Before we dive into a Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter tier list, lets breakdown how exactly the class system works. BL4 has four playable characters (Vault Hunters) at launch, and all of them come with three bespoke active Skills and dedicated skill tree paths for these trees. So in a sense, you have about 12 classes in Borderlands 4 in terms of playstyle variance.
More practically, though, the game does not restrict you into a single skill tree. It’s somewhat similar to the class specialization system in Last Epoch. You’re free to utilzie regular (non-Augment, non-Capstone) Skill nodes from all three trees of a class when you have excess points.
This allows for a lot of open-ended buildcrafting possibilities, and a Borderlands 4 tier list is only useful to determine which skill trees have the better juice. And that’s what we are going to do in this tier list: rank all the separate Skill trees for each Vault Hunter.
Borderlands 4 class tier list: Ranking all Vault Hunter trees
Here’s my full Vault Hunter tier list for Borderlands 4, categorizing all the specs into six tiers:
In general, this is what each tier implies:
- SS-tier: I called in this extra tier specifically for Rafa Peacebreaker Cannons, because they are that effortlessly good.
- S-tier: These are your broken Vault Hunter specs, and the best picks if you want to min-max and run weekly Widlcard challenges.
- A-tier: These Vault Hunter specs are overall very solid picks, and they can get you through UVHM+ modes just fine.
- B-tier: These specs have some sort of fundamental inadequacy in their skill tree, so you’ll need to peg that hole in other ways. However, they can often become serviceable once specific gear synergies are online.
- C-tier: These specs have are not worth trying if you want to have a good time and deal damage in the highest-difficulty modes, or more importnatly, be useful in boss runs.
- D-tier: No spec is really that bad in Borderlands 4; this one is just for personal spite.
Ranking all the Vault Hunters as a whole seems like a moot point, because your experience will vary vastly based on which Skill tree you spec into. We’re instead going to talk about these individual Skill trees in Borderlands 4, and explain their placement on the tier list.
Amon the Forge Knight Skill trees, ranked
1) Amon Crucible (Green): A tier
Crucible is easily the most potent version of Amon in Borderlands 4 – if you want to stick to your guns (literally). This is the most fun way to play Amon without going heavy into the melee playstyle (which, as you’ll find out in this Borderlands 4 tier list, is a path best ignored in UVHM+).
On this tree, there’s both style and substance: throwing melee weapons, summoning lightning bolts that will one-shot enemies if empowered by Class Mods, and an augment that freezes even badass enemies and minibosses.
2) Amon Scourge (Blue) : B-tier
When Amon’s skillset was revealed, this was the instant fan favorite class. You get a mobile shield that blocks all frontal incoming damage and turns that into outgoing damage just with the base Scourge skill.
There’s one big downside that holds this spec back from doing better on a Borderlands 4 character tier list: cooldowns. Scourge has a 70-second cooldown by default, which means you just get to use it once for most encounters and boss fights. This means you’d be a better tank if you were just using the Onslaughter tree.
Theoretically, Scourge can still be A-tier if not better, but you have to get some great endgame Ordnances (preferrably Rocket Launcher) to get the most value out of this tree.
3) Amon Onslaughter (Red): C+ tier or B tier depending on how much you like melee
Amon’s Onslaughter is the most melee-centric playstyle in Borderlands 4. Which is to say: it’s particularly bad for bossing, as a lot of the bosses will dart around a lot, if not outright become unreachable as they fly up in the air. For this reason alone, any Borderlands 4 tier list cannot place Amon Onslaughter on anything above B-tier.
When it comes to mobbing, though, your fists of rage do a lot. It’s particularly fun and viable in UVHM and higher difficulties with the Real Big Fist Firmware gear, if you can get the full set of three.
Harlowe the Gravatar skill trees, ranked
1) Harlowe CHROMA Accelerator (Red): S-tier or potentially even higher
CHROMA Accelerator takes some practice to detonate optimally, but when done right, it can actually rival Flux Generator. With the skill damage boost nodes available from the get-go, you can make your Action Skill one-shot most of the enemies it clips at around lvl 7.
On top of that, this is possibly the highest DPS spec in the entire game, thanks to ludicrous flat damage boost on every shot from Neutron Capture. Naturally, this is an easy high-tier entry for any Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter tier list.
2) Harlowe Flux Generator (Green): S-tier
Harlowe Flux Generator is potentially the best mobbing class in Boderlands 4 altogether. The base Skill itself does great crowd-clearing and even gives you a defensive layer of overshields on top. This tree gives you status-spreading, extra gun damage, and even perks that allow you to fasten Action Skill cooldown.
With specific gear interactions that allow you to trigger the Study Group Capstone bonuses rapidly, Flux Generator can actually make Harlowe an S-tier contender in any Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter tier list.
3) Harlowe Zero-Point (Blue): B-tier
If you’re trying to play a traditional phaselock siren in Borderlands 4, this is the Vault Hunter spec for you. You can pull off a lot of the Maya stuff in terms of lockdown. Between some bubble-chaining conditions, and a way to auto-bubble enemies on crit, you can go through an entire bandit camp without getting shot once if you play your cards right.
While that puzzle-solving playstyle is fun in some cases, there’s too many enemies that simply elude the lockdown element of the bubble. Particularly, this Harlowe skill tree struggles against bosses, especially compared to other specs of this Vault Hunter. For that reason, it cannot rank higher than B-tier by the metrics of this Borderlands 4 tier list.
Rafa the EXO-Solider skill trees, ranked
1) Rafa Peacebreaker Cannons (Red): The one true SS-tier king
Of every Vault Hunter spec available in Borderlands 4, Rafa Peacebreaker Cannon (Red tree) is arguably the best one. This gets SS-tier for an objectively undeniable (if boring) merit: aimbot.
It goes something like this: you are a level 30 Rafa with Peacebreaker Cannon. A badass/boss/miniboss walks into range. You either take away a large chunk off their HP, or even outright kill them, without even shooting your own guns. Peacebreaker Cannon practically plays the game for you.
Now, other specs like Harlowe Chroma Accelerator can get much higher DPS ceiling in Borderlands 4. The counterpoint to that is: Red Rafa gives you aimbot. There’s no skill barrier, no execution problems, no tactical planning required. You get damage on a silver platter.
If this Borderlands 4 tier list ranking has a clear winner, this is the one. If you’re looking for the easiest way to zoom through the campaign and remain relevant in UVHM+, this is the one.
2) Rafa Arc-Knives (Green): B-tier or C-tier depending on how much you like the flavor
Arc-Knives is the melee playstyle for Rafa, and unfortunately, you still get kited around by bosses much like Amon Onslaughter. Outside of that particular problem though, you also have the same strengths. It’s actually a bit better than Amon’s fisticuff adventures, because the actual active skill here feel great to use.
However, you are not as durable as an Amon fully specced into the Red tree, and you still need to fully rely on guns to do your bossing duties. For this reason, I would describe Arc-Knives Rafa as a more higher-risk higher-reward melee Vault Hunter than Amon.
3) Rafa APOPHIS Lance (Blue): D-tier because of my subjective bias
Here’s the thing: any tier list is subjective, and this Borderlands 4 VH ranking is no different. All of my subjective ire is unfortunately concentrated upon Rafa’s Blue tree. I find APOPHIS Lance very clunky to use, and the damage may seem good in the beginning, but it’s just not competitive with the aimbot Red skill in any way.
When the Rafa skill tree was first revealed, the Awe node became a favorite among buildcrafters because of guaranteed crits. However, you can just get the same job done on any class with Penetrator Knive on your ordnance slot.
If you like the flavor of having a somewhat unwieldy offhand arc lightning graft, Rafa may fare much better than this Borderlands 4 tier list dictates. For me personally, though, this is the most disappointing spec in the game by far.
Vex the Siren skill trees, ranked
Vex Incarnate (Green): S-tier
Vex’s Incarnate Skill is a bit style over substance, as the Eldritch Blasts hit as hard as wet noodle with their base numbers. However, this is probably the standout example of a Vault Hunter Skill tree where the Passives themselves carry the entire build.
You don’t even need to hit Incarnate with an Incarnate build, because the Bloodletter passive does all the heavy lifting. This right now is the only bleed build in Borderlands 4, and it’s strong enough to make Vex Incarnate S-tier on its own. On top of that, all your hits have lifesteal with Essence Leech, so this is all-around a really solid consistent performer.
Vex Dead Ringer (Blue): A-tier
Rather than a minion build, Vex’s Dead Ringer is more of a turret-based spec (Spectres are better than Reapers for the most part). The Spectres themselves need to be a bit tactfully placed, but if they don’t get shot down immediately, they can do substantial damage.
You can make the Spectres more durable with the Dark Pact Capstone, which also gives you the ability to use two Augments together. Yet, the damage from Spectres can sometimes feel inadequate for your bossing needs, so this is more of an A or B+ tier class, and a poor option if you want gear-independent scaling.
Check out: Borderlands 4 Vex Leveling guide
Vex Phase Phamiliar (Red): B-tier
If you want something like Gaige’s Mechromancer from Boderlands 2, this is the right option. In practice, Vex’s familiar Trouble may feel a solid leveling companion for the first few hours of the game, but its damage does not quite hit endgame viability even when fully specced into this Red tree.
Add to this some AI pathfinding issues (same as the old Mechromancer), and this is the most unreliable out of Vex’s three skill trees. The fact that it’s so skill point-hungry to make Trouble a barely viable combat aid means this gets an easy B-tier on any Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter tier list, even if you’re a minion-inclined player.
Tier lists are secondary to your personal preference. Between powerful chase items and gear sets, you can make almost any spec viable in Borderlands 4 – even if their tier list placement would advertise otherwise.
For example, I personally prefer the metallic foley of Jakobs weapons over high-tech Maliwan stuff, so I veer towards a kinetic Vex Incarnate build rather than playing with elements. Ultiamtely, the best Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter tier list is the one you make for yourself.
Check out our other guides on the game:
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Edited by Sambit Pal
