Zane (Operative) Sub Zero Build Guide Skills

This Zane Sub Zero build guide is split in 3 different pages. The other 2 pages are the build overview and the gear, which you can access by clicking the buttons below.

Sub Zero plays as a very mobile mid-close range build, constantly flanking targets to find an opening and pounce in for the killing blow once the target is frozen. Survivability is maintaned through omni-directional barrier and the ability to incapacitate targets by freezing them. Freezed enemies will also refresh action skill cooldowns or refill shields/health. Landing several critical hits is paramount for the build to function at the highest efficiency, but the aiming requirement is somewhat mitigated by the close-range nature of the build, and the fact that a frozen target is immobile.

• Brain Freeze—the cornerstone for the whole build. By landing critical hits, you can freeze a target even when not using a cryo weapon. Best paired with fast-firing guns.
• Calm, Cool, Collected—the other key trait, which will refill our shield, then our health, and then reset every action skill cooldown whenever we freeze a target. This passive ability is what makes the build work, thus is extremely important to trigger as frequently as possible.
• Confident Competence—increases our gun damage and accuracy and synergizes well with shield-boosting traits such as Ready for Action.
• Stiff Upper Lip, Futility Belt and Really Expensive Jacket—much needed mitigation from incoming damage.

• Violent Momentum—increases our weapon damage as long as we keep moving, which in turn is boosted by Violent Speed.
• Salvation—is our second source of sustain, which becomes a priority when doing the most challenging content.
• Drone Delivery—a 1-point wonder that grants free damage and allow us to make use of grenade mods even with 2 action skills slotted.
• Death Follows Close—bolsters the efficiency of every single kill skill.
• Violent Violence and Playing Dirty are both damage multipliers, but while the former has more impactf on fast-firing weapons, the latter has a bigger impact on slow-firing weapons such as launchers.

• Synchronicity and Donnybrook both increase gun damage by a substantial amount.
• Supersonic Man—mostly taken to increase efficiency while navigating through maps, but it also increases gun damage through Violent Momentum.

Barrier and SNTNL are the two Skill of choice for the build, due to heavy investment in the green and blue trees which unlock every augments for those Skills.

Augments for the SNTNL are Static Field and Bad Dose: while the former increase the crowd control capability of the drone and adds another shield regen source, the latter provides just another movement speed increase and a damage debuff on targets, which help focusing down priority enemies.

Barrier augments are the obvious All-rounder, which turns the otherwise directional Barrier into a protecting dome that protect Zane from all directions, and Deterrence Field which works well against rushers and melee but also complements the aggressive playstyle since everything close to Zane Barrier will be momentarily shocked.

Points in Violent Violence and Playing Dirty can be freely redistributed in order to max the former or the latter, depending on the weapon loadout.

The 3 points in Supersonic Man can be reallocated to Nerves of Steel to reduce the recoil during negative mayhem modifiers or to make recoil in general less of an issue.

Regarding Action Skill Augments instead:

• Winter's Drone augment can be used instead of Static Field for more crowd control if your weapon loadout already covers shock damage.
• Retaliation is another option, instead of Deterrence Field when doing less challenging content.