Roland

Roland is a former soldier of the Crimson Lance, the highly trained private military of The Atlas Corporation that disregards law and order. Roland is the soldier class. He is proficient with all weapons, although he prefers shotguns and assault rifles. Roland can deploy a shield turret that can be upgraded throughout the game.

Gameplay
Some of Roland's abilities are meant to supplement and support the party, while some boost his offensive capabilities. His Infantry skill tree can boost his weapon damage, while his Medic skill tree will increase health regeneration, and Support will increase weapon damage and regenerate ammunition for the party. Some of these benefits are only active when Roland's Scorpio Turret is deployed. He is by far the best support class because his turret can be upgraded to heal and regenerate ammunition. He is the only character that cannot boost his melee in some way, but his upgrades for the scorpio turret are more spread out among his skill trees, making it potentially more useful in more situations than the other character's action skills (except Lilith, whose skills are spread out about the same amount).

Active Ability

 * See article: Active Abilities, for info.

Roland's active ability is a sentry gun called the Scorpio Turret; a turret that shoots enemies and also provides a shield for cover. Roland's turret will be affected in one of three ways depending on which skill tree the player decides to fully upgrade. The turret lasts 20 seconds.


 * Investments in the Infantry branch of the skill tree can increase the Scorpio Turret's damage, reduce its cooldown time and even allow it to shoot guided missiles.
 * Investments in the Support branch of the skill tree can reduce the Scorpio Turret's cooldown, increase its burst fire count and allow it to eject resupply packs to replenish the ammunition and grenade stocks of all team members.
 * Investments in the Medic branch of the skill tree can add team regeneration or revive effects to the turret.

Skill Tree Calculator
Check out the skill calculator at the official Borderlands site

Class Mods

 * See Article: Class Mods for more info.

Solo

 * Commando Mod focuses on the use of shotguns and abilities that compliment the use thereof. Recommended for close-range encounters or fights against very large enemies.


 * Heavy Gunner Mod lets a properly built Soldier unleash a devastating storm of weapons fire once they get started. Good mod for close-range or extended fights.


 * Rifleman Mod focus on soldiers using combat rifles. With patch 1.3.0, the rifleman class now works with machine guns. Very useful for players who favor machine guns and combat rifles. Ammo regeneration is vital if you intend to keep using the machine gun.


 * Shock Trooper Mod focuses on electrical damage and grenade attacks, as well as boosted health. Effective against guardians.

Team

 * Leader Mod focuses around boosting team experience gains, action skill cooldowns, and the rate at which you can deploy the Scorpio turret. It can also boost the Soldier's own defensive abilities.


 * Support Gunner Mod pack is an excellent solo and team mod thanks to ammo regeneration and increased team magazine sizes. They are very useful (perhaps even vital) to those using ammo-hogging machinegun-type Combat Rifles.


 * Tactician Mods are good for supporting soldiers, and can also increase your own survivability considerably. Works best for shooting from behind cover.


 * Marine Mods are focused on improving Roland with a rocket launcher. Also, since it has Cauterize and this is a grenade/rocket based mod, the splash damage of these explosive weapons will inturn, convert to healing an ally when shooting. This by far, makes it a great medic mod.


 * Note: Increasing the magazine size also has an effect on Eridian weapons.

Quotes
When Opening a chest:
 * "Show me some loot."
 * "Always nice to get resupplied."
 * "It's like Christmas."
 * "Always room for more loot."
 * "Armaments here."
 * "Alright, we got guns over here."

When hitting a Critical:
 * "Critical Biatch!"
 * "Aww you know that hurt!"
 * "Oh! That hurt!"

When Kill by action skill:
 * "I love this damn thing!"
 * "It's like having another soldier on the field!"
 * "Pay'm and Spray'm!"
 * "Efficient AND Effective!"

When duelling:
 * "Mess with the bull and you get the horns!"
 * "I'm issuing you a challenge... 'chump'."

When leveling up
 * "Bigger and Badder!"

Ammo depletion
 * "Ammo count: Black."
 * "I'm outta mags."

Trivia

 * Roland is a reference to the character Roland Deschain in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, a gunslinger living in a similarly dystopian world.
 * A Warren Zevon song, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner, could also be the inspiration for the "machine gun" character of Borderlands.
 * Roland is an infantryman, but his Scorpio Turret and pieces of Crimson Lance armour offer indications that he might have once been a Lance Engineer.
 * Roland was the name of one of Charlemagne's legendary paladins and many literary works pay homage to this historical figure. It is possible that the Roland of Borderlands is similarly linked indirectly to him.
 * In the Secret Armory of General Knoxx, his wanted poster states his bounty is $1,000,000.00 for "Desertion, and murder of a crimson lance officer"