Maya Skill Guide - Phaselocking and rocking

This is a decent Maya guide for everyone, who feels like their own build isn't working out anymore.
--13/6/26--It focuses on the Cataclysm tree, but I still put some points in the other trees aswell.
Further explanations for the different skills are given in the Guide section.

Introduction

Hey,

this is xTheSe7enQQ and I want to share my personal Maya Skill Tree with you.
I do NOT claim this to be THE best build out there, but it's a build that's at least functioning.
If you ever feel yourself get weaker and weaker as a Siren, I recommend you to at least try it out.

(there are some more little tips and Q/As at the end of this guide)

Maya Skill Tree

Here's a permalink to a skill calculator[www.bl2skills.com]

And here's the updated version for lvl. 61 Maya[www.bl2skills.com]


Motion Tree

• 5/5 Points in Accelerate - The raw damage boost is crucial and the increased bullet speed speeds up your combat (also good synergy with E-tech weapons]
  
• 5/5 Points in Suspension - Since you're skilling the Cataclysm Tree, you want that extra time on your phaselock
  
• 1/1 Points in Converge - This works like a singularity grenade and does great wonders with the provided AoE Disable
  
• 2/5 Points in Inertia - This is a nice little Kill Skill, which isn't really worth more than 1 or 2 points IMO.

Harmony Tree

• 5/5 Points in Sweet Release - This skill provides nice healthregen for you and your whole team. Essential on higher difficulties
  
• 1/5 Points in Wreck - Nice Phaselock bonus, but you'll use your phaselock mainly as disable and for the elemental effects. It's good and I'd probably put some more points into it after the Level Cap increase

Cataclysm Tree

• 5/5 Points in Flicker - I AM well aware of the misleading tooltip of this skill. The +30% effect isn't added to any weapon elemental chance, but multiplied to it. In my opinion that's still enough, to make it valuable and essential in your build. Your a cataclysm elemental siren after all.
  
• 5/5 Points in Foresight - Increases combat speed
  
• 5/5 Points in Helios - This is a great skill and one of the best things a siren could need. 5 points in this, no matter what you're playing.
  
• 4/5 Points in Chain Reaction - You don't really notice the effect of this skill, but it's a good one. For some deeper math, google the skill. It also synergizes well with your Suspension skill (increased Phaselock duration)
  
• 1/1 Points in Cloud Kill - Deals a lot of damage
  
• 5/5 Points in Reaper - Helps you slaughter the enemies a lot faster
  
• 1/1 Points in Ruin - This is THE BEST SKILL of the whole Siren class. Massive damage boost. One little shock effect is often enough to take down the enemies shield in a short time. Slagged enemies get increased damage - there's no point in saying more about how crucial this skill is. REALLY nice harmony between this skill, Converge (pull enemies) and Helios.

Tips and Q/As

You are not yet level 50 and you're still confused with your skills/build?
I recommend putting ONE early point in 'Sweet Release' for a source of healing and then either rushing the Motion tree down to CONVERGE as fast as possible, if you feel like getting killed too often and if your damage output is fair enough, or either rush down the Cataclysm tree down to RUIN for massive elemental damage. I recommend the latter one, because in earlier levels a lot of enemies tend to be health reliant and the maxed out Helios skill deals huge damage to those. Also getting Ruin will buff your damage a LOT, so taking this route shoudl be the best

Why don't you max out the Motion and the Harmony tree?
Well. Motion Tree? I just don't like the thoughtlock skill. You miss out on too much damage and sustain, if you're going down the motion tree. That's just about it. The Harmony tree is a decent tree and I'll probably put more points toward it after the level cap increase, but right now it's just not viable compared to the cataclysm damage output. If you got a decent group of friends to play with and you think about being a nice supporter - then go down there. I usually play with 2 other guys, but still think the damage/disable from Cata/Motion is a lot better than the Harmony tree. In my opinion the best (and most teamoriented) thing about the middle tree is the 'Res' skill. I used it until I got to level 50, just for the distant revive (it's not limited and an instant revive!). It's a great tool, especially if you're underleveld or carried by your coop-lobby

Why no Backdraft/Blight Phoenix and the legendary Phoenix shield you get from Moxxie?
I had those skills skilled for a long time and I used them until completing the 'Challange accepted' achievment for Jenkins farming. But at higher levels, those skills are just useless. Especially with 'the bee' you will do your best, to keep the enemies at a medium to large distance. You don't want them to get anywhere near you or else they'll just shoot you down/melee one-hit you.

Equipment?
I'm actually not really sure about that. I always got my Moxxie's good touch (unfortunately no bad touch :/ ) with me and that gun solely carried me up to level 50. Just get a new one, after completing some quests and gaining some levels. Really decent stats. Almost too good. Right now (doing DLCs and stuff) I'm using 'the Bee' and a '♥♥♥♥♥' as main source of damage and got a fast-shooting fireelemental colt on third perk (moxxie's is #2). The fourth weapon slot varies from snipers, over shotguns to rocket launchers.

Class mod/Artifact?
I'm using a +Fire damage/+Fire chance/+6 Helios/+5 Reaper class mod, since we don't benefit that much from the terramorphus class mod and a class mdo like this fits in our playstyle. For farming and looting I usually go with the increased magical find chance artefact, since it really benefits the outcome of our farming (we did some research about that in several crowd sourcing projects in the r/borderlands subreddit and it DOES pay off). Otherwise I'm also using a fire amplifieing artefact to boost my fire damage even more.

[ApeWithPC]

My maya is set up a lot like this, Ruin + Converge really rocks.

[Sanji]

lvl 72 pls :d

[dirk13]

I needed to sort of re-eval my siren now that I'm in UVHM and all, and your guide did seem pretty solid. I was noting the absence of wreck, but I suppose with accelerate that would be mildly redundant. However, Inertia and Kinetic reflection gone? I thought those were important? Particularly Kinetic reflection supplementing that super long phaselock stuff?

I wish I could divert points from Flicker or something (which at the moment I have no points into, and I guess have the 5 in blight phoenix instead...), but it sounds like to get the bare minimum 25 you kind of need to choose :/ . Given how automatic the elemental effects generally seem to be Flicker did seem mildly useless.

[Teewurst]

nice guide

[Firebird VII]

Fiery explosions after shields are depleted are nice, but as a Siren (esp. with a Bee shield), you want to avoid getting too close to your enemies anyway, so it should be of little to no use. And at least for me, the skill does more damage to me than to my foes, since it also damages barrels and I've killed myself dozens of times just by hitting a shock barrel with the fiery explosiuon from Backdraft. Blight Phoenix: Same as above - you want to stay out of enemy melee range, which makes this skill pretty useless - even though it was one of the best skills in Borderlands 1.

Hope this helps a little bit, and if you have more questionst, just feel free to ask away.



Damned 1000 letters restriction :p

[Firebird VII]

Helios: Helios is great the first playthrough and mediocre in the second one. 1. The fire damage is a good bonus and especially in the first playthough against non-resistant enemies, it's actually one of your biggest damage outputs. I really like the damage and wouldn't want to be without it. 2. You definitely want to go all the way down the Cataclysm tree. And for getting to "Ruin", you need at least 25 Skill points in the tree. Other options instead of Helios: Immolate, Backdraft, Blight Phoenix and Chain Reaction (that one doesn't really count, because we already got 4 points in that one). Immolate: Not to effective, especially against higher level playthroughs. And you usually aim for not even getting into FFYL-mode, so yeah - not the best skill sink. Backdraft: The melee damage is pretty much useless IMO, because.. you are a Siren. If you want to melee, then go Zero.

------continues above--------

[Firebird VII]

Well, not quite.
Suspension: I definitely need that one. Why? 1. For enemies with big amounts of hp so they stay up there in the air, slagged, corroded, burnt and shocked as long as possible and I can fire everything at them. 2. It's a must-have in combination with Sub-Sequence (further down Motion tree), which I use for my Siren above lvl 50. Just right above this comment section should be a tab called "Private Notes from the author" or sth. like that. I explained my lvl 61 skill sequence there a little bit. Also here: http://www.bl2skills.com/siren.html#555001055013000000005505410501

-----continues above-----

[Popotsek]

thx

[Alro1330]

hehe

[Madeline]

thanks