Outriders Tier List: Best Build for each Class Ranked

Outriders Tier List
Outriders is a new looter shooter with many different builds. Here is our Outriders Tier List for four popular builds at the moment. Image via People Can Fly.

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Outriders is one the newest games to take the world by storm (I’m not sorry). The game released on April 1st 2021, and on the back of its rocky start, is a game best-described as Marmite, you love it or hate it. For those who love it, we have something very special for you as you make your way to the Eye of the Storm. Alternatively, for those struggling to get into the game, here is our Outriders Tier List, where you can take a look at what seems to be the best Class to play along with a suggested build path for the end game.

Outriders Tier List Ranks Explained

Unlike most of our other Tier Lists, this one is going to use a numbered system. There are only four classes in the game, meaning we can give individual ranks. Furthermore, we want to also outline that the game is healthy for balancing across all classes since every class can do a gun, anomaly, or tanky build. 

With that said, Outriders is a Looter Shooter after all, with gameplay elements more akin to the likes of Diablo 3. With that said these ranks are looking more into how much damage you can do directly to kill bosses and trash while also having the right tools to avoid fatal damage. Here are the Outriders classes ranked:

  1. Technomancer
  2. Pyromancer
  3. Trickster
  4. Devastator

Rank 1: Technomancer Pestilence Build Guide

Technomancer comes across as the support build, with its combination of gadgets gizmos and CCs that come with it. While that is certainly the case, they are one of the best and highest DPS Classes for gun builds in the game.  You’ll soon see why this is ranking first in our Outriders Tier List.

 

Technomancer Abiliites and Mods

The Technomancer buffs its damage with Blighted Rounds, which increase the damage your guns do, alongside applying toxins to its enemies. The support utility of the kit also uses the Blighted Turrets to maintain the debuff and Cold Snap for peeling against enemies.

While that doesn’t sound particularly amazing at first, the mods make this build. This is because of the amount of raw damage the class can do. There are several mods you are looking for to make this build work well. One of the build’s key elements utilizes Toxic Lead, which grants 40% of your magazine to get replenished on kill. This is good because it allows your Blighted Rounds ability to remain active for an extended period of time. Combine this with Critical Analysis, and you have a bonus 30% crit damage. Popping heads with snipers or drilling them with assault rifles are going to keep your ammo capacity filled for a considerable amount of time. If you run out of a magazine, the Spare Mag perk grants an additional use of the ability before it expires. Continuing on from the basic mods, there are Tier 3 mods that offer you better Blighted Builds. One of the desirable end game Mods is the Euthaniser Perk, which adds a bonus 25% damage to enemies afflicted with toxins.

 

Technomancer Legendary Weapons

Furthermore, the Pestilence skill tree grants additional bonuses to weapon damage, with much of the emphasis on Snipers and Long Range Weapons. This means you can even use snipers close range if you wanted to and still be rewarded for bonus damage in those rounds. Top this off with the bonus damage to enemies afflicted with Toxins and you’ll be nuking in your Blighted Rounds window. One of the best weapons you can get for this is the Iceberg Sniper Rifle. The critical strikes apply frozen to the enemies, making it even easier to maintain the critical strike nukes on frozen targets.

Grabbing the Iceberg is unnecessary, though, as the Blighted Turret Ability that you take with this build can be modified to shoot freeze instead. Furthermore, you can always take the Cold Snap ability, making it easy enough to freeze any close-range targets gunning for you.

With all that said, the Technomancer does some incredible damage, able to maintain its damage window for extended periods of time. Likewise, the Technomancer has many different tricks up its sleeve to prevent the enemy from getting too close to punishing your glass cannon playstyle. All in all, it’s coming across like the Technomancer Pestillance build is the best in the game, despite it still being early days. Consequently, this is the reason for being the best-ranked Class in our Outriders Tier List.

 

Technomancer Nerfs

People Can Fly has announced that the very first Outriders patch will see nerfs to several gun builds, including the Technomancer’s Blighted Rounds. The nerfs will tone down the amount of damage the Damage Against Poison talent does from %30 to %15. Consequently, the build is going to do significantly less damage. Although it is by far one of the best builds in the game regardless of the nerf.

Rank 2: Pyromancer Tempest Build Guide

The Pyromancer is one of the only classes in the game that appear to excel at the Anomaly Power upgrades. The core of a Pyromancer is all about sending out plenty of fire spells, which aim to incinerate the opposition. To add information, Pyromancers may indeed make really good tanks in co-op. Using the same rotation, a Pyromancer can mark several targets, with your party’s DPS helping to finish off the packs you would otherwise one shot if you went full Anomaly Power. Either way, the Pyromancer is an amazing class, hence its second place in the Outriders Tier List.

 

Pyromancer Abilities and Mods

The core of the Tempest Pyrpomancer is all about wombo comboing. There are three abilities you want to pick: Thermal Bomb, Eruption, and Overheat. Pyromancers want to rotate using the Termal Bomb to pick a priority target, apply Overheat on the same target to burst down the ignited target, and then nuke with Eruption to do AOE damage to nearby trash. When you have the Thermal Bomb target chosen, you want to use your Sniper Rifle or Assault Rifle to nuke down opponents, putting it in range of the Overheat damage to pop the explosion, taking out nearby enemies with it. Furthermore, the added benefit of this is that the build spreads its passive with the rotation, meaning your health bar will realistically be full most of the time.

The mods required to make this build work focus mainly on the Thermal Bomb, which is the core of your damage. Mods like Burning Ground are great as it adds even more Fire pools to do even more damage to enemies, while also being another source of applying burn to potentially unaffected enemies in your wombo combo. A nice addition to the build is applying Thermal Bomb twice via the Fire Frenzy mod. This is better suited in the late game or higher level World Tiers, as those mobs are much tougher to deal with, to the extra burst window helps a lot. Laying Window is a must because it helps extend the potential explosion window by three seconds. It is a great use for taking down much tougher enemies, which can otherwise make or break the rotation if the mob is too strong.  

For Overheat, you are looking at the Phoenix Force, with grants additional Anomaly Power based on the number of stacks of burn you clear out over a period of time. If this keeps going then you only get even stronger as time goes on. Alternatively, you can gain Eruption Perks that increase the DoT of the ability and extended its duration through Pompeii and Magma Coat.  

 

Pyromancer Legendary Weapons

There are a few different Sniper Rifles you can take for this build. The Molten Idola is a solid single target Sniper Rifle. The rounds can apply a DoT to the target, enhancing the natural damage over time applications the Pyromancer already has with Burn. Alternatively, you can go Raróg’s Gaze, which does splash damage explosive rounds, along with applying weaknesses to the target. Either is fine if you want to run a Sniper Rifle in this build.

The Juggler is the go-to assault rifle for this Pyromancer build, as killing shots made apply a minefield around the deceased target. Regular shots can also do explosions, keeping up with the huge ranged cleave damage the build is centred around. Again, the core of the build is all about AOE cleave damage, and this is the best Legendary to provide such a devastating AOE combo.

With all that said and done, Tempest Pyromancer’s are a very strong build path. This is why they get the second position on our Outriders Tier List as they are really powerful, fun, and durable, but not quite as strong as Technomancer in raw output.

Rank 3: Trickster Assassin Build Guide

The Trickster is arguably the most fun Outriders class to play in the entire game. The class is all about being fast, darting around the map with a mixture of teleports and location tethers. Likewise, they can control gravity, slow down areas, and causing a void explosion with several melee spells and melee key. However, the best version of the Trickster is based on the run and gun play style, which has some major drawbacks.  However, it still has its purpose as the Trickster has some of the best armor penetration capabilities in the game. It is something to keep in mind when building a comp as the Blighted Rounds Technomancer is weak against armored opponents.  

 

Trickster Assassin Abilities and Mods

The Assassin Trickster aims to go deep in the Assassin build, taking as many Armor Penetration, Elite, and Shotgun / Close Ranged Damage talents as possible. From there, your character needs the tools to get into close range to do incredible burst damage through your Shotgun’s critical strikes.

The abilities that the Trickster will want will likely vary on the situation but the core you are looking at are: Twisted Rounds. which buff the Trickster’s damage output.  Twisted Rounds is your primary damage ability, which you want to use when you have the opportunity to do consistent damage.  To get into the fray, use Hunt the Prey, which is your teleport behind a distant opponent ability. Don’t forget to apply Borrowed Time before diving in. The ability creates a tether location, which can port you back to a safe spot if it gets too dangerous. Oh, the Borrowed Time also grants a bucket load of shields to keep you alive in the thick of it, with mods making its defensive utility even better.

The times you need to replace an ability will come whether you are in solo or group content. Group Content means you can get away with running a better hit and run build using the above core abilities. The perk of Using Hunt The Prey puts your character in a position to use the talent, Unforeseen End, which does bonus damage to enemies with their back’s turned to you. However, if you are solo, you’ll need something like Venerator’s Knife to pop key targets quicker, especially the flying mobs that are counters to Trickster’s close-range playstyle. Moreso, the Trickster, is a glass cannon outside of its bonus shields. Taking something like Time Rift allows the Trickster some breathing space against overwhelming enemies are they get yanked into the air.

Your core mods center around Borrowed Time and Shredder Rounds. Shredder Rounds are your key to dealing damage. Mods like Additional Mag are great for extended damage windows. Alongside Additional Mag, Strong Twist increase your firepower by 15%, with Twisted Fate increase crit damage by 30%. This is the core of the mods. From there, you ideally want some survivability. Armor of Eons is nice as it increases armor by 100% while Borrowed Time is active. Time Space Protection is another amor buffer for Borrowed Time; it grants an additional 30% armor and resistance.

 

Trickster Assassin Legendaries

There are two Shotguns you will want to have, depending on the scenario. For solo content, the Golem’s Limb is a great tool as getting a killing blow will grant the Golem effect, a perk of the Devastator Class. Golem is an ability Devastators use to mitigate 65% of incoming damage for eight seconds. This is incredibly useful for Tricksters as that killing blow could be the difference between life and death in many solo situations, and the reduced damage means your newly found shield from the Trickster’s Passive will go a lot further.

On the other hand, if you are ready to rock the all-out DPS Assassin build, then the Guillotine is your shotgun of choice. The benefits of Guillotine deal AOE splash damage which applies weaknesses to enemies, making them more vulnerable to attacks. When an enemy dies, they spawn a minefield around them, adding to that cleave damage build up as you destroy targets one by one in close range.

By all means, the Trickster is an exciting Class to play. It’s enjoyable, with many different abilities builds to meet each situation appropriately. The added addition of one-shotting things with crits is always satisfying too. However, the build is arguably the most difficult playstyle to get going due to the many risks it faces in battle. Ultimately, this is why the Trickster is third on our list, as its weaknesses are omnipresent when playing the very strong Assassin build.

 

Trickster Nerfs

The result of the above build allowed fully built Tricksters in the right environment to do some insane numbers. As a result, the first Outriders patch has nerfed the Disruptive Firepower, Scion of Power, and Outrider Executioner perks to 35% form 50%. The huge downgrade in damage is a sign that the build was allowed to do incredible damage when played perfectly. Which is another reason why the above DPS builds look a lot better than that Trickster in this Outriders Tier List.

Rank 4: The Devastator DPS Guide

While the Devastator is at the bottom of the Outriders Tier List, it is still a perfectly fine Class to play. The Devastator is a heavily armored Class, capable of getting to the font very well. While its damage is not particularly great, its defensive playstyle will have you farming higher World Tiers and soloing Expeditions, then this is a nice option for you. Furthermore, a Devastator has great AOE Cleave and CC, making it a nice addition for peeling for the DPS builds above.

 

Devestator Abiltiies and Mods

The Ideal abilities you want is: Reflect Bullets, Gravity Leap, and Earthquake for a DPS build. Reflect Bullets is your way of preventing incoming fire from hitting you, instead strengthening your own ability and firing back at enemies to unleash back at them. Combine this with Earthquake, and you are interrupting and AOE damaging all those in front of you. But how do you get enemies in front of you? Well, that is easy with Gravity Jump, which takes you to the heart of battle. 

However, if you want a more tanky build, you can swap Reflect Bullets for Golem, and Gravity Leap for Impale. Golem makes you a stronger frontliner, capable of taking the big hits. Also, Impale is a party-wide buff ability if it kills targets, and can CC opponents too. The benefit of this is if you are running with DPS builds above, as the CC makes it easier for your allies to clear the enemies out. While the build goes more in the tank tree, Earthquake’s and Impale’s cleave damage is no joke, destroying smaller trash packs with ease.

The mods you want for the build focus on your best damage ability, Reflect Bullets. Mods like The Stronger First nuke down higher HP enemies with a 50% damage increase when reflect bullets hit them. Blood Primer also makes your Reflect Bullets apply a bleed effect, a strong DoT when it gets going. Bullet Acceleration is good, too, as it increases the amount of damage your ability does in general. If you are going the tankier option, then Mod’s like Blood Shock for Earthquake combined with River of Blood on Impale is a solid synergy builder.Then there are support mod with Heal Per Kill for party-wide healing and Armor Boost to make yourself even bulkier. 

 

Devastator Legendary Weapons

Devastators are the less gear dependent class based on their style of play and natural tankyness. However, if you want a Legendary to farm for,  then go for the Amber Vault. The SMG has a high rate of fire and damage output. It also has a stacking damage increase with one of its perks and an ammo replenisher when you get crits. It’s not the most exciting Legendary, but it fits the job a Devastator wants to fulfil.

If an LMG is more your thing, then the Grim Marrow is very good. The weapon naturally applies slows to targets, adding to the CC variety the tank Devastator applies. Furthermore, the Killing Shots create an Anomaly Singularity, causing AOE damage when they go off. It’s that added extra flair when packs of mobs need to die.

 

Conclusion

With all this said, this concludes our Outriders Tier List. Don’t be fooled by our rankings, as every single one of the classes is great and perfectly viable for playing through the end game. But if anything above hits your appetite then feel free to follow the builds we recommend.

 

All images via People Can Fly / Square Enix.