OP Levelling Advice for Maya

shure · September 29, 2015, 11:28am

I’ve been running around enjoying playing Maya and collecting gear at l72 but have gotten to the stage where I’m looking for a greater challenge. I’ve just leveled to OP2 and upgraded things like my Antagonist, Florentine and The Bee, but am looking for advice / suggestions from those who have done it on what recommended strategy to use to get to OP8 (I figure once I’ve started I may as well go all the way!). Specifically I’m wondering whether players reset all quests every two or three levels to get Uniques such as the Pimpernel, or just bit the bullet and plough through the OP levels just grabbing gear along the way.

Staple items which have gotten me this far include:

L72 DPUH (with Antagonist)
L72 Crammed UH (with The Bee)
L1 Impetuous Florentine (my go-to weapon)
L72 Barking Pimpernel (Corrosive)
L72 Expeditious Thunderball Fists
L1 Antagonist
L1 Blast Proof The Bee
L72 Leg Siren (49% Cooldown, 33% Gun Damage)
L72 Chain Lightening
L65 Bone of the Ancients (Shock 34%, Cooldown 40.0%)

So far the above is all I have used. In addition I have the following in my backpack:

Grenades:
L72 MM (haven’t really needed)
L72 Homing Bonus Package

Relics:
L72 Bone (33% Fire, 39.8% Cooldown)
L71 Bone (30% Corrosive, 37.4% Cooldown)

ARs:
L2 Nifed Sawbar (will be sorry to lose that one!)
L1 Breach Veruc
L71 Attack Veruc (Shock)
L72 Slippery Kerblaster
L72 Resolute Blaster (Corrosive)
L72 Sapping Scorpio

Pistols:
L72 Tactical Hornet

R/L
L71 Punitory Pyrophobia
L72 derp Duuurp! (4M damage)

Shotguns:
L72 Potential Heartbreaker
L72 Potential Facetime (Corrosive)

SMGs:
L71 Quality Avenger (Shock, keep for novelty value)
L72 Apt Hellfire
L72 Social Plasma Caster (Corrosive)
L71 Sapping Sand Hawk (Shock)

SRs:
L1 Dobby White Death (Slag)
L72 Fashionable Volcano

I appreciate most of these apart from the Relics will likely be binned. Will be sad to see some go especially things like the Thunderball Fists which took me forever to get. But I’m a little nervous about attempting the next OP Levels without a Pimp or the TF as they’ve single-handedly dealt with all the bots and Surveyors. The Antagonist and Florentine are easy to replace, of course.

So what do people do mostly? Reset the quests to upgrade e.g. the Pimps periodically? Or can you recommend other gear to get for the higher levels? I’ve no problem doing all quests again and will definitely do it when / if I get to OP8 to get the right gear in the right flavours I want (set of Pimps, definitely!).

Sorry for the long list but wanted to get it all in there to give you an idea of my playing experience. Appreciate any advice

WinterschneeFee · September 29, 2015, 12:59pm

Sand Hawk in Fire and Corrosive on any Level (although the higher the better) + Bee at most minus 2 levels of your current OPLevel. + an appropriate Bone.
Pimpernels of the same elements can also be good but Sand Hawk abuse is just the least time consuming way overall. A Shock Pimp will be able to kill surveyors pretty well for a long time. You may want to farm another one if you feel the Badasses are bothering you.
A UH (Damage prefix is good, DP is better. Just focusing on one can be more time consuming than it needs to be) in case of FFYL and other emergencies. Around two levels is good enough for a DPUH but should be on level for other prefixes.

For cheap heals nothing beats Chain Reaction and Grog.

Legendary Binder is probably the best COM to use thanks to (slightly) quicker cooldown and the Reaper boost.
Legendary Siren is also good but lacks the DPS gained from Wreck and Reaper.

Thoughtlock can have it’s uses here as it increases phaselock duration and places aggro elsewhere giving you more time for your Bee without sacrificing cooldown. The downside is that enemies aren’t as easy to hit anymore (really useful against all 4 Assassins though) and Chain Reaction doesn’t work as well (which is actually pretty good for Dukino’s Mom as you won’t risk the midgets dying).
Sub-Sequence works especially well thanks to the open areas. Surveyors could hinder that however but those should be your first priority anyway.

All this really cuts down on farming time but if you feel safer using on level gear you are of course free to reset more often. If the Sand Hawks are on level Legendary Cat eats enemies without the Bee easily (for Dukino’s Mom, Saturn and OMGWTH you still want the Bee though).
This is how I easily went through each level, it’s just all about keeping the Bee up.

Of course this might not work for you but it’s my quick and rather cheap way.

Poisd2Strike · September 30, 2015, 3:38am

I responded, in some detail, to a similar thread here: What mod should my siren use? including the logic behind my choices. I will summarize here.

As long as you have level 72 gear when starting DigiStruct Peak, you should be okay for the 1st few OP levels. You might want to consider farming again once you get to OP4. For my DigiStruct Peak runs and when I help people thru DigiStruct Peak, I use my Siren Build (in my 'signature) paired with a Legendary Siren COM, Bone of the Ancients (Fire) Relic, and either Antagonist (most of the time) or Blockade shield. I typically equip a Longbow Storm Front (Shock) or Longbow Quasar (Shock) grenade.

With the Legendary Siren COM I only put 1 point in Mind’s Eye and 1 point in Accelerate. You don’t really need more than 5 or 6 points in those skills, and having too many points can negatively impact the performance of some weapons like the Pimpernel. I only put one point into Restoration. since healthgate can become an issue and since it is possible to fully heal another player with only 1 point in Restoration (depending upon the weapon used).

Weapon loadout varies somewhat, but usually consists of a Flying Sand Hawk (Fire), React Hornet (Corrosive), Rustler’s Twister (Shock) and Practicable Interfacer (Fire). However, if I need to deal with Turrets at range, I will temporarily swapout a Pimpernel (Corrosive) or White Death (Corrosive) for the Practicable Interfacer (Fire). The Hornet (Corrosive) is ideal for dealing with Loaders and especially Surveyors, is usually the only Corrosive weapon I use at DP (and even in normal gameplay) and is ridiculously easy to farm from Knuckledragger.

I recommend getting help with your DigiStruct Peak runs, if possible. If you are planning on soloing the whole way thru DigiStruct Peak, you will likely have to rely on the Bee Shield. Keeping the Bee shield up and avoiding getting into FFYL could potentially become an issue, even with Ward and Inertia. So, like @BlackHeartV stated above a Chain Lightning and Grog Nozzle would probably be beneficial. Personally, I shudder at the thought of Maya relying on the Bee shield and a weapon (or weapons) for healing. Also, you might want to consider offering some of the gear you no longer need in trade. You could always create a trade thread in the section for your gaming platform. That way, you might not have to spend as much time farming for new gear as you increase your OP levels. Good luck!

shure · September 30, 2015, 7:08am

Some good advice, thanks. So, reset quests at OP4, potentially, if I have understood the above correctly. The first two OP levels weren’t too difficult so fingers crossed!

I appreciate the advice on getting assistance. It may have to come to that but for the moment I plan on going it solo. I’ve only ever played solo in the 2.5K hours I’ve put in and just want the satisfaction of doing it myself. Whether that will be possible on the higher OP levels is another matter!

The one I will miss most will be the Thunderball Fists. It’s a pig to farm but is by far the best weapon I’ve ever used against the Surveyors. I do Bee on the Peak but usually only until the final area with the Assassins, when I switch to the Antagonist. So far it’s been pretty easy to hang back and take everything out at my leisure but I imagine that might change the further I go?

Sounds like I need to do some intensive Bar Room brawling to bleed them dry for Torgue Tokens before I do my reset. Will likewise have to beat up poor Uncle Pete for the Seraph crystals, as there’s no way I’m attempting any runs without my Florentines and Antagonists.

Thanks for the advice!