Help decide! Axton or Maya

[Kr/\zy]

I got Borderlands 2 two weeks ago and got to level 20 with Maya. Until now, it wasn't hard (except for the warden battle) but now that i saw different gameplays i can't decide which one of the two to use:

- Axton seems the most versatile and his turret/s is a godsend to solo players like me. I am concerned about their damage and health at higer levels: i don't need a turret that at lvl 61 deals extremely poor damage and get destroyed in 3 hits. Axton players please descrive how the turrets are performing (damage and health) on TVHM and UVHM.

- Maya is fun and surely effective, but from what i saw 'till now, the elemental DoT damage is getting always less effective, and so i was concerned about her best skill: Ruin. Is ruin+converge effective on later levels?

I like both of the characters and both of them seem to be a good end game choice, and both have slag skills to help them shine. Since i am playing solo, which one should i choose in order to avoid struggling on later levels?

PS I just got to the highlands with maya and the creatures that can turn invisible are wrecking me out, one of the reasons i posted this.

[Kambien]

Axton is more of a "Jack of All Master of None" player. He's good at a lot of things but doesn't stand out in any one thing. I am not at the end game yet on my first playthrough (working my way through TVHM) but I read that Axton is rather powerful doing an end game explosives build.

I don't know anything about Maya, all I have is Axton. Hope this helps a bit!

[No.]

Ruin + converge is a beastly combination at any level.
Your turret isn't meant to do damage, but to slag and support.

I've got both Maya and recently Axton to OP8. It was way easier with Maya, simply because phaselock is the most ridiculous action skill out there.

The Siren is more versatile, and can be speced into a murder machine that eats through anything and everything on any difficulty. Her gear is easy to acquire. The Commando can also be speced into high damage, although the DPS will be lower than that of the Siren, but still good enough to roam around at OP8 without issues. The key difference is their action skills, and Maya's one is better for solo play.

As for not struggling on later levels, that's entirelly a matter of having decent gear and having a bit of skill. Any character can do well on solo UVHM, it's just that some are easier than others.

Edit: As for dealing with stalkers with Maya, you can phaselock them when they are not camouflaged. Singularity shock grenades also do great, since they lose their ability to cloack once their shields are down. Personally, I just run past stalkers altogether when playing solo; they're annoying, time-consuming, and the experience they give doesn't make up for the tedious battles.

[Kr/\zy]

Originally posted by No:

Ruin + converge is a beastly combination at any level.
Your turret isn't meant to do damage, but to slag and support.

I've got both Maya and recently Axton to OP8. It was way easier with Maya, simply because phaselock is the most ridiculous action skill out there.

The Siren is more versatile, and can be speced into a murder machine that eats through anything and everything on any difficulty. Her gear is easy to acquire. The Commando can also be speced into high damage, although the DPS will be lower than that of the Siren, but still good enough to roam around at OP8 without issues. The key difference is their action skills, and Maya's one is better for solo play.

As for not struggling on later levels, that's entirelly a matter of having decent gear and having a bit of skill. Any character can do well on solo UVHM, it's just that some are easier than others.

Edit: As for dealing with stalkers with Maya, you can phaselock them when they are not camouflaged. Singularity shock grenades also do great, since they lose their ability to cloack once their shields are down. Personally, I just run past stalkers altogether when playing solo; they're annoying, time-consuming, and the experience they give doesn't make up for the tedious battles.

Thanks a lot! I'll go on with the siren then first. I've just started axton too, and i must say that i already see the difference: with Maya i've killed doc mercy in few seconds by using phaselock on him, while with Axton i've died once because doc destroyed his turret in few shots -.-
But i think that the warden battle is easier with him, as he have the turret that gets the attention of the robots while you wreck warden's eye.

[z00t]

Why not play with both? Start a commando and get him to the same sort of level as Maya so you have some idea of what he is like.

I have an OP8 siren and my commando is currently OP5. I mostly play solo.
Turrets in UVHM and beyond do not cause that much damage. They do slag, and are great distractions. If you have something like magnetic and longbow, you can stick the turrets to walls at quite a distance, and out of the reach of the enemies, who will concentrate on them, allowing you to deal with the enemies. Very effective.

If you like causing lots of damage, there is Salvador, not a particularly complex character, just a bit of a beast. Then there is Gaige. Both can be absolutely deadly. Having your own murderous robot is great fun as well. When Gaige has decent Anarchy stacks, enemies don't just die, they very often Splash.

Experiment with the different characters. See what suits you.

[No.]

Originally posted by Kr/\zy:

Thanks a lot! I'll go on with the siren then first. I've just started axton too, and i must say that i already see the difference: with Maya i've killed doc mercy in few seconds by using phaselock on him, while with Axton i've died once because doc destroyed his turret in few shots -.-
But i think that the warden battle is easier with him, as he have the turret that gets the attention of the robots while you wreck warden's eye.

That's a good point; I've found it easier to deal with phaselock-immune bosses -ie; Pete- while solo playing with Axton than with solo Maya, since the turret allows the Commando to just stand there and empty magazine after magazine on the face of the enemy, while Maya is mostly hit-and-run when fighting phaselock immune enemies. That said, I think the Siren's skill outperforms a turret for solo mobbing in general.

All characters have their strenghts and weaknesses. As Z00t said; it's a matter of finding the one that suits you.

[Fatty]

I'll throw my 2 cents in here, I have never used any other character but Axton.
The turrets become a mouse trap if used correctly.
Throw one to the left, then one to the right a little, then throw a singularity
grenade or 2 right between them.... That will suck in all near by enemies right
between your 2 turrets ... The turrets are hammering them, the singularity is doing
it's damage, and you can stand there and blast thier butts with whatever weapon
you choose :-) I have taken out HORDS all at once like that !
There are MANY uses for the turrets, be creative and experiment.

P.S. Seems from what I have seen, that sirens are very strong with smg's too.
Almost everyone of them tote around those Sandhawks and use frequently.

[Clover]

I also went with mya as my starter, then switched to Zer0 once i got a better understanding...hes a good choice once you start getting into TVHM, but salvador stands as my favorite and by far most rewarding chracter to lvl to the cap...just look up buff money shot and youll understand....but i hated play axton, to much sitting not enough doing

[FreFlo [TTV]]

Maya is pretty funny, love her laugh, she's the team saver.
Axton isn't as much fun but once he gets his speed skill he is gooder.

[Carcaroff]

For UVHM, i am loving my Maya...here slag is necessary, and she has 2 abilities for it, 1 is the active skill, so i can avoid the boring switching between weapons, and i was able to reach level 61 and complete the game for the third run without even touching a slag weapon.
Plus, for the elemental damage, it's strong in normal mode, but, especially in UVHM, it becomes very useful, cause it's important to use the right element on the enemies, and the elemental chance is so great it almost applies everytime.

[Kr/\zy]

Axton can be boring sometimes, i agree. The very first time i got to lvl 5, i've dropped it right in front of a bunch of bullymongs, and at the end of the fight i realised that i've used just 6 pistol rounds, but watching it wreck them was pretty cool ( it will get old soon i guess).
Maya is an all-arounder in my opinion: phaselock as often as you can and if it can't be phaselocked it gets damaged instead. This ability saved me dozens of times, expecially from badasses goliaths/savages.

Just tried out the mechromancer too ( i'm starting to get addicted to this game lol) and it's kinda meh. The DT seems to have some AI and clipping issues, plus anarchy seems something kinda hard to rely onto, and it is a main tree, just like cata for siren. Although her quotes and skins are awesome: noob! mega kill!

[z00t]

Originally posted by Kr/\zy:

Just tried out the mechromancer too ( i'm starting to get addicted to this game lol) and it's kinda meh. The DT seems to have some AI and clipping issues, plus anarchy seems something kinda hard to rely onto, and it is a main tree, just like cata for siren. Although her quotes and skins are awesome: noob! mega kill!

At the start, Anarchy stacks are very easy to lose. Once you add more to that tree though, and spec into Discord, no more problem. The stacks will decay slowly, and you can stop the decay by deliberately manually reloading again. Yeah, there are some bot AI issues, but Gaige is a really fun character to play.

[Wayward]

Originally posted by z00t:

Originally posted by Kr/\zy:

Just tried out the mechromancer too ( i'm starting to get addicted to this game lol) and it's kinda meh. The DT seems to have some AI and clipping issues, plus anarchy seems something kinda hard to rely onto, and it is a main tree, just like cata for siren. Although her quotes and skins are awesome: noob! mega kill!

At the start, Anarchy stacks are very easy to lose. Once you add more to that tree though, and spec into Discord, no more problem. The stacks will decay slowly, and you can stop the decay by deliberately manually reloading again. Yeah, there are some bot AI issues, but Gaige is a really fun character to play.

And remember to put 5 points into Close Enough in the Best Friends Forever tree. As far as deathtrap goes, there are quite a few skills that are bugged (Buck it up for example, can recharge enemy shields), or others scale horribly (death from above).

[Kr/\zy]

I just saw a video of gaige with 600 stacks if anarchy and a shotgun...crazy damage, bullets ricochet everywhere and no need for aim. This is the BL2 legal aimbot. Maybe i'll try her someday without investing in DT, or just giving him the only 2 skills that aren't bugged: sharing is caring and explosive clap. Oh, and thanks for the inputs guys!

[Wayward]

Originally posted by Kr/\zy:

I just saw a video of gaige with 600 stacks if anarchy and a shotgun...crazy damage, bullets ricochet everywhere and no need for aim. This is the BL2 legal aimbot. Maybe i'll try her someday without investing in DT, or just giving him the only 2 skills that aren't bugged: sharing is caring and explosive clap. Oh, and thanks for the inputs guys!

I recommend you search for "borderlands 2 gaige backstory" on youtube, she probably have the best backstory of all chars so far in borderlands!

[TheQuietFront]

Maya.

Early game (Normal / TVHM) the characters are all pretty effective but Maya is a fantastic endgame character even if she is not as srong against some of the raid bosses.

She has some really great mods too:
Blurred Trickster - this can just destroy multiple enemies and is sometimes as effective as Zero's bore skill.
Breakneck Banshee (w/ Rough Rider shield)- This gives you an insane speed boost for when you want to just tear through areas really fast; it's fun.
Legenday Cat Mod - Makes SMG's unbelievable (especially the Sandhawk)

Maya is also the best support character in the game with her Res skill which allows her to revive players across the map by phaselocking them. She is also amazing to have in your team when you've got to deal with multiple badass surveyors in Digistruct.