Heya Buddies, Today we are going to go over my favorite Vault Hunter Moze’s New Skill Tree and rate each skill point. Obviously subject to change until the tree launches but I thought why not look at the surface and evaluate each point. Hopefully this will be a helpful guide on what to choose, I will be rating based on how well it can work in the current meta. Ratings will be in 5 star format.
Video Verison of this:
(Cause’ why read when you can let your ears do all the work)
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★★☆☆☆ Biofuel: Whenever Moze or Iron Bear ignites an enemy, they both regenerate health for a short time. Duration: 8 seconds
Each Point giving: Health Regen: Up to +0.7% per sec & Iron Bear Armor Regen: Up to +0.5% per sec. 5 Points Max
I Feel like this is a niche Ability, I don’t feel like the health regen will help Moze herself very well but it might help Iron Cub a little. Most cases before we never have to worry about Iron Bear’s health but its possible that we need worry about Iron Cub more. There is already Vampyr which can regen Moze & Iron Bear. The only benefit for this is it regens both Moze & Iron Bear health at the same time.
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★★★★★ Big Surplus: While Moze’s Action Skill is cooling down, she deals bonus Incendiary Damage.
Each Point giving: Bonus Damage: 5% of Gun Damage. 3 Points Max
This Ability is amazing, it has a 100% Uptime with most builds. Iron Cub on use will go onto cooldown and using Iron Bear Auto Pilot ability causes it to go onto cooldown so you will get the bonus all the time. Very helpful in any situation and a passive fire element on all guns you use is very useful since most enemies are flesh.
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★★★☆☆ Really Big Guns: Iron Bear gains increased Damage.
Each Point giving: Iron Bear Damage: +4%. 5 Points Max
You will get a total of 20 % more Iron Bear Damage from 5 points which is a heavy point investment for just 20%. Luckily its saving grace is its placement on the skill tree. Since its a tier 1 ability it can be specced into without spending points to go down a tree you don’t want to go down (Assuming you don’t wont this tree). I can see it being used in a lot of builds, and its pretty free. Nothing amazing though.
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★☆☆☆☆ Double Time: While Moze’s Action Skill is active, she and Iron Bear gain increased Movement Speed.
Each Point giving: Movement Speed: +4%. 3 Points Max
This is only a 12% movement increase for both Moze and Cub which isn’t even sprinting speed. Its really bad. Perhaps there will be a class mod that saves this skill but for now its just bad.
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★★★☆☆ Harmonious Havoc: Moze gains increased Gun Damage for each weapon, shield, and grenade that matches the element of her gun.
Each Point giving: Gun Damage: +2% per matching item. 5 Points Max
This is really really good for builds where you want to live up the fantasy all of going all in on one element. Its not hard to match elements in the game since grenade slots are just anointment investments and most shields can be any element. A ton of builds already use fire weapons so you could just bite the bullet and make sure all your guns are fire element. You can easily get a 50% more gun damage with this and thats a ton more damage. But I only give 3 stars because its a lot of work to optimize this ability for the players who don’t want to have to farm over and over for specific elements. Plus the one of the best Vampyr Proc-er is the CMT and CMT cant have an element so those are pretty big downsides.
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★☆☆☆☆ Explosive Fury: Moze and Iron Bear gain increased Status Effect Damage and Status Effect Chance.
Each Point giving: Status Effect Chance: +9% Status Effect Damage: +5%. 3 Points Max
Currently in the game Status effect damage is abysmal. and status effect chance doesn’t really matter since Moze does a great job at shooting tons and tons of bullets so the easier ignite chance doesn’t matter. Unfortunate that Status Effect damage is so bad atm; Perhaps there will be a rework on Status Effects Scaling?
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★★★☆☆ (Action Skill Augment) Fuel for The Fire: Whenever Moze or Iron Cub inflicts a Status Effect on an enemy, Iron Cub’s armor is restored.
Armor Restore: 12% of Max Armor
This is really really huge, you don’t have to ignite you can use any element you want but what it doesn’t say is whether or not there is a cooldown. I know we can’t tell right now but if this didn’t have a cooldown you would be able to restore Iron Cub’s Health Instantly using the right build. If it has no cooldown I will rank it at 5 stars but we will just have to wait and see. Also I feel like there are better Augments to use than this one.
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★☆☆☆☆ (Action Skill Augment) Baby Nukes: Whenever Iron Cub is deployed or destroyed, it triggers a nuclear explosion, Dealing massive Radiation Damage.
This ability seems really fun but it doesn’t seem worth it at all, it will probably be able to only one shot certain non boss or badass enemies but its biggest downside is that this is only when the Cub is deployed or destroyed. The whole tree is working to try to keep him alive and around longer so you won’t be able to see this effect very often. Unless you were you make a super high cooldown build that makes iron cub fodder but I don’t think that sounds very viable. Depending on how this scales with mayhem levels it could be amazing but I don’t think gearbox will allow this to deal too much damage because of how free you can activate it.
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★★★★★ Fire Up: Whenever Moze or Iron Bear applies a Status Effect to an enemy, she gains increased Fire Rate for a short time. This effect stacks.
1 Point max: Fire Rate: +5% Duration: 12 seconds Max Stacks: 5
This is super free way to increase Moze DPS since we already can deal millions of damage as her, being able to deal the damage faster just sounds amazing. Most of this points in this tree can be synergized with cloud of lead since that makes our bullets deal fire damage so you will be able to activate this ability even using a kinetic weapon. Iron Cub could also proc the stacks for us so getting max stacks on this ability is super easy. Definitely a must have on this tree.
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★★☆☆☆ Nitrotrinadium Engines: Iron Bear gains increased Maximum Fuel and Action Skill Cooldown Rate.
Each Point giving: Maximum Fuel: +5% Action Skill Cooldown Rate: +4%. 5 Points Max
This sounds like a decent skill for piloting Iron Bear but you have to go really far down in the Skill Tree to even get this ability since its Tier 4. And Moze doesn’t need the extra Action Skill Cooldown Rate since she gets plenty from the skill point Grizzled already. Iron Cub already has a reduce Fuel Rate so you can better spend your points somewhere else. If you desperately need more maximum fuel for some reason go for it.
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★★★★★ Never Going to Give You Up: Whenever Moze or Iron Bear applies a Status Effect to an enemy, Iron Bear gains Fuel. This skill has diminishing returns.
Each Point giving: Fuel Returned: Up to 5%. 5 Points Max
Just like “Fire Up” this is very free since you can use any element. Iron bear/cub and Moze can proc this easily. Combine this with deadlines and you’ll be able to stay in Iron Bear/Keep Iron Cub up for a ridiculous amount of time. Super easy and super good especially with Flare Class Mod
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★★★★☆ (Action Skill Augment) My Little Friend: Iron Cub Spawns with an Incendiary Vladof Assault Rifle in addition to Iron Cub’s other weapons.
This Ability Allows you to ignite enemies with Iron Cub even when you aren’t using any fire weapons with him. This allows you to open up your possibilities with what weapon you can equip on him and this easily increases his dps without having to do anything. Awesome to have to activate all the skill point bonuses on this tree even faster.
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★★★★★ (Action Skill Augment) Efficiency Engine: Moze Gains Increased Gun Damage. The Longer Iron Cub has been active, the greater the bonus
Gun Damage: +0.5% Per Second
Now we don’t know what the cap for this is and whatever the cap is will determine the usefulness of this Skill but I can’t imagine it being below 50% at the very least. The whole skill tree and a lot of meta builds specialize in keeping Iron Bear out on the field as long as possible so this bonus gun damage is extremely free. Plus a few seconds in borderlands can go in a snap so you’ll see your gun damage increase at a rapid pace. Every percent helps at end game and this is one of the most brain-dead ways to do it, this will probably be your go to action skill augment in most scenarios.
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★★★☆☆ Feature Creep: Iron Bear gains increased Damage and Damage Resistance.
1 Point Max: Iron Bear Damage: +18% Iron Bear Damage Resistance: +45%
If Iron Cub is Squishy this will a necessary point but if he isn’t this will allow him to survive on the field longer. The Amount of Damage isn’t amazing but it does help a little. Iron Bear I feel doesn’t need the resistance, and I don’t see a lot of people going all the way to tier 5 to just get this skill on this tree when duel specing. It has Potential but its seems just average
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★☆☆☆☆ Limit Break: Moze gains increased Action Skill Cooldown Rate whenever she or Iron Bear inflicts a Status Effect on an enemy. This effect stacks.
Each Point giving: Cooldown Rate: +4%Duration: 12 secondsMax Stacks: 10. 5 Points Max
Another Action Skill Cooldown Rate ability that I feel like Moze doesn’t need. Sure it gives a total of 120% cooldown rate at max stacks and points but Moze already has Grizzled as said before that already brings Iron Bear Back really really quickly by it self. The 3 points are better spent somewhere else, Instead of this Cooldown rate you could be using those 3 points for more damage.
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★☆☆☆☆ Superior Firepower: Whenever Moze or Iron Bear inflicts a Status Effect on an enemy, they gain increased Status Effect Damage.
1 Point Max: Status Effect Damage: +20% Duration: 8 seconds Max Stacks: 5
Once again Status effect damage is crap currently. Unless its reworked this is a dead skill. Making a 15k dot into a 30k Dot means nothing when you deal millions of damage with each characters main kits.
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★★★★★ Running on Fumes: Whenever Moze or Iron Bear ignites an enemy, Iron Bear does not consume fuel for a short time.
1 Point Max: Duration: 6 seconds
This is absolutely crazy, Iron bear already does great on fuel but being able to not consume it every time you ignite someone is bonkers. I feel like this has huge potential when piloting seeing as right now you are looking to stay in mech as long as possible since Iron Bear does insane amounts of damage. I can see this being the go to capstone for most Iron Bear Builds from now on. Only limiting factor is that you have ignite someone to activate but you can always just go for one Incendiary Railgun/Flamethrower to allow for easy procing and just call it a day. Iron Cub will be able to stay on the field for a ridiculous amount of time as well. This is a really fun & powerful skill point
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Alrighty buddies that all I have for today. I am accepting critique from anyone, tell me what you would change about this or if you feel like something is wrong. I always love hearing what the community has to say. Obviously when the Tree get released for the game I will update this accordingly after play testing it. I hope this was helpful for some of you and I hope everyone has a great day.