New Zane. Seeking advice on skills and builds

Borderlands 3 Zane the Operative
#1

So, I’m a Moze main thats rdy to go ahead and spend some time trying another character out. I’m looking forward to reloading and mobility. Zane has caught my eye. I’ve already got him to lvl 50.

So, I’m hoping I can mention some of Zane skills that seem interesting and weapons I would potentially like to use and you kind folks could offer some feedback and guidance on potential build direction.

As far as skills, the concept of Violent Momentum(Hitman) seems interesting to play with, although I don’t think I wanna be sliding full time. Looks like Zane has access to powerful sustainment and reload speed options at low tier as well in Hitman.

Ultimatley Death Follows Close looks appetizing as a Hitman skill I would enjoy. Hell this skill looks potent enough to be a final tier capstone.

The next tier(Violent Violence and Playing Dirty) look interesting as well but I need to look more into how Playing Dirty functions in game. Also, I’m torn with wanting to spread points into the other 2 trees…

Im looking forward to playing with kill skills for a change as Moze doesn’t have many.

Anyways, I like the way Donnybrook and Synchronicity feel as a kill skills and Praemunitus looks like a nice mag size increase but ultimatley, I’m not sure how deep I wanna go in the red tree passed these. There are some attractive skills here and clone is something I definitely want to experiement more with in the future but immediately just now, the green tree is calling me.

Green tree looks deceptively powerful w skills like Brainfreeze, Expensive Jacket and Calm, Cool, Collected. CCC instantly makes me think of breaking out my Band O’ Sitorak. Looks like a fine skill to base a build on as well.

Weapons I would like to get more use out of are: Hellwalker, Brainstormer, Flakker, Maggie, Lucians Call, Crossroads, Carrier(or Q-system), Shreddifier, Lyuda and Redistributor(if I ever get one).

Awesome. So any tips or discussion on build suggestion or skill subtleties/interaction is appreciated.

Thanks.

P.s. So how does Expensive Jacket/Futility Belt work out? Jacket seems to reduce dot duration but Belt would negate dots after activation?

Also, is Stiff Lip more skin to damage reduction(actual flat percent value) or damage resistance(percentage value)?

#2

I main zane an he is the most hybrid, effective builds are ice, dps and my personal favorite is speed, i rock rough rider shield with th infiltrator class mod, i use sntl and nades in solo and sntl and barrier in group.

#3

So how does Rly Expensive Jacket/Futility Belt work out? Jacket seems to reduce dot duration which is nice but Belt would negate dots entirely after kill activation? Both similar protection or am I missing something?

Also, is Stiff Lip reduction in damage more akin to damage reduction(actual flat value) or damage resistance?

#4

I’ve been running something close to this with Dome and Drone.

https://bl3zone.com/planner/AAD5FM1FP5GC4GD1GE4GF1GG5GI1GJ5GL5GO3GP5GQ1GR1GS1GW-ac1CVac2DBau1CXau2CYau3DFau4DE

I’m trying to stay away from The Class Mod until I get some playtime in. I can see how powerful of an asset that com will be.

I’m running an Executor at the moment.

Donnybrook is such a neat skill but I just ran out of points. I’m not sure how good the one of in Good Misfortune ends up being but it Diminishes so I’ve got 1 in the for now.

Grabbed Brainfreeze and my favorite skill, CCC.

I’ve just been reactivating action skills as often as possible but have looked at other skills and thought about trying to keep them going for as long as possible instead…not sure the pros and cons…

Just testing things and playing around a bit on Zane as of now. Such a fun playstyle and leagues different from the facetanky Moze I’m used too.

What grenade do you recommend? Ive been running Piss via Drone Delivery.

Does the +25damage on grenade throw work Drone Drops?

#5

Given that this is a CCC build take the point out of Donnybrook and put it in Borrowed Time because 1 point in Borrowed Time has more impact that 1 point in Donnybrook when Donnybrook is not being boosted by a class mod.

It’s a waste of points to spec into Good Misfortune when doing a CCC build that is not a hybrid Seein’ Dead build because CCC does the same thing Good Misfortune does only better.

That one! :grin:

Yes.

[Other stuff]

  • Depending on your weapons you may have too many points in Salvation.
  • Depending on your weapons you may have too many points in Cool Hands.
  • If you are using multi-pellet weapons that don’t have über high per pellet dmg then Playing Dirty is a waste of points. For example Playing Dirty is good for a One Pump Chump or 2x Ion Cannon but sucks for a Maggie or Brainstormer. This is because for multi-pellet weapons Playing Dirty functions like adding one more pellet.
  • Because you have 3 points in Stiff Upper Lip you would be better off spending your 1 tier 4 point on Futility Belt instead of Really Expensive Jacket because the combination of Stiff Upper Lip and Futility belt is better overall damage reduction against all damage types where as Really Expensive Jacket’s effectiveness is limited to DoT damage.
#6

I was going to say everything @studdugie said but since he already covered it all, I’ll just say “I agree”.

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#7

What would be a good class mod to compliment this(or something close to) this build?

I’m not super excited about any of Zane capstone’s(Moze either for that matter), is this a common point distribution if so what generally compliments it the playstyle?

I’ve Ben running Brainstormer, Hellwalker, Cryo Lucians Call and a Maggie.

I like the Companion too but mostly because I’ma. Fan of Firefly and I like the way it fires and it’s concept is cool haha.

#8

Either Executor or Seein Dead.

Double Barrel is build defining so if it’s not a playstyle you want it’s not amazing but if it is, then it is. :smiley:

Distributed Denial is actually super great and can do things like proc a Stopgap immunity with Barrier when it expires.

Seein’ Red is mostly for bossing.

With @studdugie 's changes it’s a pretty common setup. If you use Maggie and Hellwalker a point or two in nerves of steel is a nice DPS increase as it puts more pellets on crit spot from further range.

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#9

As mentioned, the point in good misfortune is only good if you are running Seein Dead, in which if you go with that mod it is best to spec out of CCC and go for more damage in the red tree. Seein Dead also has a very weird interaction with CCC and you will notice it does not proc as often as it does with Executor. @studdugie kinda deduced it down to things dying before you can freeze them. You may take a second or so longer to kill things but that is your up time with CCC.

If you go Executor which is better for CCC then a few more points to blue so you can prep for bosses with Seein Red might be beneficial. I make up for having no red skills with an Ice Breaker relic to boost dmg.

I still spec into PD because even though half my layout is multi pellet, the other half are single shots.

This is how I run mine:

Screenshot_20200127-093734
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Screenshot_20200127-093739
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#10

This is why I run a rough rider with Zane sometimes, CCC skips shields and your health is almost always full.
I’ve been wanting to make some icebreaker Zane builds, once I finish some stuff on Amara and Fl4k I’m gonna have to try yours out to get a feel for what to expect.

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