Krieg, Borderlands 2’s next DLC class, is batsh*t crazy

And we wouldn't want it any other way.

Krieg is the playable psycho bandit being released on May 14 in Borderlands 2, and is NOT part of the Season Pass. Essentially, you have to be a sociopath to to play as Krieg, as you play carelessly and just hack people apart.

The Psycho character class is so risky and off-the-wall that he didn't ship with Borderlands 2, even though Gearbox had the idea for him before the game launched. He pretty much goes against the one thing you try not to do in first-person shooters – take damage. Why? Well, when Krieg has his shields down, and his health is being whittled away by enemy gunfire (and friendly fire), he deals more damage.

Krieg's action skill is “Buzz Axe Rampage.” When activated, Krieg will run around like crazy and chop people apart with his buzz axe, which regenerates his health. This action skill is pretty indicative of how the psycho will play. Krieg's three trees are all as unique as he is – Bloodlust, Mania and Hellborn.

Bloodlust

Bloodlust focuses on ranged combat using a stacking mechanic. Hitting enemies adds stacks of Bloodlust, maxing out at 100. If you don't deal damage for a few seconds, stacks start to decay. The skills in the Bloodlust tree give you buffs and bonuses depending on your Bloodlust stack per level. For example, Bloody Revival adds 0.3% assault rifle damage during Fight For Your Life per Bloodlust stack per level. Whether you're getting reload speed, weapon swap speed, or larger magazine sizes, this is the tree to go down for players that prefer to play ranged with rifles, grenades and throwing your buzz axe.

Mania

Mania is a really interesting tree with two of the more entertaining skills in it. Mania focuses on melee combat, as well as health and Fight For Your Life mechanics. The two skills are “Light the Fuse” and “Release the Beast.” Light the Fuse replaces Fight For Your Life. During Light the Fuse, you pull out a bundle of live dynamite and can move around normally. When the timer runs out, the bundle detonates; if you kill someone, you're revived. If you get revived with the explosion, you get bonus movement speed for the remainder of the time that was left in Light the Fuse. You can detonate the bundle at-will with the Action button.

If that wasn't cool enough, Release the Beast turns you into a Badass Psycho Mutant when you activate Buzz Axe Rampage below 33% of your max health remaining (when the ! Is showing). This instantly refills your health and gives you +100% melee damage and +50% damage reduction. Also, Buzz Axe Rampage is instantly recharged afterwards.

Hellborn

Hellborn is all about setting yourself on fire. Seriously. This tree focuses on elemental damage and effects – particularly fire. With Hellborn, you'll want to constantly set yourself on fire, burn enemies, and get the extra damage and buffs from doing so. The first skill in the tree, “Burn, Baby, Burn,” gives you +7% burn damage per level (+15% when you're on fire). Also, it gives you a 7% chance per fire attack to set yourself on fire. Further down the tree, you get the ability to breath fire at enemies.

The tree ends with Raving Retribution. While you are on fire, taking damage from enemies will spawn homing balls of fire that seek out the attacker and explode on impact. F*ck yea.

Krieg, the Psycho class, is looking sweet and sadistic. You will be able to purchase his DLC on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on May 14 for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com