Borderlands 3 Classes Ranked from Worst to Best

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Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

No developer delivers guns, explosions, mayhem, and madness quite like Gearbox Software. Borderlands 3 is the fastest-selling game in 2K history, and it’s not hard to see why.

The latest installation in the series features four new vault hunters as they go beyond the confines of Pandora to battle their way across the galaxy. It also features two new villains — Tyreen and Troy Calypso are twins who inspired the faith of a deadly cult known as the Children of the Vault through the awesome power of YouTube live streaming, and they’re basically just the worst.

Taking down these monsters won’t be easy. You’ll need guns, shields, and grenades — most importantly, though, you’ll need to choose a Vault Hunter. It’s one of the most important decisions you make in the game, and it happens right in the beginning.

That’s why we decided to put together this list of the best Borderlands 3 classes ranked from worst to best to help you choose the right character for your playstyle!

The Best Borderlands 3 Classes Ranked from Worst to Best

There are a couple of quick qualifiers we want to get out of the way before we figure out who the best Borderlands 3 character is.

Firstly, BL3 is an incredibly well-balanced game. Every character has unique abilities that favor certain use cases, and none of them are necessarily weak or bad. Don’t be discouraged if your favorite character ranks lower than you expected — it probably just means they’re a bit more niche than the others.

Secondly, it’s important to keep in mind that each character has three different upgrade trees. Each path compliments a different playstyle. You won’t be able to max out all three, so your results may vary depending on how you use your upgrade points and which abilities you end up with. There is an unofficial skill calculator that makes it easy to map out your upgrade path ahead of time, but you can always change your mind. Any Quick Change Machine will allow you to re-allocate your skill points for a small fee.

Are you ready to go to war with the Calypso twins and the Children of the Vault? Here’s our list of Borderlands 3 classes ranked!

4. Operative

The best Borderlands 3 class for veterans

Like Zer0 and Mordecai before him, Zane represents the sniper class. He excels with long-range weaponry, and most of his skills support fighting from a distance. Zane is the only character who can have a second action skill in exchange for the ability to throw grenades, though giving up grenades can be a hard sell, especially in the early stages of the game.

His Barrier skill offers some great options for controlling the field, giving you and your allies some much-needed cover during a firefight. The game doesn’t offer very many defensive abilities, so the added support makes him an extremely useful team member to have in multiplayer.

His Digi-Clone and SNTNL skills are more like the Deathtrap and Scorpio Turret ability from the first two Borderlands games. SNTNL is a drone that Zane deploys to fly around the field and attack his enemies automatically. Digi-Clone is our personal favorite ability, as it allows Zane to throw out a digital construct of himself. The clone will attack enemies on its own, and Zane can swap places with it at any time.

It’s hard to recommend Zane enough to give him a higher ranking. He’s got some great abilities, but they have a pretty high skill threshold, and he’s got a tendency to blow himself up with his own grenades if you’re not careful. That said, he gets better and better as you progress and unlock more of his abilities. Therefore, he gets our recommendation to veteran players as Borderlands 3’s best endgame character.

Fun fact about Zane — Baron Flynt and Captain Flynt from the first two games were his brothers!

3. Beastmaster

The best Borderlands 3 class for solo players

Do you ever get lonely playing by yourself? Then FL4K is the character for you!

The Beastmaster has three different animal companions who assist them in battle. The Guard Skag increases FL4K’s damage, the Spiderant Centurion restores health, and the Jabber Sidekick boosts movement when fighting with a pistol. These companions make FL4K an easy choice for Borderlands 3’s best solo character.

FL4K has three abilities to choose from. Fade Away is a cloaking ability similar to Zer0’s Decepti0n. Their speed and health increases, and they can fire three guaranteed critical hits while cloaked. Rakk Attack! might be the most entertaining ability, as it allows FL4K to summon two of the bat-like rakks to attack their enemies.

It’s hard to beat Gamma Burst, though. This skill allows one of the Beastmaster’s pets to teleport through an irradiated rift. They come out on the other sized doubled in size and dealing bonus radiation damage. You can even use it to revive a downed pet!

FL4k has the lowest health of any playable character and can get into trouble in situations where they’re forced into close-quarters combat. They’re still our pick for the best Borderlands 3 character for solo play, though. The animals do a great job drawing aggro and can even revive you from the Fight for your Life state if you invest in the Lick the Wounds ability.

2. Siren

The best Borderlands 3 class for melee

Amara is by far the most aggressive Siren in the series. Lilith and Maya were much more support and crowd control-based characters. Amara has many of these same support-based skills, but her close-range abilities set her apart. She’s easily Borderlands 3’s best melee character.

Amara uses a set of elemental arms to wreak some serious havoc on the battlefield. The Phasecast ability allows her to blast her enemies with an astral projection of herself. Phaseslam is essentially a massive ground pound utilizing all six of her spectral arms. Her Phasegrasp ability can be particularly devastating, as she summons a giant spectral fist that bursts from the ground to lock her enemies in place while she mows them down.

I usually hesitate to recommend melee classes as they can be hard to place tactically. Some bosses can fly, and enemies don’t always group the way you want them to. Amara suffers in these situations, but the bonuses she gets to elemental damage combined with her support abilities make her too useful of a character to pass up.

1. Gunner

The best Borderlands 3 class overall

The Gunner comes in at the number one spot for best class overall. Moze has a lot of different abilities that give her a general boost in combat strength and survivability, which makes her the best candidate for the most important aspect of the game — the guns. Borderlands 3 has over one billion procedurally-generated guns, so it makes sense to invest in the character that can make the most out of all of them. The Bottomless Mag skill tree is particularly useful for keeping the bullets flowing. Then there’s the matter of her special ability.

Unlike the other vault hunters, Moze only has one action skill. Her Iron Bear is a massive war mech that she summons like Tony Stark getting ready to fight the Hulk. Rather than different skill trees representing different abilities, all of Moze’s skill points either go directly into her or the Iron Bear. The mech can initially be customized to hold any two out of three weapons, a Railgun, Minigun, or Grenade Launcher. More weapons for the Iron Bear can be unlocked down each respective skill tree.

It’s easily the most versatile action skill in the game. It can be used to clear rooms full of enemies with splash damage, melt bosses, tank for allies, or simply be kept in reserve as an invulnerable panic button for when Moze’s health gets too low. Allies can even climb into a turret on top of the Iron Bear and add another torrent of slugs to the bullet storm!

Good Luck, Vault Hunters!

We hope you enjoyed our list of the best Borderlands 3 classes ranked. If so, be sure to check out our other Borderlands and game-lineup content!

Happy gaming!

Further Reading

Borderlands 3 Classes Ranked from Worst to Best