Planning to get this soon. VH Skill Question

[I don't care (Pissed)]

Is there anywhere where a guide or YouTuber would cover not just what a skill does but explains it how it can work and what affects it? I don't have any luck seeing either guides or videos about it.

I watch Derchlands videos to get a clear understanding on how a skill works but I can't really get much help on this. My first VH is going to be Amara with Melee build and want to make sure I understand how all skills work. Some stuffs are tripping me up are Area Damage, Skill Damage, etc

[Diogenes49]

yes there are https://www.ign.com/wikis/borderlands-3/Skills_and_Skill_Trees

[Diogenes49]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/borderlands-3-characters-skill-trees-guide

[I don't care (Pissed)]

I look into these and thank you but.... they kinda didn't have like other portion of the question I'm looking for. I guess my question is a bit hard to understand but I'll try my best to be clear on it.

Is there a way that someone out there covers every tidbit and in-depth of each skills? Like what is "Skill Damage"? Is it generally any skills Amara have that boost Gun and Melee on kill skills and/or passive skills? Would Jab Cross be good to have or no? What is Area Damage? Isn't it "Splash Damage" or something different than that? I'm coming from playing BL2 and TPS for months for many hours a day, and before I never play Borderlands for like few years ago

[dynatierchen]

play the game and figure it out urself lmao. and then when you r done u can go and look at guides

[ZoSo]

LazyData has some old videos with that kind of information.
https://www.youtube.com/@LazyData/videos. I miss Derch and Fiber, Learned alot from them for BL2 Lazy did the same for me with BL3

[I don't care (Pissed)]

Diposting pertama kali oleh dynatierchen:

play the game and figure it out urself lmao. and then when you r done u can go and look at guides

I mean gee how would I even get to test these if I don't understand some of the stuffs listed in the skill tree? Moving on from your comment

Diposting pertama kali oleh ZoSo:

LazyData has some old videos with that kind of information.
https://www.youtube.com/@LazyData/videos. I miss Derch and Fiber, Learned alot from them for BL2 Lazy did the same for me with BL3

I'll look into this. I forgot all about LD. I'll brush up on the video to get myself up to date on this and thank you.

I miss them too. Mainly seen Derch when YT recommended me their videos and I get to learn stuffs I never knew about

Adding this for any future posts from others but I'm not getting this game on pc. It's listed on the Nintendo Switch and I will get it on there around October when it available to purchase. Switch may be lackluster but I can have BL3 on the go when I'm not at home and such

[Kiwi]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Sunny:

Is there a way that someone out there covers every tidbit and in-depth of each skills?

A lot of the information has been buried after Gearbox shutdown the forums. You will have to rely on archives or any content creator that might have covered the skills. vaulthunterhub.com is the only archive I managed to find on Reddit. LazyData was already mentioned here. I did learn some things from tbj_quag when he was streaming the game but I don't think he's made any videos on them. However there are a few docs where he's been credited (linked below).

Diposting pertama kali oleh Sunny:

What is Area Damage? Isn't it "Splash Damage" or something different than that?

They're the same thing.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Sunny:

Like what is "Skill Damage"? Is it generally any skills Amara have that boost Gun and Melee on kill skills and/or passive skills? Would Jab Cross be good to have or no?

Action skill damage is the damage done by your character's... action skill. However there are certain skills that do damage that is considered action skill damage, Body and Mind is one of them (purple, tier 5). It's a kill skill that makes every instance of melee damage deal area/splash action skill damage, which gets boosted by any AoE, splash and action skill damage bonuses that you get from other skills (including Jab Cross and Atman), classmods and artifacts (relics). If Atman's (purple tree, tier 5) description confused you - it is still action skill damage increase. So yes, Jab Cross is good to have because of this synergy, but if you aren't meleeing to have it active, then you don't get any benefit from it at all.

If you use weapons that deal melee damage, and you are also specced into Infusion (red tree, tier 1), it will double the projectiles, for example a shotgun that deals melee damage , that has x14 projectiles, with Infusion it will trigger Body and Mind x28 times with a single shot. While it isn't your traditional melee, it can help you out of a sticky situation, especially with out of reach flying enemies. I believe this can also work on regular weapons with a certain classmod but I haven't given the class mod a shot. I'm not familiar with Switch's performance but just a heads up, this will cause huge frame drops.


I play melee Amara so I will drop these resources for you for future reference. I learned a lot from them.
Although it might not answer your question about the skills, the damage formula is something to be noted. It can be complicated at first, but once you figure it out, you can use it to your advantage.
Damage formulas:
https://vaulthunterhub.com/borderlands-3/gameplay/general-damage-breakdown
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pnBcjHF3OuRItROdUPdBGw3vwC7v_5CB2pdJzj5wsb0/edit#heading=h.oavqwoc26o4n

If you don't mind spoilers, here are some of Amara's builds, where they do explain the skills and gear's usage in the builds
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rpIwTi2hrWywgB42_I2mCjLqZ72r-n1FAoA2w8LGoGA/edit#heading=h.5novgk9fuxe2

[Casurin]

If you think you need to know the itsy-bitsy details about each and every damage formula:
You are doing it wrong.
This is a game not a job. You are supposed to enjoy it.
Or is it you know that you need the strongest items and most broken combos cause a easy casula game like BL3 is too hard otherwise?


And most things are self-explanatory. Like Actionskill-damage. each character has an action-skill that normally directly or indirectly deals damage. now what could be meant when a skill says it inceases actionskill-damage.....

[Kiwi]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Casurin:

If you think you need to know the itsy-bitsy details about each and every damage formula:
You are doing it wrong.
This is a game not a job. You are supposed to enjoy it.
Or is it you know that you need the strongest items and most broken combos cause a easy casula game like BL3 is too hard otherwise?

Is this addressed towards me?
OP didn't bring up damage formula. That was me, because it would eventually come up later. It is entirely up to them to "ruin" the game for themselves now or leave it for later. You can't really force people to play your way.
Trust me, I tried to get someone who was new to Borderlands 3 to figure things out themselves (which would be my way of playing) and they struggled. Things still had to be explained.

[I don't care (Pissed)]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Kiwi:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Sunny:

Is there a way that someone out there covers every tidbit and in-depth of each skills?

A lot of the information has been buried after Gearbox shutdown the forums. You will have to rely on archives or any content creator that might have covered the skills. vaulthunterhub.com is the only archive I managed to find on Reddit. LazyData was already mentioned here. I did learn some things from tbj_quag when he was streaming the game but I don't think he's made any videos on them. However there are a few docs where he's been credited (linked below).

Diposting pertama kali oleh Sunny:

What is Area Damage? Isn't it "Splash Damage" or something different than that?

They're the same thing.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Sunny:

Like what is "Skill Damage"? Is it generally any skills Amara have that boost Gun and Melee on kill skills and/or passive skills? Would Jab Cross be good to have or no?

Action skill damage is the damage done by your character's... action skill. However there are certain skills that do damage that is considered action skill damage, Body and Mind is one of them (purple, tier 5). It's a kill skill that makes every instance of melee damage deal area/splash action skill damage, which gets boosted by any AoE, splash and action skill damage bonuses that you get from other skills (including Jab Cross and Atman), classmods and artifacts (relics). If Atman's (purple tree, tier 5) description confused you - it is still action skill damage increase. So yes, Jab Cross is good to have because of this synergy, but if you aren't meleeing to have it active, then you don't get any benefit from it at all.

If you use weapons that deal melee damage, and you are also specced into Infusion (red tree, tier 1), it will double the projectiles, for example a shotgun that deals melee damage , that has x14 projectiles, with Infusion it will trigger Body and Mind x28 times with a single shot. While it isn't your traditional melee, it can help you out of a sticky situation, especially with out of reach flying enemies. I believe this can also work on regular weapons with a certain classmod but I haven't given the class mod a shot. I'm not familiar with Switch's performance but just a heads up, this will cause huge frame drops.


I play melee Amara so I will drop these resources for you for future reference. I learned a lot from them.
Although it might not answer your question about the skills, the damage formula is something to be noted. It can be complicated at first, but once you figure it out, you can use it to your advantage.
Damage formulas:
https://vaulthunterhub.com/borderlands-3/gameplay/general-damage-breakdown
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pnBcjHF3OuRItROdUPdBGw3vwC7v_5CB2pdJzj5wsb0/edit#heading=h.oavqwoc26o4n

If you don't mind spoilers, here are some of Amara's builds, where they do explain the skills and gear's usage in the builds
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rpIwTi2hrWywgB42_I2mCjLqZ72r-n1FAoA2w8LGoGA/edit#heading=h.5novgk9fuxe2

Thanks for the reply and these does help me understand what I needed to know. Once I get the game I'll experiment some skills and build. It's the description wording is tripping me up but you help covering them. I'm not sure why the description drop the word "Splash Damage" though. I feel it's ease of use for them to write that out but I can't complain since I understand now.

I'll keep brushing up on any other things I can learn about. They'll be many things I can farm and try out to test. Thank you for explaining what I need to know. I'll go to Amara skill calculator and check on my future build I may like to run (and other build I can try out temporarily too)