"Smart Builds": Maya

Borderlands 2 Maya the Siren
#1

On YouTube and on various discussion boards, we as a community obviously spend a fair bit of time dissecting and discussing fine points of the game. Skill merits, point distribution, weapon parts or prefixes, shields, COM selection… We all have opinions. Over time, particular notions have become popular, and are frequently forwarded as advice to others. In many discussions, there is a notable lack of context. Even when it comes up, context is often limited to “good in NVHM, not viable in UVHM”, or similar.

After having recently been informed (again) that Accelerate can have a negative influence on the efficacy of certain weapons, I decided that it might be a good idea to open up a discussion with context. To that end, I want to see what people are actually using, and which content they are tackling with which builds. If a player switches up his/her skill build to take on different content (which I don’t consider a bad thing), please note that and show which builds are used when those content-specific changes are made.

I would also like to point out that this discussion isn’t about finding a “best” build. One of the things I find so awesome with Maya is that she’s effective with builds favoring different tactics and styles. The build I use isn’t at all like the ones used by Derch or MoLMF, but I wouldn’t call it ‘better’ or ‘worse’. They’ve each gone as far in this game as I and many of you have.

What this is really about is showing how many different ways there are to dunk this doughnut.

I look forward to seeing what you all are using or have used!

[edited 10-3-2016 to remove some outdated text and add the following]

Since the time of the original post, I’ve come to the conclusion that most content, including raid bosses, can be done with a wide variety of builds. I’ve killed numerous Invincibles with multiple different builds, and have come to appreciate that there are a lot of ways to build which won’t require a respec to raid. I’ve also recorded a LOT of clips in OP8 Digistruct Peak runs using a variety of very different builds. All of this is to say that it is easy to create very strong, ‘one size fits all’ builds for Maya.

Looking for a Build - Details inside
#2

This is what I use. [Build] Life and Death
And like you I switch to a Legendary Cat for tougher enemies.

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#3

I’ve been using this: http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#445001500023055005204550510501

Usually keep with the leg siren mod, Fire Bone, and use magic missle x4 as my primary grenade. I play solo, which is why I haven’t specced into the team skills, and took a point off accelerate for ward for a lil extra defense.

None of my primary weapons have negative interaction with accelerate (Maggie, Fire and Corrosive Kittens, Swordsplosion), and accelerate plus swordsplosion gives me a bit more range. I also keep a fire and corrosive sloth in the backpack when needed, that also benefits from accelerate.

Usually mob with the antagonist, but will switch to the bee for some bosses.

I should also note, I have had a rough time in the past balancing Maya’s skills, as I never quite understood the ins and outs with her, but once I stumbled on this build, I have never been happier with her. So much fun, and I am able to maintain a pretty fast pace of combat.

Edit: I also use an Evolution or Purple Adaptive shield for a few specific scenarios (I think I have only busted this out for bloodwing really) where the Antagonist doesn’t work. I don’t raid with Maya, but can do Pete with the Big Boom Blaster, although tedious, very tedious. I have other characters for Raiding fun.

Edit 2: Also keep a Thunderball Fists in the backpack for shield stripping when needed

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#4

Thank you for sharing! For the sake of context, which content have you used/are you using those for, and solo, co-op, or both?

#5

The only skills that are off the table for me are Res and Restoration (unless I’m in co op) and Immolate (because I don’t build for FFYL). Fleet and Recompense are only used for niche builds, but there isn’t another skill that I have a problem maxing out for regular gameplay. I do have some personal favorite skills of hers that I stick to (and these depend on which allegiance I’m playing: Motion + Cataclysm with remainder in Harmony for Hyperion; Harmony + Cataclysm with remainder in Motion for Tediore), but here’s some basic getups:

Hyperion sniper: Amp shield, Legendary Cat, Nasty Surprise (slag), and matching Bone of the Ancients relic. Fremington’s Edge (slag), Morningstar (shock), Longbow (fire), and an Invader (corrosive) are her weapons.

Tediore corrosive: Shield, Bullet Witch, Grenade, and matching Bone of the Ancients relic. Gunerang, Retcher, Avenger, and Launcher (all corrosive) are her weapons.

Hyperion incendiary: Neogenator, Cunning Fox, Incendiary Singularity, and matching Bone of the Ancients relic.
A Fibber (Barrel #3) is used for slag; a Heartbreaker, Longbow, and Bitch are all fire.

Tediore shock: Alkaline Shield, Mirrored Trickster, Grenade, and shock Bone of the Ancients relic.
An e-tech Dart, Omen, Spark, and a Bazooka (all shock) are her weapons.

Hyperion old school: Bee (level 68 used at OP3), Legendary Siren, Quasar, and Hyperion Allegiance relic (damage + reload).
A corrosive Fibber (Barrel #1), Conference Call (slag), Morningstar (shock), and a Bitch (fire) are her weapons.

Tediore tank: Cracked Sash, Guarded Warder, Fastball (explosive), and Skin of the Ancients relic.
A Lady Fist (fire), Octo (slag), Baby Maker (fire), and Launcher (corrosive) are her weapons.

#6

http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#500501400055150103510545510501

Used to run roughly the same thing as you, but I wouldn’t play without lifetap anymore, Derch made me discover the joy that is Scorn, I haven’t looked back since. I almost always play solo but I still spent 2 points in Rez and Restauration… it’s only 2 points and it’s all that’s needed.

I have a Quasar and a stormfront
I swap between corrosive and fire bone depending on areas.
Shield is a Neo, but i’m sure it’s not even a great choice… I like having a lot of health. If I find a Blockade, I might switch.
COM: I usually run with the Leg. Siren, though I like the Fox and Leg. Binder these days. I used to run a Leg. Cat with 3 tattlers, but I …don’t really like SMGs… so I’m done with that.

Guns: I carry 2 pimps (corrosive and fire) a Bekah, a Twin Teapot (Just replaced my Hornet), Slagga, Blockhead, Swordsplosion, Bandit fire E-tech launcher. I swap between those depending on the area and my current mood.

I still carry the Tattlers …just in case. I also have a ful set of Sandhawks…but they are sitting in my bank, and I don’t plan on bringing them back.

Currently farming for a Dahl Minigun… no luck so far.

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#7

[quote=“Chuck80, post:6, topic:1085501”]a Twin Teapot (Just replaced my Hornet)[/quote]Nice… what grip are you after (if you don’t already have it)?

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#8

Jakobs or Torgue are the best IMO, Dahl pistols already have quick reloads and deep mags, so they don’t really need the matching grip (which also lowers your damage and stabilizes an already very stable gun) Extra damage is always good.

Mine has a Tediore grip… I was sick of dashboarding.

It’s not strictly better than a Hornet but it has upsides. Usually, the Teapot’s strength when compared to the Hornet is it’s accuracy: it’s almost sniper-level accurate. With a twin accessory, it’s still more accurate than the Hornet, and I get 2 4-bullet bursts in less time than the hornet gets it’s 6-bullet (since it shoots 2 at once, it only shoots twice per burst). Accuracy is better, mag size is comparable, reload speed is the same, fire rate is about half of the Hornet’s… but it doesn’t appear to have a big impact on the burst speed since it’s a 2-shot burst, and since the burst delay is the same, their effective fire rate is comparable. Where the hornet wins is damage: it’s almost 1.5x the Teapot’s. I still prefer the burst pattern of the Twin Teapot though.

#9

I run this build with a L. Siren COM pretty much 100% of the time

I’ve found that moving the points I have in “co-op skills” into minds eye (pretty much the best remaining place to put them) dosen’t decrease my time-to-kill on almost all enemies by enough for it to be worthwhile respecing for co-op vs. solo.

As far as gear goes, I usually run with a blockade, quasars, and corrosive bone. I don’t have a lot of other shields, but I’m going to farm up a neo/evo at some point, and I do use the bee on occasion, though mine is OP7. I only swap away from my quasar if I’m fighting a few specific bosses where i have to CL/grog to stay alive. I use the corrosive bone most of the time, the only times i really switch are if i remember and the area has no armored enemies at all (in which case I usualy use a fire or shock bone), if I feel like using my jakobs alegiance relic, or in co-op where I use a blood.

For my guns, I have slots more than specific weapons, I usually run with an NE gun, a shock gun, a fire gun, and the last one is pretty much what ever. For NE I usually run a bekah, with smatterings of ROM, and I’ve been experimenting with some other stuff, for shock I generaly run a pimp, twister, or tattler. For fire, I’m still trying to find something i really like, I run a pimp a lot because that’s what i have but I’m not sure I’m going to stick with that. and for my flex I run all kinds of stuff, notables: DPUH, swordsplosion, various sand hawks, and some other stuff, I want to try a Cobra in this slot, I feel like it could be interesting.

Basically, I have my build nailed down, along with pretty much everything that isn’t a gun, but I’m still messing around with guns a lot trying to find the stuff I really like.

Also, @Chuck80 the neo is a great shield for her, mabye not as good as the Blockade in solo play, but better in co-op, in my opinion, and depeding on what your partner(s) are playing i guess.

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#10

This is cool!
So I use this:
http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#555101050053530003005550500501

GUNS
Sandhawk: fire/shock/corrosive
Norfleet: fire (until I get shock and corrosive)

COMS
Legendary Cat
Legendary Siren
Breakneck Banshee: for farming LLM, Snowman, or whatever else really. I also spec into Fleet 5/5 for that. Been using it alot to farm for stuff for Salvador.
Blurred Trickster: for Chain Reaction of course

SHIELDS
Bee
Sham: for Shamfleeting…
Rough Rider: see Breakneck Banshee

RELICS
Bone of the Ancients: whichever one is called for

GRENADES
Magic Missiles: x2, never found x4
Singularity: of some sort

IDK if I am missing anything…

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#11

It’s an interesting thing to me that there are so many points where any of us may catch ourselves looking at each others’ choices and saying, “that’s not how I’d have done that”. Yet, each of us has presumably taken on the same content, using these varied choices successfully.

I’m enjoying your posts!

#12

I run this: http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#505011300052255103210553510511
These days I play mostly co-op, this build gets me through everything I encounter. I run a Legendary Binder at all times, it’s my favorite COM in the game. My normal gear is:
DPUH (for when I’m low on sniper ammo)
Fire Pimp (main weapon)
Slag Pimp/Corrosive Pimp/Shock Ladyfist (For elemental matching)
Slag Rubi (for when I’m low on health and without an easy kill, to use with Chain Lightning or Cloud Kill)

Matching BoA
Antagonist (because I love it. More slag doesn’t matter, but let’s face it, watching someone proc CK on themselves will never get old)
Chain Lightning (For heals, or stripping enemy shields) or a 0.0 Lobbed Slag Transfusion during Raids for my friends.

I occasionally use that one point in Fleet to become Sonic, and for Raid fights I put on a Turtle shield which puts me at 4k health so with a Nurse COM I can “Extreme Healthgate” everything. Basically I dick around and have a wonderful time with this build and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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#13

I use the following as my general all-purpose Maya build: Maya Build

I spec one point in Res for when I play co-op, but even solo don’t mess with it as I find the single point doesn’t worry me too much.

I tried Thoughtlock but couldn’t get on with it. My emphasis is on getting PL up and running as much as possible and letting Ruin, Converge, Wreck and Chain Reaction obliterate anything, while the points in Sweet Release, Elated and Sustenance mean that I very rarely ever have to worry about dying. I use a Legendary Cat almost exclusively, being lucky enough to have found one with a 136% damage buff. But on the occasion where I want to concentrate on other weapons and maybe switch to a Legendary Binder or Siren COM, I find I don’t really need to change my build to compensate.

I use a BoA pretty much all the time. Default is Shock, but I also have Corrosive and Incendiary versions for different occasions. My shield is almost always an Antagonist and that, coupled with Magic Missiles and the Slag effects from Ruin, mean I don’t really need a slag weapon taking up a slot.

Default gun is a Florentine. What I love about it is if I wanted to I could pretty much never use anything else. With the boosts from the Cat and the BoA, I can tear up both flesh and armoured enemies equally and it’s very good on the rare occasions I do go into FFYL. Rabid Stalkers in particular hold no fear for Maya as I just PL them and let the Florentine finish them off. Don’t need to switch to an incendiary once the shields are down. It’s the only gun I use to farm the Beatdown, for example.

Other situational weapons include:

DPUH (of course!)
Corrosive Pimp (although I need to redo all quests to get a better one now I’m at OP8)
The Bee (for certain bosses)
Sapping Sandhawk (largely for Bee combo)
Incendiary White Death
Hornet
Lady Fist
Bekah
Heartbreaker
Hellfire
Butcher

I would like a Thunderball Fists but Flynt is being a little stingy lately. And I aim to get a Shock and Fire Pimp when I start OP8 story mode.

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#14

I usually run this build : http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#415001400044154105113551510501

No matters if I’m playing co-op or solo, as @Chuck80 said it, 2 points for Res and Restoration are worth it :smile:
I don’t like to respec just for that ^^.
I’m only playing in OP8 unless I’m helping someone to Xp/Op up.

That build allows me to switch between Leg Siren, Leg Binder and Leg Cat when needed.
I mobb with Leg Binder most of the time, Leg Cat is for farming Bosses or Leg Siren when survivability could become an issue.

And I get a bunch of gear to combine well with that :wink:
BoA matching the effective element of the area I’m in.
Slag Norfleet for FFYL.
Grounded Bee/Evolution/Blockade as main shields and Antagonist/Neogenator/Sham as situational ones.
Bekah (I’m still learning how to do it good with it)
Full set of Pimpernels
Full set of Sandhawks
Hard Unkempt Harold
Bad and Good Touch (that 70% crit bonus is really a pain when Bee is on)
Heartbreaker (I’m a Moxxi fan)
Kittens Shock/Corro/Fire (I’m a Mox… well, you know !)
Lucid Florentine (Leg Cat+BoA Shock+Bee, and you wreck everything damn fast)
Full set of Bitchs (but they’re sleeping in my Bank)
Sticky Longbow Quasar as main grenade and Chain Lightning if grenade regen is needed.
And some other stuff I just can’t remind now !! :sweat_smile:

I can face everything (except Raid Bosses but I don’t care) with Maya and I really enjoy her ability to crowd control ^^

Edit : Well, I checked my Backpack last evening, and I hadn’t forgotten so much gear in my list ! :smile:
I have a Practicable Fire Slow Hand and an Apt Hellfire for burning purposes and a Stopping Lascaux for “spray and pray” moments ^^

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#15

I know I have been mentioned but here is my build

http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#415001400015155105214550510501

I use
2 Pimps, fire and corrosive
1 Bekah for when either I run low on pimp ammo or certain times where it just does better than the pimp
1 Twister for enemies that are in my face where its hard to pimp and too close for bekah split.

Blockade, Legendary Siren, Bone, and Quasar

I have a few backups, sandhawk for raiding, hail and kittens, grog for raiding, norfleet for hyperious, and a few other items I like to have around. Bee shield for bosses and raiding, leg cat and trickster com as well.

I first made my build right when the second UVHM cap came out and I was sick of always respecing, so I wanted the One Build to rule them all (not the best, just something that was good enough for everything)

I made it so I could wear all 4 legendary com’s and have points in all those skills, I called it a kitchen sink build at the time. Since then I’ve moved a few points around. I dropped the one point in helios because I just never found a reason to really wear the Binder. More recently I moved one point to cloud kill.

But with this build I can be DPS focused, Nurse focused, I can raid, I can solo, etc…

But not only can I do a lot without pausing to swap everything around. WEP is a good example that map has armor, heavy shields with stalkers, flesh, fire resistant flesh, pretty much everything you can run into you do in that map. A lot of builds have a grog to heal, a second wind gun, one primary DPS gun, and one more all purpose gun. With a set up like that you can’t match elements without pausing the game. With my set up I have everything I need. I can swap my bone to match a most common enemy type but I also don’t need the bone for DPS.

So I think its a smart build because it uses skill points to free up weapon and gear slots, life tap and healing allows me to not need moxxi guns and a chain lighting, Immolate and solid guns means I don’t need a FFYL gun. Now I have 4 weapons slots that all can do a different thing and be ready for everything. I have have a quasar that can be a life saver but also makes skills like chain reaction and cloud kill better.

Then I take it to the next level by having 4 guns with heavy Chain Reaction synergy, bekah and pimp have bullet split, twister and bekah have penetration. Pimp also gets reaper on splash. All 4 guns also have great Restoration synergy in 2 ways. One they all can get my friends past healthgate in a single hit, but also I can hit an enemy and heal an ally with a single shot with all 4 guns (pimp 5 pellet split, bekah and twister penetration).

So it for me is about, synergy with skills, preparing for all situations, and being able to hop from solo to co-op, raiding, mobbing, anything. There are 2 raids I respec for still solo, but not co-op.

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Best Character for Solo Play (Besides Axton)
#16

So I recently tried to make a build around the Cleric COM and I currently have this:

http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#501501300045055005110554510501

Guns are: Roksalts (fire and corrosive), Sledge’s Shotguns (fire and corrosive) Twister, Pimpernels and a Maggie if I feel like using it.

Items: Chaotic Evil Cleric(+6 Suspension +5 Life Tap), Quasar, Antagonist, Bones.

The build is what I think fits the use of the Cleric COM the most (while having Scorn). I like to compare this to trickster builds because both the Trickster and Cleric (chaotic evil) give fire rate and Life Tap. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of this build?

Pros:
-Chaotic Evil COM gives more fire rate than Trickster COMs. (though not that much)
-The COM gives extra crit damage. 4/5 in Mind’s Eye gives more.
-You can only put 1 point in suspension for 7/5 and put the rest to Kinetic Reflection for more defense against bullets.
-5/5 Kinetic Reflection plus Antagonist gives you a lot of Bullet Reflection. The reflected bullets also counts as your bullets which can proc Cloud kill and Life Tap.

Cons:
-This cannot compete against LSiren/Binder/Cat/Trickster Builds in terms of DPS.
-While you are well protected against bullets (as long as you kill things), you can’t really say the same against non-bullet enemies.

This build also works well with Jakobs weapons due to their multiplicative crit bonus. I’m just using bandit because I like those guns.

I’m currently running through the main story in OP8 using this build (currently in Arid Nexus) and I’m actually having a good time using this build since it fits my close range playstyle. I had issues with Jack’s double and will most likely have a hard time facing Jack himself but I always had that problem. It’s just a personal issue, though.

I look forward to seeing different builds here that use uncommon item combinations. I would love it if I see someone post a Black Hole build here for OP8 :grin:

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#17

I’m having a lot of fun catching up on this discussion as posts come in. I expected a lot of variety, but there have been a few little surprises along the way.

It’s also interesting to see posts about how weapon slots are managed. As Derch touched on, I don’t like stopping the game in mid-fight to swap gear out, so I’ve made it a point to look for sets which allow me to walk into any given area and go start to finish without pause-swapping gear. My default set lately has been Grog, corrosive Pimp (with corrosive Bone), Bekah, Harold. I’ve done runs in the Peak without swapping any gear at all from start to finish and was able to do that reasonably comfortably. I say ‘reasonably’ because Dukino’s Mom took longer than she does with a corrosive Sandhawk + Cat COM, and the 4x Assassin spawn is rough without a Quasar, even when you have Thought Lock to keep them reasonably grouped. This same set also works great in places like WEP, Hero’s Pass, or Arid Nexus - Boneyards, where there are enemies of varying types.

#18

The bekah does a lot of work for me in the peak

#19

Same. I thought it would be a bigger gamble using that against D’s mom and the Assassins, but it worked out well. Mom took longer than usual, but it wasn’t eventful otherwise.

As an added bonus, I like the reload animation. For some reason, I migrate to guns whose reloads appeal to me. Dahl SMG, Bekah, Pimps, Hyperion pistols, Hyperion shotguns… In contrast, I dislike the Maliwan SMG reload, so I don’t use the Hellfire as often as I could for how great it is.

#20

Its the spin on the bekah reload I love, and I never run into ammo issues with it. I will sometimes swap to a corrosive hail on DM though.

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