So I’m thoroughly enjoying BL3 and love playing as Zane. I had the idea for some skill tree adjustments I think would be great at really improving build options and versatility.
Proposed changes below are listed by tree… (BL3 interactive tree here)
Under Cover (green tree):
Barrier should deploy as carried and can be dropped. With dropped increasing bonuses not decreasing on pickup. BL3 gameplay is very mobile so a stationary barrier should be a tactical choice which provides benefits.
Swap places of Ready for Action on the first tier with Rise to the Occasion on the second tier. This provides a first tier option which doesn’t require a shield if players are using an alternative build (Rough Rider or roid shields for example). Rise to the Occasion should also have a “doubled for X secs when enemy is frozen” to tie into cryo features of the skill tree.
Distributed Denial as a capstone does not offer a viable enough alternative to the capstones of the other two trees. Move to the middle row of Double-Agent as it provides a substantial strategy option to clone builds without overwhelming DPS. See more info discussed later.
NEW CAPSTONE: Barrier gains stacking bonus amp damage when enemies are frozen. I believe this would meld the cryo and barrier abilities of this tree nicely. It would also be powerful without being too much of an OP boss burner.
Hitman (blue tree):
Swap positions of Seein’ Red and Death Follows Close . Activating kill skills during co-op is less likely thus Seein’ Red has a tangible benefit to multiple gameplay styles. Due to the design of two action skills, Zane relies on assigning points into multiple trees more than other characters. Therefore, the mid level skills have higher importance and going for a capstone skill necessitates leaving more skills behind. Death Follows Close can be a good capstone for players doubling down on kill skills. It isn’t unreasonable at that tier for it to be buffed either by increasing the bonus or duration.
Doubled Agent (red tree):
Switch positions of Borrowed Time on the first tier with Duct Tape Mod on the second tier. This allows a grenade option on the first tier and splits both first tier skills which focus on having two action skills active for more build options.
Eliminate the augment Which One’s Real? because it lacks enough value to justify it over the other augments. Replace with Quick Breather as an augment instead of the mid range perk. This creates more choice into the augments.
Place Distributed Denial as the mid range skill perk to give the clone a copy of Zane’s shield mod. This is thematically fitting given the capstone copies Zane’s currently equipped gun. The clone can benefit from nearly all shield perks (spike, roid, amp, legendaries) whereas the barrier only had a handful of reasonable options. It would benefit the clone’s toughness more than increase DPS so it shouldn’t be too powerful. This opens a lot more options for player builds with the digi-clone.
Anyways, are just my thoughts for a Zane adjustment to increase his versatility. I’ve spent the majority of my game time with Zane and he’s a phenomenal character that needs a little extra kick to compete with the functionality of the other vault hunters. I really am enjoying BL3 and honestly can’t wait to see how it expands from here!