Analysis of all skills in the game

One of the articles I've wanted to write for a long time is going through each skill in the skill tree to talk about its uses and value in both PvE and PvP.  For those that are new to the game, skills can either be passive (impact your gameplay without needing to press a button to activate them) or active (requires pushing a button to use them when they are off cooldown).  I view passive skills as much more valuable than active skills because passive skills ALWAYS impact your gameplay, while active skills only impact gameplay when they are activated, so if a skill boosts your damage every time you fire your gun, that is incredibly more valuable than a skill that you can only use every 1.5 minutes or so.

I performed testing today and yesterday to get the damage values for the active skills when it comes to PvP, and one thing I wanted to call out was that two skills are specifically busted right now.  Autoheal boost (11 points Survival) currently is not working for PvP, and I've sent videos to MFG highlighting this bug, but I don't know when it will be fixed.  I did not test in PvE to see if Autoheal boost is working, but I suspect that it is not working there either.  The other skill that has been bugged for over a year is the Ammo Up skill (2 points Combat).  Based on conversations with MFG, this skill should increase the maximum amount of ammo that you can carry for both primary and secondary weapons, but it seems to only be working for primary weapons at the moment.

Two other things that are important to note with skills are that (1) the Active skills that deal damage to enemies are not impacted by perks on gear, damage buffs, or Supercharger and (2) I will specifically call out when an Active skill that deals damage is impacted by resistances from gear, buffs, or the skill tree, but to my knowledge, only the Midnite's Invictus Chest will offer you any reduction to damage done in PvP with the AM Bomb or Stunner skill.

I delve into each skill below, but I strongly urge you to check out my three posts on builds (comprehensive build list, build analysis for PvE, and build analysis for PvP) in conjunction with this article.  For quick reference, I will mention the skills that I feel are pretty useless at the moment and should never be built around.

**Skills to never build around:**

Berserker Attack (4 points Agility)

Shockwave Pulse (1 point Combat)

Ammo Up (2 points Combat)

Sparta Kick (5 points Combat)

Sentry Gun (10 points Combat)

Hunter Mines (13 points Combat)

Master Salesman (3 points Survival)

Invisibility Tech (7 points Survival)

Stuff Magnet (9 points Survival)

EMP (13 points Survival)

Now on to the breakdown of each skill.

**Agility Tree:**

*Supercharger (1 point, Active Skill)*

+100% damage boost to weapons

10s duration

100s cooldown

*PvE:* This is an incredibly valuable skill in PvE to take down elites and bosses faster.  One caveat is that due to the complexities of the damage calculation in the game, it will not exactly double the value of the hits you land when supercharger is not active.  If you want to see how the math works, I refer you to my PvE Damage Mechanics article.  I pretty much always have supercharger as one of my active skills in PvE no matter what dungeon or arena I am playing.

*PvP:* Recent updates have given supercharger the same effect in PvP as it had in PvE.  Using the skill can currently trigger a bug where the supercharger's effect to damage can stick around even after supercharger's 10 second duration is over, so be careful of using this skill in PvP matches because it can give you an unfair advantage if the bug is activated.  If you are arranging a match with others, it is good to discuss whether this skill is to be allowed in the match.  Other than that, this is a very valuable skill in PvP.  It's super useful when you are outnumbered in a Team PvP situation, when you want to one-shot your opponent with a sniper body shot, or when you are facing a very tough opponent with better aim.  Similar to PvE, I pretty much always have supercharger as one of my active skills in PvP.

*Mega Movement (2 points, Passive Skill)*

10% Movement Speed

This skill increases all movement types by 10% and it is highly valuable in both PvE and PvP.

*Ultra Reload (3 points, Passive Skill)*

30% Reload Speed

Based on testing that was done a while back, the generally accepted base reload time is 1.64 seconds.  It doesn't seem like base reload speed varies among weapon types or weapons, but I haven't extensively tested this or confirmed it with MFG.  The impact of this skill is to reduce your reload time by about 0.5 seconds.  It is a highly valuable skill in both PvE and PvP.

*Berseker Attack (4 points, Active Skill)*

900 Damage per punch (91 base damage in PvP, impacted by melee resist)

140 s cooldown

Max 4 targets

70% Damage reduction for 3 s

100% knockdown resistance for 3 s

*PvE:* With this skill only having 900 damage per punch, it will only kill trash mobs in one punch, but it will not eliminate the yellow camo grunts in a single punch.  Since it has a long cooldown and can only hit a maximum of 4 targets, I really do not recommend this skill for PvE.  Its damage output just isn't high enough and its 3 second resistance timer isn't all that impactful.

*PvP:* I believe that the bug with Berserker still exists currently where the resistance effects of the skill persist after the 3 seconds it's supposed to last for when Fight for Your Life is activated (below 30% health), so be careful of abusing this skill.  Apart from that, it's not a skill that I recommend for PvP because its damage is reduced by any melee resistance that your opponent has from their skill tree and gear, so it's more likely that you'll see it do damage of 77 in PvP.  It can be fun to use for the novelty since many people do not use it, but there are just much more valuable active skills to use in PvP, and you'll garner a lot of hatred from your opponents if you use this skill in PvP.

*Sprint Reload (5 points, Passive Skill)*

100% Sprint Reload activation chance

This skill is extremely valuable in both PvE and PvP so that you don't come to a grinding halt whenever you have to reload your weapon.  You should always have this skill maxed out.

*Sneak Attack (6 points, Passive Skill)*

20% Rear Damage

*PvE:* This skill is incredibly valuable in Arenas and the Voltaic Fist dungeon, as well as being valuable in other dungeons and arenas, too.  20% is a big damage boost that will help you kill enemies faster, and if your role on your team is to shoot bosses in the back while another person has aggro, it will greatly decrease the time it takes to kill the tough enemies.  If you want specifics on how this skill impacts damage, see my article on PvE Damage Mechanics.

*PvP:* This skill is quite valuable in PvP, as well, especially in Team PvP where you can more easily flank your opponent than in Duels.  It is still valuable in Duels in cases where you surprise your opponent or catch them trying to grab secondary ammo and can get a quick, easy kill.

*Frag Grenade (7 points, Active Skill)*

1,350 Damage (111 base damage in PvP, impacted by explosion resist)

3 Charges

70s Cooldown

*PvE:* This is quite a good skill for those that don't have AM Bomb as an option in their arsenal.  Its damage is powerful enough that it can wipe out trash mobs and yellow camo grunts, and it's an incredibly useful skill in the Brothers of Fire dungeon at the two warp gate locations.  You could also use it on the Blinkers in Hive Mind to great effect.  I think of it as the best AM Bomb alternative for PvE.

*PvP:* While many opponents will at least be running with 25% explosion resistance (6 points Survival), which reduces the maximum damage of the grenades to 83 with a direct hit, this is still a pretty useful skill in PvP, though it's definitely not one of my top choices.  For PvP below level 20, though, I highly recommend using the Frag Grenade skill.  It's got a short cooldown and 3 available charges, so you can use it quite a bit in PvP matches.

*Greased Lightning (8 points, Passive Skill)*

10% Sprint speed

While I am of the opinion that all of the mobility passive skills in the Agility tree are extremely vital to PvP, this is perhaps the least important of the mobility skills, but only by a narrow margin.  It's not super crucial to PvE if you want to run a high damage build like 6A-12C-2S, so I can live without it in PvE, but I really do not suggest using a build without sprint speed in PvP.

*Fight for Your Life (9 points, Passive Skill)*

+30% Damage when below 60% Health (30% in PvP)

This is THE MOST POWERFUL damage skill in the game.  With it being activated at 60% health in PvE, it can be used quite a lot and it's a welcome damage boost to take enemies down more quickly.  I can tell you from experience that this skill makes a HUGE difference in PvP when facing opponents of a similar skill level.  It can make all the difference in which one of you dies first.  IF you want to understand more about how this fits into the damage calculation, see my article on PvE Damage Mechanics.  I will also mention that Fight for Your Life combines with Supercharger in an interesting way to where you will actually get 30% of your base damage and 30% of your supercharger damage as a bonus, so when combining Supercharger and Fight for your Life together, you will melt literally everything in your path.

*Blink (10 points, Active Skill)*

2 charges

40 s cooldown

*Skill Description:* Save shoe leather by teleporting a short distance in the direction you're moving and knocking down anyone in your way.

This is a pretty useless skill in PvE to be honest.  It doesn't do any damage and only knocks down trash mobs, so I never use it there.  As for PvP, this used to be an extremely powerful skill, but as more people obtain the Kira's Basilisk boots, it's become less powerful.  However, there are still people that choose boots with high crit for PvP that are typically not Kira's Basilisk boots, so if you invest the time to learn the right distance to Blink from so that you can easily turn around and shoot an enemy in the back, this can be a deadly skill.  Just know that you will be hated by the community if you spam this skill in PvP.  It's very annoying.  This skill can also be used as a good evasive tactic to run away from your opponent if they have the upper hand in an exchange or to move to a position of attack that the opponent is not expecting if you use it while the opponent has popped into cover to reload.

*Luck of the Devil (11 points, Passive Skill)*

5% Better loot chance

This skill only impacts PvE to my knowledge, but not sure if it impacts the loot lottery in PvP at all.  Because of the low chance for legendary loot in general, 5% isn't a very big boost for that, so it's not an incredibly valuable skill in my mind, but since I typically run 13A-0C-7S for any character that I am gearing up, it's just something that I'm happy to have in my build.  I just don't build my tree around this skill.

*Critical Damage (12 points, Passive Skill)*

15% Critical damage

Critical Damage is quite beneficial to have in both PvE and PvP because hitting headshots and backshots will greatly decrease the amount of time it takes to kill enemies in either mode.  When it comes to Faraday usage in PvP, it only increases critical damage by about 2 points on its own, so while that isn't necessarily the biggest impact, headshots are perhaps the biggest determinant of who wins fights in PvP.  Also, because critical damage bonuses are factored in at the end of the damage calculation, any boost that you have to critical damage is highly impactful to damage (see my PvE Damage Mechanics article for further information on how it fits into the calculation).

*AM Bomb (13 points, Active Skill)*

13 m Radius

150 Damage every 0.2s for 6 seconds (21.4 damage per tick in PvP, not impacted by any buffs or resistances)

200s cooldown

*Skill Description:* The Anti-matter Bomb creates a fun-size black hole.  Regular enemies crossing its event horizon get sucked off into oblivion.  Big bad guys only get damaged.

*PvE:* Even though MFG nerfed this skill fairly heavily a few months back, it still has a lot of usefulness in PvE, particularly in Voltaic Fist, Blade Dancer, and Hive Mind.  I used to lovingly call AM Bomb the "Oh, shit!" button, and it still very much fits that purpose.  It will insta-kill any non-elite enemies and is great at getting you out of a sticky situation.  I've just found that using the 13A-0C-7S build is the most consistent build for running PvE with as few deaths as possible even though other builds put out higher damage with weapons.

*PvP:* This skill has a very long cooldown and because of the reduced radius, its effectiveness in PvP has dwindled by a considerable amount.  Experienced opponents will be listening for it and will either quickly run out of range or activate deflector while they are running away so that you can't get the kills from it.  It would take about 1.5 seconds to kill a well geared opponent at full health in PvP, which is plenty enough time for someone to run out of the 13 meter range.  This used to be a skill that could easily turn the tide in a close Capture the Flag match, but I really only see it used by less experienced players to try desperately to grab a few kills in the match.  I do not recommend that you use this skill in PvP at all because the cooldown is way too long and it just will not win you matches.  All you'll end up doing is annoying people.

*Most valuable active skills:*

*PvE:* Supercharger, Frag Grenades, and AM Bomb

*PvP:* Supercharger, Frag Grenades, Blink

*Most valuable passive skills:*

Because there are so many passive skills that are valuable in this tree, I want to point you instead to my article on the comprehensive list of the best builds in the game.  For PvP, I strongly recommend that any build you choose to use have at least 9 points in Agility to grab all of the passive skills that are in the tree up until that point.  For PvE, I would not suggest that you dip any lower than 6 points in Agility so that you can grab everything through the Sneak Attack skill to boost your crit damage to the back.

**Combat Tree:**

*Shockwave Pulse (1 point, Active Skill)*

12 m Radius

80s cooldown

This skill knocks down enemies within a 12 meter radius, but there is no use in talking about this skill.  It's garbage.  It's so pointless in PvE and it's almost equally as pointless in PvP.  It is impacted by knockdown resistance on gear, so it can be ineffective if someone has good knockdown boots.  Never, ever equip this skill unless you are one of those people that simply wants to accumulate all the ribbons and medals in the game.

*Ammo Up (2 points, Passive Skill)*

17% Ammo capacity

This skill is intended to increase the maximum amount of ammo that you can carry for primary and secondary weapons by 17%.  So for example, Eidolon can carry up to 150 bullets, and this skill should increase that capacity to 176 bullets, but there has been a bug related to this skill for over a year, so it's currently pretty useless.  Since you'll very rarely pick up enough clips in PvP to reach the maximum ammo capacity of any secondary weapon, it's utterly unnecessary for PvP.

*Marksman (3 points, Passive Skill)*

15% Accuracy

This skill reduces the spread of any weapon that you're using by 15%, which can be very useful in PvP when using a weapon that has a relatively low accuracy.  While I have gotten used to playing with Faraday without the accuracy boost from the Marksman skill, it took some practice to get my aim back to a level where I felt like I was hitting my shots as consistently as I did when I used a build with this skill in it.  I do not find that this skill is necessary for PvE because enemies move around so much less than in PvP, so unless I am targeting some of the other skills in the Combat tree that impact weapon damage, I typically do not spend any points in Combat when I'm solely focused on PvE farming.  It is also important to mention at this point that the first two skills in the Combat tree have very low impact to gameplay in both PvE and PvP, so if you are going to spend any points in the Combat tree, you should be spending a minimum of three points.  Spending only 1 or 2 points in the Combat tree is an utter waste of your skill points.  DON'T MAKE THAT MISTAKE!

*Rocket Man (4 points, Active Skill)*

500 Damage per Rocket (71.3 base damage in PvP, impacted by explosion resist)

100s cooldown

*PvE:* This skill fires a total of 8 miniature rockets at your target.  Because of it's inherent inaccuracy, it's a less effective skill than Frag Grenades for PvE, but it can certainly be fun to use.  It's a mediocre skill at best, though, since you would need two rockets to kill anything stronger than a Dread.

*PvP:* Only use this skill for fun.  Because most opponents will have a minimum of 25% explosion resist from the skill tree, the damage per rocket will decrease to 53, which means that you will likely have to hit your opponent about 4 times to kill them.  The skill's accuracy is pretty horrible to be honest, so it's not something you should be relying on for kills, especially since the cooldown is a bit high.  I only ever see inexperienced players using this skill to desperately grab a kill in duels for the most part.  I have in the past however had a lot of fun using Blink to knock someone down and Rocket Man to kill them on the ground as the ultimate shaming move.  It's pretty hilarious if you want to have some fun.  If you're serious about PvP, though, this skill is not something you should really be using.

*Sparta Kick (5 points, Passive Skill)*

50% activation chance

*Skill Description:* If anyone gets inside your personal bubble you'll deliver a solid boot to their sternum.  Knocks 'em down, deals minimal hurt.

I never upgrade this skill.  Ever.  It's pretty dumb in PvE, and it halts you from shooting in PvP and it's super easy to back out of the kick's range in PvP so that it's an easy kill on the opponent that's mid-animation.  It does no damage either, so just avoid this skill at all costs.

*Gunslinger (6 points, Passive Skill)*

50% pistol damage

10% pistol accuracy

5% pistol reload speed

*PvE:* This skill actually makes pistols usable in PvE outside of situations where you've simply run out of primary and secondary ammo.  It turns pistols like the Kestrei SJ-87 into unlimited ammo pocket sniper rifles against trash mobs since it can one shot a lot of enemies with the right perks, buffs, and gear.  I love running the majority of Brothers of Fire with my Kestrei for a bit of good fun.

*PvP:* While I would never specifically build around this skill for PvP, unless of course I was participating in a tournament that was geared towards pistols and this skill was allowed, it can be great fun to use against opponents that aren't as skilled in PvP as you are.  I recently wrote extensively about maining a pistol in PvP in my article analyzing pistols in the game, so I'll refer you there if you are thinking about a change of pace.

*Stunner (7 points, Active Skill)*

4 s duration

10 m radius

300 damage (42.8 damage in PvP, not impacted by buffs or resistances)

70 s cooldown

*Skill Description:* Sometimes you just need to buy yourself a little time...stops all enemies within range in their tracks, and inflicts moderate damage.

*PvE:* While I haven't found this skill to be incredibly useful in PvE, there is one situation where I do like to use it, and that is against the packs of Blinkers in Hive Mind.  When I am running the 9A-9C-2S build, it's a great stand-in for AM Bomb to keep the blinkers away from you while you are burning down the clusters and hives or to just have them stay still so you can shoot them in the head.

*PvP:* I love this skill in PvP.  It's not something that is used super heavily, so it can be a bit unexpected.  Usually, your opponent will pop their Deflector Skin to survive being Stunned, so you have to either be good at running around your opponent to avoid their fire until you can finish them off when the Deflector Skin wears off, or you can just run away knowing that you've caused them to burn through one of their key defensive skills.  I especially love using this skill when I am reloading and I know my opponent is at a low enough health where Stunner will kill them instantly.  Sure, you'll get some flak from people for using a semi-dirty skill, but it doesn't garner near the amount of hatred that skills like Blink, AM Bomb, and Hunter Mines do.

*Elite Damage boost (8 points, Passive Skill)*

25% Damage to elites

This skill only impacts PvE gameplay and it only impacts certain enemies.  It is important to note that the only bosses that are impacted by Elite Damage are the Brothers of Fire and Riksh the Blade Dancer.  That being said, 25% damage to elites is a major boost, and it's a very, very valuable damage skill for PvE.  If you haven't tried a build out yet that has this skill, give 9A-9C-2S a shot in PvE and you'll easily notice the difference when you battle chargers and crushers and the like.

*Magazine Max-Out (9 points, Passive Skill)*

20% Primary weapon magazine capacity

This is a great skill to have when you are using a low magazine weapon like Faraday or Furious Fungus.  It's a direct boost to the amount of sustaining damage you can do with your primary weapon in PvE, and it can make weapons like Faraday a lot more user friendly in PvP without feeling like you are always having to reload.  You could also employ the tactic of bringing a high magazine weapon like Project Embra MK II to PvE or PvP and basically have a primary weapon with a machine gun sized magazine on it.

*Sentry Gun (10 points, Active Skill)*

30 Damage per shot (4.3 dmg per shot in PvP, impacted by projectile resistance)

30 s duration

200 Health (both PvE and PvP)

80 s cooldown

*Skill Description:* Deploys an AI sentry gun that will wait patiently for hostiles to enter its range of fire, then splatter their ugly brains all over the wall for you.

This skill is lame.  Sure it draws aggro away from you in PvE, but it can be destroyed pretty easily and it does pretty low damage, so it's only decent against low health enemies like Dreads and Spiders.  I never use this skill in PvE.  In PvP, it's even more worthless because opponents will just destroy the sentry or run away from it easily since it only does 4.3 base damage per hit.  Never build around this skill and never bring it to PvP.

*Lord of War (11 points, Passive Skill)*

25% Secondary weapon damage

*PvE:* This skill is perhaps the most coveted in the Combat tree.  It makes your secondary weapons super strong so that you can take down tough enemies much faster.  If you haven't tried it yet, use the 6A-12C-2S build in PvE and you'll see how fun it is to melt enemies with your machine gun or sniper rifle with this skill.

*PvP:* This skill is certainly impactful to PvP, but it's not as valuable as one might think when it comes to competitive PvP.  While it can turn rocket launchers into a one shot kill, even if you were to have a god roll Meltdown sniper rifle and had the damage buff from the Bar of War, you're looking at doing a maximum body shot damage of 156.2 (hipfire) or 177.9 (iron sight) with the 6A-12C-2S build against an opponent with 0% resistance and those decrease further to 124.9 (hipfire) and 142.3 (iron sight) body shot damage when your opponent has the more typical 20% projectile resistance.  All of this is to say that you're not highly likely to turn any sniper rifle into a one-shot body shot kill in PvP, so while it's nice to have increased secondary damage, don't expect to become OP with this skill in PvP.  The Lord of War build does, however, turn the Brusell sniper rifle into a very nice sniper if it happens to have at least a 5% base damage perk on it because the extra damage turns it into a 2 body shot, 1 headshot sniper with a huge magazine of 12 rounds.

*Kill Shot (12 points, Passive Skill)*

15% Damage through iron sight

I personally don't aim down sight very much unless I am using a sniper rifle, so while this skill carries a very healthy damage boost when aiming down the sight, you must alter your play style accordingly to use iron sight a lot.  When I was experimenting with the 6A-12C-2S build in PvP, there were more than a few people who thought that I was hacking because of the increased damage here, but your mobility is significantly reduced when you're aiming down sight, so you're a lot easier to hit in PvP.  It's only good to be aiming down sight at longer ranges in PvP.

*Hunter Mines (13 points, Active Skill)*

1,600 Damage per Mine (228 base damage in PvP, impacted by explosion resist)

180s Cooldown

Max 3 at a time

*Skill Description:* Hunts down the enemy then jumps up and explodes in their face.  Nasty!

*PvE:* This skill is just inferior to AM Bomb in every way.  It's only got three bombs and you can't really direct the bombs at all, so you're at the mercy of the AI Gods on who the bombs go after.  AM Bomb on the other hand affects an unlimited amount of enemies as long as they are within the bomb radius.  I just never use Hunter Mines for PvE.  Combine that with the lack of the Sneak Attack skill in the best build that you would have to use to get Hunter Mines (5A-13C-2S) and you're just looking at having a pretty weak skill that has a very long cooldown.

*PvP:* There is no skill in the game that will garner more rage and hatred imo than Hunter Mines.  It is the ultimate sign of desperation because you are unable to get kills with your weapons.  It is also a sign of inexperience in the game because of the weaknesses of the 5A-13C-2S build when it comes to PvE, so that is why I really do not suggest you ever use this skill in PvP.

*Most valuable active skills:*

*PvE:* Stunner

*PvP:* Stunner

*Most valuable passive skills (in descending order of value):*

*PvE:* Lord of War, Elite Damage Boost, Kill Shot, Magazine Max-Out, Marksman, Gunslinger

*PvP:* Marksman, Magazine Max-Out, Lord of War, Kill Shot

**Survival Tree:**

*Survival Kit (1 point, Active Skill)*

Heals 15 per second

Refills 1 magazine in 2s

4 m Radius

100s cooldown

*Skill Description:* You'll never be lonely with this in your repertoire.  Drops a gizmo on the ground which heals you and your teammates, and replenishes ammo for a few seconds.

*PvE:* This is an extremely valuable skill.  I think the refilling magazine aspect of the skill actually works faster than what the skill description states because I only have to stand on the kit for a brief period of time and it will completely fill out my ammo for my primary weapon.  Note that it does not provide you with any ammo for your secondary weapon.  I often find that in dungeons like Blade Dancer and Hive Mind that I am running out of primary ammo, especially when I queue with randoms, so for replenishing your primary ammo, it is very useful, but the strongest use for this skill is spawn camping in Arenas.  You'll see a lot of experienced players drop a Survival Kit at the spawn points for the Decimators in Arena Silver so that they can shoot them in the back while recovering health quickly from their explosion damage.  This makes clear times in Arenas much, much faster, so it's quite a useful skill.

*PvP:* MFG nerfed the health regeneration rate some months ago, so the Survival Kit is no longer as useful as it once was in PvP as someone with decent aim and a good Faraday can kill you even if you're standing directly on the Kit.  Since you cannot regenerate health past 60 HP in Capture the Flag, though, I always bring a Survival Kit to Capture the Flag so that I can get back to full health.

*Super Health (2 points, Passive Skill)*

15% Health

Always, always, always go for this skill.  Sure it only gives you enough health (15 hit points) to survive one more Faraday shot in PvP, but in competitive PvP, exchanges are decided by such narrow margins that you do not want to give your opponent any advantages on you.  It requires so few points in the Survival tree to grab this skill and it gives a really nice benefit, so I almost never run with any of the 0 Survival builds, even though there are two such builds that can put out some crazy damage in PvE (see my comprehensive list of good builds here).

*Master Salesman (3 points, Passive Skill)*

5% cash when selling items

This skill is very self explanatory.  Never build around it, but it's nice to have when you're grinding the game to get enough cash to experiment with different builds or infuse good items that you've collected at lower levels.

*Deflector Skin (4 points, Active Skill)*

3 s duration

90s cooldown

This skill makes you invincible for 3 seconds.  While it's certainly something that I've used in PvE (Hive Mind and Arena Gold) with characters that aren't well geared, I just don't find that it's all that necessary in PvE.  Survival Kit is a much more useful skill with a similar cooldown time.  This is one of the most widely used skills in PvP, though, and that is for good reason.  It is great for using to charge someone that has a sniper rifle, as well as keep you alive during a critical exchange.  It is so important that I only recommend one PvP build that does not have this skill as an option (9A-9C-2S).

*Melee Resistance (5 points, Passive Skill)*

15% melee resist

The only applicability this skill has in PvP is to reduce the damage done to you by someone using the Berserker Attack skill, and since that skill is not very widely used in PvP, this skill is pretty unnecessary for PvP.  It is a very nice defensive skill to have for PvE to reduce the damage that Dreads, Blades, Blinkers, and other melee enemies do to you.

*Flak Jacket (6 points, Passive Skill)*

25% Explosion resist

*PvE:* This reduces the amount of damage that Voidcallers, Fire Spitters, and HellStorms do to you, as well as the grenade damage from Grunts.  It's quite a valuable skill to have in arenas where explosions are happening a lot.

*PvP:* This used to be a very valuable resistance in PvP when people used Frag Grenades and Rocket Launchers a lot more than they do now.  It's not really that necessary of a skill in PvP anymore, though, but it's nice to have since most people go for 8 points in Survival to run PvP anyway.

*Invisibility Tech (7 points, Active Skill)*

25 s duration

70s cooldown

*Skill Description:* Go see-through with this radical alien invisibility device.  Don't ask how it works, something to do with bending light.

Only use this skill for fun.  It's just not that helpful of a skill in either mode.  It's easy to spot in PvP if you're moving around with it, so you really just have to camp in a corner and wait for someone to walk by you in order to make it work, but that is just a boring and cheap way to play in my opinion.

*Projectile Resistance (8 points, Passive Skill)*

5% Projectile Resistance

*PvE:* While this skill does reduce the damage that Grunts and Chargers and the like will do to you, 5% is a pretty low resistance value, so it's not all that necessary for PvE.

*PvP:* Again, 5% resistance is not incredibly impactful, but when combined with the 15% buff from the bar of war, it definitely makes a difference.  There's a reason why so many people run with 8 points in survival for PvP.

*Stuff Magnet (9 points, Passive Skill)*

100% pickup radius

Ok so sure this makes it easier to pick up trophies in Ascendancy and pick up ammo and stuff, but we can all agree that this skill is pretty useless, right?  No impact to offensive or defensive capabilities, and I'm pretty sure this skill has NEVER been the deciding factor in who wins an Ascendancy match.

*Emergency Shield (10 points, Active Skill)*

15 s duration

100 s cooldown

*Skill Description:* Sometimes there's no shame in hiding.  Throws up a shield which absorbs enemy fire until it's destroyed or times out.

This is kind of an interesting skill to be honest.  So it allows whoever is inside the shield to fire at enemies that are outside the shield with full protection.  That being said, the shield does NOT protect you from AM Bomb in PvP, so be aware of that.  From a PvE perspective, I don't find this skill all that useful mostly from the perspective that you had to spend 10 points in Survival to get it, and from the calculations that I've done, every point you spend in the Survival tree is a sacrifice to the amount of damage that you can do.  At some point, the tradeoff to damage is not worth it.  This can be an extremely disruptive skill in PvP, particularly in Capture the Flag, where it's used a lot to pop up at base locations or on top of the secondary ammo boxes so that you can ensure your team's safety.  The two builds containing this skill that I recommend that can be used (but are not ideal) for PvP are 8A-0C-12S and 9A-0C-11S, but in general, I prefer builds geared towards damage over survival, especially since the additional 3-4 HP you get over an 8 point survival build aren't going to really make a difference.

*Autoheal Boost (11 points, Passive Skill)*

25% faster autoheal activation

25% autoheal power

This is a skill that I just did some testing on yesterday to figure out the true value of it.  What it's supposed to do is reduce the amount of time it takes for you to start regenerating health after taking damage, as well as reduce the amount of time it takes for you to get back to full health after regeneration has started.  From my rough estimates, it takes approximately 4.75 seconds to activate autoheal and from that point, you will regenerate health at about 25-26 HP per second.  With that in mind, this skill should reduce the activation time by about 1.1 seconds and increase the regeneration rate to about 31-32 HP per second.  From my testing, though, this skill is not working as designed in PvP, but I cannot confirm whether that is also the case in PvE, though I strongly suspect that it is.  Even so, it is not a skill that offers a lot of payoff for how high up in the Survival Tree it is.  You will have sacrificed plenty of valuable skills in other trees to put 11 points in Survival to get this, and there's just no point in grabbing it right now with its being broken.

*Flash Cooldown (12 points, Passive Skill)*

10% faster cooldown speed on active skills

Active skills can have a big impact on gameplay, and this skill really benefits the high cooldown skills because it takes more time off their cooldown than a quick cooldown skill.  That being said, you don't have enough skill points to combine something like AM Bomb or Hunter Mines with this skill, so the benefit of this skill is pretty diminished because of that.  Because the 8A-0C-12S build is very much built around the use of the Emergency Shield skill, this does shave off a cool 10 seconds from its cooldown, which is very nice, but at the end of the day, it has the same problem as Autoheal Boost in that it requires too heavy of an investment in the Survival Tree to obtain this skill.  I can confirm however, that the skill does work in PvP right now.

*EMP (13 points, Active Skill)*

20 s Duration

30 m radius

200 Health (both PvE and PvP)

80 s cooldown

*Skill Description:* This cool gadget messes with enemy tech's circuits, making it unusable.  Perfect for knocking out AI bad guys and screwing with enemy player's abilities.

*PvE:* This skill only impacts non-melee enemies within a 30 meter radius.  While it is nice to completely disable those pesky Grunts and Chargers for 20 seconds, it's just not all that necessary if you're any good at this game.  Basically the only build that you'd ever use EMP with is 7A-0C-13S, and in my mind it's just such an inferior build to every other one on the list that I keep referring to.

*PvP:* EMP used to be the most spammed skill in PvP when it was lower in the skill tree and since it was indestructible, it was a huge annoyance.  Now that it is destructible and requires the heavy 13 point investment in the Survival Tree, I've only ever seen one person use this skill competitively in Team PvP.  The thing is that it absolutely requires a coordinated team strategy to use this skill to its full benefit.  It can be very disruptive, but as long as the enemy team doesn't fall for the trap and push forward into an EMP's range, it's just not likely that it will turn the tide of a match.

*Most valuable active skills (in descending order of value):*

*PvE:* Survival Kit, Deflector Skin, Emergency Shield

*PvP:* Deflector Skin, Emergency Shield, Survival Kit

*Most valuable passive skills (in descending order of value):*

*PvE:* Explosion Resistance, Melee Resistance, Super Health, Autoheal Boost (if it worked), Flash Cooldown, Projectile Resistance

*PvP:* Super Health, Projectile Resistance, Autoheal Boost (if it worked), Flash Cooldown, Explosion Resistance

I realize that this post is yet another in my very long-winded writings, but I hope this has been helpful to explain how to think about build design as well as active skill selection in dungeons, arenas, and PvP.  Cheers!