Barrier is the Action Skill of Zane's Under Cover skill tree. Activating this skill deploys a stationary barrier that blocks enemy projectiles. Zane and his allies deal increased gun damage when shooting through the barrier. Activating the skill again while near the barrier causes Zane to pick it up and hold it, but its size and bonuses will be decreased.
Effects
- Damage Amp: +25% (multiplicative, calculated after all gun damage boosts and amp shots from a Amplify Shield). Amped bullets will glow purple and gain a glowing trail.
- The barrier's default form takes shape of a floating, curved convex disk. If the All-Rounder action skill augment is equipped, the barrier will become a encompassing sphere, providing protection from all directions.
- When held, Zane's barrier size reduces by approximately 75% (width for default barrier, size of bubble for sphere barrier). Amp damage seems to take a 50% penalty, dropping to 12% bonus damage instead of 25%.
Usage
Barrier is a powerful defensive skill that essentially places a wall between him and his enemies. It should be used for cover when encountering multiple targets to momentarily remove enemy gunfire from play. It can be used for more aggressive playstyles, as Zane can pick up the barrier and approach enemies with lower risk of retaliation.
Despite being indestructible, the barrier has several weaknesses: enemies can still walk through the barrier, and it cannot block melee attacks nor splash damage, the latter of which will still damage Zane if he is close enough to the impact point of a projectile. Due to the shape of the default barrier, gunfire can still slip under it as the barrier hovers slightly. If held, the barrier will provide mobile defense from bullets, but it will lose significant size and be positioned near Zane, making him significantly more vulnerable to splash damage.
Strategy
Barrier can be used offensively and defensively depending on Zane's build:
- Offensively:
- Barrier can function as a "sniping window", granting complete protection and a free amp-shield to fire through for bonus damage.
- With All-Rounder and Retaliation, the barrier can act as a safe zone that also functions as a sizable boost to gun damage. This is useful in areas with stronger targets or during boss fights.
- With Charged Relay, Zane can boost the effectiveness of himself and his teammates by increasing everyone's mobility and reload speeds. Nanites or Some Shite can further increase this reload speed bonus.
- With Deterrence Field, Zane can carry his shield around as a pseudo-melee weapon in the front lines, depleting shields while firing his gun.
- With Distributed Denial, the barrier will grant the buffs of Zane's offense-oriented shields to his teammates, allowing them to benefit from novas and more.
- Defensively:
- Barrier's most defining use would be blocking projectiles; with All-Rounder, it provides a useful safety bubble for himself and his teammates, allowing the team to revive allies with extra safety.
- With Nanites or Some Shite, Zane and his allies will gain defensive buffs to health regeneration and shield recharge rate, granting them more survivability.
- With Deterrence Field and All-Rounder, Zane can place his barrier in enclosed, high-traffic areas to disrupt many enemies at once with shock damage.
- With Distributed Denial, the barrier will grant the buffs of Zane's defensive-oriented shields to his teammates, allowing them to benefit from shield boosters, brief immunity from shields like the Stop-Gap, and more.
Notes
- The barrier is completely unbreakable and, with a few exceptions, will block all projectiles including standard bullets.
- Explosions will be blocked, but splash damage will still harm the user and allies if it occurs while a user is close to the barrier; the closer the user is to the contact area, the more splash damage they will take.
- When picking up or dropping the barrier, it will deactivate for about 1 second before it reactivates. This can cause Zane to take damage from enemy fire while moving the barrier.
- While using the upgraded spherical barrier, enemies will be more likely to approach and will attempt to walk into the bubble to fire directly at Zane. This should be noted while using the spherical barrier as it usually gives a false sense of security.
- The upgraded spherical barrier is typically considered an actual environmental prop and interacts with certain projectiles as such: the standard rule is if an attack would follow the geometry of the map, it will do the same for the barrier. Examples include:
- Any enemy projectiles within the barrier - Projectiles will be stopped, confining the projectiles inside the sphere.
- The stomp crystals of the final boss - Crystals will be created on the surface of the barrier, keeping any inhabitants within safe.
- The life-leeching laser of Eleanor - The beam will be blocked, preventing her from leeching her allied Bonded.
- The quakes of several enemies (eg. Badass Psycho): The barrier will not block quakes.
- Elemental clouds (eg. fire/ice breath): The barrier will not block elemental clouds.
- Spinners from Mayhem Mode: The beam will be blocked.
- Homing spheres from Anointed Fanatics: The sphere will not travel through the barrier.
Gallery
Zane's default barrier, grounded.
Zane's default barrier, held.
Zane's sphere barrier, grounded.
Zane's sphere barrier, held.