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Attention, Gun-Nuts! The Borderlands 2 Skill Tree Builder is Now Live!

by on September 8, 2012
 

Attention, Gun-Nuts! The Borderlands 2 Skill Tree Builder is Now LiveIt’s fair to say that anticipation for Gearbox Software’s gun-loco sequel, Borderlands 2, is pretty high. In our recent extended hands-on preview, Lee even went so far as to say that “This could be one of the best games of 2012, no doubt about it.” A couple of the things praised were the new levelling system and skill trees, and now Gearbox are giving you the chance to play around with potential character builds with the Skill Tree Builder.

Follow this link, click on each character and select “View Skill Tree” to have a tinkle and potentially plan your own character. All four of Borderlands 2’s protagonists are available to try, but Gearbox do make it clear in the announcement post on the official forum that there are some kinks to iron out. Most notably, you can’t “un-spend” points yet, and will have to click reset and start over if you make a bad choice. They’re working on a quick fix which should be applied next week.

We messed around with the Siren, Maya, and found her skill trees to be lovely and diverse, with three very different paths to meander down. Motion includes skills that alter and enhance her Phaselock ability, and increase speed and manoeuvrability; the Harmony path is all about healing and supporting yourself and allies, but with a very Borderlands-y twist (for example, the Restoration skill allows you to heal allies by actually shooting them); and the Cataclysm tree focuses on destruction, adding elemental damage to your Phaselock and increasing your offensive values.

All four characters (Axton the Commando, Zer0 the Assassin and Salvador the Gunzerker) feature a similar level of diversity in their trees (but we’ll let you have a goosey at those yourself), and it’s clear from dabbling with the builder that the various paths are much more considered than they were in the original Borderlands, now balanced to equally benefit lone wolves and co-op team players alike. We can’t wait to get our hands on the finished game in a few weeks’ time.

Borderlands 2 will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on September 18 in North America and September 21 in Europe.

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Mick Fraser

Senior Content Editor Mick has been playing games for over 30 years and writing about them for around 12. After drifting from site to site for a while, settling briefly at the now-defunct Made2Game and freelancing for the gone-but-not-forgotten NintendoGamer Magazine, he came at last to rest at Godisageek. Mick has been a reviewer, staff writer and content editor here for some time, while also moonlighting a little for Red Bull Games. He has 4 kids, has written 2 novels, and sometimes even manages to pay a bill or two. You'll usually find him defending the galaxy in Destiny 2, battling evil in Diablo 3, or lurking in the background on Twitter. Find him there @Jedi_Beats_Tank, or on XBL (JediWaster247), PSN (Jedi_Waster) or Nintendo (JediWaster).