Do you want to move faster than fast? Become an unkillable tank? Or would you rather sit back, relax, and watch some other handsome fella do all the murdering for you? If any of these ideas appeal to you, or if you find the Irish accent makes you feel all tingly inside, Zane is the Vault Hunter for you! Here are my 3 favorite builds for the Operative.

Build 1: Blitzkreig

Blitzkreig skill tree 

This first build is likely the one you’re most familiar with, the speed build. It's basically if the punisher had the speedforce, and was also Irish. You’ll be using your unreal movement speed and gun damage to turn foes into minced meat before you can say sláinte! Here are the most important skills to the build

• Violent Momentum: increases Zane's gun damage when moving, the faster he moves the greater the bonus

• Violent Speed: after killing an enemy, Zane increased movement speed for a few seconds

• Death Follows close: All of Zane’s kill skills gain increased effect and duration (in this builds case, that would be Violent Speed, Salvation, Violent Violence, Cool Hand, Good misfortune, fractal frags, and Pocket Full of grenades)

• Seein’ red: Activating an action skill automatically activates all of Zane'szane’s kill skills

• Synchronicity: Whenever one or more of Zane’s action skills are active, increase Zane’s gun damage for each active action skill (20% per skill!)

• Borrowed time: Zane Gains increased action skill duration for every active action skill (it’ll be 12% for this build but can be up to 15% without the aid of class mods)

• Supersonic man: Zane gains increased movement speed for every active action skill (20% bonus with the class mod I’ll be showing you) 

• Pocket full of Grenades: after killing an enemy, zane gains increased grenade regeneration, this skill impacts the effectiveness of several other skills we’ll be using, they are Drone Delivery, Fractal Frags, Duct tape Mod, and Boom. Enhance

The two action skills Zane will be using for the build, are the Digi-clone, and the SNTNL, here are their recommended augments

• Bad dose: SNTNL shoots a radiation beam the weakens enemies and buffs Zane, this increases Zane’s speed and fire rate, while decreasing any affected enemy’s Movement and attack speed 

• Almighty Ordnance: SNTNL sprays the targeted area with a missile barrage, if an enemy is killed, it resets SNTNL’s duration. This can only be used once per action skill use

• Digital Distribution: If Zane takes health damage, a portion of that damage is shared to his clone instead

• Which one’s real? Enemies are more likely to attack the clone for a few seconds after you swap and after it’s deployed

Now that we’ve covered the skills you’ll be using, it’s time for the juicy part, the gear.

One Punch Chump

The one pump chump is a legendary shotgun found on Promethea. It has a single shot magazine each bullet doing exceptionally high damage, with over 1000% bonus gun damage.  This synergizes very well with the duct tape mod skill. The first bullet in the magazine has the chance to also fire a grenade, I don’t think I have to explain how awesome that is.

The Queen/King's Call

The Queen’s and King’s calls are legendary Jakobs pistols that when hitting a crit spot, ricochet 3 times to other opponents, and put three rounds back into your ammo pool. They are pretty much the best pistols in the game, and a solid pick for any build, I could have easily placed it in either of the next two builds, so consider it a more than honorable mention in both.

The Crossroad

The crossroad s an SMG that shoots 4 extremely high damaging projectiles. Though it's very consumptive on the ammo side of things, it’s a perfect addition to this whirlwind of a build

The Bekah

Yet another high damaging weapon, the bekah is a legendary assault rifle that shoots one pellet that separates into three pellets at a certain range. when you get used to its sweet spot it becomes and an absolute beast in the borderlands.

The Victory Rush

The victory rush is a legendary artifact that increases movement speed and gun damage after killing a badass enemy. This will be extra effective in the endgame, as badasses will be pretty much everywhere. Alternatively, a good slide speed relic would also be a great fit here

The Sonic Boom Infiltrator

The sonic boom Infiltrator class mod increases movement speed based on your shield percentage. The lower your shield, the greater the bonus, it also adds 2 points to supersonic man, 2 points, to violent momentum, and 1 point to like a ghost. Thiss drastically improves your movement speed, and of course your damage. This pairs perfectly with the shield we’ll be using for this build.

The Rough Rider

The Rough Rider is weird. It’s like a placebo shield. It has zero capacity, so every shot hits your health, this may make it sound like a terrible choice, but there's a catch. Since the Rough Rider is always depleted, you’ll always be getting the benefits of any skill that depends on lower shield capacity, so in this case, you’ll always have the max bonus movement speed and damage, and your clone will always be taking a share of damage done to you when it’s up. It’s pretty sweet

The Stormfront

There’s really a ton of grenades you could put here, it’s mostly up to personal preference, for my money, I'd go with the stormfront, Arguably the very best grenade in Borderlands 2 is back, and just as good as always. The Stormfront creates a massive shock area of effect, stripping shield nearly as fast as zane moves in this build, so in other words, scary fast. A mirv hex would also be a great fit here, or the grenade that’s been all the rage recently; the firestorm.

Build 2: Dreadnaught

Dreadnaught skill tree

This Build is for those fundamentally against getting hurt by anything ever. This is for all those riddled with paranoia, this is for the emotionally vacant. This is for the people. In this build you’ll basically always have barrier up, watching the enemy’s futile attempts to get past those walls, and into the squishy goodness underneath. But I digress! Here are the important skills to the build

• Adrenaline: zane gains increased action skill cooldown rate, this is based on how much shield you have, the more percent full, the greater the bonus
• Brain freeze: Whenever zane scores a critical hit, there is a chance they will be slowed, the effect stacks until they are frozen
• Best Served Cold: whenever zane kills an enemy, they release a cryo nova, damaging surrounding enemies, this skill has a short cooldown
• Stiff Upper Lip:  whenever zane takes damage, he gains resistance to that type of damage
• Futility belt: increased Zane's non-elemental damage resistance, additionally, whenever zane gets a kill, all damage is converted to non-elemental damage for a short time. 
• Cold Bore: increases weapon swap speed, also adds bonus cryo damage to first shot fire after swapping weapons
• Death Follows close: all kill skills get enhanced effect and duration
• Calm, Cool, Collected: whenever zane freezes an enemy, shields are restored for a short time, if shields are full, health is regenerated for a few seconds, if health is for, action skill cooldown and duration is immediately reset. This is the linchpin of the build

• Distributed Denial: Zane’s barrier gets the effect of Zane's shield mod 

Once again you’ll be using 2 action skills, in this case, the SNTNL, and obviously, the barrier, these are the augments this build uses

• All Rounder: turns barrier into a dome, covering all sides,
• Retaliation: Zane and allies near the barrier get increased gun damage when it is damaged
• Winter’s Drone: Converts SNTNL’s primary weapons to cryo damage
• Static Field: SNTNL emits a static field that sends as shock beam to nearby enemies, draining their shields and replenishing Zane’s 

Now that you’ve got the skills to keep ya from a permanent case of the stills (administering chills) I present to you, dear reader, the gear necessary to make it all come together.

Lucian’s Call

The Lucian’s call is a legendary assault rifle, it ricochets two bullets to other attackers upon hitting a critical spot, and puts two back in your ammo pool, it does a phenomenal job freezing swaths of enemies, and with accurate aim, has theoretically infinite ammo

The Bitch

The Bitch is a legendary Submachine gun, with extremely high accuracy and low recoil, it can very dependably hit crits and as such, freeze enemies. this makes it a perfect backup if you're having trouble with the lucians call, or if you just feel like switching weapons

The Conference Call

The Conference Call is a legendary shotgun, and it’s red text says it all “let’s just ping everything at once” the Conference Call is great if you just feel like murdering an entire room at once, and it’s one of the guns you’ll be using to do big damage. It shoots 5 pellets at a time, those projectiles splitting into more projectiles after a certain distance, or on impact.  get it in any element, or no element all, it’ll get the job done regardless.

The Lyuda

The lyuda is a legendary sniper rifle, and it is a boss shredder. If you want to kill anything right at this moment, the lyuda is the weapon for you. The lyuda shoots one bullet that splits into three bullets after a time, the bullet on either side fanning out from the original

The Front loader

The Front Loader is a legendary shield that reserves a chunk of your health, and adds it to shield capacity, this is mostly for the brief moments your barrier isn't up, as it makes you a bit less squishy overall

The Deathless

This legendary artifact reserves all but one of your HP, and doubles your shield size. This also means that Cool, Calm, Collected has an even greater chance of resetting your reaction skill since your health will always be at max, unless you're downed of course

The Prepped Cold Warrior

The Prepped cold warrior is a legendary class mod, with the special ability to add another status effect, whenever you freeze an enemy, it also puts 2 points into synchronicity and ready for action, as well as one point into trick of the light

The Grenade Mod

The grenade mod in this build has nearly zero significance, pick anything

Build 3: Twinning

Twinning skill tree

This is for the lazy fella, let your clone do all the work for you while you run around collecting loot! This is for those who want to play coop but don’t have any friends, below are the skills you’ll most need to invest in

• Synchronicity: Whenever one or more of Zane’s action skills are active, increase Zane’s gun damage for each active action skill
• Borrowed Time: Zane gains increased action skill duration for every active action skill
• Pocket Full of Grenades: after killing an enemy zane gain’s grenade regeneration for a few seconds
• Boom. Enhance: Whenever Zane summons his Digi-clone it consumes up to 3 grenades for every grenade consumed the clone gains increased gun damage, max health, fire rate, reload speed, and Digi-clone duration
• Brain freeze: every time Zane hits a critical it has a chance to slow the enemy, this stacks until they are frozen
• Best served Cold: whenever Zane kills an enemy they release a cryo nova dealing damage to all nearby enemies. This skill has a cooldown
•  Calm, Cool, Collected: whenever Zane freezes an enemy, shields are restored for a short time, if shields are full, health is regenerated for a few seconds, if health is for, action skill cooldown and duration is immediately reset. This is the linchpin of the build
• Double barrel: the clone is equipped with a copy of Zane’s current weapon when activated, additionally, swapping places with his clone will give both Zane and the clone increased gun damage

With this build, you’ll be using the clone, and the barrier, for the final time this article, here are the augments you'll be using

• Which one’s real? Enemies are more likely to attack the clone for a few seconds after you swap and after it’s deployed
• Schadenfreude: Whenever the clone takes damage by a portion of that damage
•  All Rounder: turns barrier into a dome, covering all sides,
• Retaliation: Zane and allies near the barrier get increased gun damage when it is damaged

With the skills behind us, it’s time for the third and final set of gear in this article, it’s time to bring this whole Build up to eleven

The One Pump Chump

The one pump chump is a legendary shotgun found on Promethea. It has a single shot magazine each bullet doing exceptionally high damage, with over 1000% bonus gun damage. Give this to your clone, and he’ll be sniping foes from across the map, Digi don’t miss

The Bitch

The Bitch is a legendary Submachine gun, with extremely high accuracy and low recoil, it can very dependably hit crits. This is a great weapon to hold in case you get into unwanted firefights on your own, not a big concern for this build, but being very dependable, and not super consumptive, it’s a great slot

The Lyuda

Give your clone to the Lyuda, and watch everything die. The clone might  not be able to hit the sweet spot the same way you could, it’ll never miss, and it doesn'tt need all three pellets to one-shot most mobs

The Bekah

The Bekah is a legendary assault rifle, it's essentially the lyuda rifle form, and it’s another Great pick for both you and your clone, as with the lyuda, your clone will have trouble finding the sweet spot with the bekah, also like the lyuda, it won't really matter.

Otto’s idol 

This legendary artifact is mostly used to keep the real you Alive, every time you kill an enemy, you get a solid amount of your health back

The Frozen heart 

The Frozen heart is a legendary shield, that when broken releases a cryo nova that auto freezes enemies, what’s more; thirty percent of damage the nova deals is returned to you as health

The Prepped Cold Warrior

The Prepped cold warrior is a legendary class mod, with the special ability to add another status effect, whenever you freeze an enemy, it also puts 2 points into synchronicity and ready for action, as well as one point into trick of the light

The Grenade mod

In this build, you really don’t want to be using your grenades that much at all, saving them for boom. Enhance. Equip whatever you want

Welp, that’s it, three of the best builds with Zane, the versatility on this guy is really his greatest asset, each of his builds are so different from one another, even when using some of the same abilities. Anyways, enough talk, go kill some some psychos. Tata for now

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