This week as we all know, is Wasteland Week, where we talk about Borderlands, which is what could very well be described as “Diablo II with a shotgun” . Let’s look at what’s on tap with the skill trees of each of the different classes. Here are some points to note:

- Each of these skills that come after acquiring the beginning skill will have up to five levels. Meaning that you can spend up to a maximum of 5 skill points of the Siren’s Diva skill or a Combat Soldier’s Sentry skill.

- After every 5 skill points you spend on one tree, you can go down a tier to get the next few skills on that tier. Assuming you follow one tree and spend just 5 skill points on each tier, you will end up reaching the Final Tier of a Tree at about level 20.

- So far to our knowledge, you will have a level cap of 50. Meaning that if you do your math right (unlike me), you can access an entire single class tree’s abilities and access a good portion of another tree. For instance, you can allocate all your points onto the Siren’s Controller Tree until you allocate a single point onto her final tier, then proceed onto the Elemental Tree.

- Yes, you can respec your skills at the New-U Station at any town hub of an area and yes, it’ll cost you.

With that settled, let’s roll with the skill tree.

Siren

Starting Skill- Phasewalk

Gain the ability to turn invisible and move incredibly fast. Upon entering/leaving Phasewalk, you create a Phase Blast that damages nearby enemies. You can Melee attack to end Phasewalk early. Cooldown: 36 seconds

Controller Tree (Blue)

First Tier

Diva – Increases the Capacity of your shield. Shield Capacity: +5%; adds up with each skill point. (Up to 5)

Striking – Your melee attacks can Daze enemies, reducing their movement speed and accuracy. Chance to Daze (vs. equal level enemy):+70%; adds up with each skill point.

Second Tier

Inner Glow – While Phasewalking, you regenerate health. Regenerates +1% of your Health per second while Phasewalking; adds up with each skill point.

Dramatic Entrance – Your Phase Blast can Daze enemies. Chance to Daze +20%; adds up with each skill point.

Third Tier

Hard To Get – Decreases the Cooldown of Phasewalk. Phasewalk Cooldown reduced by 3 seconds, with each skill point allocated to it reduced by a few seconds.

Girl Power – Killing an enemy causes your Shield to quickly regenerate for a few seconds. First skill point on this skill starts off with you regenerating 2% of your shield per second (adds up with each skill point)

Final Tier

Mind Games – Each bullet you fire has a chance to Daze enemies, reducing their movement speed and accuracy. Chance to Daze starts off at +5%; adding up with each allocation of your skill points.

Elemental Tree (Red)

First Tier

Quicksilver – Increases your Fire Rate with all weapons. Starts off with 5% Fire Rate, adding up with each skill point.

Spark - Increases your chance of causing Elemental Effects with Elemental Weapons. +4% Elemental Effect chance at first skill point, increasing with additional skill points on this slot.

Second Tier

Resilience – Increases your resistance to Fire, Shock, Corrosive, and Explosive Damage. Elemental Resistance starts at -6%, with each subtraction added for every skill point allocated. (the -x is good here)

Radiance – You deal Shock Damage to nearby enemies while Phasewalking. Damage is based on your Level and the Skill’s Level. First level is +1 Shock Damage, increasing with each skill point allocated on this skill.

Third Tier

Venom – Adds Corrosive Damage to your melee attacks. Also, your melee attacks have a chance to Corrode enemies, causing additional damage over time (D.O.T). Starts off with +5% melee damage, with an additional percentage added with each allocation of skill points.

Intuition - Killing an enemy increases your movement speed and the experience you and your team earn for a few seconds. Starts off with +10% Movement speed and +4% Team Experience.

Final Tier

Phoenix – Killing an enemy causes you to deal Fire Damage to nearby enemies and makes your shots not always cost ammo for a few seconds. The Fire Damage increases with your Level. Starts off with 5% chance to save ammo and +1 Fire Damage.

Assassin Tree (Green)

First Tier

Slayer - Increases your Critical Hit Damage. Starts off with +5% Critical Hit Damage. This means damage, not the chance of getting a critical hit.

Silent Resolve – Increases your resistance to damage for a few seconds AFTER Phasewalking. Starts off with +56% Damage Reduction. Remember, it’s AFTER Phasewalking duration ends.

Second Tier

Enforcer – Killing an enemy increases your accuracy and Bullet Damage for a few seconds. Starts off with +7% Accuracy and +2% Bullet Damage.

Hit & Run – Gain increased melee damage and Phasewalk duration. Starts with +7% Melee damage and +0.8 Phasewalk duration (in seconds)

Third Tier

High Velocity – Increases Bullet Damage and Velocity. Starts with +20% Bullet Velocity and +4% Bullet Damage.

Blackout – Killing an enemy reduces the cooldown of Phasewalk. Killing an enemy nets you a cooldown reduction of 1.2 seconds.

Final Tier

Phase Strike – Using a melee attack while Phasewalking deals additional damage. Starts off with +160% bonus to Melee Damage. Instant kill from the shadows, in other words.

Our Take: Since the Siren’s more on stealth and messing up your enemies with Daze, I would suggest either starting with either the Controller or Assassin.

Combat Soldier

Starting Skill – Scorpio Turret

Gain the ability to deploy a Scorpio Turret that automatically fires at enemies. Also has a shield that can be used as cover. Turret has a few seconds before it disappears. Cooldown: 100 seconds.

Infantry Tree

First Tier

Impact – Increases Bullet Damage with all weapon types. Starts with +3% Bullet Damage; adds an additional +3% for each skill point of this.

Sentry - Increases Scorpio Turret damage. +7% Scorpio Turret damage at start; an additional +7% for each skill point increase.

Second Tier

Scattershot – Increases shotgun damage and spread. Starts with +3% Shotgun Damage and +5% Shotgun spread, with an additional +3% in damage and +5% in spread for each skill point allocated here.

Metal Storm – Killing an enemy increases your Fire Rate and reduces Recoil for a few seconds. Starts with +6% Weapon Fire Rate and +15% Recoil Reduction.

Third Tier

Refire - Shooting an enemy reduces the Cooldown of your Scorpio Turret. This effect can only occur every two seconds (meaning two second interval after hitting the first enemy). Starts off with 1 second in reduction per hit.

Assault - Increases Magazine Size and reduces Recoil with Combat Rifles. Starts off with +9% Magazine Size and Recoil Reduction.

Final Tier

Guided Missile – Your Scorpio Turret launches guided missiles in addition to using its regular gun. Starts off with your turret shooting a missile after every 8 seconds.

Support Tree (Red)

First Tier

Defense – Increases hwo quickly your shields recharge. Starts with +4% Shield Recharge Speed, with an additional +4% for each subsequent skill point.

Stockpile – Players near the Scorpio Turret regenerate ammo for the weapon currently in their hands. Starts off with +1 Ammo Regeneration Rate.

Second Tier

Quick Charge – Killing an enemy causes your shields to quickly regenerate for a few seconds. Starts off with +2% Shields per second.

Barrage – Increases the number of shots your Scorpio Turret fires in each burst. Starts off with +1 Shots fired per burst.

Third Tier

Grenadier – Killing an enemy increase your grenade damage and causes you to regenerate grenades for a few seconds. Starts off with +2 Grenades per minute and +3% Grenade Damage.

Deploy - Reduces the cooldown for your Turret. Starts off with a reduction of +20%.

Final Tier

Supply Drop – The Turret periodically fires out supply pickups to resupply players. Pickups come out every 7 seconds for the initial skill upgrade.

Medic Tree (Green)

First Tier

Fitness – Increases your Maximum Health. +5% Max. Health at first skill point.

Aid Station – Allies near Scorpio turret regenerate health. Regenerates +1% health per second.

Second Tier

Overload – Increases magazine capacity with all weapon types. Starts with +12% Magazine Size.

Cauterize – Shooting team members heals them. This effect also works with grenades and rockets. Converts +6% damage from your weapon to health.

Third Tier

Revive – The Scorpio Turret has a chance to instantly revive nearby crippled friends when deployed. Starts with +14% Revival Chance.

Grit - Increases your resistance to Bullet Damage. Adds +3% Bullet Resistance at first skill upgrade.

Final Tier

Stat- Killing an enemy increases health regeneration for you and nearby friends for a few seconds. Starts off with +1% health regeneration per second.

Our Take: The Combat Soldier’s all about supporting your buddies. While he’s fine going in the frontlines, sometimes you just want to switch to a healer in a pinch, so focus on either the Medic or Support Tree first. We’ll go for the Support first.

Hunter

Starting Skill – Bloodwing

Gain the ability to summon a pet Bloodwing out to attack an enemy and then return, like an organic boomerang. Cooldown of 28 seconds, so spam this attack all to your heart’s content.

Sniper Tree (Blue)

First Tier

Focus - Increases accuracy with all weapon types. Adds +5% Accuracy and substracts Sniper Rifle sway by -10% at initial level. Adds up an additional 5% Accuracy and substracts 10% Sniper Rifle sway for additional levels of skill.

Caliber - Increases damage with Sniper Rifle. Starts with +4% Sniper Rifle damage, with each subsequent upgrade adding an extra 4% to Sniper Rifle damage.

Second Tier

Smirk - All players on your team (including you) gain additional experience when you kill an enemy with a Critical Hit. Starts with +3% Experience Bonus.

Killer – Killing an enemy increases your Damage and Reload Speed with all guns for a few seconds. Starts with +8% Damage and +6% Reload Speed.

Third Tier

Loaded – Increases Magazine Capacity with Sniper Rifles. Starts with +14% Magazine Capacity.

Carrion Call – Shooting an enemy with a Sniper Rifle reduces the cooldown of your Bloodwing. One hit takes away 0.8 seconds of the Bloodwing Cooldown for the initial upgrade.

Final Tier

Trespass – Your bullets have a chance to ignore Shields. This also increases Bullet Damage. This skill isn’t just for Sniper Rifles, it’s for ALL your guns. Starts with 20% chance to penetrate shields and +1 Bullet Damage.

Rogue Tree(Red)

First Tier

Swift Strike – Increases Bloodwing Damage and Movement Speed. Starts with +20% Bloodwing Damage and +8% Bloodwing Speed, with an additional 20% damage and 8% speed increase with each skill point on this skill.

Swipe – The Bloodwing causes enemies to drop additional money, ammo, and healing items when it attacks. Maximum number of additional items dropped:1.

Second Tier

Fast Hands – Increases Reload Speed with all weapon types. Starts with a +8% increase in Reload Speed.

Out For Blood – When your Bloodwing strikes an enemy you gain health based on the amount of damage done. Your Bloodwing starts getting back 7% of health from the damage dealt.

Third Tier

Aerial Impact – Attacks from your Bloodwing can Daze enemies. Daze reduces enemy movement speed and accuracy. Chance to daze starts off at 20%.

Ransack – Killing an enemy increases the amount of loot you get from other enemies killed for a few seconds. Starts off with 20% chance to drop additional items.

Final Tier

Bird of Prey – Increases the number of targets the Bloodwing can attack before returning. Starts off with the Bloodwing attacking up to 2 targets.

Gunslinger Tree (Green)

First Tier

Deadly - Increases Critical Hit damage. Starts with +6% Critical Hit Damage.

Gun Crazy – When using Pistols(both repeater pistols and revolvers) you have a chance to fire 2 shots with each pull of the trigger instead of just 1. Starts off with an 8% chance to fire 2 shots.

Second Tier

Lethal Strike – Increases melee damage. Also, every melee attack has a 35% chance to be a Lethal Strike and deal extremely high damage. Pistol-whipping takes on a whole new level. Starts off with your Melee Damage given a +10% bonus and Lethal Strike dealing +100% damage.

Riotous Remedy – Killing an enemy gives you chaotic health regeneration for a few seconds. Skills starts off with you being able to heal up to 3% of your maximum Health over 7 seconds.

Third Tier

Predator – Decreases the cooldown of your pet Bloodwing. Starts off with the cooldown reduced by 3 seconds.

Hair Trigger – Increases Fire Rate and Magazine Size with pistols. Starts with +4% Fire Rate and +6% Magazine Size.

Final Tier

Relentless – Killing an enemy increases your fire rate and gives every bullet fired a 25% chance to be a Killer Shot and deal additional damage. This effect lasts a few seconds. Starts off with a +8% Fire Rate and a +20% Killer Shot damage.

Our Take: Hunter’s all about killing things with one shot from afar. While the Rogue Tree is tempting, we opt to go for the Sniper Tree first; enemies will be packing better shields, so Trespass would be a good skill to get as you reach level 20 and beyond. You can distribute your remaining skill points on either remaining trees; we’ll go with Gunslinger since Predator’s cooldown feature is good if you wish to spam your Bloodwing attack more.

Berserker

Starting Skill – Berserk

Gain the ability to go Berserk. While Berserk, Right Trigger(R2) and Left Trigger(L2) throw punches. Also, you gain resistance to all damage and you regenerate health while Berserking. Cooldown for this ability is 60 seconds.

Brawler Tree (Blue)

First Tier

Iron Fist – Increases the melee damage you deal. Starts with +6% Melee Damage, with each increase giving an additional 6%.

Endless Rage – Increases the duration of Berserk. Adds an initial 10% Berserk Duration for the first level of the skill, with a 10% increase in the additional levels.,

Second Tier

Sting like a Bee – Punching while Berserk causes you to dash forward and slug your enemies. Dash distance starts at 4 feet, with an additional 4 feet added for each skill level increase.

Heavy Handed – Killing an enemy greatly increases your melee damage for a few seconds. Starts off with +12% increase, with an additional 12% added for each additional skill point allocated to this slot.

Third Tier

Prize Fighter – While Berserk is active, your melee attacks have a chance to spawn cash prizes. Starts off with a 6% chance to spawn a cash prize.

Short Fuse - Decreases the cooldown of Berserk. Starts off with a reduction of six seconds in the default Berserk cooldown period.

Final Tier

Blood Sport - Killing an enemy while Berserk is active regenerates some of your health. Starts off with a 2% health regeneration percentage from your max Health total.

Tank Tree (Red)

First Tier

Hardened – Increases your maximum health. Starts with +12% increase in Maximum Health.

Safeguard – Increases the strength of your shield. Starts off with a +8% bonus to Shield Strength.

Second Tier

Bash – Gives your melee attacks a chance to Daze enemies. Chance to Daze starts off at 10%.

Juggernaut – Killing an enemy gives you resistance to all damage for a few seconds. Starts with +10% Damage Resistance.

Third Tier

Pay Back – After your shields become depleted, you gain a damage bonus for 10 seconds. Starts off with +8% Damage bonus.

Diehard – Increases the amount of health you regain when you are revived by a friend or by Second Wind. Also increases the amount of time you have before you die when you are Crippled. Starts off with +30% Revived Health Bonus and +20% time to be Revived.

Final Tier

Unbreakable – When your shield is depleted, you gain 5 seconds of powerful shield regeneration. Starts off with +3% Shield Strength regenerated per second.

Blaster Tree (Green)

First Tier

Endowed – Increases the Explosive Damage you deal. Starts off with +3% Explosive Damage.

Rapid Reload – Increases your Reload Speed and reduces Recoil with all weapons. Starts off with +4% Reload Speed and +6% Recoil Reduction.

Second Tier

Revenge- Killing an enemy increases your damage with all weapons for a few seconds. Starts off with +10% Damage bonus.

Wide Load – Increases the number of Rockets your Rocket Launcher can hold in its magazine. Starts off with +1 Launcher Magazine Size.

Third Tier

Liquidate – Dealing Explosive Damage to an enemy reduces the cooldown of Berserk. Starts off with a Cooldown reduction of -1 second per hit.

Cast Iron – Increases your resistance to Explosive Damage. Starts off with +8% Explosive Damage Resistance.

Final Tier

Master Blaster - Killing an enemy increases your Fire Rate with all weapons and causes you to regenerate rockets fora  few seconds. Starts off with a +12% to Fire Rate bonus and 2 Rockets regenerated per minute.

Our Take: Hit first, ask questions later. Since you wouldn’t be getting explosive weapons that often, just go for the Brawler first.

The best part about all this? It’s playable starting tomorrow at this year’s GCA at IAH’s Take Two Booth! So what’s your plan and take on the Borderland classes’ skill tree and perks?