Amara (Siren) Phaseslam Melee Bis Gear and Stat Priorities

This Amara Phaseslam Melee build guide is split in 3 different pages. The other 2 pages are the build overview and the skills, which you can access by clicking the buttons below.

As a build that relies on melee damage rather than weapon, having the right shield is the most important piece of gear for this build. You should look try to farm a Ward from the Graveward boss as soon as possible, due to the massive 300% Melee Damage bonus it gives while your shields are depleted. Additionally, it offers a small amount of Health Regeneration, which is very useful, due to the amount of time you will be spending with a depleted shield.

Psycho Stabber should be your primary weapon of choice for any Melee build. The weapon naturally rolls with a 120% Melee Damage bonus, which is the highest roll possible, making it the ideal choice for any Melee Damage build. MOARR Linoge is another Legendary weapon that can have a 120% Melee Damage bonus and is therefore on par with Psycho Stabber. However, the Melee Damage bonus for MOARR Linoge can roll lower than 120%, so take note of the damage bonus before choosing to use the weapon.

Although you will spend nearly all of your time with your primary weapon equipped to maximise the damage of your melee attacks, you may find yourself in a situation where melee attacks are not viable, such as against flying enemies or enemies in hard-to-reach places. For these scenarios, you should try to find a Face-puncher shotgun for your build. Face-puncher turns your melee damage into weapon damage, allowing you to fully commit to melee damage and still have the option to shoot enemies, should you need to.

For Class Mods, Breaker is significantly better than any other option. It has strong synergies with melee attacks, by providing up to 29% Damage Reduction, based on your distance from the enemy. Additionally, it will provide you a second skill point in Find Your Center, to add a further 100% Melee Damage, and an additional 75% Melee Range after using your Action Skill.

For any melee build, Commander Planetoid is the ideal starting point for an Artifact. If provides a unique effect that adds a 69% Elemental Damage Bonus to your melee attacks, with the specific Element it adds changing every 5 seconds. Commander Planetoid is a Hybrid Artifact, which allows it to effectively have the ability of an Epic-quality Artifact, in addition to its own unique ability. For this, you should look to pair it with an effect like Radiation Stone or Cryo Stone, which imbue your melee attacks with a further 80% melee damage in one of the 5 Elements. The name of the second Artifact will merge itself onto your Commander Planetoid, changing the name to Radiation Stone Commander Planetoid, for example.

In addition to the unique effects of Artifacts, the secondary stats they offer are also incredibly useful. The most important stat to have is 21% Action Skill Cooldown Rate. This cooldown reduction will greatly improve the frequency of using your Phaseslam, which will provide you with a boost in both survivability and mobility. The next secondary stat you should prioritise is Elemental Damage. You should try to look for an Elemental Damage Bonus which is the same Element as your artifact. However, even if it is of a different Element, it will still add a small damage boost to the effect of Commander Planetoid and, potentially, your Phaseslam as well. After these 2 stats, any other choices are much less impactful, but you can still find useful effects like Luck, Move Speed, Max Health, and Health Regeneration.

The last gear slot, Grenade Mods, offers very little utility to the Phaseslam Melee build as they do not offer any stats to contribute to melee damage. The most useful option for this build is Tran-fusion, which offers a moderate lifesteal effect, allowing you to use them to regain Health at a distance in those desperate situations.

Anointed rolls are special additional effects that can appear on weapons and shields at higher levels. The special effects relate to the use of action skills and provide powerful temporary buffs.

The primary anointment you are looking for is 'After using Phaseslam, Melee Damage is increased by 200% for a short time'. If you are able to get this on both your weapons, and you should, it will provide a massive 400% bonus melee damage after your Phaseslams and will allow you to tear through enemies.

If you are not able to pick up the aforementioned anointment, you can also look for "On Action Skill End, Melee Damage is increased by 100% for a short time" as an alternative way to boost your melee damage.

If you are already happy with your damage, or you have not been able to pick up any of the other anointments on your weapon and shield, you can look for 'After using Phaseslam, damage taken is reduced by 20% and movespeed is increased by 12%', which will give you even more survivability while fighting at close range.

Very few mission rewards throughout the game support melee builds. This is partly due to melee being a very niche strategy within Borderlands 3, but also due to the build having a large reliance on Artifacts and Class Mods, which do not get used until much later in the game. However, there are a couple of extremely powerful rewards that will carry you a long way with this build.

The first mission reward for this build is the weapon, Buttplug. This weapon is available very early in the game and is so strong it can still be used once you finish the game and move up to Mayhem 3. It offers a strong 110% damage bonus, slightly less than that of Psycho Stabber, but comes with the unique effect of doing double damage from behind. The weapon is a unique reward for completing the bonus objective of the "Dump on Dumptruck", given by Ellie on Pandora at the beginning of the game.

The second mission reward is from the "On the Blood Path" side mission on Eden-6. The mission can be picked up in The Anvil from a harmless character named Ramsden. The mission can be completed in two different ways, but, in order to get the appropriate reward, it is important to side with Holden during the quest, which involves killing Ramsden for completion. As a reward, you will receive the Brawler Unpaler, which gives a 180% melee bonus before your shield is depleted, and is a great stepping stone before you get your hands on a Ward.