Steel Swan

SKILL TREE NOTES

This is a slightly unconventional green skill tree. Max health isn't often taken. But it is effectively always-on damage reduction and I like the resistance One With Nature provides. You can choose to place the 12 points that are in Root to Rise, Arms Deal, and One With Nature in whichever tank skills you want.

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ACTION SKILL

Phaseslam. It's great for Find Your Center uptime, damage, and enemy staggering. Fracture can be used if you're good at aiming it. A variant of Phaseflare can be used to take out a big boss. Base Phasegrasp is used strictly for when you want to White Elephant punch a True Trials boss or Seer.

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ACTION SKILL ELEMENT

Whichever element best suits the enemies you're facing, except cryo. Do not choose cryo.

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MAIN GUNS

The guns in this loadout all have different purposes. Let's list these in an order that matches your typical gameplay loop:
 

Face Puncher with Melee Apply Terror anoint. This is a gun you swap to only to apply terror to yourself, or sometimes to take out flying enemies with Body & Mind. You will also kill some non-flying enemies with Body & Mind when getting terror stacks for yourself. Only shoot enough to get full terror stacks. Then swap to...
 

Low level Sellout with Melee Apply Terror anoint. This gun is mainly for dotting yourself with corrosive damage. So make sure it's always switched to corrosive, unless your action skill element is corrosive, in which case switch the Sellout to fire.
 

When self-dotted, and when you have a bonus element active, Burn Both Ends will stack up for you. Corrosive gives a longer dot than fire, which means longer BBE uptime. But when your action skill element is corrosive, you'll get a corrosive dot through Infusion, so switch the Sellout to fire so you get two dots, which stacks up Mindfulness faster.
 

To get an anointed low level Sellout, discard the one you get as a mission reward, and go find an anointed one in Earl's Vendor.
 

Psycho Stabber with Terror Cryo anointment. Your main punching gun and what you swap to after dotting yourself with the Sellout. Now that you've applied terror to yourself and have a dot going, the Terror Cryo anoint on this gun will start stacking Burn Both Ends.

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ADDITIONAL / OPTIONAL GUNS

Guardian Angel with Terror Cryo anointment. Hold this if you want your Phaseslam to do more damage. It can also be held for punching to buff your Static Charge or White Elephant. It will also add damage to the Muse orb.
 

Face Puncher with Terror Cryo anointment. See "Notes - Bossing Strategies" below.
 

Zheitsev's Eruption with Terror Cryo anointment. This is for debuffing bosses. See "Notes - Bossing Strategies" below.
 

Ionic Disruptor with Terror Cryo anointment. Swap to this to change your punch to shock damage, if it's set to fire or corrosive and you come up against a fire- or corrosive-immune heavy. But there are other ways of dealing with an immune heavy, such as Static Charge from another enemy, your Elemental Stone, or Groundbreaker.

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CLASS MOD

The best for general punching is going to be the Muse, ideally with +1 Illuminated Fist and +3 Laid Bare, but any skill distribution will be helpful. The orb from the Muse hits hard if you're holding the Guardian Angel. The orb also likes to crit, which can lead to massive Hollowpoint and Groundbreaker damage.
 

But this build can use many class mods. Breaker can be used for extra melee damage, Jab Cross points to buff your Phaseslam, and some damage reduction. Golden Rule can turn the build into a more action skill-oriented build. Dragon can give you access to Remnant, buff your Slam with Do Harm, and give you a little extra augment activation. Driver can be used, which, if you're using corrosive action skill element, allows you to skip self-dotting via the Sellout.
 

Recommended passives on all of these: action skill damage, action skill cooldown rate, splash damage, melee damage. Survivability passives like elemental resistance and health regen aren't terrible.

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SHIELD

Again, there are a lot of options, all with the Terror Health Regen anointment. This anointment makes the build possible, and allows us to more comfortably skip Sustainment. At full terror stacks, it's 8% max health regen per second. It may not sound like much, but coupled with our other tank skills, it's very strong.
 

As for the shield itself, the quintessential punching one would be a Brawler Ward. Re-Volter is also very strong for punching and buffing your Phaseslam damage. A double-roid Plus Ultra is great for survivability, as is a Beskar with a reflect part in bullet-heavy areas (like Maliwan Takedown bridge). For some damage at a distance and more Groundbreaker, a Messy Breakup is helpful, especially if you're holding the Guardian Angel while punching. The Shooting Star works great in the maps that allow it, or any map if you use a hotfix mod.

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ARTIFACT

Some more options. The typical loadout uses an Elemental Stone Static Charge. The element of the stone should compliment your action skill element, and be suited to the enemies you are facing. The Static Charge will be the most consistent for mobbing and for bosses that have lots of adds.
 

An Elemental Stone White Elephant can be used for mobbing as well. And if you want to punch down a raid boss, it is necessary. See "Notes - Bossing Strategies" below.
 

A Spark Plug Static Charge or White Elephant is also a great artifact for this build. The Spark Plug will provide extra damage and crowd control (when it crit-staggers enemies), build damage for Groundbreaker, and allow you to skip the Face Puncher with Melee Apply Terror. Instead, you would only swap back to your Sellout, slam near enemies, and then shoot your foot to dot yourself. The Spark Plug chains will trigger the Melee Apply Terror anointment on the Sellout.
 

Recommended passives for all of these: action skill cooldown, melee damage, movement speed, area-of-effect damage in the second or third slot, elemental damage. Just like with class mods, survivability passives like elemental resistance and health regen aren't terrible.

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GRENADE

Do the options never stop?? A Mesmer for crowd control (great for Maliwan Takedown), a Hyperion Quasar (non-sticky) for the same reason, or a Fish Slap for damage. All with the Terror Dmg/Fire Rate anointment.

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GAMEPLAY LOOP

There are several things you always need to keep in mind when setting up. 1. How are you getting terror stacks? It's either with the Face Puncher or with the Spark Plug. Make sure, if you're using the Spark Plug, that you actually get full stacks before swapping away from your Melee Apply Terror anointment. Full stacks come nearly instantly when there's at least a few enemies around. But when there's only a lone enemy, it may take a few seconds. Having terror applied to yourself is an enormous boost to your damage and survivability.
 

2. How are you dotting yourself? Having a self-dot is a necessary step to getting your Burn Both Ends damage. Usually it's with the Sellout. You can also use the Spiritual Driver, but only if you're in an area where you can set your action skill element to corrosive, because you need that long corrosive dot.
 

3. Is your Sellout set to corrosive? And if your action skill element is corrosive, is it set to fire? This is a seemingly small optimization, but it's important. Being self-dotted means having lots of BBE damage. And getting more Mindfulness stacks sooner means better movement, which means better survivability.
 

4. Is your Shield Reboot Guardian Rank perk set appropriately for the shield you have selected? Some shields you want to remain depleted: Brawler Ward, roid Plus Ultra, Shooting Star. For those, disable Shield Reboot. Keep it enabled for the other shields: Re-Volter, Messy Breakup, Beskar. The Re-Volter and Messy Breakup don't need to fully recharge to proc again, so Shield Reboot will give you a little bit of shields whenever you kill an enemy, and when that little bit of shields is quickly depleted again, you get another proc.
 

5. Is your action skill element set appropriately? This determines the base element of your punch, the Muse orb element (if you're using the Muse), and your Phaseslam damage.
 

6. Have you chosen an appropriate element for your Elemental Stone?
 

Once you've figured all of that out, you're ready to go. Get your Terror, dot yourself, and attack. Keep swapping around as necessary to keep up terror and your self-dot. Once you've figured out a loadout you like, you won't have to worry as much about all of the above questions.
 

But perhaps the most important rule of all: Be Careful! This is still a true melee build without Sustainment. In dangerous places like the Maliwan takedown, you need to be very mindful of what you're walking into. Always be ready to back off and use cover. Doing so also offers you an opportunity to re-up your terror and self-dot.
 

NOTES - BOSSING STRATEGIES

When I'm piloting a true melee build, I usually dread figuring out what to do when it comes to bossing. This build keeps it very interesting by giving you so many options:
 

1. Equip Spark Plug Static Charge, Messy Breakup, and hold the Guardian Angel. Let your damage work from a distance, and occasionally get close to slam another Spark Plug and apply Groundbreaker.
 

2. Equip a Dragon class mod with a point into Remnant, and then Phaseslam an add. Let Remnant take out the boss. Note: Remnant targets the closest enemy to you, so make sure that's the boss.
 

3. Phaseflare. Do your normal setup: apply terror and self-dot. Then summon Phaseflare (or the Shooting Star variant). Recall and punch it once while holding the Psychostabber. When it reaches the boss, swap to the Guardian Angel. Watch boss health bar go away.
 

4. Body & Mind. This is what the Face Puncher with Terror Cryo is for. Again, get your terror stacks and self-dot. Additionally, make sure you have an enemy to kill to activate Body & Mind. Swap to your Terror Cryo Face Puncher and kill that enemy. If you want extra damage, quickly swap to your broken Zheitsev's Eruption to debuff the boss. Then shoot the boss with your Terror Cryo Face Puncher.
 

5. Punching. This strategy is taken from Sulphur Swan. First, have an Elemental Stone White Elephant equipped. Get your terror stacks, dot yourself, apply the Zheitsev's Eruption debuff, then swap to your Guardian Angel and punch. If a White Elephant sticky got applied, back up and watch it go off.
 

For maximum punching damage, use a +3 Laid Bare Muse and, while your Zheitsev's Eruption is out, use base Phasegrasp to apply Laid Bare to boss, just before swapping to the Guardian Angel to punch.
 

6. Fish Slap. Pretty self explanatory. Hold the Guardian Angel and have an Elemental Stone Stacic Charge or White Elephant and chuck a fish.
 

7. Shooting Star shield. Similar to the Body & Mind Face Puncher strat, only you don't need to kill an enemy. Instead, make sure your shield is depleted (and that the Shooting Star works on the map). Get your terror, self-dot, swap to Terror Cryo Face Puncher, and shoot away. Watch the fireworks.
 

NOTES - MEME BUILD ORIGIN

Funnily enough, this build has its origins as an action skill-less build. You technically don't need to use an action skill. All anoints are triggered by Melee Apply Terror. The only thing you miss out on is proccing Find Your Center and stacking Samsara. But you can punch without Find Your Center (not that it's any fun to do so). And Samsara points can be moved into other tank skills like Helping Hands. And I suppose you won't get Laid Bare if you're trying to get extra damage when punching a raid boss.
 

Point being, you can use any action skill you want, or no action skill. You could use Downfall. You can use any augment you want, including Glamour. That's sort of the theme of this build - you get to build it your favorite way!

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