Borderlands Skill Tree Plan For all 4 Classes.

So... you reached level 5 and now you're looking at the skill tree and you're not sure what to pick ? Fear not Vault Hunter!
This guide will help you choose the greatest perks available for any of the 4 classes: Soldier, Hunter, BeRseRkeR, Siren.
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Roland (Soldier)

Why ?

Stat (last on green) is the best perk you can have, maybe for all classes. You start regenerating health after you kill an enemy, considering Borderlands doesn't have health that regenerates automatically as other games, this perk is a huge advantage compared to the others.

Aid Station (left on green row 1) is good to use until you get Stat. But after that there's no point of having 2 sources of medicine, that both skills can heal allies too not only Aid Station. After you reach Stat perk. After you reach 3/5 on Stat your health will regenerate relatively fast so you won't have need for Aid Station anymore. Thus it's better to start with Aid Station and on level 23 swich to Fitness (right on green row 1). The +5% health regen is already great, there's hardly ever any need to double-stack it, 2 good sources of medicine won't do much, 1 good source of medicine and +25 will be more useful.

Impact (left on blue row) you'll always use your weapon when fighting, but you'll not always use your sentry gun. Thus, overall Impact is better than Sentry (right on blue row).

the claw's opinion: Not using Roland's missles and supply packages cripple his endless ammo pool and not using quick charge does not give you a gate to buffer health for.

Mordecai (Hunter)

Why ?

Trespass (last on blue) is the best skill for Mordecai. On 5/5 the chance to penetrate shields is 100% meaning from now on Mordecai will ignore shields with his bullets and only go for the health. From now on it doesn't even matter what shield the enemy has, you'll ignore it anyway.

Red vs Green (Alternatives) the red skill tree focuses more on the use of Bloodwing (your bird) while the green skill focuses more on the usefulness of your weapons with a cooldown reduction for Bloodwing. The Predator (left on green row 3) is amazing! on 5/5 the cooldown reduction is 15 seconds meaning from now you'll only have to wait 13 seconds to use bloodwing, as opposed to 28 which is with 0/5 Predator. If you also happen to have 5/5 Carron Ball (right on blue row 3) that discreases your Bloodwing cooldown for 4 seconds if you hit an enemy with a sniper rifle. you'll be able to spam Bloodwing. But it will not have the same damage as if you would pick the red skill tree. Red skill tree is basically for Bloodwing: double damage, +35% health to you of the damage Bloodwing made, 100% chance to daze (vs an equal level enemy), Bloodwing attacks up to 6 targets. Which is more than impressive! Bloodwing becomes overpowered, especially when you're surrounded by enemies. However, it does not lower your cooldown so you'll still have a cooldown of 28 seconds at it literally does nothing for your weapons. The green skill tree increases your critical by 30% and 5/5 Relentless (last on green) gives you for a few seconds after you kill an enemy: +40% Rate of Fire & 25% chance for a bullet to deal +100% damage. When it comes to the skills that gives you health (the skills on the right row 2 for both red and green) the red skill is better, but that doesn't make up for the rest of the skill tree since the green skill tree also gives good stuff to your weapon. Those being said. I believe both red skill tree and green skill tree are good to use as your 2nd skill tree depending on what your style is, but the green skill tree is maybe a little more general since it's focused more on your weapon than on your Bloodwing (except for the 15 sec. cooldown reduction).

the claw's opinion: Mordecai's Gun Crazy combined with a good shot along with other various items and gear are foolproof as he has crazy health regeneration benefits to support his lower health pool and support skills.

Brick (BeRseRkeR)

*/ The reason I currently have on blue 4 - 2 is because I have a Class Mod that gives me
+3 Endless Rage (right on blue row 1) /*

Why ?

Safeguard (right on red row 1) will give you +40 Shield at 5/5 while Hardedned (left on red row 1) will give you +60% Health at 5/5. While the amount of health gained is higher than the amount of shield gained, both because it's 60%>40% and because you'll generally have more health than shield, the shield regenerates itself if you don't take damage for a few seconds. Thus is can be more useful in combat to have less regenerating shield than more non-regenrationg health at that level. Anyway, you'll reach level 15 in no time so whether you pick Safeguard or Hardedned first it shouldn't matter much, it's just for the record.

Judgernaut (left on red row 2) gives you +50% Damage Resistance for a short time after you kill an enemy. Basically you only take half the damage you would normally take. This is the best choice out of the 4 left red skills because it's not situational but rather something you're going to use very often, and being tank you will need damage resitance more than anything else. Seeing that Brick often uses his skill to kill enemy after enemy the Judgernaut will stay on and on making you 2 times the tank you are. Bash only daze in melee and as Brick when you go melee you usually go directly to kill not to stun, and Diehard is only useful when you fall down, being very situational it's not as good as the rest. Pay Back gives you +40% Damage and it lasts 10 seconds after your shield becomes depleted. Generally Judgernaut is more useful because you'll make use of it's benefits more often. There are some exceptions such as durring boss fights where there are no minor enemies to kill where Pay Back will prove superior to Judgernaut. In this situation the Soldier's Aid Station will also prove Superior to Stat. But for the most fights, where you have more than 1 enemy nearby Judgernaut as well as Stat will prove more useful.

Endless Rage (right on blue row 1) if you have +50% Berserk Duration on 5/5 you have more time to deal damage thus can deal overal more damage than you would with the Iron Fist (left on blue row 1) +30% Melee damage on 5/5.

Iron Fist (left on blue row 1) because Heavy Handed (right blue row 2) only gives you the +60% Melee Damage after you kill an enemy for a few seconds while in the Iron Fist case you'll always have +30% Melee Damage which makes it better rounded. No doubt that there are cases when a +60% Melee Damage after you kill an enemy for a few seconds will be more useful than a base +30% Melee Damage, but in situations such as a boss fight or a duel the Iron Fist will prove more useful, while in general situations with multiple enemies it's not such a huge drop from +60% to +30% considering that against the first enemy you engage you won't have the +60% and that if you don't kill another enemy fast enough you'll lose the +60% until you kill another target.

Mordecai's Gun Crazy combined with a good shot along with other various items and gear are foolproof as he has crazy health regeneration benefits to support his lower health pool and support skills. Not using Roland's missles and supply packages cripple his endless ammo pool and not using quick charge does not give you a gate to buffer health for.

the claw's opinion: Not getting Diehard is a huge mistake, I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea at all. Brick going down entirely tank and blast master is extremely potent to his melee alternative.

Lilith (Siren)

Why ?

Mind Games (last on blue) is the best skill Lilith can have, about 1 out of 4 bullets she fires will daze the target reducing it's movement speed and accuracy.

Phase Strike (last on green) combined with Blackout (right on green row 3) and Hard to get (left on blue row 1) will make Lilith the most overpowered Character in the game. With 20 cooldown and 6 seconds cooldown reduction for each enemy she kills, she will be able to enter Phasewalk in almost no time making it easy to spam, and while in Phasewalk she will deal +800% Melee Damage.

the claw's opinion: why would you lose out of smg potentency on lil (me: for huge melee damage while Phasewalking, shock damage to nearby enemies while Phaswalking, and corrosive damage with melee + chance of additional damage). Lillith's Mercenary COM's make gunplay and using phasewalk as a health buffer is much better than using melee, and I would just use gun based skill in the assassin tree.

Max Level

I made level 69 with all the characters and these are my builds:

A little different from how I planned to make them because I figured some things are better than others, but overal it's the same build.


Cheers from Scooter! Don't be shy now! C'mon! Catch a Riiiiiiiiiiide!

[Akfiz]

*cries in full game all DLCs and all achievements completed using this pathetic guide*

[jxiidxn01]

kinda bad guide

[rogue-like connoisseur]

@SETZIG i know im a year and a half late but yes there is a level cap

[_Assassin_Zero_]

While cool, no
at least for Roland, maybe Brick too

[gibbousmoon100]

@sarah<3 How do you even enjoy life while being so toxic?

[lynchsoundsmith]

dont follow this guide lmao. shit guide guaranteed to make your build pathetic and underwhelming

[SETZIG]

Is there a skill cap? I can I max out every skill?

[Nomad]

Another awesome guide by Akfiz! 😍🔥

[Chamberpot Charlie]

For Mordecai, I've found love for the green tree. Nothing more satisfying early game than being able to dome baddies halfway across the map with a revolver.

[Scattergrunt]

First time playing this game since it first came out in 2009 when I was a little wee lad. Came back to the game after grinding out BL2 to its limits and not enjoying BL3.... I think I can say with confidence that this is my favorite BL game..
As for the builds (the topic that I skimmed over), mehhhhhhhhh. They seem pretty good, but BL seemly is more forgiving late game than BL2 (unfun op levels and all but I did it anyway trust me), so I still think a majority of builds can work if theres a little thought put into them.
Personally, right now I'm trying a pistol / revolver build on mordecai, farming for a unforgiven masher but its hard lol. I haven't even found a regular unforgiven yet