Who said spellcasters can't be tanky? People who believe that haven't played Outriders. And if they have, they haven't been building their character correctly. The Devastator has a tank build (Warden), but don't sleep on how well the Seismic Shifter can shrug off damage, too. In fact, the goal of most classes is to push enemies away, while the Seismic Shifter thrives on getting every enemy in a tight ball of death around them.

RELATED: Outriders: How The Story Point System Works

The community has largely been confused about how the Seismic Shifter is supposed to work. Is it a tank with lifesteal? Is it a ranged spellcaster? Is it a melee specialist? None of these is technically accurate, which is why this build is so underrated. With the right mods, nodes, weapons, armor, and skills, the Seismic Shifter becomes a high-damage gravity well and crowd control monster that makes high World Tier enemies terrified.

Updated on August 1st, 2021 by Hodey Johns: It's hard to think of any games that have been updated and altered more than Outriders has in the first few months. The relationship between developer and community has been rocky at best, but communication is clear and active. This guide has been updated to reflect the latest balances. It's clear that the endgame goal is based on conquering high world tiers in a party. Therefore, a section has been added regarding how to properly play the character in a group so that players can have a clear idea of how this particular role should function after putting all of the pieces together.

• Earth's Heritage: Increase damage by 50% for Seismic type skills.
• Strong Arm of the Anomaly: After using the melee skill, increase resistance-piercing by 15% for each enemy hit for ten seconds.
• Anomaly Bullets: Increase firepower by 15% of the Devastator's Anomaly Power.

There's a notion that somehow Seismic Shifters can make their melee damage their main source of damage. Even with Strong Arm of the Law, there is no chance of that happening, the other skills are just that much better. However, Seismic Shifters will still want to use a melee attack once every ten seconds to gain 15% resistance-piercing thanks to Strong Arm of the Anomaly.

As far as bleed damage goes, pick up nodes that increase Bleed damage but don't worry about the ones that increase Bleed duration. Between skills and weapons, Bleed effects will be easily re-applied before they expire.

Anomaly Bullets won't make the Seismic shifter a physical damage machine, but 15% of Anomaly damage converted to firepower is nothing to sneeze at, especially with all of the Anomaly Reservoir nodes picked up in this tree.

• Tremor: A series of explosions go off in a moderate range around the Devastator. Damage done will heal the player.
• Impale: Nearby enemies take damage and are interrupted. Enemies that are killed this way give allied units armor and health regeneration for nine seconds.
• Earthquake: Deals damage and interrupts enemies in front of the Devastator.

While some might try to force a Protection ability in this build because of the Paladin node (45% Anomaly Power after using a Protection skill), there's a serious problem with such an attempt; the Seismic skill type cooldowns are too long to be rotated if there are only two. This means there will be a gap where the 50% damage bonus from Earth's Heritage is going unused. Better damage is done and a precious node slot is saved by sticking with the three Seismic type skills.

RELATED: Outriders: World Tiers Explained

Tremor synergizes with the Leech on Bleed effects from Blood Donation. It gives the build a ton of staying power in single-player. Earthquake is the very first skill received and it's a keeper, especially with the right mods. Impale is the star of this build as no other build can make use of it quite like the Seismic Shifter. When finding out how to add friends to a group, this will help the entire party, but it's also the biggest damage delivery skill overall.

• Rivers of Blood: Increases Impale's damage against targets with Bleed.
• Sharpened Spike: Increases Impale's damage.
• Ultimate Impaler: Impale can be used two more times before going on cooldown.
• Impaler: Impale can be used one more time before going on cooldown.
• Spike Forest: Increase Impale target count.

It can be hard to find a table and figure out how to craft, but when it comes to decision making, it's extremely simple: Craft and equip all eight Impale mods. It's not just that Impale has the most damage of these skills, but the other two skills function about the same way with or without mods. Between the extra targets and casts of the skill, the damage with mods is well over tenfold after adding the mods.

It's not a bad idea to get Blood Shock on Earthquake, but after finding a gun that will apply a Bleed effect, go ahead and switch these out of another Tremor or Earthquake mod.

• SMG: The Migraine
• Shotgun: Funeral Pyre
• Pistols: Torment And Agony

It's very core to this build that the Seismic Shifter is able to apply Bleed effects regularly. The skills don't do it with any amount of consistency, so the way to do it is through the weapons. There is only one legendary weapon mod that applies the Bleed effect without a cooldown and it's on The Migraine.

RELATED: Outriders: Crafting Materials Explained

As an SMG, it's a solid selection for up-close combat and the other mod on the gun does Anomaly damage, which is better for the Seismic Shifter. Many pros will rip the Ultimate Bleeding Bullets off of the gun and put it on a shotgun like the Funeral Pyre, which is both automatic and has another mod that reduces resistances of enemy targets. Check out the full list of legendary weapons and find one to put that mod onto.

• Seismic Commander Set: Increase damage against enemies with the Bleed status effect by 150%.

When looking through the legendary armor sets, it should stand out when one has the name "Seismic" in the name. Indeed, the Seismic Commander set will increase damage against targets with Bleed status effects by a jaw-dropping 150%.

RELATED: Games To Play If You Life Outriders

The mods on the gear boost Impale and Earthquake. Make sure to get all eight Impale mods on there someplace via crafting and, after that, players will be looking at a really incredible close-range tank and damage-dealing monstrosity.

Because too many players try to make this build into a tank (the Warden is the actual tank), the community has a lot of mistrust for the Seismic Shifter. Players will have to overcome this skepticism by employing the correct tactics that make this build shine. Make it clear to any group joined that this role is a DPS role.

The most important thing is to keep Bleed effects up on all enemies around the Seismic Shifter. A 150% boost to damage from the armor is not negligible. In fact, without it, the damage is bottom-tier. So make this the highest priority.

Next, stay in the center of the combat. No, this is not a tank build, but all three moves require enemies nearby to work. Though it might sound dangerous, remember that two of the moves heal based on damage done to nearby enemies. So distance away from the group cuts out virtually all DPS and it is rather fatal for the Seismic Shifter.

Lastly, make sure to juggle the various attacks well. Throw a punch at least every ten seconds and, aside from that, keep every skill on cooldown. Do not waste time shooting when any of the three moves are available because this build sacrifices physical damage for spells. Yes, by all means, shoot in between spells, but that's a bonus to the build and not a feature.

MORE: Outriders Complete Guide - Builds, Tips, Tricks, And Help