Mastering Amara: Unlocking the Best Skill Tree for the Siren in Borderlands 3

Choosing the “best” skill tree for Amara, the Siren in Borderlands 3, is like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream – it depends entirely on your personal taste and playstyle. However, if you are looking for the overall most powerful, versatile, and widely appreciated skill tree, the Mystical Assault tree, especially when focusing on the elemental damage and action skill augment Avatar, often takes the crown. This tree, coupled with specific gear and build choices, allows Amara to deliver insane amounts of damage while maintaining excellent survivability, making it a strong choice for both solo play and tackling endgame content. Let’s dive deep into what makes this tree so powerful and how to make the most of it.

Understanding the Power of the Mystical Assault Tree

The Mystical Assault tree is built around enhancing Amara’s action skill and amplifying elemental damage. This makes it incredibly effective against a wide range of enemy types, as you can adapt your elemental damage to exploit enemy weaknesses. The key to this tree’s success lies in several crucial skills.

Key Skills in the Mystical Assault Tree

• Sustainment: This skill is fundamental for Amara’s survivability. It grants a percentage of health back based on elemental damage dealt. With the right build, this can effectively make Amara nearly unkillable.
• Violent Tapestry: This skill stacks elemental damage over time (DoT) chance with every shot. More DoT = More Sustainment = Increased survivability and damage output.
• Remnant: This skill unleashes a powerful homing projectile after an enemy is killed with Amara’s action skill, dealing bonus damage to nearby enemies. This adds significant clear speed, especially in crowded environments.
• Avatar (Capstone): This capstone is the jewel in the Mystical Assault crown. Avatar allows Amara to use her action skill even when it’s on cooldown, granting her a huge increase in uptime and overall damage. It also gives Amara a massive buff, which provides a significant advantage when dealing with difficult encounters.

Maximizing the Mystical Assault Build

To truly maximize the Mystical Assault tree, consider the following gear and build considerations:

• Action Skill Element: Choose the element that best suits the situation. Shock is excellent against shields, corrosive shreds armor, and fire melts flesh. Adjust your element based on the enemies you’re facing for maximum efficiency.
• Class Mod: The Phasezerker Class Mod is a popular choice, as it grants stacking bonuses to weapon damage, action skill damage, and cooldown rate with each phasecast. The Spiritual Driver is another powerhouse due to its synergy with movement speed and self-inflicted damage.
• Weapons: The Brainstormer shotgun synergizes exceptionally well with Amara’s elemental damage. The weapon arcs electricity to nearby enemies, practically giving Amara infinite health as long as she doesn’t run out of ammo. Other excellent weapons include the Recursion shotgun (for ricocheting projectiles) and various elemental weapons with high status effect chances.
• Shield: The Transformer shield is outstanding for survivability, converting shock damage into shield capacity and offering a chance to absorb bullets. The Re-Volter is another great choice, providing a significant damage boost on shield break and recharge.
• Artifact: The Elemental Projector artifact is a damage amplifier if the enemy is suffering from an element that is different than what your weapon is doing. It requires a little bit of set up, but the end result is an increased output.

Other Viable Skill Trees for Amara

While the Mystical Assault tree provides a well-rounded and potent build, Amara’s other skill trees offer unique playstyles and can excel in specific scenarios.

• Brawl Tree: This tree focuses on melee damage and survivability. With skills like Guardian Angel and Find Your Center, Amara becomes a melee powerhouse capable of dishing out massive damage while remaining incredibly tanky. This is a fun and aggressive playstyle, but it can be more challenging in certain endgame content.
• Fist of the Elements Tree: This tree enhances elemental damage and status effects. Skills like Wildfire and Tempest drastically increase Amara’s elemental damage output and status effect chance. This build excels at applying damage over time and can be incredibly effective against enemies weak to specific elements.
• Enlightened Force Tree: This tree adds a different flavor to Amara’s elemental prowess. The new action skill Phaseflare creates an orb of elemental energy, making it deal elemental damage to nearby enemies. Noteworthy skills include Glow Up, which instead of Splash Damage to enemies, Amara’s orb grants nearby allies health regeneration.

Experimentation is Key

Ultimately, the best Amara build is one that suits your individual playstyle and preferences. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different skill combinations, gear loadouts, and action skill augments to find what works best for you. Explore different builds and find the playstyle you enjoy the most, and then adjust accordingly. Amara is a versatile character with a multitude of potential builds.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Amara Builds

1. What is the best action skill element for Amara?

The best action skill element for Amara depends on the enemies you’re facing. Shock is excellent against shields, corrosive melts armor, and fire melts flesh. Adapting your element to exploit enemy weaknesses is crucial for maximizing damage output.

2. What is the best class mod for Amara?

Popular class mods for Amara include the Phasezerker (for boosting weapon and action skill damage) and the Spiritual Driver (for movement speed and self-damage synergy). The Nimbus is also good, it has a chance to create a damaging elemental cloud on a status effect trigger.

3. Is melee Amara viable in Borderlands 3?

Yes, melee Amara is viable, especially with the Brawl tree. With skills like Guardian Angel and specific gear, Amara can become a melee powerhouse capable of dealing significant damage while maintaining excellent survivability.

4. What is the best shield for Amara?

The Transformer shield is a top choice for Amara, converting shock damage into shield capacity and offering bullet absorption. The Re-Volter shield is another strong choice, providing a significant damage boost on shield break and recharge.

5. What are some good weapons for Amara?

The Brainstormer shotgun is excellent for its arcing electricity and health sustain. The Recursion shotgun is great for ricocheting projectiles, and various elemental weapons with high status effect chances are also strong choices.

6. How can I improve Amara’s survivability?

Focus on skills like Sustainment, which grants health back based on elemental damage dealt. Also, use shields like the Transformer and focus on maximizing elemental damage and status effect chance to trigger sustainment more often.

7. What is the benefit of the Avatar capstone skill?

Avatar allows Amara to use her action skill even when it’s on cooldown, drastically increasing uptime and overall damage output.

8. Which skill tree is best for solo play?

The Mystical Assault tree is a solid choice for solo play, offering a balance of damage and survivability. You can also tailor the Fist of the Elements for great damage output.

9. How do I optimize Amara’s elemental damage?

Focus on skills like Tempest and Wildfire in the Fist of the Elements tree. Use elemental weapons with high status effect chance and consider using artifacts like the Elemental Projector to amplify elemental damage.

10. Can Amara equip two action skills?

No, Amara can only equip one action skill at a time. However, she can augment her action skill to customize its effects and behavior.

11. Is the Brawl tree only good for melee builds?

No, the Brawl tree also offers skills that enhance survivability and can be beneficial for other builds as well. Skills like Guardian Angel are useful regardless of your primary damage source.

12. What is the best way to level up Amara?

Focus on skills that enhance damage output early on, such as those in the Fist of the Elements tree. Experiment with different action skills and augments to find what works best for your playstyle.

13. How does Amara compare to other Vault Hunters?

Amara is a versatile character with a strong emphasis on elemental damage and survivability. She excels at dealing damage to multiple enemies and can be built for a variety of playstyles. She is generally considered one of the strongest characters in the game.

14. What role does movement speed play in Amara builds?

Movement speed can be beneficial for Amara, especially when using the Spiritual Driver class mod, as it increases damage output. Skills and gear that enhance movement speed can also improve survivability by making it easier to dodge enemy attacks.

15. How do I respec Amara’s skill points?

You can respec Amara’s skill points at any Quick-Change Station, which can be found in various locations throughout the game, including Sanctuary III. It costs a small amount of money to respec, but it’s a valuable tool for experimenting with different builds.