(DEVS) Guardian Rank and Character class specialization idea!

Hello Gearbox (Borderlands) Devs. Me and a friend of mine have been having a conversion in regards to expanding the longevity to all four of our playable characters. You have mentioned that these four characters will be our only playable crew so there are some things that could help to expand character playstyles.

Our thoughts were along the lines of of having our guardian rank be used to unlock different tiers for this new specialization tree. So lets say every 75 GR you receive another tier for your Specialization Action Skill and each time you unlock a new tier, your overall damage is increased by “X” amount of times.

Tier 1 will increase her damage by 2x, Tier 2 by 3x and Tier 4 by 4x of her Base Action Skill damage.

Just unlocking Action Skill Specialization by itself will grant you a set percentage of stat bonuses. All stats would increase by 10%. The rest of your stats will scale from your GR percentages.

(YOU CANNOT USE THE OLDER SKILL TREE COLUMNS WHILE SPECIAL CLASS TREE IS SELECTED)

Now since I personally only play with Amara the Siren, I only have an idea of what to give her for her own advanced class specialization. This would be something that had its own tree separate from the three we already have. Like Amara’s astral construct arms, her entire body will be made from the substance (including hair) and give her a appearance similar to what is shown below.

So my personal idea for Amara would be along the lines of Amara herself becoming a cosmic astral projection. When Amara ascends to this form she is able to levitate off the ground and summon all six of her astral arms upon her back.

Action Skill name: “Astral Flux” In this form Amara will have the ability (while pressing the grenade button) to cause black holes without phase grasp and deal decent damage over time to any enemies trapped within it. You cannot use more than one black hole at a time for balance reasons.

image

(Applies elemental damage based on gun equipped before transforming.)

(Pressing the gun fire or scope button) will allow Amara to control which hand fires off the elemental energy beam. She can fire energy beams from either her left hand or the right that can cause burst damage and a slight area of effect dome to nearby enemies. This will run on her timed meter (almost like iron bear). The more abilities used, the faster her timer diminishes.

(Holding both Gun fire and Scope button at the same time) will cause her to charge a beam that can shoot from both hands at once, causing massive burst damage. If using half or more of your meter for one charge beam A.O.E attack, it will do up to 400% more damage and 100% more splash range over normal. (Only at the cost of more than half or ALL your meter) Half meter will only increase damage by 200% and 50% splash range. (Meter will diminish rapidly upon holding buttons.)

You will need to aim using your crosshair because it will not have homing capabilities. The max duration for the ability is only twelve seconds and cannot be increased. Action Skill cool down will be twenty-five seconds. (for balance reasons.)

There would also be specific class mods, anointed gear and relics to help with other innate bonuses or add-on abilities to make Specialization Action Skills stronger.

4 Likes

I personally really like this idea. It’s something unique for our characters since the Devs have stated out of their own mouth’s that these four characters will be the only ones we will receive.

Having a Specialization Class Action Skill with its own playstyles and perks sounds really fun if it’s done correctly.

I also like the idea of using a certain set of our Guardian Rank to reach the next level of the Action Skill’s damage teirs. If we were to sacrifice our other original three skill trees, by your idea, we should have a single “more powerful” Action Skill that makes the exchange from them to another worth it.

I’m guessing as we equipped this it will introduce a form of pre-applied built in bonus that makes our other skills pointless? This means the Specialization Action Skill you spoke of will come with a variety of hidden effects to compensate for our loss of additional skill trees.

The skill’s duration and cooldown seems fair and balanced. Not being able to extend the duration would make people use the skill at the right moment instead of spamming like most do now.

This sounds like it would be a perfect boss farming skill.

I think this idea is pretty darn good and it would be pretty neat to see Amara using all eight of her arms to shoot big Lasers that melted enemies.

Also, you and your friend’s idea for using Guardian Rank as a type of way to increase Specialization Action Skill rank is something I haven’t seen people ever suggest. That is really good idea that rewards players who have grinded for hours on this game.

I’m not sure if the Devs even bother to read the forums but this idea gets my vote. Now I want to see what you and your friend can come up with for the other three characters?

1 Like

Thank you I appreciate the feedback. Most of what you said is correct as well. You have a good understanding of the point I was trying to get across. Its just a bit disheartening that the Devs will most likely never see this thread.

Fingers crossed!

I wonder if the devs were able to see this yet?