During a recent playthrough as Lilith, I decided to test Lilith’s skills for myself to see how they actually worked. What I found is that many skills have misleading or inaccurate descriptions, which has changed my opinion of several of these skills. However, I also found that there really wasn’t much of a skills guide available on the forums. If anybody did test these skills way back when, it doesn’t seem to have made it over from the oldforums, at least not as an actual skills guide. Therefore, I have used the results of my testing to create this guide as a way to share this knowledge.
Phasewalk
Lilith explodes in a Phaseblast (elemental nova), becoming invisible and invulnerable for a few seconds. At the end of this duration, Lilith explodes with a second Phaseblast, identical to the first. These Phaseblasts use the element of the selected artifact, or deal non-elemental damage when no artifact is selected.
While Phasewalking, Lilith is unable to shoot, reload, throw grenades, jump, or interact with anything, but does gain increased movement speed. Using the action skill button while Phasewalking will end Phasewalk early. Using melee will end Phasewalk with a melee attack in addition to the Phaseblast, and this melee attack will gain +100% additive melee damage (but is not boosted by bladed weapons).
Phasewalk’s base duration is 5.5 seconds, and its base cooldown time is 36 seconds. Cooldown starts when you exit Phasewalk, so ending Phasewalk early will allow you to start cooldown again sooner. Ending Phasewalk early will not reduce Phasewalk’s cooldown.
Daze
Daze is a status effect that some skills can apply to enemies. Dazed enemies will suffer reduced movement speed and rate of fire, and will be surrounded by a yellow visual effect. Daze lasts for about 6 seconds, and attempting to Daze an enemy who is already Dazed will not extend this duration. Also, enemies who are a higher level than the player will have a reduced chance of being Dazed.
Skill Ratings:
- Terrible - These skills are more likely to be harmful than helpful
- Situational - These skills are usually insignificant, but can be useful with the right build or playstyle
- Average - These skills are moderately effective, but are often overshadowed by better skills
- Strong - These skills are highly effective, and often make the game noticeably easier
- Outstanding - These skills are extremely effective, and will often change the way you play the game
- Better Than Advertised - These skills are stronger than their in-game descriptions
- Worse Than Advertised - These skills are weaker than their in-game descriptions
- Additive - These skills include additive bonuses, which may lose their impactfulness when stacking these bonuses with boosts to the same stat
Controller
Diva
+6% shield capacity per point.
Diva is a decent shield buff, but it’s not as strong as most of Lilith’s other defensive skills, and its effectiveness is dependent on the quality of your shield.
Com boosts:
Defender, Firefly
Notes:
Boosts shield regen from Girl Power
Additive with com boosts to shield capacity
Extra shield will be emptied upon exiting a vehicle
Striking
Melee attacks gain +20% chance to Daze enemies per point.
If you plan to melee your enemies often, this is a good source of Daze. If not, there are better ways to Daze your enemies.
Com boosts:
Tormentor
Inner Glow
While Phasewalking, regenerate +1.4% of your maximum health per second per point.
On its own, Inner Glow is a fairly mediocre healing skill, but it becomes more effective when combined with skills like Blackout and Hit & Run. Inner Glow is Lilith’s only healing skill, so expect to want it early and often.
Com boosts:
Defender, Eridian Warrior, Plaguebearer
Notes:
Healing rate scales with max health boosts
Dramatic Entrance
Adds a zero damage ‘Daze Blast’ just before Phasewalk’s Phaseblasts. This new Daze Blast has a +16% chance to Daze enemies per point.
Unfortunately, Daze lasts slightly longer than the default Phasewalk duration. This means that enemies who were Dazed by the initial Daze Blast will be immune to the second Daze Blast, which makes Dramatic Entrance fairly useless outside of using it for a sneak attack. This skill becomes more useful when combined with skills like Hit & Run and Blackout, but even then, Dramatic Entrance is only useful if you use Phasewalk aggressively and at close range.
Com boosts:
Professional
Notes:
Daze Blasts are added to the Phaseblasts at both the start and end of Phasewalk
Daze Blasts have a wider radius than Phaseblasts
Phaseblasts and effects of Phasewalk do not gain a chance to Daze
Hard to Get
Phasewalk’s cooldown time is reduced by -3.2 seconds per point.
This is a solid, reliable cooldown reduction skill. Blackout is better if you can kill 3 enemies within 20 seconds, while Hard to Get is more reliable and more accessible in the early game.
Notes:
Does not reduce the effect of Blackout
Not boosted by any Com
The effect of Hard to Get is reduced by Com boosts to cooldown rate
If viewed as a cooldown rate boost, Hard to Get is multiplicative with Com boosts to cooldown rate
Girl Power
For 7 seconds after killing something, regenerate +0.75% of your maximum shield capacity per second per point. This effect is disabled while Phasewalk is active.
On its own, Girl Power gives weak and situational shield regeneration, which makes it one of Lilith’s worst defensive skills. However, if you can quickly kill enemies, use a high capacity shield, invest in skills like Diva and Silent Resolve, have a Com boost to Girl Power, and don’t spend much time in Phasewalk, Girl Power can be a good defensive skill.
Com boosts:
Catalyst, Mercenary
Notes:
Boosted by Diva and other boosts to shield capacity
While active, Girl Power cancels some warning sounds for losing your shield
Girl Power requires a gun to be equipped to regenerate shields
Mind Games
Dealing bullet damage to enemies has a +4% chance per point to Daze that enemy. This effect is applied separately for each bullet or pellet that hits an enemy.
Being able to Daze enemies just by shooting them is amazing, especially when using multi-pellet or high rate of fire weapons to increase the reliability of Mind Games. You were going to shoot your enemies anyway, why not also Daze them to make everything easier?
Com boosts:
Plaguebearer
Notes:
Hitting an enemy and dealing 0 damage still has a chance to Daze the enemy
Does not apply to rockets, splash damage, grenade damage, or Eridian weapons
Elemental
Quicksilver
Increases your rate of fire by +7% per point.
This is usually a large DPS increase, although it is somewhat dependent on your gear and framerate. In longer fights, Quicksilver will be more effective on weapons that spend less time reloading, so don’t expect this to make a big impact on 2-mag shotguns and revolvers.
Also, due to the way that rate of fire interacts with the game’s framerate, your actual rate of fire is rounded down to the nearest breakpoint, with these breakpoints determined by your framerate. This can cause problems for high rate of fire weapons at 30 FPS, although Quicksilver is a large enough boost to be noticeable most of the time.
Com boosts:
Mercenary, Professional
Notes:
The rate of fire breakpoints at 30 FPS are 7.5, 10, 15, and 30
The rate of fire breakpoints at 60 FPS are 7.5, 8.6, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 30, and 60
Spark
Increases the size and regeneration rate of the tech pool of your current weapon by about +4% per point.
Most good DOT weapons are good because they proc DOT on every shot, regardless of tech pool. In these situations, Spark will usually increase the chance of procing a stronger DOT, but will not boost the base DOTs. Because of this, Spark is a mediocre DPS boost that is also fairly gear dependent.
Com boosts:
Firefly, Specialist, Tormentor
Resilience
Reduces damage taken from all fire, shock, corrosive, and explosive elemental sources. This increases your effective hp by +6% per point.
Resilience is a solid skill when it applies, but most enemies will deal non-elemental damage, which Resilience does not apply to. However, enemies who do deal elemental damage are often more dangerous than average, so Resilience still has a general role in countering those enemies. Also, Resilience is situationally better in areas filled with elemental enemies, such as the Knoxx DLC.
Com boosts:
Defender
Notes:
Damage resistance is calculated as Damage/(1 + Silent Resolve)(1 + Resilience + elemental DR)
At 5 points, incoming damage is reduced by 23.1%
Resilience’s effective hp boost is multiplicative with Silent Resolve
Resilience’s effective hp boost is additive with elemental damage resistance from shields and Coms
Radiance
Radiance is complicated…
While Phasewalk is active, a special shock DOT is applied to nearby enemies. Staying near an enemy while in Phasewalk will not usually stack this DOT, but will extend the timer of the DOT’s first phase. A series of 3 DOTs will then damage the target, each lasting about 5 seconds. The third and final DOT in this sequence will deal 3x or 4x damage.
Radiance’s damage is based mostly on the maximum health of its target, and does not take player level into account. This damage is multiplied by the number of points spent on the skill, not including points added by Coms. Also, Radiance deals about 4.5x more damage to shields than normal shock DOTs.
Radiance can also be spread by affected enemies who are near other enemies. When spread this way, the first of the three DOTs will deal 3x or 4x damage, instead of the last. Each initial DOT caused by Lilith can only be spread to each enemy once, and enemies who are already afflicted by Radiance are much less likely to contract a second DOT from another enemy.
…
Radiance is highly effective against most enemy shields, but is ineffective against Guardians due to their tiny max health, as well as being ineffective against enemy health in general. Because Guardian shields are usually the only shields worth caring about, this leaves Radiance lacking any useful role in general play. Radiance is still useful in some specific situations, such as when used against enemies with extremely high max health, but Radiance will deal very weak DPS most of the time.
Com boosts:
Coms that should add skill points to Radiance seem to be broken, and do not add these points. These Coms include the Eridian Warrior, Specialist, Tempest, and Tormentor.
Notes:
Boosted by electrocute damage and elemental effect damage boosts
Radiance stacks DOTs much more effectively in the Zombie Island DLC, which makes it much more effective there
Highly effective at healing Tankensteins
While active, Radiance will create lightning visual effects around Lilith, as well as any enemy afflicted by a Radiance DOT
Venom
Converts all of your melee damage to corrosive elemental damage, and increases your melee damage by +5% per point. Also adds a small chance for your melee attacks to apply corrosive DOTs.
Most enemies take only 80% damage from corrosive attacks, so spending points in Venom will usually decrease your melee damage. Also, the chance to proc a corrosive DOT is too low to be useful. The only situation where it actually makes sense to spend points in Venom is if you plan on using a melee-focused playstyle while using a Plaguebearer Com, because the Com boost to corrode damage counteracts the elemental penalty.
Com boosts:
Plaguebearer
Notes:
Melee damage boost is additive with most other melee boosts
Melee damage boost is multiplicative with boosts from bladed weapons
Boosted by Corrode damage boosts
Intuition
For 7 seconds after killing something, gain +10% movement speed per point and +4% team experience per point.
The movement speed boost is fairly strong, allowing you to gain a better angle on your enemies or simply run away more effectively. The experience boost is less noticeable, but can be useful if you want to level faster.
Com boosts:
Catalyst
Notes:
Movement speed boost is much less noticeable while Phasewalk is active
Xp boost does not apply to the initial kill
Phoenix
Phoenix is complicated…
For 7 seconds after killing something, gain about +4% chance to consume 1 less ammo per shot per point. Also, while this effect is active, fire DOTs will be applied to nearby enemies.
This DOT damage is based mostly on the maximum health of its target, and does not take player level into account. This damage is multiplied by the number of points spent on the skill, not including any points added by Coms.
These fire DOTs will stack if you stay near your target, last about 5 seconds, and can spread from enemy to enemy. Some DOTs will appear to deal several times their base damage, although this could be due to DOT stacking.
Lilith can not start Phoenix DOTs while Phasewalk is active.
…
Phoenix’s DOTs will usually deal strong amounts of DPS, and can often kill enemies in a reasonable amount of time. These DOTs are usually worth getting close to your enemies for, as long as you can survive the encounter. The ammo savings can also be a decent DPS boost, especially on weapons that reload often.
Com boosts:
Catalyst, Eridian Warrior, Firefly, Specialist
Extra points from Com boosts do not apply to Phoenix DOTs
Notes:
Boosted by ignite damage and elemental effect damage boosts
Reduced ammo consumption does not seem to apply to Eridian weapons
While active, Phoenix will create fiery visual effects around Lilith
Due to a glitch, reduced ammo consumption can sometimes prevent your weapon from automatically reloading, requiring a manual reload at 0 ammo
Assassin
Slayer
Increases damage dealt by critical hits by +5% per point. This applies to all critical hits, and is multiplicative with most other damage boosts, including the base 2.5x crit multiplier.
If you can hit crits, this is a solid DPS boost. If not, Slayer will obviously be less noticeable.
Com boosts:
Specter, Tempest
Notes:
Additive with weapon crit modifiers, such as those for revolvers and sniper rifles
Applies to melee and Eridian weapons, as well as bullets
Silent Resolve
For about 8 seconds after exiting Phasewalk, you take reduced damage from all sources. This damage resistance increases your effective hp by +50% per point.
Silent Resolve gives an incredibly large boost to survivability compared to Lilith’s other defensive skills, to the point where you can face-tank just about anything. The downside is that this is limited by Phasewalk’s cooldown, but that can be mitigated by skills like Blackout, resulting in a very hard to kill siren.
Com boosts:
Tempest
Notes:
Damage resistance is calculated as Damage/(1 + Silent Resolve)(1 + Resilience + elemental DR)
At 5 points, incoming damage is reduced by 71.4%
Silent Resolve’s effective hp boost is multiplicative with Resilience and other sources of elemental damage resistance
Enforcer
For 7 seconds after killing something, gain +2% bullet damage per point and +7% accuracy per point.
The damage boost is small for a conditional bonus, and gets overshadowed by skills like Slayer and High Velocity. The accuracy boost is great for low accuracy weapons, but not as noticeable on more accurate weapons. Overall, Enforcer is a useful skill, but there are often better skills competing for your points.
Com boosts:
Specter
Notes:
Damage boost is additive with High Velocity
Multiplicative with most other damage boosts
Damage boost only applies to bullets; does not apply to grenades, splash damage, rockets, melee, or Eridian weapons
Hit & Run
Increases the duration of Phasewalk by +0.8 seconds per point, as well as increasing melee damage by +7% per point.
On its own, the Phasewalk duration allows you to recharge more of your shield while invulnerable, as well as moving further to escape danger or bypass enemies. While this is somewhat useful, the real value here is healing more when combined with Inner Glow. The melee boost is useful for melee-focused playstyles, but is otherwise insignificant.
Notes:
Melee damage boost is additive with other melee boosts
Melee damage boost is multiplicative with boosts from bladed weapons
Not boosted by any Com
High Velocity
+4% bullet damage per point and +20% projectile speed per point.
The damage boost is large, passive, and multiplicative, which makes for a great DPS boost. The projectile speed boost makes leading your shots much easier, especially when using exotic weapons.
Com boosts:
Mercenary, Professional, Specter
Notes:
Damage boost is additive with Enforcer
Multiplicative with most other damage boosts
Damage boost only applies to bullets; does not apply to grenades, splash damage, rockets, melee, or Eridian weapons
Projectile speed applies to rockets and Eridian weapons, as well as bullets
Blackout
Killing an enemy reduces the remaining cooldown time of Phasewalk by about -1.33 seconds per point. This applies to kills made while Phasewalk is active.
If you can kill enemies quickly enough, Blackout will greatly reduce or even eliminate Phasewalk’s cooldown. This allows you to use Phasewalk much more freely and aggressively, which makes every other Phasewalk skill that much better.
Notes:
Not affected by Hard to Get
Blackout’s cooldown reduction takes effect almost instantly
Kills made by Phasewalk’s initial Phaseblast will activate Blackout
Not boosted by any Com
Blackout’s effect is reduced by Com boosts to cooldown rate
With 5 points in both Hard to Get and Blackout, 3 kills will fully reset Phasewalk’s cooldown
If Phasewalk’s cooldown is fully reset by Blackout, melee attacks will not end Phasewalk, but will gain damage boosts from Phasewalk and Phase Strike
Phase Strike
Increases the damage of melee attacks made while Phasewalking or at the end of Phasewalk by +160% per point. This bonus is additive with Phasewalk’s damage boost. Note that these melee attacks can not be boosted by bladed weapons.
While this sounds like a massive boost, the fact that you give up a potential 3x bladed weapon modifier to use Phase Strike makes this skill much less impactful. While Phase Strike can be useful for melee heavy playstyles, it’s not very useful for general play.
Notes:
Additive with other melee boosts
Not boosted by any Com
Feel free to post below if I got something wrong, or if there’s something I missed.