I’m bad at writing intros, so there it is.
Just kidding! Hello forumites, and welcome to another terrible and not-so-controversial-because-nobody-will-be-talking-about-it build by me, the self-proclaimed Master of Maya! After years of advocating for Sub-Sequence, I’ve been experimenting with the additional eight skill points granted to us by GBX and come up with a build that doesn’t use it. Don’t worry, I still love SS and I’ll still argue a case for it! This build is centred around using a Rough Rider shield and Trickster COM, hence the bad name because I’m bad at coming up with names for my builds. But I am good at making builds, so strap yourselves in ladies and gentlebandits and prepare for a long read! I recommend bookmarking this thread so you can check back later 
Onward, seeing eye minion!
SKILLS
https://bl2skills.com/siren.html#055451350045055100104550510501
MOTION:
Accelerate: 5 points - These are mostly placeholder points to move us further down the tree. I usually prioritise Ward over Accelerate, but since we’ll be using a Rough Rider there’s no need for it. Besides, extra damage is always nice, and 15% is a decent increase.
Suspension: 5 points - An extra 2.5 seconds to Phaselock duration means 2.5 seconds more crowd control and skills that activate while Phaselock is active, most notably Wreck.
Kinetic Reflection: 4+6 points - This is one of the most important skills to the build. We only have four points here because of the COM we’ll be using adding +6, 10 points gives us 100% damage reduction from bullets while the skill is active so you’ll want it active often, and only investing 4 points means an extra point for other skills. The idea here is to use Kinetic Reflection to keep momentum while Phaselock is on cooldown, playing aggressively while the damage reduction is active.
Fleet: 5 points - A core skill to this build. Since we’re using a Rough Rider, Fleet will always be active, and 50% movement speed allows us to keep momentum during cooldown to take full advantage of active kill skills. This is a fast paced build, increased movement speed allows you to maintain momentum and play as aggressively as possible.
Converge: Minor capstone - A staple skill to any Maya build, Converge provides the only form of crowd control in the game outside of singularity grenades. It goes without saying that having all of your enemies in one place makes them easier to kill.
Inertia: 3 points - Although we’re not using a shield, 30% reload speed after a kill makes this a valuable skill for keeping momentum. I usually invest 5 points in this skill, unfortunately we don’t have enough leftover points for full investment and I value other skills in this tree over the usually important Inertia. Still a good skill for an aggressive build, 3 points provide enough of an increase to reload speed to make it a valuable kill skill even without a shield.
Quicken: 5 points - 5 points here is very important. With full investment in Quicken and a Bone of the Ancients relic, Phaselock will cool down in 7 seconds, which is the duration of kill skills. This means that if you’re unable to get a kill between Phaselocks, you’ll have your kill skills active until the next one, and kill skills are very important to this build.
HARMONY:
Mind’s Eye: 4 points - These are placeholder points. You can invest these points anywhere in the tree, or add another point for max investment. 20% critical hit damage is a nice damage bonus either way.
Sweet Release: 5 points - This is a solid skill for the build. Up to 75% healing after a Phaselock helps you keep up momentum when Phaselock ends (assuming you killed the Phaselocked enemy) and if you play co-op it can heal your teammates to keep up their momentum too. This build has a lot of healing so Sweet Release isn’t necessary, but since we have heavy investment in Harmony it’s worth the points.
Wreck: 5 points - A staple skill for any Maya build. 50% fire rate and 30% damage while Phaselock is active is a huge burst of DPS, there’s never any reason not to take it and always every reason to spend 5 points. We’ll be getting this burst DPS for up to 7.5 seconds, every 7 seconds. Don’t not invest in skill.
Elated: 5 points - Not a commonly used skill, 5% healing per second for the team during Phaselock can equal up to 37.5% total healing from a full duration. Considering enemy damage scaling at OP10, this usually wont be enough to keep you alive through DoT or get you back above health gate under heavy fire, but your friends will appreciate it and we need the points to advance further down the tree.
Res: Minor capstone - If you only play solo, you’ll have no need for this skill and can invest the point to max out Mind’s Eye instead. I mostly play solo, but when I do play co-op I don’t want to forget about it or have to respec. For co-op players this is a staple and probably Maya’s most important skill.
Life Tap: 1+5 points - This is one of the most important skills for this build. With +5 from our COM, 1 point gives you 7.2% life steal while Life Tap is active. Since this build is based around fast paced gameplay, Life Tap combined with Kinetic Reflection will allow you to grab momentum after a kill and play hyper aggressively. While Life Tap is active, take advantage of the seven second kill skill duration to chain kills and refresh the duration. If you can’t get another kill after Phaselock ends, Life Tap and other kill skills will be active until Phaselock cools down so you’ll never lose momentum after the first kill. Taking do damage from bullets and leeching 7.2% health from all damage you inflict will keep you healthy in bandit heavy areas, where this build shines.
CATACLYSM:
Flicker: 4 points - Placeholder points. With Maya’s ability to slag with Ruin, this skill isn’t very important, but an increased chance to slag while Phaselock is on cooldown means less time applying slag. Not essential, and the difference is marginal. These points can be spent elsewhere.
Foresight: 5 points - Another staple skill, as many in this tree are. More time between reloads and faster reloads means more DPS. No reason to not fully invest in this skill.
Immolate: 5 points - A situational skill, but fantastic for getting second winds against fleshy enemies when you don’t have/use a launcher. Going down happens, so you may as well be prepared to get back up.
Chain Reaction: 5 points - Yet another staple skill. Ricocheting bullets means more DPS and the chance to kill multiple targets. Don’t not invest in this skill, ever.
Cloud Kill: Minor capstone - Remember when Cloud Kill scaled poorly in UVHM and did almost nothing? That ended in late 2015, since then Cloud Kill scales almost too well even at OP10 and has become a Maya staple. Phaselock an enemy, shoot them once to tag them with Cloud Kill, kill everything else and watch Cloud Kill do the rest. Or don’t watch, because you’ll be busy killing everything else while the Phaselocked enemy melts.
Reaper: 5 points - +40% damage to enemies with over 50% health is a huge DPS increase against enemies with large health pools like badasses and bosses, and can allow you to one-shot-kill a lot of squishies with high powered weapons like snipers and shotguns.
Ruin: Capstone - Probably Maya’s best skill. Guaranteed slag on everything except Haderax, and it activates slightly after Converge meaning enemies get pulled toward Phaselock and then slagged so you don’t have to.
ALTERNATE SKILLS
Thoughtlock: This skill is purely preferential, I’m not fond of it myself but if you are you can take a point from Inertia. Considering the nature of this build, Thoughtlock synergises nicely, and if you want to increase the duration Phaselock without the drawback of the listed increased cooldown that @sammantixbb recently informed me does not apply, this is the skill for you. I never use Thoughtlock so I didn’t even know this, but I’m going to start trying it with this build!
Blight Phoenix: This skill synergises very well with Life Tap and the general playstyle of this build. You’ll be all up in the faces of your enemies which is right where you want to be for Blight Phoenix to deal damage and provide healing through Life Tap. One point is enough, but if you don’t care for Flicker you can invest four.
GEAR
THE GUNS
Pimpernel: 
- The Pimpernel is one of the better snipers in the game, and one of the best guns on Maya. Huge single target damage boosted by Wreck and Reaper makes this a potent one-shot-kill weapon, and a decent fire rate for such a powerful weapon further boosted by Wreck makes it capable of one-shotting squishies and chunking heavies caught in Phaselock. Enemies held in place are particular susceptible to the Pimpernel’s “sweet spot”.
My preferred parts are a Maliwan grip, Dahl or Hyperion stock, Hyperion scope, and the “Barking” (damage accessory) prefix.
Butcher: Corrosive - The Butcher has very high DPS, further boosted by its chance to add ammo to the mag rather than consume it. it has a low pellet count, high fire rate, and only consumes one ammo per shot, when it does consume. I find it more effective at killing Loaders without crit joints, such as SGT and RPG variants, than a Pimpernel, and although not as good at neutralising fliers as the Conference Call it still gets the job done and has higher DPS overall against general mobs.
My preferred parts are a Hyperion grip, Hyperion stock, Torgue sight, and Practicable (foregrip accessory) prefix that adds two extra pellets at no extra cost to ammo.
Unkempt Harold: 
- We all know this one so it needs no further introduction. Seven gyrojets at the cost of three ammo, deep mag and fast reload speed with a decent fire rate. Best used at close range due to its horizontal spread, which is where we’ll be spending a lot of our time.
My preferred parts are a Torgue grip and sight, and either a Hard (damage accessory) or Double Penetrating (double shot accessory) prefix.
Slagga: Since we’ll be playing aggressively while on cooldown, having a slagging tool when Ruin isn’t available is important for keeping up momentum.
My preferred parts are a Maliwan or Bandit grip grip, Dahl or Hyperion stock, and Bullets go Fasterified (fire rate accessory) prefix. Any sight will do as you’ll only be hip firing this gun to apply slag.
SHIELD, GRENADE, RELIC AND COM
Rough Rider: Not usually on my list of recommended gear for Maya, the Rough Rider is the core of this build so we can keep Fleet active. This build doesn’t really work with any other shield, especially since we have points in Inertia.
Transfusion Grenade: Slag - Choosing a grenade mod for this build was tough, ultimately I wanted something that wouldn’t kill me since I’m all up in the faces of my enemies and in range of my own grenades. A Transfusion Grenade does the exact opposite, and it’s a great slagging tool which can free up your fourth weapon slot for another damaging weapon or a launcher, if you want one.
Slag, Longbow with a 0.0 fuse time, of course.
Bone of the Ancients: The cooldown bonus for equipping this relic is important to any build, particularly this one, and the elemental damage is a multiplicative increase that applies to gun damage not just DoT. One of the best relics in the game and easy to farm, you should carry several on every character. Switch elements at will depending on what you need and what enemies you’ll be facing.
Mirrored Trickster: Most Trickster builds use a Blurred Trickster for +6 in Chain Reaction, but this build uses a Mirrored Trickster that adds +5 in Life Tap. If you really want more points in Chain Reaction, you could use a purple rarity Trickster COM with whatever stat distribution you prefer, but you may need to add an extra point or two to Kinetic Reflection if you still want the 100% damage reduction from bullets while it’s active.
ALTERNATE GEAR
Lyuda: If you’re more of a precision sniper then the Lyuda is probably more to your taste than a Pimpernel. Larger mag, higher fire rate, better accuracy, critical hit multiplier. The Lyuda is one of the best snipers in the game, and Maya has all the tools necessary to make great use of it. It’s also one of my favourite guns.
My recommended parts are a Vladof grip, Dahl or Hyperion stock, and Vladof scope, as I like to use it in close-mid range and don’t hip fire it as often as I do the Pimpernel. If you prefer long range sniping, opt for a Hyperion scope instead.
Conference Call: I prefer to use a Butcher with this build, but the Conference Call does some things that the Butcher can’t. It’s great against GUN Loaders and other variants with crit joints, excellent against Constructors when Wreck and Chain Reaction are active, and better at taking down fliers, in particular Buzzards. Despite that, it lacks the raw DPS that the Butcher offers and is less effective against enemies with smaller hitboxes and only one crit. This choice really comes down to preference, but I always carry both so I can switch between the two if I need to.
My recommended parts are the same as on the Butcher. Hyperion grip and stock, Torgue sight, and Practicable (foregrip accessory) prefix.
Tattler: A very high DPS SMG that’s best used at close range, which is exactly where we want to be once our kill skills are active. It has a very deep mag but slow reload speed, so it benefits greatly from Foresight and to a lesser extent Inertia, and it has a fixed fire rate. Three pellets at the cost of one, it’s basically a better Slagga that comes in all elements. If you don’t want a slagging weapon, use a Tattler in its place. This gun is more than capable of killing unslagged enemies and chewing through the shields of slagged enemies without the need of a shock element, but since this build lacks a shock weapon you could use one as a shield stripper.
My recommended parts are a Bandit grip, Dahl or Hyperion stock, and any sight since you’ll be hip firing. The accessory is fixed, as is the fire rate.
Grog Nozzle: A good alternative to the Slagga if you prefer having a Moxxi weapon handy, a high slag chance and 65% passive life steal make this one of the most sought after and overused weapons in the game. Being a mission item you don’t even have to do anything to get one.
If you have, uh, “other means” of acquiring one, my recommended parts are a Maliwan grip and sight, and Binary (double shot) prefix.
Flame of the Firehawk: Fleet and Life Tap make this an excellent choice of shield, but if you insist on using it you’ll have to find somewhere else to invest the three points we have in Inertia. I find the Flame of the Firehawk to be inconsistent as if it starts charging, you have to let it charge to full capacity, which can sap momentum. Being without the pulsing novas leaves you vulnerable as you wont have the extra health and damage reduction the Rough Rider provides. I don’t recommend it, but if you don’t like or want Rough Rider then this is a good alternative.
As with most shields, Maliwan parts are best for maximum nova radius and damage.
Blurred/Mirrored Trickster: If you value Chain Reaction more than an extra point or two in Kinetic Reflection, you could use a purple rarity COM instead. Losing a point in Life Tap isn’t such a big deal, as 6% life steal is still a good amount considering the damage scaling at OP10.
PLAYSTYLE
This is a situational build that requires a certain playstyle to be effective. The general idea is to chain kills, keeping Kinetic Reflection and Life Tap active while Phaselock is on cooldown, and using a slag weapon or grenade to slag enemies when you don’t have access to Ruin. Fleet helps keep up momentum, allowing you to move quickly between groups of enemies to take full advantage of active kill skills. We want to keep enemies held in Phaselock for as long as possible to take full advantage of Wreck and Chain Reaction, and keep a priority target subdued and out of the fight for the full duration, then kill them before Phaselock expires to proc Sweet Release if Chain Reaction hasn’t killed them by then and you don’t have your kill skills active yet. Between Phaselocks you’ll be using your slag weapon or grenade to slag and kill enemies while Kinetic Reflection and Life Tap are active so you can continue chaining kills to keep your momentum up. This requires a hyper aggressive playstyle, unlike a more traditionally conservative Maya build that typically works best in bursts between Phaselocks.
This build works best against bandits and well against Hyperion bots, but isn’t very good against creatures as we get little use out of Kinetic Reflection in areas like the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve and none in the Caustic Caverns, effectively rendering one the core skills to this build useless. It’s also not a very good build for DigiPeak, as there’s a mixture of creatures and other enemies that deal damage through means other than bullets. That, and you’ll typically want to use The Bee for at least the bosses on the Peak, where kill skills wont be as effective and Ward is invaluable.
OUTRO
I’m even worse at outros than I am at intros, and I don’t think this guide really needs one, so here’s a link to my old build if you prefer using legendary class mods and like Sub-Sequence, which you should. Cheers for reading, happy vault hunting travelers!
