Borderlands 4has yet to come out, and it’s already making the rounds online for several reasons - from the price discourse started on social media by Randy Pitchford to the quality of gameplay and updates, impressing many fans, though not without some controversies. For example,Borderlands 4’s Super Deluxe Edition, priced at $130, raised many eyebrows because it feels like the true complete version of the game, but is priced like two AAA games combined. On the other end of the spectrum is the hype surrounding the new Vault Hunters, the loot and weapon changes, and the overall gameplay. As much as he looks like a great character, Amon may have committed the ultimate buildcrafting sin already.
Builds have gradually become more and more important toBorderlandsas a series, withBorderlands 3placing a big focus on all the new skills and combos that players could pull off, especially with a fourth skill tree for all Vault Hunters.Borderlands 4’s Vault Hunters were initially received poorly due to their design, but have since grown on some players who have seen more footage of the game. Builds will be very important forBL4, if not more so, but Amon’s Action Skills include a potentially not-very-effective one, if not straight up bad.
Borderlands 4’s Amon May Have Dropped The Ball With One Action Skill
As perGame Informer’s exclusive coverage ofBorderlands 4, the Action Skills of both Amon and Harlowe were revealed, and the former has one that could be interesting and fun to play, but not as effective. The Action Skills for Amon are the following:
Why Amon’s Scourge Action Skill May Be a Mixed Bag
Crucible and Onslaught seem the usual Action Skills from the game, in the sense that they are simple, big damage buttons, whereas Scourge stands as an alternative option that both mitigates damage and retaliates. As much as Scourge can be useful, raw damage is typically much better than defensive options for looter-shooters and FPS games in general, so the idea that Amon will have an entireskill tree inBorderlands 4that is about blocking damage may be flawed from the get-go.
Unless there are big changes to the formula for Amon, reducing incoming damage or blocking it entirely can seem very good, but at the same time, this often requires using defensive abilities that take away precious DPS time. For example, this is part of the class identity forTitans inDestiny 2, but Bungie had to add some offensive effects to the Barricade skill in order to make it more valuable in PvE, as offensive often beats defensive in this regard.
Scourge does deal damage back to enemies after absorbing it, but while it’s absorbing damage, it doesn’t seem to do much else, which is a DPS loss. Also, someBorderlands 4bossesmay have damage phases and others where dealing damage with a certain timing is more important, so Scourge can mess things up.
There is no official gameplay showcase for Amon’s Action Skills or skill trees yet, so players need to wait for more details.
Borderlands 4has co-op, but at its core, it’s a single-player game. As such, players can still use Scourge and defensive perks without worrying about optimizing their damage and build. However, defensive options are often a bit limiting in terms of buildcrafting, and spending points there is fundamentally less synergistic than combining two damage-oriented skill trees, for example. It remains to be seen how Gearbox implements this logic into the game, but unless it hits all the right notes, the defensive skill tree for Amon may be a mixed bag.
