Zane ‘the Operative’ Gets Adjusted and Receives Multiple Buffs – Borderlands 3

In the October 8, 2020 hotfix Gearbox Software announced that Zane the Operative gets several adjustments to his class mods and the passive skills associated with those comms. When the Borderlands Live Team finished reviewing the weapons and made several balance changes to them, it was time to look at the class mods. Because the team wants to stimulate build diversity instead of having one build that rules them all. Ever since the Seen’ Dead made its entree into the game it is THE class mod to have on Zane. If you look at all the end game builds that are made by the community they all resolve around the Seen’ Dead. Gearbox is now buffing Zane’s other class mods to make them a good alternative. Besides the following changes, GBX has additional changes planned for Zane that we will see in future hotfixes and patches.

Zane Skill Changes

Cold Bore

• Increased bonus damage from 6% to 40% per rank

This skill only provides extra damage on the first bullet of a weapon swap. This bonus happens infrequently by nature, so we have massively buffed the damage. With this change, we are interested to see new builds centered around small magazine sizes, sniper rifles, and more. – Gearbox Software

Duct Tape Mod

• Decreased grenade cooldown by half. Was 8 seconds, now 4 seconds.

We found that the value of this passive skill was limited by the cooldown between each grenade, so we’ve cut that in half. Players will need to be conscious of the cooldown time and type of grenade mod they equipped to get maximum value out of this passive skill. – Gearbox Software

Like a Ghost

• Increased chance to ignore a bullet from 2% to 5%
• Increased the bonus for each active action skill

The stacking bonus only occurs each time one of Zane’s action skills is activated. This is infrequent in the late game, as players generally extend their action skill duration time. We’ve made this change with that play style in mind. – Gearbox Software

Trick of the Light

• Increased damage bonus from 12% to 15%

The damage from this skill depends on the number of enemies targeting Zane and Zane’s clone and can occasionally be unpredictable. To better account for this inconsistency we’ve buffed the damage bonus. – Gearbox Software

Best Served Cold

• Increased damage from the Cryo novas

Frutility Belt

• Increased the damage reduction

To help encourage players to consider builds that remove elemental damage, we’ve buffed the damage mitigation to be stronger here. – Gearbox Software

Zane Class Mod Changes

Anti-Freeze (Class Mod Info)

• Increased movement speed while taking Cryo damage. From 25% to 100%

Conductor (Class Mod Info)

• Increased the damage bonus from 25% to 50%

The damage bonus for this class mod is dependent on the amount of action skill duration time you have left. Like Trick of the Light, this damage can feel inconsistent. We have increased the damage bonus to provide more reliable damage. – Gearbox Software

Executor (Class Mod Info)

• Increased stat bonuses

Players suggested that the stat bonuses provided as a kill skill weren’t strong enough to feel the value. We’ve buffed each significantly. – Gearbox Software

Techspert (Class Mod Info)

• Increased the chance of recharge to SNTNL cooldown’s and active duration. From 5% to 15%

The intent of this class mod is to provide a way to keep Zane’s drone active nearly indefinitely, but at just 5% chance to refill the cooldown and duration, it wasn’t consistent enough. We’ve increased the likelihood of this behavior occurring. – Gearbox Software