Couldn’t help myself, I did it again. Since writing my melee build I’ve been looking at Amara’s skill trees in-depth and theory crafting some more, because that’s what I like to do when I’m not playing, and I’ve come up with a gun build centred around a particular action skill, augment, and skill.
This was partially inspired by my own Maya playstyle, and partially by @sammantixbb’s sniper build and some light theory crafting with @Arsonist.
As usual, first off here’s the build on the skill calculator - https://bl3skills.com/siren/#0000000000000010443511330315005041300000
SKILLS
MYSTICAL ASSAULT: This tree is focused around the Rush stacking mechanic and action skill proficiency. Rush skills are a bonus here, we mainly want skills that affect or are effected by action skills and any gun damage increases.
Do Harm: 1 Point - Because Rush. One point here gives us a means of gaining Rush stacks. Since we’re using a Grasp action skill, the damage increase will be negligible. Grant Rush stacks after killing an enemy, which are consumed when using an action skill. +0.6% action skill damage per stack. Max 10 stacks.
Violent Tapestry: 4 Points - We’ll be dealing a lot of elemental damage, so this will be our primary method of gaining Rush stacks. In previous Borderlands games, skills that increase elemental effect chance were only marginal because of the way they were calculated. If this skill turns out to be a straight additive increase, it will be very useful. Gain Rush stacks when applying elemental effects, +2.4% elemental effect chance per stack. Max 10 stacks.
Alacrity: 4 Points - Reload speed means DPS, which is what we want for a gun heavy builds. Always a good stat to buff to alleviate long reloads. +1.6% per stack, 2.4% for 8 seconds after using an action skill.
Transcend: 3 Points - Max investment for a 3 point skill. +27% crit damage and 33% accuracy to make sure we land those crits, which will be made easier by our action skill. This skill activates after using an action skill, which is exactly when we’ll want it.
Restless: 5 Points - Action skill cooldown is invaluable to any build, especially one that depends on it. +20% cooldown rate.
Ascendant: Minor Capstone - One of my favourite skills on paper, and an important skill to this build. Increases effects of all action skill augments.
From Rest: 1 Point - A slight increase to fire rate and greatly improved charge time, which applies to Maliwan weapons. +4% fire rate and 26% charge time. If you use Maliwan weapons often, you can invest more points into this skill. If not, you can use this point to max out Alacrity or place a point in Fast Hands.
Laid Bare: 3 Points - Max investment for a 3 point skill. Enemies take increased damage from all sources after being damaged by your action skill. This skill synergises very well with the core build. +15% damage.
Wrath: 3 Points - Another 3 point skill that synergises well with this build. +9% gun damage, +15% for 8 seconds after using an action skill.
Awakening: 3 Points - Increased Rush stack effectiveness. +30% increased effectiveness of Violent Tapestry and Alacrity.
Avatar: Capstone - Action skills can be activated while cooling down. Can only be used once per completed cooldown. +10 max Rush stacks. I’m not exactly sure how sure this skill works, whether it resets your cooldown or not. Either way, two action skills are better than one, and this build is centred around our action skill. This is a core skill, and the main reason to go down this tree, taking a few synergistic skills along the way.
FIST OF THE ELEMENTS: This tree contains the core skill and action skill to the build. There are a few skills along the way that synergise with each other, and with skills we’ve already taken.
Anima: 5 Points - Increases elemental effect damage and duration, and action skill elemental effect damage. This skill description implies that action skill elemental damage is separate from other sources of elemental effect damage, so the increased duration may not apply to it. Regardless, this is a big damage increase to DoT due to the extra duration. +10% damage, +50% duration, +30% action skill elemental effect damage.
Wildfire: 4 Points - Adds a chance for elemental to spread to nearby enemies. 32% spread chance. This skill would synergise amazingly with Conflux and Sustainment, but unfortunately we can’t get that far down the tree with this build. For now these are just placeholder points.
Tempest: 5 Points - Deal increased elemental damage, shock damage is further increased. Not sure if this includes DoT or just impact damage. If the former, it will synergise well with Anima. Also not sure if it will increase action skill elemental damage based on the way Anima’s card reads. Either way, damage is damage, get more of it.
Dread: Minor Capstone - Gun damage increased after an enemy is Grasped. Instant reload if Grasped enemy is killed. This is a great skill since we’re using a Grasp action skill, and synergises with the core of this build. +10% gun damage.
Indiscriminate: 3 Points - The namesake and core skill of this build. Bullets have a chance to ricochet, dealing reduced damage. Chance and damage are increased if the target is affected by Phasegrasp or Stillness of Mind. 30% ricochet chance and -30% ricochet damage, 60% action skill ricochet chance and -15% action skill ricochet damage. More on this will be covered below.
Action skill and augment
Now for the fun stuff. The action skill and augment are what make this build, and most of the skills were chosen for their synergy with them.
Ties That Bind: The “Binder” part of this build’s name. Enemies near Grasped enemies are linked, and any damage dealt to a linked target is shared between all links. Link damage 35% of damage dealt. This is a huge burst of area damage, not unlike Maya’s Phaselock augments. Every damage increase has a significant impact on this action skill, and as it reads any damage it’s safe to assume that applies to elemental effect damage too, meaning Anima and Wildfire have good synergy here. Unfortunately we don’t have access to Conflux yet, but a future level cap increase will change that. The main synergistic skill here, and the build’s other namesake, is Indiscriminate. 60% ricochet chance and -15% ricochet damage will stack very well with linked damage, allowing you to quickly burst down entire trash mobs and chunk heavy enemies. Avatar lets us do this twice in quick succession, and several skills in MYSTICAL ASSAULT activate after using an action skill granting further synergy. I’m unsure whether Laid Bare will activate after a target has been Grasped, so it remains to be seen if that will be a good skill for this build or not.
Allure: Amara’s action skill creates singularities that pull in enemies for 2.5 seconds. Think Maya’s Converge skill but better, and since it pulses you don’t need to throw a singularity grenade out first. Amara’s skill Ascendant doubles the range of the singularities. This is a form of crowd control, and also synergises with Ties That Bind by keeping enemies within link range. With the increased radius from Ascendant it may even pull enemies within link range that were otherwise too far away. This will also syngergise with Wildfire and again I find myself wishing I had enough skill points to reach Conflux. Two action skills in quick succession thanks to Avatar turns this action skill into a hard CC high burst damage mob destroyer.
Outro
In closing, this build will work best with high damaging elemental weapons, split projectile weapons, and weapons with high pallet counts. The general playstyle will be similar to Maya from BL2, so weapons like that the ones that work well on her will work very well here. Snipers will be excellent for high damaging shots that will still hit hard when they ricochet or transfer link damage, in particular fully automatic snipers like BL2’s Lyuda. Shotguns will be an excellent choice too as enemies will be pulled toward the Grasped target so you can run in and spray pellets everywhere.
This will look a lot like using Maya’s Phaselock, Converge and Chain Reaction, and Amara’s skills Transcend and Wrath will be as close to Maya’s Wreck as we can get. Transcend’s accuracy and critical hit bonus further incentivise the use of sniper rifles, and if Maliwan snipers turn out to be as good as they were in BL2 you can max out From Rest for +78% charge time.
Link to my previous Amara build that could use some light editing - Master of Maya's Melee Amara Build
