M10 Sniper Amara Build with Nimbus COM

Borderlands 3 Amara the Siren
#1

This is my sniper build for Amara. It’s an endgame build that requires you to be able to hit crit shots consistently. If you’re looking for a build that is defensive, then this one is not for you. It does require some skill with aiming. It relies on extended FFYL. It can use multiple weapons, including the most powerful in the game as of this writing.

What you need to understand is that if you can’t hit crits, you’ll most likely die, a lot. But with practice, you’ll have as much fun as I do when playing with this build. What I cover in my video is not a Wotan killing build, although you can use the base of it and make a few switches with some different gear to take on the TTD.

GEAR

COM–> Nimbus, yes, a Nimbus.

What you need to understand about this COM is that it creates a cloud once you phasegrasp an enemy. Do not run through that elemental cloud. It will put you into FFYL almost immediately. It does this because you will be spec’d into Anama with 5 points.

Try to find one with crit damage or Jakob’s crit damage. One or both will be much more effective. I have a god roll COM, but it’s not necessary.

Shield --> Front Loader

I use a Front Loader to get my health bar under 50%. I do this because my builds make use of the Unhealthy Rad anointment, 50/150 rad. You can use any shield you want, but if it’s not a front loader, then you need to use a deathless artifact to make use of this anointment. In my build, I use both the front loader and the deathless. Combined, it gets my shield up to nearly 50k. That’s plenty for general game play and most boss fights. Wotan needs a change to the Pearl and any shield you like except the front loader. You will also need to switch your guns to a 50% element chance on the next 2 mags, or a consecutive hits anointment for that fight.

Artifact --> Snowdrift Deathless and Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge

As mentioned earlier, I use the deathless for general game play and the pearl for boss fights like Wotan. Stats I use are mag size increase, area effect, and an elemental damage increase, in my build, it’s the cryo damage so I can match most of the weapons I use (Koason and Clairvoyance).

Grenade --> Any with 50% elemental effect chance for 10 seconds

Kinda self explanatory. I’m looking to increase overall damage, and this anointment on grenades and shields will do that. Try to get two different elemental effects, though. It just helps in taking down multi health bar enemies.

Weapons --> See video for indepth info

Until the next patch hits, I use the Unseen Threat as my sniper, a Clairvoyance Masher, the Kaoson, and a Yellowcake. Once we get better balancing, you’ll be open to experiment with a lot more weapons!

Skill Tree --> see picture below

Link

amara sniper nimbus
amara sniper nimbus1700×784 293 KB

Guardian Rank --> maxed out in all three trees on the right

I explain in more detail in the video which GR skills are most important. I think it takes somewhere around 150 points to max all three out. So just plan to do that.

Mayhem Mode–> M10 with Holy Crit

When it comes to Mayhem mode, I play in M10 and nothing else, unless I’m leveling a character from the beginning. The first three modifiers are a personal choice, but I find that Lootsplosion, Mob Mentality, and Chain Gang are the least disruptive when it comes to game play. The most important one is Holy Crit. That gives you ‘free’ damage by boosting crit hits by 25%. The drawback is that you take a reduction in body hits of 50%, but with the amount of damage you will be doing, that’s trivial.

Here’s my explanation video and some playthrough. I hope you enjoy this build as much as I do!

The video is still loading, so here’s a testing video with the same build but using the Pearl:

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#2

This is mostly how I do it with my Hyperion allegiance (she uses a Tankman’s Shield usually, but brings in the Crossbow when she’s tired of trying to maintain magazine stacks, or a Woodblocker when she doesn’t care about one-shots). I use Eternal Fist for the free re-Phaselocks (most of my points are in the Brawl tree because she’s otherwise focused around melee, so she doesn’t have Ties That Bind). I also typically use a Phasezerker for the full stacks/damage on 'grasp, but I’ve thrown in a Nimbus on occasion.

I haven’t taken her to MM10 with that, but I’m sure that with an on-level Unseen Threat (or any number of Jakobs rifles), she’d do fine.

#3

Unfortunately, melee is only useful with a cutpurse in M10… At least until the next patch. The great thing about my build and the Unseen Threat is not having to worry about maintaining mag stacks. But I’ll have to try the Tankmans Shield to see how it does for me in M10.

#4

What I really like about this build is that you can swap COMs to any Amara one and still be a beast in M10… Well, I honestly haven’t tried the Stone or Dragon(?) COMs yet.

To show you how fun it is, I’ll post some short clips with all but those two COMs below.

First up: Phasezerker…

Next up: Elementalist…

Next up: Spiritual Driver…

Next up: Nimbus…

Next up: Breaker…

Next up: Golden Rule…

#5

Out of curiosity, why pair the Front Loader with the Deathless? I would think the Transformer would be a little bit better option at 40k shields with the Deathless.

#6

For the perks… I have a transformer I can test. I’m not really concerned with survival unless I’m doing a Takedown. So if a shield has the stats I want I’ll use it.

#7

I’m a big fan of the 40% ammo absorb, especially when using the Sandhawk. I found a Bullet Buffet Front Loader(double absorb roll) the other day, and almost threw my controller out the window when I seen the blasphemous attack command movement speed annoint.

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#8

From my recent videos of runs with different COMs, it’s very clear that if you get the stat rolls you want, this build is a plug-n-play kinda thing. My favorite COM to use during these runs was the Nimbus. It provides a good punch while having a fun effect on Action Skill targeted enemies. My least favorite is the Spiritual Driver. It may have the most potential for insane damage, but it relies on super fast movement, which, for my play style, is not as effective as the other COMs. I feel the Spiritual Driver is more gimmicky than all the rest and it requires the least amount of skill to use it.

#9

Eh, it require plenty of general skill to hit a target cleanly while moving at Warp 7 across the battlefield. It does not, OTOH, require techniques intrinsic to the action skill (other than, you know, missing with the action skill).

It’s also basically the opposite of what you want to use with a sniper rifle, with the exception of certain bosses (it’s grand with a Sandhawk or Unseen Threat against Grave or what have you).

#10

Moving at warp speeds across the battlefield is not how you want to use a sniper. While mob killing with Amara is relatively easy, it’s not so easy that you can cheese your way through anything with just an Unseen Threat.

Obviously, you don’t want to try to take on Wotan with just a sniper, even if it’s a Sandhawk. I did talk about that in my build video in the first post. If you want a speed build, this isn’t for you. Like I said previously, the Spiritual Driver, while powerful, is kinda cheesy, to me. I do not like moving at warp speeds. First, it makes me nauseous, second, it’s not ideal for all combat situations.

Amara is not the only one who can use a sniper well. All my character builds are made with snipers in mind. Fl4k and Moze are almost as good as Amara with the Unseen Threat. Zane is good too, just not on par with the other three VH’s.

But, if you can reliably hit headshots while zooming around at warp speeds, let’s see some video!

#11

Wow, I think we had a massive failure to communicate there.

First, you stated that the Driver takes no skill to use well. I disagreed by saying that it does require the skill to hit accurately while moving at warp speed - which is the ONLY way the driver is good.

I then state that the Driver is sub-optimal for sniping, agreeing with your premise, really. The exception is certain bosses, where the Driver excels with a sniper because giant crit spots make giant crits easier.

I also never at all say anything about Amara being the only VH who would be good with a sniper. She’s actually no better then third with a long gun for me: Fl4k is MUCH better, and Moze is a fair amout better as well (though for very different reasons). Fl4k has the crazy single-target damage, the ability to hide to not get hit while aiming, and auto crits. Moze has the combos of Short Fuse, Mind Sweeper, Blast Master, TCP, MoD and PthP with splash snipers, and her incredible ammo generation capabilities mean that she can keep firing. Amara CAN use TTB and snipe into that, but that’s not sniper specific, because you can erase groups of mobs with a crappy green pistol with TTB and the right build and anoints.

#12

Definitely misread what you meant. You can use just about any low rarity sniper with a good anoint, but it’s not as fast nor do they have ricocheting that the Unseen Threat has. The kickback is minimal and the accuracy is near perfect. Plus, you get additional crit damage with it. I mean, TTB isn’t up 100% of the time. So having a sniper that can basically one shot most enemies with a crit hit from my setup is a good thing to have.

I don’t doubt Fl4k and Moze can use snipers very well. I know because they are both my number two. The thing that sets Amara apart is TTB. In all my 1000+ hours into this game, Amara has been the best pure sniper. The gap isn’t that big, but that’s what I’ve experienced.

#13

I understand the point in sustainment for when you need to change gear up, but why soul sap with a deathless in general?

#14

Because I don’t use it exclusively. I also use the pearl when doing Takedowns. But I’ll look into what else I can change it to. I mean, they can be changed on the fly, so good point!

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#15

I never even pick up nimbuses because the damage listed on the card seems absurdly low. +25 / sec. That sounds like absolutely nothing.

Yet it’s obviously not since you say it can kill you. What am I not understanding?

#16

It’s certainly more powerful than just +25/sec. The score card is very ambiguous. From my game play with it, it’s my second favorite COM after the Phasezerker.

It can kill me because of Anima. The DoT is multiplied by an insane amount.

#17

The value stated on the card is misleading. What it does is the cloud hits the enemy about 3x per second with very low damage, but each hit has a chance to proc DOT on them. DOT amount is that of the gun you’re holding, element is your action skill element. That’s where the real damage comes from. It means massive DOT with a high damage rocket launcher (e.g. Ion Cannon/Nukem) but very little with e.g. a shotgun.

I contributed a breakdown of the Nimbus to Prismatic’s Gearology thread.

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#18

That’s great, thanks!

If you had to pick a Maliwan or Hyperion weapon to equip with a Nimbus (or otherwise swap to it to light up the DoT), what would you use? :thinking:

edit - the Slow Hand is rocking like 60% chance with decent damage, for a Hyperion entry. A Soleki Protocol at 70% seems to be Maliwan’s star (plus it’s a sniper rifle and a damn fine one at that).

How does Cryo Efficiency fit into this?

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#19

I believe Maliwan weapons tend to have higher DOT but I’m not 100% sure right now. I wouldn’t pick either because they don’t make rocket launchers. What you want for Nimbus damage is a very high gun damage number.

Haven’t tried Slow Hand or Soleki Protocol, but just looking at the stats I found via image search they absolutely won’t cut it. Tbh I wouldn’t use the Nimbus in any case because it’s very niche, and the more health enemies have from Mayhem, the worse. It was niche but still kinda fun at M4, but on M10 I don’t think it does anything worth mentioning.

As for cryo efficiency, Nimbus can’t do cryo damage because it’s restricted to Amara’s action skill elements.

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#20

I’m doing a whole playthrough after resetting my Amara in M10 with a Nimbus COM. Does the job rather well. I’m running her through DLC2 right now.