Out of the four classes available in Outriders, Technomancer might be the one that feels the most flexible. With a great balance between damage and support abilities, plus some of the most interesting armor sets, the Technomancer class is really fun to play.
In this in-depth guide, we'll be covering just about everything you need to know about the class: class trees, mods, weapons, armor, and general playstyles. We'll also include some links to specific builds throughout.
Ice Cool Technomancer Playstyles
The Technomancer is a long-range support character that specializes in crowd control and taking off heads from a distance with legendary sniper rifles. Its class skills cover two areas: Freeze and Toxic. There are specific playstyles for each of these status afflictions.
- Support Technomancer - We had a lot of fun with this specific build of Technomancer. It works best when you play with a team. Focuses heavily on Freeze and Healing.
- Long-range Technomancer - Best explored via the Pestilence tree, you can create a heavy-hitting critical damage sniper build that obliterates enemies from distance. Tricky class to master because of all the charging enemies in Outriders.
- Pure Damage Technomancer - If you're not feeling running around and healing your teammates and would prefer to deal damage yourself, the Pure Damage Technomancer heads down the Demolisher tree and specs into Ordnance skills and Anomaly Power. An explosive playstyle.
We have some more specific build and playstyle guides already live for the Technomancer class. Check out our fan-favorite Support Technomancer Build, or try out our standard go-to Technomancer build for a fresh playthrough.
Deal Damage, Get Health
The Technomancer class heals by dealing damage, unlike the other classes that rely solely on kills to heal. This means you want to prioritize at least some damage, regardless of which Technomancer build you opt for. One of our favorite methods of healing is to activate the Tools of Destruction skill and let rip with the Minigun: you always heal to max health.
Tacti-cool Technomancer Skills
The Technomancer's eight skills are broken down into five categories: Ordnance, Gadget, Interrupt, Heal, and Decay. This is a little more than the other classes and shows how versatile the Technomancer class actually is. Here's a brief look at each of the skills and how they work.
Scrapnel
This is the very first skill you have access to with the Technomancer class. It's basically a grenade which deals damage and Interrupts the skills of any enemies caught in the blast radius.
Tip: the Scrapnel charge will stick to any surface, and you should bind it to your double-bumper ability so it's easier to aim with.
Cryo Turret
The almighty Cryo Turret. Considered to be the crux of most good support builds, this Turret fires out Freezing bullets that stop enemies in their tracks. It's completely automated, can be healed with the Fixing Wave skill, and there are loads of mods that boost its effectiveness. The Tier 3 Twins Mod means you can throw down two at once.
Pain Launcher
This explosive AOE skill deals damage in a limited area in front of where you throw it down. Each missile does damage and will also Interrupt any charging enemy skills. A great skill to use if you've gone down the Demolisher tree and acquired the Ordnance cooldown perks.
Blighted Rounds
This is the foundation of any successful Toxic Technomancer build. Blighted Rounds replaces the ammo in your weapon with toxic rounds that apply poison on hitting the enemy. Enemies around the poisoned enemy also take a small amount of poison damage.
Tool of Destruction
Probably the most enjoyable Technomancer skill to use, this multi-purpose skill will either equip you with a Rocket Launcher or Minigun. The launched missiles Interrupt enemies while the Minigun just does raw damage. The Tier 3 Rocket Man mod is a significant boost to the Rocket Launcher, letting you fire three more rockets.
Fixing Wave
This is a must-have if you're going for a more Support-minded Technomancer build. It provides healing to your allies (33 percent of their health is restored) and also to your Turrets in play. There is no radius on this skill. Pair this up with the Quartermaster mod, which replenishes a magazine in each ally's weapon, and you've got an excellent support skill.
Cold Snap
Cold Snap is an okay skill: it's not one of the Technomancer's stand-out abilities, let's just put it that way. When used, it deploys a gadget that freezes enemies within a sizable radius around you.
It works best when used to escape from a tricky situation. There aren't even many mods that make this skill more viable. Best overlooked in its current state, at least until you get your hands on the Borealis Monarch legendary armor.
Blighted Turret
Another classic Technomancer skill, the Blighted Turret works much like the Cryo Turret, although fires Toxic goo at enemies rather than freezing them. It also has a slightly different fire arc: the turret will hit multiple enemies at once rather than the single-target fire of the Cryo Turret. You can stick the Ice Component mod on a piece of Armor to turn the Toxic into Freeze if you want.
We've already compiled a list that looks at each skill for the Technomancer and ranks them by usefulness. Check it out if you want some more specific details about each ability.
The Technomancer Skill Tree
The Technomancer, like the other classes in Outriders, has a skill tree split into three distinct paths:
- Pestilence - Specializes in raw weapon damage and upgrades to Toxic abilities.
- Tech Shaman - Best suited to a support Technomancer, although there is some flexibility here for general tankiness and boosts to Gadget skills.
- Demolisher - The damage build for Technomancer, focuses on Anomaly Power (the damage your skills do) and cooldowns for Ordnance skills.
Each of these trees has a very unique playstyle. However, Outriders is a game all about experimentation with different builds. Because you can chop and change your class tree whenever you want, you could go half-and-half on a tree. It's really up to you. Here are some ideas of what each class tree is best at.
Pestilence
This pure Toxic class tree for Technomancer includes significant damage boosts for Long Range and Assault Rifle weaponry. It encourages a player to keep their distance from enemies.
The perks at the end of the tree, Purge and Empowering Antenna specifically, are extremely strong. Purge boosts all damage dealt to enemies afflicted with Toxic by 30 percent, and Empowering Antenna boosts weapon damage whenever a Decay skill is activated.
Tech Shaman
The Tech Shaman is really what the Technomancer is all about. It focuses on the Gadgets, primarily the turrets, and reduces their cooldown significantly.
Freeze is really the name of the game with the Tech Shaman. The Fracture perk right at the end of the tree (increases damage against enemies afflicted with Freeze by 30 percent) is a huge power spike. The final perk, Overclocked, also gives you a potential second chance at life after you die. Who doesn't want that?
Demolisher
The Demolisher tree is geared towards explosive damage via the Technomancer's Ordnance skills. There are buffs here to Skill Leech, Anomaly Power, and lots of cooldown reduction for abilities like Scrapnel and Pain Launcher.
This tree is best if you're going for pure damage. Because of its massive AOE potential, the Demolisher Technomancer is recommended if you're playing solo. It works with a team as well: that Team Player perk that reduces Elite damage to you and your team is pretty useful, especially in more challenging Expeditions.
Best Technomancer Gear
Outriders is all about the gear you collect along the way. All the way through the campaign you'll be picking up gloves and guns and hats that are all only marginally better than the last piece of gear you had. It isn't until the endgame Expeditions that what you wear (and what guns you use) really begins to make a difference.
Don't worry too much about all that if you're still working through the campaign and side missions. Picking the best gear gets easier once you have a better understanding of what sort of playstyle you're fond of. Here's a look at the Technomancer legendary armor sets for a little inspiration.
Technomancer Legendary Armor Sets
The Technomancer has four separate legendary armor sets, and the set bonus is available whenever you wear three pieces of one specific set. However, you can only wear five pieces of armor in total, which means you'll need to pick a set to run with. Here's a closer look at them:
- Borealis Monarch - This ice-cool armor boosts weapon damage against frozen enemies by 10 percent. Crit Damage is increased by 90 percent for all enemies whenever the Cold Snap ability is used, pretty much the only decent boost for the ability.
- Grim Inventor - This armor set boosts the Tool of Destruction ability and the Pain Launcher ability, perfect for a Demolisher Technomancer build. It refills ammunition for the Minigun or Launcher for every hit with the Pain Launcher.
- Plague Sower - This is the set to pick up if you've gone down the Toxic road: when you apply Toxic to an enemy any incoming damage is reduced by five percent, which stacks up to five times.
- Torrential Downpour - The Torrential set boosts the Scrapnel ability, causing it to create an extra array of bombs within a small radius.
There are also some legendary weapons with mods that work perfectly with the different Technomancer builds. You can check out our full guide to the best weapons for the Technomancer here.
Technomancer Mods
There is a huge variety of different mods in Outriders, each with its own specific uses and tailored playstyles. You can completely change a build just by altering the mods on your armor and weapons. Check out our complete guides to mods here.
Weapon Mods
- The Tier 3 Ultimate Freezing Bullets mod is perfect for a Freeze build: each shot will inflict Freeze on the enemy with a one-second cooldown.
- The Tier 3 Ultimate Toxic Bullets mod is designed for a Toxic Technomancer with the buffs that come along the Pestilence tree: each shot afflicts enemies with poison.
- The Tier 2 Snowsquall mod is another great mod for the Freeze build, as it will inflict Freeze on any enemies damaged by a weapon when you reload it.
Armor Mods
- The Tier 3 Legendary mod Twins, which is found on the Borealis Monarch headpiece, allows you to place Cryo Turrets at once. Perfect for a kitted-out Technomancer freeze build.
- The Tier 3 Legendary mod Quartermaster is a big boost to the support Technomancer: it provides a fresh magazine for each ally whenever you activate the Fixing Wave ability.
- The Tier 3 Legendary mod Cannonade increases the number of rockets fired by the Pain Launcher by 10, a substantial boost that fits nicely into the Demolisher tree.
Here's a comprehensive guide to all the best mods for the Technomancer class.