Duel of Snipers: Maya vs. Zer0

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

Who’s the better sniper in your opinion? Maya or Zer0? Why do you think either of them is better?

Let the battle begin (please no personal fighting, just fictive, in a constructive manner)!

#2

Maya can keep up while mobbing and sometimes pull ahead, but when you get to bosses and even some Badass enemies it is no contest zer0.

Maya has just enough burst damage to 1-2 shot 80% of the enemies and with phaselock keeping them still it is easier to crit but also converge stuns the enemies just for a second also making them easy to crit. Scorn and Ruin as well make slagging easier and because she can survive better this also helps.

The other nice thing about Maya sniping is she isn’t reliant on stacks or kill skills, she doesn’t even need wreck. Her DPS is very stable and consistant. Where zer0 you have deception, rising shot, ambush, lots of kill skills and of course CA. Zer0’s DPS takes a lot more to manage.

However…

Maya can’t snipe bosses nearly as well, and really can’t snipe raid bosses at all.

Even UBA loaders, Maya can deal with them, but not like zer0 can.

Zer0’s damage ceiling is so much higher that when you face a bigger health bar you see the difference.

Go snipe the Snowman with Maya and Zer0 and I think that is a good example.

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#3

One gives you higher potential damage while the other ease-of-use, although my favorite sniper in bl2 would be Sal due to his ammo regen (mostly through the hoarder com)…

#4

Now I’m curious. What does your build (skills and equipment) look like?

#5

For Sal or Maya (I’m assuming Sal)? Anything with reload speed and fire-rate works for me i.e., Incite and All in the Reflexes working well with All Out of Bubblegum and the increased dps with Auto-Loader, Quick Draw, All I Need is One and Lay Waste.

Gear-wise, the hoarder Com means I don’t have to stop firing to scavenge ammo, specially since most of my sniping times would be spent stationary at some vantage point, usually away from ammo sources (enemies, piles or vendors); for the weapons, Pimps, Storm and even Sniders were my most used as it was fairly difficult to keep headshotting at higher RoF’s with Jakobs’ rifles, some Hyperion and Dahl also worked well (didn’t try with Vladof rifles just because I don’t really like using them).

#6

I should also note chain reaction vs b0re.

Chain is better for mobs since it seeks enemies but b0re is better on bosses because of the damage boost per proc.

B0re on mobbing is really hard to line up on mobbing.

#7

For me it’s Maya, because of the abundance of slag. I love the non-aggro slag that Scorn provides.

#8

Thanks, that definitely sounds interesting.

I prefer Maya for the same reason (even though I’d love to have Vel0city).

#9

This would be an even more interesting discussion if you add Aurelia to the mix. I think she can decimate both Zer0 and Maya in sniping. She has so many ways to stack her crit damage, the novas with her capstone, freeze all day long, with an infinite pool of sniper ammo, oh and did I mention all the heals?!?!? face tank something all day, or get a buddy up from FFYL. You can’t ask for a better sniper design.

I use to enjoy sniping (still do) on Zer0 and Maya, but now its like I am on the 2 comma snipers after experiencing the “3 comma class” that is Aurelia.

#10

I don’t wanted to include her because she’s underpowered in my opinion. :wink:

#11

In what ways?

Zer0 = Burst damage sniper, all his skills are design on that premise. Even his CA stacks can drain fast compared to other stacking skills in this series.

Maya = Crowd control and a tank as a sniper with enough DPS to kill most mobs.

Aurelia = Stacking + Crowd Control sniper, if you can maintain a even decent stack (doesn’t have to be super high) on her you can out pace both Maya or Zer0. (given all 3 characters were on the same game with similar scaling).

#12

I was just kidding. She’s my favourite character and I’ve spent hundreds of hours on her, my White Walker. :grinning:

I just don’t wanted to include her because she’s in another game.

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#13

I usually dream of all the things Aurelia would be able to do with a Pimpernel that would make Maya and Zero so jealous. All those novas on a sweet spot. If they bring her back + pimpernel, I would pre order the ■■■■ out of Borderlands 3.

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#14

I love the skills Duchess, I think thats the one that increase accuracy when you get a kill, and the one that adds Cryo Dammage to Non-Cryo weapons. I’d go thru the map you farm Gwens Head for, forgot the name, kill all the trash enemies for the Acc stacks. With the Celestial COM I think you get like 300 or 350 stacks for something like +280% Acc and just destroy everything using a Glitched Casual Ravager like some kind of Explosive/Cryo, Shotty/Sniper doombringer.

#15

Zer0 because b0re, CA, and all his other insane critical hit damage bonuses. But I won’t lie, I rarely use snipes with Maya.

#16

Zer0 has better damage but Maya has better survival and crowd control. That is the bare bones when comparing the two of them side by side.

I prefer Maya between the two due to her ease of use and flexibility.

#17

I think I have to give a slight edge to Zer0 over Maya.

As others have observed, Sniper Maya is all about ease-of-use and crowd control with enough DPS to make most mobs manageable. But against many enemies with a significant amount of health she lags behind because Zer0s DPS quickly becomes gigantic (unless overlapping-hitbox hilarity with CR or B0re occurs a la BNK3R and Saturn).

BA Constructors are a good example. Maya struggles against them even if there is a convenient phaselockable enemy nearby. Zer0 can shred them (relatively) easily using a good corrosive Vladof or Dahl sniper, even without CA pre-stacking and without need of a nearby enemy for on-kill buffs.

Plus, Zer0’s crowd-control problem against mobs can be addressed with a well-placed decoy (especially now with the recent buff to Unforeseen - it’s actually worth considering!) and/or singularity grenades.

With Sniper Zer0 I mostly run a relic that buffs sniper ammo and grenade carrrying capacity - he doesn’t even need a Bone of the Ancients, his DPS is so good.

I should also note that I very rarely use a pimpernel with either character (Exception: I will occasionally swap to one when I get impatient with a Rabid Stalker). While I acknowledge the awesome power of the weapon, it often ruins the experience for me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Sal even though not mentioned in OP. He can be fun with Snipers but I don’t think he really measures up to Maya or Zer0. When I’m in the mood to **** around, I occasionally run a setup I call “Drunken Farmer Sal” with a Grog Nozzle/Pitchfork combo. The emphasis of the skill tree is reload speed, gun damage (of course) and ammo conservation/regeneration.

I won’t go into Aurelia because I haven’t played much TPS and because this is the BL2 forum.

#18

Indeed, his fire-rate buffs and ammo regeneration removes the burden of making every shot count/be a critical hit, although my gameplay differs on not using gunzerking to keep the ads accuracy (zerking maybe just to get the bonus from Keeping It Piping Hot).

#19

Going back to near the beginning this means a team of Maya and Zero must be incredible as Maya can mob and Zero can boss, it covers eachother’s weaknesses!

#20

Yep I main Zer0 and my buddy is always Maya, and indeed we can destroy everything in the game. It’s not even a fair fight with the Killer mod.