What would be a fun leveling build for him?

Borderlands 3 Zane the Operative
#1

I have Moze, Amara, and Fl4k all up to level 65 at mayhem 11, but still have my zane at level 10, since he was seen as fairly weak and I wanted to wait till he got all of his planned buffs, the max level cap, and the game in a fairly “final” state (at least currently, now that the designer’s pack is out).

however, I just can’t quite get to where I know exactly how I want to build him. I like the utility of the shield tree, but the shield itself isn’t very useful in the base game, and is clunky at best.

I like the clone tree as well, with probably the most utility skills I’d actively use, but the clone doesn’t last nearly long enough without legendary coms and I don’t find the swapping mechanic very satisfying.

I’m pretty definitely going to go into the drone tree, even though the movement-speed damage doesn’t really satisfy me, but the action skill changes really do (especially the capstone)

is the new purple tree worth using? I already bought the pack so it’s not like money is on the line. even if I don’t spec down the tree and only use it for the un-augmented laser, it seems like it could be capable (but have no idea damage-wise). i’ll definitely throw a point into the renegade skill for passive health regen, and maybe also man of focus if I end up using the laser.

any advice is appreciated!

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#2

For leveling , definitively the blue tree , the movement speed helps avoiding enemies and moving from point a to b faster .

For max level ,

Blue: Buffs all your kill skill twice and movement speed/gun dmg . To me 26 pts into it is mandatory when i play zane.

Red:Clone is pretty strong with quite a few weapons , mine can solo Jackbot from dlc 1 while i just sprint around. Its a good tree but im getting bored of it personally

Green:Makes you unkillable with the proper setup , also freezes till no end , i dislike going further than 11 points into that tree.

Purple:Buff dmg and provides a nice capstone where when you aim down sight , dmg is inc by 25% (a true 25%)

I personally like 26 blue , 26 red , 11 purple or 26 blue 26 purple and 11 red

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#3

depends on what your idea of fun is

#4

…which is why I wrote a few sentences trying to give a picture about what I do and don’t like for each tree

#5

I JUST got to sanctuary ship, and I’ve been running drone and laser cannon, and I’ll say I definitely see the appeal of movement speed investment, solely for the fact with the tier 3 skill, any activation of my laser cannon gives substantial movement speed boost lol.

however, I DO wish there was a bit more forgiveness on the laser cannon’s hit registration. it can be a bit wonky and miss sometimes :confused:

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#6

If you just got to Sanctuary, then I would suggest a slight detour to grab either the Seein’ Dead or Spy coms from DLC1 and 5 respectively. Both of them would give a much needed boost to any Zane build you take on.

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#7

Seein’ Dead would surely help but doing so might also screw the remaining story scaling. The “new scaling” help but I’m not sure. Depends how quickly you find it.

I like Clone/Drone to start. Well. Clone first then SNTNL when you are gathered enough skill points and ready to let go the “manual grenade throw”.

Not sure what you mean by.

It’s a very useful mechanic. Add more strategy. But wouldn’t call it “satisfying” :wink:
As you pointed out. at first the clone doesn’t last very long so no much time to use it anyways. Maybe once. Later with the appropriate skills and two AS it will last almost entire fights.
Really not a fan of the MNTIS cannon. Would not recomand it for a first Zane and definitely not a starting AS. In my opinion.