Borderlands 3 dishes up new skill trees, as part of its second season pass

Borderlands 3 dishes up new skill trees, as part of its second season pass

2K and Gearbox might have only just announced a second season pass for Borderlands 3, that doesn’t mean they are done with the changes, overnight the first of two sessions on the expansion of the Vault Hunter skill trees was released and we have details.

Each skill tree will offer up an all new action skills and a wealth of passive skills that will change up how you experience the worlds of Borderlands 3; Let’s start with Amara.

Amara's new Phaseflare Action Skill summons a giant, controllable orb of elemental destruction (see the top image) that lets her bowl a bloody path through the opposition. Meanwhile, her Enlightened Force Skill Tree lets her freeze enemies using Cryo elemental effects, rounding out her toolkit of natural elements. The passive abilities in the Enlightened Force tree help her maximize elemental damage and slow enemies down so they have no hope of outrunning her Phaseflare.

"Up until now Amara had 'fire and forget' Action Skills, but with the new Phaseflare, she's capable of even more damage when properly managing the skill," says Creative Director Graeme Timmins . "This also opens up a whole new set of Action Skill Active Anointments that previously hadn't synergized too well with her other skills."

Those who master Phaseflare and pair it with the right gear will be able to bounce around the battlefield like a Siren possessed, slaughtering enemies by slamming an energy orb to and fro.

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The passive abilities in the Enlightened Force skill tree also help you maximize your elemental damage and slow enemies so they have no hope of outrunning your Phaseflare.

Here are some highlights:

  • Trust in Yourself is a huge boon when Amara wants to fight up close and personal. Whenever an enemy breaks Amara's shield, she gains increased Reload Speed, Charge Speed, and Weapon Speed, with doubled bonuses if her shield was broken by a melee attack.

  • Combo Breaker makes it so that killing an enemy with melee damages reduces Amara's remaining Action Skill cooldown by half. When combined with the boosted melee damage effects from other passives, you can chain together skills almost nonstop.

  • Clear the Mind is a must-have Kill Skill for tougher enemies you need to freeze, burn, electrocute, or poison in a hurry. After killing an enemy, Amara's attacks ignore all elemental resistances for a short time (this doesn’t override elemental immunities, however).

Further down the Enlightened Force skill tree, you can gain access to more Action Skills that put a new spin on Phaseflare's signature orb. For instance, heal your allies with the Glow Up Action Skill that can grant an instant Second Wind if you smack it into a downed teammate.

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Switching things over to FL4K, the robotic hunter picks up the new Gravity Snare skill, which is part of the new Trapper skill tree, FL4K can control the battlefield from near and far. With the new Loader Bot pet variations.

"To FL4K, something doesn't need to be warm, fuzzy, and poop out their mouths to be a pet," says Game Designer Tommy Westerman . "To FL4K, anything can be a pet, including a Hyperion Loader Bot. The ION Loader comes with a powerful sniper rifle to keep it and FL4K safe from a distance, while the BUL Loader comes with a shotgun and a bulldozer to get right up in enemies' stupid faces. Or just go with the WAR Loader and burn everything to the ground with its radiation missiles. Whatever floats your boat. FL4K's new Trapper skill tree isn't all about robot rampages, though—it also provides FL4K and their pets with powerful shield bonuses."

The passive abilities in the Trapper skill tree give FL4K and their pets huge survivability increases via shield bonuses or added damage through increased critical hit effects.

Check out these choice picks:

  • Take This! gives FL4K's pet a copy of their shield, which can turn your companion into a nigh-unkillable tank.

  • Monkey Do gives FL4K's pet increased critical hit damage, but the real power comes from its other passive effect. Whenever FL4K scores a critical hit on enemies, their pet's next attack is a guaranteed critical hit—and best of all, this passive has a short cooldown.

  • Capacitance is FL4K's failsafe survival skill: when activated, FL4K gains greatly increased Shield Capacity for a short time and immediately begins recharging shields. With its short cooldown, proper use of Capacitance can make you practically immortal.

You can head to the games official site and explore the two new trees in detail already, but if you want to see all four, you will to wait a little longer as the new trees for Zane and Moze will be revealed soon.

The second season of content kicks off on November 10 and the games will be updated to work on Next Gen platforms, without the need to pay and the best news, all your progress caries across.