Aurelia's skill trees lend themselves to two strategies. These are being a glass cannon in solo, and being offensive support in multiplayer. The best guides I've seen on this are all focused around being the glass cannon, and show no love to the multiplayer tree. The problem with this is that Aurelia just isn't Zer0, who was also a glass cannon. The critical difference is that he had a means to escape when he took too much damage. Aurelia can't just disappear like a thief in the night, so she has to sit in FFYL and pray to all things good and holy that the enemy that she needs to kill doesn't just saunter away.

Be a bro and turn on multiplayer, then show some love to that third tree that most Baroness players despise with an intense, burning passion. In solo, this will only throw away five points, but in multiplayer, those five points will shine like lead glittering through the head of a frozen Scav.

With the Chronicler of Elpis Mod-


Sans a Mod-


Most of these points are spent boosting damage, with a focus on team play and an afterthought to defense. It worked well in solo, better in multiplayer, and had very little trouble with the raid bosses.

I have everything set up like this because it works best for me, and I'll explain why, but I'm not gonna send the Gestapo after you if you personalize it. Have some fun with it and feel free to respond with any questions, concerns, or tips you may have.

The first five points we use are placed into Markswoman. We're mostly here for the crit damage, but doubling our aim speed enables us to quick-scope much faster than other characters. We won't be worrying about Only the Best, since bullet speed fiddles with some weapon mechanics, and we won't be needing magazine size.

The next tier gives us Culling the Herd, which gives a short term 30% damage bonus just for hitting a crit spot, with any weapon type. It'll be pretty uncommon for you to not see this perk active for entire fire fights. The next point is in Long- Range Killer, an ambiguous damage bonus. I haven't had time to test how far away you ought to be to get max damage, but up to 60% for a single point is worth the gamble.

We'll go ahead and grab Silver Lining. This ability isn't locked to sniper rifles, so almost any weapon that relies on burst damage over fire rate won't need to be reloaded quite as often.

We'll sink four points into this tier, the first going to Magic Bullet. This ability is helpful in solo, since it'll revive you with a single crit from a sniper rifle, instead of needing to burn your ammo up to get a kill. This ability also helps in multiplayer, since it lets you revive allies at range, and then help them recover health. We'll also put three points into I Never Miss, and let our mod boost that to workable levels. It's difficult to build these, because sometime Borderlands miscalculates what a "hit" actually is, and you'll watch your bullet kill an enemy in one shot, then cry as all your stacks burn up in one unforgiving swoop. The most I've ever gotten without prestacking is 74, but I average between 15- 30. "But Uncle Sicko" you ask boldly, "If you plan to miss that often, why don't you put five points in Wait for It... or Warning Shot?" This is a completely valid question, and it comes down to two things. The first is my aforementioned advice to not take risky shots. Even when you miss one, you'll probably hit the second, so the bonus from Wait for It will rarely be noteworthy unless you miss with a whole Dahl burst cycle. These abilities do hedge against your inability to restrain yourself and use a different weapon, but I'd recommend saving the 5- 10 points for other abilities that we'll get much more use out of.

With that mini- rant out of the way, let's continue up this magnificent tree. Five points to Large Caliber, since it makes your ammo expenditure more efficient, at the cost of a few more reloads. We'll also spec into Prudent Prudence. I almost didn't, since I planned to stay too far away to get melee'd, but that's not how Borderlands works. You will get hit, and you will chase them down and hit them back. Really hard.

We'll go ahead and pick up the capstone, Custom Loads. It can be tough to time your shots with this, but you'll get an instant damage bonus, regardless of the element chosen. No need to feel stressed about this hitting enemies off- element, since it's additive damage, and won't reduce your initial hit. I prefer to hit an enemy off- element and re-scope to try again, instead of trying to shoot too late or early for the right element, biffing my shot, and losing all my stacks. Note that using the fire from this ability will not cost you any Avalanche stacks.

Our first points here will go into Avalanche, another stack- based bonus that gives a consistent, trustworthy damage bonus. We'll bypass Bitter Riposte, since it's damage output is too low to ditch five points into, and anyone who shoots us is likely about to get what's a' comin' without it.

Our next points go into Short Summer. These stacks don't seem to make a huge overall difference without a mod bonus, but it's still better than burning five points into Frigid Touch. This ability may sound great in theory, but it's damage vampire is too minuscule at higher levels to put any faith into. We will, however, pick up Winter's Fury. Don't spam target switches while you have your sniper rifle out, since its knockback can make you miss shots, and set fire to all your hard earned I Never Miss stacks.

The next tier gives us a few interesting toys. The first is Frostbite, an essential ability, since our cryo weps are inherently weaker against shields. There has yet to be a time when I'm not glad this ability had my back. We also pick up Cold Advance to give a constant bonus to crit damage, while keeping our shard out doing work for longer, instead of cooling down during those special moments when it could have saved us. Finally, we'll put a point into Polar Vortex. This ability is a double- edged sword, since it staggers enemies, preventing them from dealing damage until you can freeze them, but it also means that it may trigger without you expecting it, and if you're taking that clutch sniper shot, it just made you miss, and cost you all your I Never Miss stacks.

We'll pick up Whiteout over Winter's Veil here, since Aurelia can't tank very much damage, and chopping all damage in half is much more effective than an occasional cryo nova, in my opinion.

We'll pick up this capstone, Wintertide. While it can be a pain to use sometimes, since it's a kill skill instead of a passive, it adds cryo damage to all of our guns, letting even those hefty Jakobs guns build up Avalanche stacks for us. This ability helped me quite a bit against Invincible Sentinel, since I used Moxxi's Vibra- pulse for most of it. It's bouncing laser killed trash enemies, letting this kill skill give a constant bonus, ensuring that my laser got the starting 25% cryo bonus, as well as access to Avalanche stacks.

I tried de- spec'ing Winter's Fury and Polar Vortex to make I Never Miss more consistent, but it got me killed quite a bit more often, since enemies had free rein to shoot back. I recommend picking them up, unless you're quite confident in your team mates to be trustworthy meat shields.

The bottom tier here is all required to continue, giving me and my slave a reload bonus, a damage bonus, and an accuracy bonus that I refuse to share.

The next tier is huge for anyone willing to give this tree a chance. We start with You First, a whopping 55% shield return for your slave when you get kills. This makes tank build Wilhelm nigh indestructible, and turn anyone else into a workable distraction while you line up your next shot. Speaking of shot, we'll also pick up Quality Not Quantity. I recommend waiting until later on in your game to pick this up, since it'll be a while before you can get high grade weapons, let alone get mod bonuses to make this perk really shine. We don't take Protect Your Assets, since we don't have the points to spare increasing shields that we're already constantly refilling with You First.

Excellent Shot, Madam is really vague about the damage it actually does, but we'll pick it up anyway. I like to stack up damage with my team against single enemies anyway, so it'll always be free damage for one point. We need to spend that point, so we can put our last in...

All Glory to the Master, so that our Valet stacks stop being slackers that only help reload, and finally get a job killing Scavs. At max, you'll have double crit damage, and your slave will have a 50% bonus. Everyone wins, but you win most of all.

We don't want to pull a bunch of points out of our other trees to reach the capstone, because a melee override isn't a fair trade for time wasted when you could be shooting a couple extra bullets.

First, a four- barrel shotgun. Having a close- range burst fire option will save your assets more times than you can count. It'll have to reload often, since we have Large Caliber working for us, so choose wisely. Tediore shotguns will have reduced damage, but have faster reloads, Jakobs will hit like a truck, but need to reload every shot, Hyperion will have more consistent damage, Bandit won't need to reload as often, and Torgue shotguns can potentially hit with more pellets, due to their small AoE radius. To make the most of Ravagers, jump up and shoot down on your enemies, so you'll hit the crit spots on their heads, then blow off their ankles with AoE.

Second, a cryo SMG. I have a deep, undying love for the Fast Talker, due to it's amazing reload speed and fire rate, but Maliwan SMGs and the Fatale work great here, as well. The Cheat Code can also work here, since it's easy to get, but it won't be as effective as the aforementioned options. If you're looking for the proper Dahl burst- fire toys here, a Fridgia will perform like a long- range cryo shotgun, and the Torrent ( If you can find the right element) will be it's long range counterpart, getting insane fire rate and bullet speed in ADS.

Naturally, the third spot is your sniper rifle. My favorite was the Nailer. In Cryo element, it never has to worry about doing less damage to shields, while letting you rapidly stack I Never Miss, while taking full advantage of out other one- shot kill abilities. I also kept four in my backpack for various situations, a Muckamuck, Snyder, Skullmasher, and Pitchfork. The Jakobs Muckamuck is here to take out larger enemies such as Badasses and storyline bosses. A Maliwan Snyder is really helpful, giving us the Maliwan bullet nova, plus the Custom Loads nova. This lets us tear up similar- sized enemies who are close together. Jakobs Skullmasher is helpful for when we have low stacks, since it's easy to crit with, but will never let you build many stacks due to it only building one stack per trigger pull, but removing any prior stacks because some of its pellets won't find a mark. Pitchfork is here for massive enemies such as Iwajira. Not missing with any shots will rapidly build I Never Miss stacks, but they can be tricky to maintain, due to it's burst cycle and wide pattern. There are at least three currently unreleased sniper rifles in the games code, the Chère-amie, the Machine, and the Wet Work. The Chère-amie is nearly unstoppable due to it's healing mechanics, the Machine is a Lyuda with a damage ramp that's nothing short of OP, and the Wet Work is a Sloth reskin that performs as well as you'd expect after raising your bullet speed.

My fourth slot rarely saw a consistent weapon, since it wasn't hugely necessary with the other slots doing most of the work. The gun that spent the most time in this spot was Maggie, since it has the horsepower to kill almost any enemy within a few shots, and didn't burn through my much smaller sniper ammo pool. This spot also saw Miss Moxxi's Vibra- Pulse during prolonged fights, since it's healing and impressive damage let me keep the heat on enemies that I can't wipe out with burst damage.

The Mod- Chronicler of Elpis-
The more aggressive of the legendary mods, this doubles down on our glass cannon damage, while encouraging us to bypass safer perks that would keep more in time with Celestial Baroness. There's nothing about this mod that I don't love, but that doesn't mean it's the end all- be all for Aurelia. She has several incredible mods that warrant your exploration, even if it means respec'ing occasionally to experience their different flavors.

The Grenade- Kiss of Death (Cryo)
If you're feeling aggressive, take a singularity mod like Quasar to group up enemies for your sniper novas to eat. If you want to play it safe, or play solo, pick up a Kiss of Death mod to keep you rolling when your shields inevitably falter. If you want instant healing instead of fickle healing streams, pick up a Leech. It won't heal for as much, or deal as much damage, but it's healing will be instantaneous, saving your assets when other healing methods would have let you rot while they dawdle.

The oZ Kit- 3DD1.E
I've spent four guide professing my love for this kit. If you're not sold by now, you're either crazy or you know something that I don't. Something that you should definitely be commenting on below.

The Shield- Rerouter (Shock Resistance)
Free instant and consistent healing while doubling your burst damage output? Yes please, m8. Just be sure to manage it properly, as with any amp shield. You can get caught with a low shield and a funny look on your face when you forget that it's not meant for sustained combat outside of cover. For those situations, I keep a Naught and Shield of Ages handy. Shield of Ages builds a mobile barricade between you and those Scavs, giving you plenty of time to get your one hit kills before it cracks. Naught is better for managing long range chip damage you'll receive when enemies try to respond to your sniper fire with small arms fire. Do note that none of these are very effective in managing DoT procs, so target enemies that deal those first.

1-3: Get a gun and don't die.
4-11: You'll have a cryo gun by this point, so let's start stacking. Avalanche, Short Summer, an Winter's Fury. This will let you get some control over the field by stopping enemies, and throwing back any enemy that hasn't been frozen yet, while Short Summer gives your Diadem a reasonable cool down and props up your low level shield. If you plan on a lot of co-op, Going into Contractual Aristocracy would be fair, as well.
15-28: I prefer to give some love to The Huntress with my next 14 points with Markswoman, Culling the Herd, Long- Range Killer, and I never Miss. This is where a big bulk of damage comes from, so the sooner we pick it up the better.
29-41: Since we have damage covered, it's time to fill out Contractual Aristocracy with 13 points. This can be stalled to finish up The Huntress if you're playing mostly solo, but it's a quick re- spec away to switch the points, so no hurry.
42-57: Finish up Cold Money with Fragment Rain, Polar Vortex, Frostbite, Cold Advance, White Out, and then Wintertide. I opt to finish this over The Huntress tree, since the difficulty will start to ramp around this point. The control, damage reduction, and Diadem support helped me out more than just focusing on damage at this point.
58-70: Finish up The Huntress tree with Silver Lining, Magic Bullet, Large Caliber, Prudent Prudence, and Custom Loads. The damage provided by these points gives you enough juice to keep up with your team against tougher mobs and raids. This is the point where you'd wanna seriously start farming for a level 70 Chronicler of Elpis, and the other items to fill out your build with more than purples and that random legendary you've been using for the last 10 levels.

This is the part where I compile good questions, and subsequently answer them, so you don't have to waste time rifling through comments and such.

I have an idea to improve this build. Should I add you to talk about it?
Na bruv, just comment it. If it's cool, I'll add you and we can spitball. If you plan on being insulting, at least be funny. If you make me laugh, I won't delete it.

Why did it take you so long after the games release to start this series?
Long story short? Life just happens, m8. But I'm rolling now, so hopefully it won't be too long before I finish up the last classes.

Why did you waste so many points in Contractual Aristocracy?
Mostly because I was tired of dying in solo to enemies who could FFYL me and hide where my sniper rifles couldn't reach out and touch them. Occasionally a welcomed friend or stranger will join, and they seemed to appreciate selling their body for a shield and damage boost.

I'd really like to try this build, but I don't have time to farm all that gear. Would you mind duping for me?
As a matter of principle, I'd rather not, sorry.

How does this build fair against bosses?
Dropped Sentinel and Iwajira on the first try. Is it just me or are the raid bosses in this game sorta... bad?

Do you have any other guides?
Yes I do, ta very much for asking. A link to them should be in the notes by now. Be sure to leave in the comments which class you'd like me to write about next.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope you enjoy this build as much as I do.
If you'd like, check out my other guides here: http://steamproxy.net/id/opheliologist/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides

Feel free to post any questions, tips, or comments below.

2.16.2016
- Skill Progession added
- Various spelling, grammar, and continuity fixes

7.21.2015
- Guide finished
- Guide posted
- Several spelling, grammar, and continuity fixes