Maya solo build - early game

[Pheare]

Hi

Am thinking of giving BL2 another go. Played a bit (only lvl 23) as Gaige a year or so back and want to give the Siren a try.

I see lots of information out that about Maya builds, but they all seem to show what the build should look like at level 72.

I am looking for any insight on where to put points from levels 1 to 30 or so. And what the best early game weapons (specific weapon or weapon type) and shields are for Maya.

As title mentions, looking for a solo build.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[MR_PE4R]

I'm new to BL2 and was speccing into phaselock at first, but switched to cloud kill build and am wrecking face. I'm no expert, but Cataclysm is working wonders for me.

[Zen_Disaster]

Originally posted by Pheare:

Hi

Am thinking of giving BL2 another go. Played a bit (only lvl 23) as Gaige a year or so back and want to give the Siren a try.

I see lots of information out that about Maya builds, but they all seem to show what the build should look like at level 72.

I am looking for any insight on where to put points from levels 1 to 30 or so. And what the best early game weapons (specific weapon or weapon type) and shields are for Maya.

As title mentions, looking for a solo build.

Thanks for any suggestions.

There's no real "strategy" involved in how to allocate for less than say lvl 50 UVHM cos in those lower levels it's always a big race to one's capstones. Get Ruin first and without fail. Starter lvl 50 Solo Maya build http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#543001000043350000004402410200

I'd link you elsewhere but I know no one who posts builds below 72. This can be a useful list of Top Solo Maya builds for bookmarking if you like https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/best-solo-maya-build/433334

[HiTmAn]

right tree go down to ruin.... do not use sweet realese cz its bugged u draw all enemies agroo on u

[Zen_Disaster]

Originally posted by HiTmAn:

right tree go down to ruin.... do not use sweet realese cz its bugged u draw all enemies agroo on u

SR has never been bugged for me or anyone else I know who's played Maya for 1,000's of hours on a few platforms. It works pretty good and has always been an essential Siren Row 1 skill for me. All classes including Maya have some skills that'll deal stuff that'll aggro enemies - I don't know anyway around this for Maya in solo play.

[z00t]

This is what I would have for a level 30 Maya, solo, not co-op.

http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#433001000032040000001400000000

Motion tree
Shield buffs, phaselock buffs, down to Converge
Harmony
Some survivability and some damage.
Cataclysm
Magazine and reload increases

At level 40 I would have something like this

http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#544001000032050000002503010000

Motion and Harmony, more of the same. Cataclysm for more damage

Level 50

http://bl2skills.com/siren.html#544001000032052000002504410300

More damage basically.

You can experiment moving points around to learn what works for you and what doesn't.

As far as weapons go, Maya can use them all pretty well. As always, the game will drop weapons differently each time. Try them out and see how it goes.
Sniper rifles - she is second only to Zer0 when it comes to making these work. Maliwan, Jakobs, Vladof and possibly Dahl if you don't mind the burst fire.
Smg - especially with a Cat class mod
Pistols - Harold, other Torgue pistols, Vladof, Jakobs, Maliwan... lots of choices
AR - these are generally underpowered in this game apart from a few. Jakobs, Vladof, Dahl - try them out as you find them.
Shotguns - Jakobs coach guns, quads, Striker for certain enemies, Torgue etc etc. Lots of shotguns to try out

Shields. Again it depeds on what the game gives you. Tortoise shields work well if you want large shields and don't mind slow recharge and reduced health. It is a personal choice, try them and see. I personally favour fast shields over high capacity but slow ones.

Class mods. With Maya I generally have a Nurse mod in my backpack for the early game for the occasions I need to back off and regen some health. It takes a while before you can get down far enough in the Harmony tree to automatically regen health. Warder, Matriarch, Fox etc. Try them out and see.

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

I would throw in a few points into Sweet Release and then concentrate on Motion tree. I'm not saying that the Cataclysm isn't good. For something like Ruin to be really good, you need Converge so that you can pull enemies together.

In the Motion tree, I would go Accelerate, Suspension, Converge, 4 pts into Ward, 5 pts into Kinetic Reflection. Take all 5 pts into Sub-Sequence and then the capstone of Thoughtlock.
That would put you at level 33.

What that gives you is a much longer Phaselock of +6.5 seconds. It also has a 100% chance of jumping when when the phaselocked enemy dies. It's not uncommon to have the phaselock jump several times. Every time it does it pulls enemies closer together. Every time a phaselocked enemy dies it releases a couple of SR orbs. If you kill 4 phaselocked enemies, that is 8 orbs that will be released in one phaselock with just 2 pts into Sweet Release.

As far as cooldowns. Thougtlock say that it adds 3 seconds. It doesn't. I have no idea why Gearbox has not changed the description after this amount of time. I didn't take Quicken and it is just a matter of personal preference. There are coms and relics that shorten the cooldowns. If you use either or both of those, Quicken is really of little use. I would rather throw those 5 pts into Kinetic Reflection.

At around level 44, you can respec and take go into the Cataclysm tree to get Ruin and enough points to get Converge in the Motion tree and also have a couple of points into Sweet Release. Then I would work my way back to Sub-Sequence and Thoughtlock.

[Pheare]

Thanks for all the tips and links. Played a few hours yesterday. So far just one point in Sweet Release and one point in Foresight. Will have to give some more thought whether I want to start off on Cataclysm or Motion. Or even pump a few more in Harmony. Decisions, decsions.

Cloud kill does seem pretty sweet. Combined with Ruin and Converge would be niiice.

I have to remember to use phaselock, sometime I get so into things I forget about it. And then when I do use it, got to decide to kill what is phaselocked or focus on the other dudes.