Amara the Siren has been a fantastic Vault Hunter ever since Borderlands 3 came out. She’s essentially the culmination of all Siren powers in the Borderlands universe, yet she still manages to carve out her own identity. This distinct, fan-favorite character is a mix of a hard-hitting brawler with a ton of mystical powers that can summon all the elements.

With the Designer’s Cut, Amara was given the Enlightened Force skill tree. Her new Action Skill, Phaseflare, lets her summon an orb she can throw around the battlefield. As this is a brand-new set of skills, Amara’s top-ranked skills may look different.

Updated March 8, 2024, by Zackary Wiggs: With the Borderlands movie just around the corner and rumors of a new Borderlands game on the horizon, there has never been a better time to hop back into Borderlands 3. While there are plenty of new characters, few have had the 'impact' that Amara has had. With a new aspect on the concept of the series' siren powers, many players have been using her unique skills to really wreck the various cultists and aliens that Borderlands 3 throws at you, especially post-designer cut. Every tier has plenty of choices, so here's a little bit of help on which skills to go for first.

15 Clarity - Brawl Tree (Tier 1)

A Clear Mind Amidst The Chaos

While it may not be the most glamorous option, this is a fundamentally crucial skill for Amara early on, especially for those more daring players who find themselves in the crossfire quite a bit. This passive skill grants Amara constant health regeneration, a perk that will undoubtedly be useful frequently in this frenzied game.

But what's more — you're actually sort of inversely rewarded when clinging to low health, as this regeneration will be more powerful. This is further enhanced by liberal use of an action skill, as doing so will double the bonus for a few seconds. This can complement a more aggressive, offensive style of play while also improving Amara's survivability.

14 Phasecast - Mystical Assault Tree (Tier 0)

Siren Powers For Early Game

Though this is only the first "phase" in a line of awesome action skills for Amara, it's pretty solid right off the bat. Not only does Phasecase eventually lead to super-powered Mystical Assault skills down the line, but it allows her to cover ample ground and inflict damage on the battlefield with a little investment.

It's one that pays off whether you decide to delve further into the Mystical Assault Tree or not. The move summons a deadly Astral Projection and deals 92 damage to each foe in its path, and the cooldown is a manageable 28 seconds. This is really the building block of a solid Amara build.

13 Samsara - Brawl Tree (Tier 2)

Hit Hard And Heal

Since you'll likely be hitting foes with Amara's action skill at any given opportunity, this passive skill from the Brawl tree is a wise option to invest in. That's because an enemy that's damaged with an action still provides her with a stack of "Samsara," each of which incrementally bumps up gun damage and health regeneration.

This enhancement can rise all the way up to five percent of gun damage and max health per second and extends for a fairly lengthy 20 seconds. While it may seem somewhat minor, these augmentations can really make a difference in the heat of battle, especially when continually stacked.

12 Downfall - Brawl Tree (Tier 4)

Make Waves

Those who favor blasting foes with more concentrated hits should consider investing in this tier-4 action skill, which is fittingly from the Brawl Tree. When triggered, Amara will lunge into the air and fire off a potent elemental beam before supplementing it with a ground-shattering slam.

This move can destroy foes with a base damage of 95 and beam damage of 14 per second. This is particularly great against bosses and beefier baddies.

11 Tempest - Fist Of The Elements Tree (Tier 2)

A Shocking Choice

Given that Amara often thrives when dealing elemental damage, this passive skill should definitely be considered for players who plan to master the elements. This is especially the case for fans of Shock, as the skill further bumps up this element.

Even the first rank of this skill should prove helpful with a six percent increase of elemental damage, but building it all the way to five will provide Amara with a whopping 30 percent bonus. This can truly augment the power of any elemental weapons she wields and can rapidly chip away at the health of various foes.

10 Sustainment - Fist Of The Elements Tree (Tier 5)

Become A Vampire

Amara is certainly a master of the elements. Every tree tends to have some sort of skill that increases either this or her status effect chance. Since you’ll likely constantly be using elemental damage, you want the Sustainment skill. This will grant Amara Lifesteal for dealing elemental damage.

Once you level up more and get into Mayhem Mode, Sustainment only requires one skill point. At one point, it’s only four percent Lifesteal, yet the damage in Mayhem Mode gets so high that four percent is enough to refill your health bar. This is great, considering it's a tier four skill.

9 Illuminated Fist - Fist Of The Elements Tree (Tier 3)

Get In Close

Amara has a few skills that increase her melee damage permanently, but Illuminated Fist is the best, thanks to a specific class mod. It is only a one-point skill that gives Amara 75 percent more melee damage, which is great in and of itself.

However, if you happen upon a Muse class mod found in the Psycho Krieg DLC , you can potentially get an extra three skill points. With four points, that gives Amara 300 percent melee damage at all times. Since melee is now possible with the Enlightened Force tree, Illuminated Fists is necessary.

8 Burn Both Ends - Enlightened Force - (Tier 4)

Twice As Bright

Burn Both Ends gives Amara Increased Threat, drawing enemies towards her. She then stacks Increased Threat after attacking enemies, giving her five percent increased damage. With fifteen stacks, Amara can deal 75 percent more damage.

What’s fantastic is that the damage increase is for anything Amara does. It can count towards melee, elemental, Action Skill, or even gun damage. No matter what kind of build you’re doing, Burn Both Ends complements it perfectly. At the time of writing this, there is no visual indicator under the XP bar that shows the stacks, but hopefully Gearbox will patch this.

7 Do Harm - Mystical Assault Tree (Tier 1)

Rushing Around

Do Harm gives Amara stacks of Rush upon killing an enemy. These Rush stacks will give Amara increased damage for her Action Skill. The new Phaseflare Action Skill is ridiculously powerful (sometimes broken), which means Do Harm is now more viable than ever.

At five skill points, the Action Skill damage will be 4.5 percent per stack. You can have upwards of ten stacks, giving you 45 percent more damage. This also pairs well with a Phasezerker class mod, which is perhaps the easiest to come by. This will give Amara all Rush stacks upon activating her Action Skill, meaning you can get those stacks immediately.

6 Free The Soul - Enlightened Force Tree (Tier 5)

Give 'Em The Cold Shoulder

The Enlightened Force tree lets Amara specialize in Cryo damage. Considering all the other elemental damage perks Amara can obtain, she will have no issue freezing enemies. As such, the Free The Soul skill is a must, especially since it’s only one skill point.

Free The Soul shoots out frozen splinters whenever Amara kills a frozen enemy. The splinter damage isn’t necessarily great, but if you have a high status effect chance, it’s enough to freeze the enemy it hits. Since you do triple melee damage against frozen enemies, you can easily destroy them, causing a perfect chain reaction of splinters.

Sending in an Amara with this skill and having your lower-health or more inexperienced friends come in behind you and mop up the stragglers is a great way to get through some of the more enemy-heavy encounters in the game.

5 Avatar - Mystical Assault Tree (Capstone)

C-C-C-Combo

Avatar allows Amara to activate her Action Skill once while it’s still cooling down and gives her an additional ten Rush stacks. As an added bonus, whenever Amara’s Action Skill kills something, she gets half of her Rush stacks back.

It’s easy to see how this can be useful with Phaseflare. Unlike her other Action Skills, Phaseflare stays active for a while, meaning that as soon as she’s done with it, she gets to activate it one more time. By the time that extra activation wears off, the next one will have already cooled down. This, mixed with the added Rush stacks, makes for a powerful combo.

4 Body And Mind - Enlightened Force Tree (Tier 5)

Work As One

It seems that the best way for Amara to finally get true melee damage was to give her explosive fists. Body And Mind is a kill skill that gives Amara bonus splash damage on her melee attacks. The Splash Damage combined with her Attuned Element can easily create status effects on an enemy, especially Cryo.

A great way to exploit Body And Mind is with a Facepuncher shotgun, particularly one with many pellets. Since the Facepuncher does melee damage, each one of those pellets will count as melee splash damage. Please don’t nerf this Gearbox!

This is a great choice for playing with friends. Combine an Amara with this skill with someone focusing on a ranged-heavy hunter like Zane and you have a great one-two punch.

3 Guardian Angel - Brawl Tree (Tier 5)

A Second Chance

Amara’s Guardian Angel skill is easy to figure by the name alone. As soon as Amara goes in Fight For Your Life, she will immediately come back up, gain health, and create a nova based on her attuned element.

Of course, you can’t spam this at all times, as it does have a two-minute cooldown. Still, being able to gain a Second Wind right away is something every Vault Hunter would need as the game gets tougher. If you’re going down the Brawl tree, there’s no reason you shouldn’t use one skill point for Guardian Angel.

2 Clear The Mind - Enlightened Force Tree (Capstone)

End Of The Line

Amara is truly a master of the elements, thanks to her new Capstone. Clear The Mind is a kill skill that allows Amara to ignore elemental damage resistance for enemies. Keep in mind that if an enemy is completely immune to an element, Clear The Mind doesn’t count.

All that being said, this skill is an absolute game-changer. It’s quite annoying when you have to constantly switch between elements due to enemy shields and armor. With Clear The Mind, Amara’s elemental damage will be the same no matter what type of health bar they have.

If you wish to melt Wotan’s with fire, you can now do that. This synergizes well with all the cryo boosts for Amara, allowing her to freeze most enemies regardless of shields or armor.

This skill is a huge help for the Handsome Jackpot DLC, where a lot of enemies sport both armor and shields, which make them more resistant to certain elements.

1 Remnant - Mystical Assault Tree (Tier 5)

Boss Killer

Remnant continues to remain as Amara’s most broken skill, in a good way. Whenever Amara kills an enemy with weapons or her Action Skill, an elemental orb will seek out another enemy, dealing overkill damage.

The overkill damage is why this skill only needs one point despite being able to have three. In Mayhem 10, Amara can deal millions of damage. Therefore, the orb’s damage is ludicrously powerful. It’s best to destroy a weak enemy first, then let that orb seek out someone with a bit more health. With the right set-up, this orb can one-shot bosses and anointed.