gun build. However, Dread is avoided and as many reload speed skills are specced so that you can take advantage of the Multi-taps cryo projectiles on reload. This occurs every reload when at least one enemy is tagged with the tracker grenade. ACTION SKILL Ties That Bind. Phasecast for bossing with the 250% Phasecast gun damage anointment. ACTION SKILL ELEMENT Whatever is suited to the content you are facing. This build has 5/5 Infusion to allow for some element matching (and lifesteal with Sustainment). GUNS Multi-tap, with Killstack anointment. An additional Multi-tap with 250% Phasecast gun damage anointment. There are perhaps other weapons that can take advantage of the fast fire rate and reload speed of this build. The Prompt Critical is not bad. You can experiment and find others. CLASS MOD Phasezerker. Skill points don't matter much. What's most important is an Atlas Critical Hit Damage passive. Other recommended passives: action skill cooldown rate, pistol damage, weapon damage, splash damage radius (for larger hollowpoints). SHIELD Re-Volter, with Action Skill Start anointment. The boost to fire rate is key for depleting the mag quickly and getting to the cryo reload. The shock bonus damage, of course, is also good. ARTIFACT Atlas Company Man, with any top rolls except Magazine Size. Recommended bottom passives: area of effect damage, reload speed, action skill cooldown rate. Avoid mag size here as well. If you set your action skill element to cryo and use a cryo bonus element on your grenade, an Ice Breaker Victory Rush would be a good substitute. GRENADE It's Piss, with various ASE 50% bonus element anointments. Change out the elements to suit your content. GAMEPLAY LOOP Grasp an enemy, shoot the tracker grenade at them, and fire away. Tracker grenade enemies between grasps, too, or don't. Using the tracker can make it hard or impossible to hit crits, but having those cryo projectiles is great for some bosses such as Anathema and the Valks. There's not much to this build. The Multi-tap melts.