Skill Tree Allocation
After messing around with Zane for way too many hours this is the tree setup that actually works in practice, primary Hitman with 32 points, Violent Momentum at 5/5 for +20% gun damage based on movement speed and this is the core of the entire build so don't skip it like I almost did on my first playthrough, Death Follows Close at 5/5 for +20% kill skill effectiveness which makes all your kill skills way stronger and honestly 5 points here is non-negotiable, Cold Bore at 5/5 for swap weapons = bonus damage and freeze chance which honestly procs more than you'd expect, Seein' Red at 1/1 so both action skills activate simultaneously and this is why the build works at all, secondary Under Cover with 21 points, Adrenaline at 5/5 for action skill cooldown rate based on shields which helps with uptime, Ready for Action at 5/5 for +15% max health and +15% shield capacity so you don't die instantly, Digital Distribution at 5/5 transfers damage to your clone which is basically free damage reduction and your clone can take it, tertiary Doubled Agent with 16 points, Praemunitus at 5/5 for +25% mag size and +30% handling, Schadenfreude at 5/5 so clone kills send health back to you and that's honestly saved me more times than I can count, Borrowed Time at 3/5 for +30% action skill duration and that's the whole tree setup pretty much, I've tried variations with more points in Doubled Agent and less in Under Cover and they work too but this is the version I keep coming back to after all the experimenting and dying and stuff
So one thing about Zane that drives me crazy. Cold Bore looks like a throwaway skill but it's actually incredible when you build around it. The freeze chance combined with Brain Freeze from Under Cover means you're freezing everything constantly. It's way better than it reads on paper.
Anyway enough about skills.
Gear Loadout
For primary the Sand Hawk Dahl SMG with burst fire and 3-way split is incredible on Zane because his fire rate and movement speed bonuses make each burst deal massive damage, it's one of those guns that just feels right on this character, secondary Light Show Jakobs Pistol has fast fire rate and excellent ammo efficiency, great for mobbing and sustaining Seein' Dead procs which is what keeps your action skills rolling, tertiary Monarch Vladof AR with bipod mode for bosses, the sustained damage combined with movement speed bonus makes it a boss melter, class mod is Seein' Dead and I'm not gonna lie this is the most essential class mod for Zane bar none, kills have 30% chance to trigger all kill skills which keeps your action skill uptime infinite and without this mod the build just doesn't function the same way, shield Old God with SNTNL cryo anoint matches element type and the anoint gives +50% cryo damage while drone is active, artifact Snowdrift Victory Rush creates cryo nova on slide and gives movement speed bonus on kill, you stack movement speed for maximum Violent Momentum and the faster you go the harder everything dies, it sounds gimmicky reading it but when you're actually playing and sliding around at Mach 10 everything just melts and it's the most satisfying thing ever, I've tried Ice Breaker setups too and they're fine but Snowdrift just synergizes perfectly with the whole speed equals damage identity and I wouldn't switch it for anything ngl, you get the idea with the gear and honestly once all the pieces come together Zane is just the most fun character in the game or whatever