I’m just now getting around to playing with Zane, after starting with FL4K then moving on to Moze (and ultimately deciding that I just don’t like Amara). For my first two builds I consulted the Interwebs–this forum, YouTube, Twitch, etc. to see what the best performing builds are. But with Zane I wanted to get in to his skill trees on my own, tinker around, and see what I could come up with…
So what I eventually ended up with is a majority Hitman build that activates all of his Kill Skill abilities and ends up at Seein’ Red. And then I added some Under Cover abilities, including at least one Kill Skill there also. I haven’t looted a bunch of class mods for Zane yet, so I’m not sure what’s out there to compliment what I’ve done. And I haven’t unlocked his artifact slot, either, so that’s still a mystery.
Buy my question is whether this is a common build or not. I just kind of winged it. For now it seems to be working pretty well but I haven’t really reached a point where the enemies are tough enough to really put it to the test.
short answer is yes, long answer is also yes, it is possible to get by without hitman but you will lose a lot of goodies, if you will ever hit any problems just contact me, because have not had any of those yet. @PrimeOP just posted a slaugher house mayhem 3 clear solo zane, which is basically my build with few skill points differently, so that is proof enough that zane can do all the content on M3 in the game, do not listen to sad trolls and clueless youtubers and you will have big time fun.
While a kill skill build is by no means the only viable way to play Zane, his kit does seem to be designed with a lot of really solid synergies in this regard.
Much like yourself, I played my way through developing my own build, landing pretty squarely on the Hitman tree for the most part. I think a lot of the Hitman skills serve as a solid starting place for Zane, and for my own playstyle preferences, found the capstone to be the most useful of the three too.
Not sure how popular this sort of build is overall, but there are plenty of ways to mix and match skills from other trees into the mix once you have enough points to throw around.
If it helps at all, this write up was my take on a Kill Skill build:
Recently I’ve been playing around with throwing a few more points into the Undercover tree than used in the ‘suggested build’ there, but there are plenty of viable options, just depends on your personal preferences I think.
Basically everything works, and the things that don’t work have been mostly exaggerated.
He is difficult to play because he doesn’t have one straightforward, succinct style.
Most of his kill skills just make bad guns good (accuracy, handling, reload speed, fire rate) rather than give you tons of damage.
He has a drone with mild utility, but not a lot of damage. A clone with tons of damage and utility, but not a lot of survivability, and a shield which is ■■■■■■■ great but people are just now coming around to.
You can throw grenades basically infinitely, but you need a really good grenade to make it worthwhile. You can shoot grenades randomly, which is kind of neat but it limits your gun choice (if you wanna be lazy) or moderates your playstyle (if you wanna reload every second shot).
Most of his damage is conditional and he gets huge debuffs when those conditions aren’t met. Also it’s all over the place between his 3 trees, is basically all gun damage (besides Trick of the Light which is amazing), and he has trouble using some of the guns that are most popular.
His strongest playstyle of spam grenades until everything is dead isn’t very fun and his most fun playstyle of running and gunning is difficult to do with random efficacy.
He has a very high stat ceiling and probably scales the best off of guardian ranks/skills, and items than other characters, but his skill tree isn’t as overtly powerful.
I think you’re right, his skill tree doesn’t overtly show buffs like others, but instead you can get tons of synergies with it. Run 'n Gun and Grenade Zane are cool, but there’s also infinite skill recharge Zane, Tank Zane, Sniper Zane, and probably more. And then those playstyles have quite a few different builds within for how to do them, quite a few of which have cleared Slaughter missions.
To be back on topic, nearly all of those playstyles I just mentioned are also using at least some kill skills. Kill skill Zane is very good, and synergizes very well. Look to any of the builds in this forum and you’ll get an idea for the items you want to look for that’ll synergize with Zane and kill skills.
u almost nailed it perfectly on ur own lol…i have see an op build where he friezes everything in sight but u could do the whole game an mh3 with the build u have given u have good gear of course… @TheBookNerd also u may not like amara but she is the most broken vh we have rn every i went a melee path but i got a friend who built phasegrasp an it maybe more op than the melee it is actually no doubt there just saying she was my 3rd vh i probly had the most fun with her an flak so far…tbh