Like its predecessors, Gearbox's Tiny Tina's Wonderlands offers a selection of RPG character classes for players to choose from, and the newest ones are especially unique. The Borderlands spinoff injects what is usually a strictly science-fiction world with a jolt of high fantasy, parodying tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The new classes reflect this change, drawing heavily on fantasy archetypes while remaining true to the Borderlands style.
Framed as a story within a story, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a follow-up to the recently rereleased Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, and sees the eponymous Tiny Tina running a game of Bunkers & Badasses, Borderlands' in-universe tabletop RPG. The player, designated "Fatemaker" explores the world of the Wonderlands in traditional Borderlands fashion, killing baddies and finding new and exciting guns. The game additionally includes a number of fantasy-themed gameplay updates.
Wonderlands features six classes at launch, each of which is themed after various fantasy tropes and well-known RPG classes while also maintaining the look and feel of Borderlands. Players can choose between guns, blades and other melee weapons, crossbows, magic spells, and more as they gain power and level up their character. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses - some are melee specialists, while others push more towards magical combat - but players can eventually multiclass, gaining the abilities of two different classes to devastating effect.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Brr-Zerker Class
The Brr-Zerker is a fierce combatant that compliments gunplay with a strong melee focus and clearly calls back to D&D's Barbarian class. For some unique flavor, the Brr-Zerker in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands also packs AoE attacks with lots of bonus frost damage. The class feat Rage of the Ancients causes the Brr-Zerker to Enrage whenever they use an action skill, gaining bonus frost damage on their attacks; if already Enraged, active skills add to Enrage's duration. Both of the Brr-Zerker's active skills are melee attacks with AoE damage - Dreadwind causes them to strike nearby enemies with a spinning slash while moving faster and resisting slow effects, while Feral Surge leaps the Brr-Zerker towards a target and deals frost damage to all nearby enemies, potentially killing non-boss enemies instantly and resetting this skill's cooldown if their health is low. The Brr-Zerker's ive skills encourage close-quarters combat via damage bonuses, health regeneration, and faster attack and weapon swap speed.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Clawbringer Class
Another elemental-based class, the faithful Clawbringer is reminiscent of Paladins found in D&D and other fantasy games, with an added twist - a flying, fire-breathing Wyvern Companion that will come in handy when exploring Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' new environments. Like other Companions, bonus damage applied to the Clawbringer's attacks also apply to the Wyvern. The class's first action skill, Cleansing Flames, creates a Fire Nova as the Clawbringer slams their hammer into the ground to damage nearby foes. When activating Storm Dragon's Herald, the Clawbringer throws their hammer, which becomes emits lightning damage over time wherever it lands until recalled - and the hammer deals damage on the initial throw and the path back to the Clawbringer. ive skills provide elemental damage buffs, bonuses to shields and damage reduction, and new ways to throw fire and lightning at enemies. Clawbringers seem well-suited for efficiently dispatching large groups of foes both up close and at range.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Graveborn Class
One of Wonderlands' new innovations is the addition of spells - as varied and flashy as Borderlands' traditional guns, which should appeal to anyone who hasn't yet played Wonderlands or Assault on Dragon Keep. The Graveborn is a dark necromancer like the class found in Diablo 2, who makes good use of these spells - their Demi-Lich Companion unleashes a Hellish Blast for each spell the Graveborn casts. Additionally, they manipulate their own health, spending it to feed their Dire Sacrifice action skill and stealing it back from enemies with Reaper of Bones, a powerful action skill that empowers their attacks with dark magic damage and prevents the Graveborn from dying until the ability ends.
The Graveborn's ive skills reward spell-based combat, provide healing bonuses, and even allow for a summoner-like playstyle built around accumulating additional Companions - and sacrificing the Demi-Lich to preserve their own life. Overall, the class seems to play with numerous risk vs reward mechanics while providing outs for players who find themselves in hot water.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Spellshot Class
Despite being a hybrid wizard-gunslinger, the Spellshot is Wonderlands' closest analog to the archetypal Wizards or Sorcerers found in D&D, retrofitted for the Borderlands loot n' shoot style. The Spellshot is Ambi-Hextrous - one of their action skills is replaced by the ability to equip a second spell. Their second action skill is Polymorph, which temporarily turns an enemy into a Skeep that has a chance to provide free spell casts to any player that damages it. Both of these action skills are further enhanced by the Spellshot's class feat, Spellweaving, which provides a stacking spell damage buff whenever the Spellshot casts a spell or reloads a weapon. The class's ive skills encourage alternating between traditional weapons and spells, providing new bonuses based on Spellweaving stacks and rewarding critical hits with both bullets and magic.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Spore Warden Class
Somewhere between a Ranger and D&D's Circle of Spores Druid, Spore Wardens use nature magic, a poisonous Mushroom Companion, and their guns to destroy enemies at range. The action skill Ethereal Bow fires a barrage of seven arrows that ricochet between enemies in proximity, while Blizzard summons seeking cyclones that deal frost damage. The Spore Warden can also mark targets for their Mushroom Companion, who can be significantly upgraded through ive skills. An advanced Mushroom Companion can even revive a Spore Warden in Save Your Soul, Wonderlands' version of previous Borderlands games' "Fight For Your Life" mechanic. Additionally, the Spore Warden's other ive skills can grant significant bonuses to gun damage and other gun-based rewards, capped by ricocheting critical hits that have a small chance to chain additional times. Ultimately, the Spore Warden seems to be an incredibly deadly long-range fighter that rewards good accuracy and situational awareness.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Stabbomancer Class
One of Wonderlands' first classes confirmed back in October, the wonderfully-named Stabbomancer is an opportunist who specializes in stealth, critical hits, and status effects. The class's feat, Dirty Fighting, is simple but sweet - an across-the-board increase to critical hit chance. Ghostblade, the Stabbomancer's first action skill, throws a spinning blade to a targeted location, where it remains until its duration runs out or the player re-activates the skill to move the blade again. The second action skill, From the Shadows, turns the Stabbomancer invisible, which temporarily guarantees critical hits on all attacks, but those critical hits do slightly less damage. A wide variety of ive skills, including general damage bonuses, longer status effect durations and status effects that can spread, and the ability to shoot while sprinting all make the Stabbomancer one of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' most mobile and deadly combatants, able to fight battles of attrition alongside huge bursts of damage.
