I'm struggling to find an Amara build that I enjoy

Borderlands 3 Amara the Siren
#1

[TL:DR version - I don’t like the Spiritual Driver class mod or the slow firing Recursion shotgun and I’m struggling to find a build outside of those things.]

To preface this, Maya was my favorite in BL2. I loved phaselocking enemies and doing a bunch of elemental damage to everything around my target.

When I first got my Amara to level 50 I found a build on Youtube (because I’m awful at making up my own) that was similar to Maya’s playstyle of grabbing one enemy and using the Brainstormer to destroy everything on screen. It just seemed like I started to struggle with it on Mayhem 3+.

I’ve tried Moxsy’s Ricochet/Bullet Witch builds using the Recursion/Carrier but I’m not a big fan. The Recursion fires way too slowly for me and I’m just generally not enjoying the Spiritual Driver class mod at all.

I’ve been trying to research builds myself (because again, I’m awful at making my own) but I can’t really find anything that isn’t either older than the last few patches or something that doesn’t use the gear I don’t want to use. I’m open to any of the action skills.

Any suggestions (or links) for something that sounds like it might be up my alley? I’d appreciate it a lot. Sirens have usually been my favorite VH’s in these games and it pains me to be so conflicted about Amara.

#2

Have you tried using a melee build? I’m having a lot of fun with mine!

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#3

2nd a melee build.

Hardest part for me was getting knife drain white elephant.

Other than that, its full brawler with Facepuncher+ unforgiven, backed with brawler ward and rope a dope breaker com.

Can hold my own in m4 takedown.

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#4

Not that I’m against a melee build but just to offer an alternative - a gun build with phasezerker COM can cope easily with M3.

Can be played with phasecast or w/ Ties that Bind. I like using Allure for Maya-like Converge pulls. Since it’s a gun build, for points you basically just completely ignore the melee (green) tree.

You can use whatever guns you want with this - if you prefer high FR guns may I suggest the Trevonator, Dahl ARs, and Maliwan SMGs.

Or you can be Sheriff Amara and use Jakobs guns.

Shield: the Frozen Heart is fun, it provides healing and crowd-control.

This combines well with an Ice-Breaker artifact so I recommend an Ice-Breaker Victory Rush.

Grenade: whatever you want that fits your play style.

Not that this is necessarily god-tier of course. May struggle with M4 if you try to push it that far. But it’s definitely fun.

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#5

I’ll second what JR Hicks said. I think Phasezerker is a great com and I also enjoy phasegrasping. Check out LazyData’s Hellzerker build on YT. His first MH4 video was out a couple months ago and he just updated it for lvl 53. It wrecks, even on MH4, and is a lot of fun.

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#6

I actually just respecced to try this while I was awaiting responses! I haven’t done a whole lot with it so far, except I mobbed my way up to Agonizer 9000 using a Brainstormer and an unannointed Maggie, on Mayhem 4.

Farmed Agonizer for a bit and mostly got Phasecast annointed stuff so that’s what I’ve been using. I enjoy that the build is versatile enough for whatever skills/guns I wanna use. I had never tried Phasecast before so this was definitely a surprise.

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#7

I believe in my farming Agonizer 9000 it may have dropped one of those Ice Breaker Victory Rush artifacts, so I’ll farm up that Frozen Heart shield and see how that goes for me. I’ve been just using an unannointed Transformer so I could use an upgrade anyway. Thanks for the gun suggestions too!

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#8

I have not tried a melee build with her just yet. Though I have considered it.
I really wish this game had a Diablo 3-esque armory system so you could save multiple builds and easily change the gear and spec you’re using with the click of a button.

7 Likes
#9

I think I can relate, I’ve used the Driver mod for a month or so, but I also abandoned it. Mostly because of that annoying PAK PAK PAK PAK PAK, but also because of the extreme movement speed. I’m a friend of movement speed but for my liking it’s a bit over the top with the Driver.

Maya was also my favourite in BL2, but honestly I’m having more fun with Amara. I actually have three Amaras, one for Phaseslam, one for Phasecast and one for Phasegrasp. I liked melee on lower difficulties, but that doesn’t scale too well to M4.

With time, all my Amaras have culminated in a Phasezerker/Avatar build; the Phasezerker is by far my favourite class mod, and it loves the blue tree.

The Phasecast build is a more “traditional” gun-heavy build, taking out one enemy at a time (and it shreds bosses), however it relies heavily on weapons with the +250% anointment on guns. One advantage of TTB over Phasecast is that it relies less on one particular anointment. It also goes extremely well with sniper rifles.

My current favourite is a Ties That Bind build again, I used to play that a long time before, but now with the Wedding Invitation sniper that’s become even more extreme. Monocle works very well too, but the Wedding Invitation destroys it. Kill 4 hags/anointeds/whatever with one shot on M4, because why not. I use 5/5 in Do Harm and 3/3 in Awakening to maximise TTB damage to deal about 5x the original damage to linked targets. Damage is most of the time counted in millions. Use TTB with Stillness of Mind to take 4 enemies out of combat at once and crit the weakest one to do much more damage to the heavy ones.

I may do a video demonstration with build soon.

2 Likes
#10

Melee and Sheriff builds are the most satisfying for me.

#11

Here’s my current TTB/Phasezerker/Avatar/Wedding Invitation build. I won’t claim it’s the best build, others are better than me at builds, but it works reasonably well I think.

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#12

Phasezerker ASE Amara is a personal favorite of mine. Using Phasecast and hitting enemies like a feels super satisfying. Then you have buffs kick in that let to rip though enemies until your next cast literally seconds later. This kind of build struggles on bosses unless you have ASE or Phasecast weapon damage anointments but even without them you shouldn’t have many issues.

This is the original version of my Phasezerker Phasecast build but with the extra 3 levels.
https://bl3skills.com/siren/#0000000000000050153010331313315050300500

What I run now is with Brawl. https://bl3skills.com/siren/#0325152100000050153010331311310100000000

I use a Stop Gap and Knife Drain Otto Idol. Melee pretty much fills your HP up with both of her passive skills. the stop gap gives you breathing room even when taking a heavy hit. Using Soulfire makes any flesh enemy one shot material. Use Soul Sap or Revelation as your augment and then Deliverance or basic Phasecast. If you use Cryo and Freeze a basic enemy your melee can chunk some HP on M3 but M4 it’s not worth it past the self heal.

Using Phasecast as often as possible is really the key to this build. Blast enemies, buff self, kill with guns, repeat.

1 Like
#13

This is a nice build collection. Most of them are updated and tuned for M4. I still have to update my own for 53. I’m obviously biased, so I won’t suggest anything. I’m sure you’ll find at least some nice ideas in there.

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#14

My favourite one is phaserker class mod + phasecast weapons super strong and reliable. You need to gather some phasecast anoint weapons but can easily starts with easy to get (I remember I started by farming crit :rofl:)
I am currently trying melee which personally I found a lot harder to gear (brawler with melee anoint , knife drain white elephant, weapon with melee damage and melee anoint) melee is fun though super slow to clear enemies.
I don’t like the driver either, super imprecise aiming and irritating variations of speed does not fly with me.

#15

have u tried to equip ase fire and corrosive on your shield and grenade? brainstormer melt everything with multi element .

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#16

Melee Amara is a lot of fun if you have a Roid Rough Rider shield, Face Puncher shotgun and Knife Drain Otto Idol artifact.

#17

If you are using Knife Drain there is no point using Otto Idol.
For melee I prefer Elemental Stone + Static Charge.

#18

I understand your stance on not needing Otto Idol when using Knife Drain but I like the additional healing you get from both sources. Also my Knife Drain Otto Idol boosts melee damage and offers a boost to movement speed as well. Win, Win

#19

You could also check out the BL3Zone Build Collection for even more builds.

4 Likes
#20

Its more of an endgame one, since to get the optimal effects out of it you’d need a Nimbus COM that boosts Tempest by 5, but Moxsy also put together a build around the Nimbus that actually makes it M4 viable with stuff like the Kill O the Wisp and the ION Cannon.