Maya levels up slower than other characters?

Borderlands 2 Maya the Siren
#1

Is this a thing? Possibly because she is generally more powerful than other characters?

I’m doing extra missions with her on TVHM and she’s still lower level than my other characters. Enemies killed with Cloudkill giving less xp maybe the reason for this?

It’s kinda fun actually, always getting weapons I keep in the backpack ready to use as soon as I finally level up.

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#2

Complete nonsense, i’m afraid. Just your imagination.

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#3

Nope all characters gain experience the same.

I’d also disagree about her being generally more powerful. She is definitely strong I don’t dispute this. However with regards to her being generally more powerful I’d wager that this is merely to do with how much of her potential you are unlocking. Maya has skills that fit well with a variety of play styles, her skills will be activated by maintaining a standard combat loop unlike say zero where to Critical ascension or bore require you to push for specific circumstances or use specific tactics. In order to play Maya efficiently the player has to do very little that they wouldn’t already do and thus because you likely play her more efficiently than other vault hunters she appears to be stronger.

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#4

I should add that the reason it may seem slower is if you don’t really enjoy playing as her as much as another vault hunter. For example, levelling Gaige up for me always seemed to take much longer than levelling up Maya, for example, because I don’t like Gaige all that much and Maya is one of my favourites. Just a thought.

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#5

The only ways I can imagine one character levelling up faster or slower than another are:

  1. Skipping more side missions with one character than another
  2. Dying more with one character than another (takes longer to complete stages, so enemies may respawn on you)
  3. Doing a lot of co-op play with one character but not the other

Number 1 kind of takes care of itself over time: being under-levelled because you skipped side quests means more XP from kills and mission completion, but then that levels you up faster.

Overall, I seem to hit the same levels at the same story stages regardless of character, but I also tend to be fairly consistent in which side quests I do and which I skip.

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#6

I believe killing enemies while you’re in a vehicle gives you less xp, so maybe don’t use vehicles.

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#7

There’s one other thing. Have you got Moxxi’s Endowment equipped on your other vault hunters? That gives you a small increase in XP gain for every kill, so if your Maya doesn’t have that equipped, I suppose that would make it seem like she’s slower at gaining levels. Just an idea.

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#8

And all that pretty much makes her stronger in my opinion, better

I’m just talking about for the casual player here, not for the hardcore guy that likes to use all the exploits for maximum damage etc.

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#9

I love a baseless generalisation. Please, show me your statistics to prove all these people using these “exploits”. Furthermore, the amount of “casual” players on this game now are minimal. It’s a 5 year old game, most still playing are the ones that would probably qualify as “hardcore” players.

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#10

I disagree, it makes her easier to play not a stronger character. Judging the strength of characters is only relevant when you assume each character is played to an equal level of their potential.

Not sure who you’re classifying as a casual player. Multiple characters in or above TVHM and a clear curiosity to learn some game mechanics is more than what would be achieved by someone playing casually. Careful what you classify as exploits verse what is purely min-maxing.

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#11

If you mean spending time to study Maya and her skills and weapons potentials to learn how to get the most out of her, then yes…I’m guilty of using exploits.

My bad.

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#12

Careful with the crap storm guys. Everyone has their own experience, skill and approach. I could easily say that Maya is the easiest character for a beginner - which makes her more powerful initially, until skills and understanding kick in and players start to gain equal facility with other characters.

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#13

I suppose I’m one of those “hardcore guys” since I’ve played the game since it came out. More hours than I care to admit. I’m also one of those “hardcore guys” who has a softspot for NVHM and TVHM. This means that I start new characters all the time, and level them from 1 to 72, after which I delete them. Except for a few ones that I have taken to OP 8. Anyway… We’re talking hundreds of characters that I’ve leveled through TVHM. And based on that experience, I can without a doubt say no character levels faster or slower, unless you actually make an effort to do that.

The difference, however, is negligible when it comes down to combat. The game mechanics adjust the XP you get from combat. However… XP that you get from mission rewards, pretty much stay the same, and that’s why you can be at a certain level earlier or later in the game.

@Prismatic summed it up pretty well with this:

I think that’s very true. I mostly play Maya, and that also means that I’ve figured out ways to get things. And that can certainly get me up a few levels so that i don’t have to do missions that I dislike just to be on par with the story level. For instance whn in NVHM, I try to level up every Goliath I see, so that they can drop me some nice and shiny stuff when i kill them. I also take the time to run to every varkid area in Tundra Express during the “mighty morphin mission”, and inject every pod I see. This takes me from level 15 to level 17½, which means that by the time I reach Overlook, I have access to Converge.

Things like that, and the type of enemies that spawn can change the leveling experience a bit, but in the end I get the “Level up” at roughly the same stage of the game no matter which character I use.

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#14

I love doing that…follow them around to help soften up whomever they’re currently beating the crap out of; hoping that there are enough enemies available for them to beat the crap out of so they can morph to the next level; the little thrill when they do their morphing-up glow-thingy…in short, take good care of them as they grow, kinda like you’d do for your own children. Except that you don’t then kill your children for their toys when they’re grown up.

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#15

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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#16

Not a thing. All vault hunters are created equal at the very base level (no XP nerfing, no faster/slower movement speed (not counting individual character skills like Fleet, etc). The only real differences are how tall they each are which could affect their hitboxes a bit. (Oh, and Krieg has a special melee damage modifier the others don’t have.)

I know that was kind of an issue in BL1 with Brick. He’s so big (as big as badass bruisers and psychos in that game) that he can’t duck for cover in some places the other VHs can. :smiley: I was expecting Krieg to be Brick-sized in BL2, but he isn’t, and I wonder if that’s because the developers didn’t want him to be as big a target that Brick was, heh.

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#17

Just to add Krieg is also the only vault hunter with a non standard weight value.

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#18

I recorded a good example for my YouTube channel

Maya doing the Round 5 TVHM Fink Slaughterhouse
she does it 2 levels lower (well 1 and a half level, she levels up during gameplay) than my Axton, but she does it more quickly and easily than my Axton (you will notice my Axton goes into FFYL quite a bit more)

#20

I’m sure what IceCat763 meant is ‘exploiting the maximum potential of the character’ not any actual use of exploits like flakhabbing and the like. Not to mention after the numerous gearbox patches, its pretty difficult to effectively utilize alot of these exploits on non-Sal classes anyway.

Speaking from the perspective of a seasoned player who min-maxes ALOT, I actually have to agree with IceCat here. From a conventional perspective, especially if you aren’t min-maxing, Maya is probably the strongest characters out there.

Maya’s strength comes from the fact that when built right, she has almost no weaknesses - while remaining extremely versatile. I can’t name any other class who at the highest difficulty of the game can run with almost any gun, any shield, any com, any grenade mod and any relic and still look relatively competent (and often all of these things together). Salvador, conventionally regarded as the strongest, is capable of ridiculous DPS with any gun once NKLO/MS gets going, but is highly reliant on equipping a Moxxi weapon, specifically the Grog. Zer0 can massively increase the DPS of any weapon capable of a critical hit, but since his durability is so poor, he tends to be shield and grenade restricted. His melee build suffers from durability scaling issues in OP levels - making him highly Moxxi reliant. Krieg is capable of some of the craziest stuff in the game, but is highly gear and circumstance specific. This tends to put him at a disadvantage at otherwise simple situations. Axton has no real weaknesses like Maya, but tends to have much lower durability and less reliable damage. His grenade build is really strong, but is basically predicated on the strength of a tremendously overpowered grenade.Take away any number of items in the game, and while some classes like Axton, Krieg and Sal would be crippled. Maya would scarcely be affected.

Maya is the easiest character to play, no doubt. But I would argue its her natural strength that allows this to be the case, rather than the other way round. Thats not to say there isn’t value in a class that requires skill and knowledge to build up and achieve amazing DPS and power - Zer0 is my favorite character in the franchise. I just think that because Maya is so straightforwardly powerful, people actually tend to underestimate her.

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