Sawerin
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Borderlands 2. Character Builds: Maya the Siren
Classes in Borderlands 2 differ from those offered in the first title. However, many of them share pretty much the same possibilities and skills. You will still find Lilith, Brick, Mordecai and Roland in the Borderlands 2 but only as game characters and not as playable heroes. From the very beginning you will be offered to pick 1 out of 4 classes but the additional fifth character (and class) can be purchased and downloaded via Xbox Live. Those gamers who preordered the game, will get the downloadable content for free.
Classes in Borderlands 2:
1. Salvador the Gunzerker;
2. Zer0 the Assassin;
3. Maya the Siren;
4. Axton the Commando;
5. Gaige the Mechromancer (is the first DLC available for download via Xbox Live).
Maya the Siren
Maya is a playable Siren class character in Borderlands 2 and has a lot of in common with the Lilith, Siren from the original Borderlands title. For those who do not know, Sirens are females with mystical backgrounds and incredible powers. At any time given only 6 Sirens can exist. So far we know only four Sirens which gives as little tip to expect the next two in the Borderlands 3 (I am pretty sure it will appear in the closest future): Lilith, Maya, Angel and Steele. Sirens never share the same ability because each Siren has a unique one to herself. For example, while in the original Borderlands title Lilith used to have Phasewalk (a great ability that gives you a possibility to walk through another dimension for a short period of time), Maya has the ability to Phaselock enemies and make them immobile.
As an infant, Maya was identified as a Siren and given to the Order of the Impending Storm, the ruling order of monks on her homeworld of Athenas. Being isolated from the rest of the world, Maya trained her Siren powers in secret until she reached adulthood. After that she was revealed to the public as their Goddess and Savior. In order to learn more about her Siren lineage and being pushed and irritated by Order's short leash, Maya has made a decision to travel all around the world and as far as Pandora is one of Siren’s Meccas, this planet appeared to be her first destination. Well, there is the other side of the story in which Maya phaselocked and executed her handler Brother Sophis after realizing that the Order was using her to extort money and obedience from the people of Athenas. That is also one of the main reasons why Maya headed to Pandora. After Handsome Jack learned of Maya through Hyperion surveillance footage of Athenas, it presumably didn't take much effort to get the Siren on the train at the beginning of the game.
Maya’s special ability is called Phaselock and it gives her the ability to suspend foes in another dimension. This ability is good for doing different things including locking opponents in stasis, suspending foes in another dimensions all the other stuff. Phaselock is extremely useful against enemy crowds, especially in cooperative mode. But, with the right attitude you can make it effective when playing in Single Player. Phaselock’s duration is 5 seconds and it takes only 13 seconds for it to cooldown.
Investing Skill Points: Recommendation
Maya’s primary action skill aka Phaselock usually suspends enemies midair, temporarily preventing them from moving or attacking. But, based on your investments, Phaselock might turn into either a tool that increases critical hit bonuses or tool that regenerates your health. Maya feels herself perfectly well when playing in a team because her ability to disable and suspend enemies gives her teammates an amazing opportunity to take down enemies with no back fire.
Investing in Either Motion or Cataclysm skill trees can make you really effective in Crowd Control with the help of elemental powers. You can also attempt to combine both trees to become unpredicted and effective. While shopping in the Motion Skill Tree, I would recommend to invest 5 points in Ward. This will give you Shield Capacity +25% and Shield Recharge Delay -40%. The next step is to spend just 2 points on “Accelerate” to add +6% to gun damage and +8% to Bullet Speed. Now, in order to add +2.5 seconds to Phaselock duration (trust me – this is vital), you will have to give out 5 points (again). Now put one into Converge, 3 in Inertia in order to add 2.4% to your regeneration speed per second and 30% to Reload Speed. And the last move (olive in martini, so to speak) is investing 3 points into Quicken.
Now, it’s the highest time to move to the next skill tree and spend some points there. When shopping in Cataclysm, spend 5 points on Flicker to add 30% chance to cause Elemental Effects with guns and open an opportunity to set an opponent on fire, electrocute him/her and else. For additional reload speed, add points to Foresight (if necessary). By all means Max out Helios (5 points). This will cause your Phaselock to release a Fire Nova. When in action Fire Nova deals Fire damage to nearby enemies and possibly affecting them with the Burn effect. Do not forget to put 1 point into Cloud Kill in order to release a stationary Corrosive cloud when a bullet connects with an enemy. Of course, you can spend the points left the way you find best but this, so far, is pretty much optimized recipe for dealing high damage and being effective at the same time.
Harmony skill tree focuses on making your character tougher and more effective in close combats. Sweet Release is a nice thing to invest in as well as Restoration, Elated and Res. I personally enjoyed Recompense, a skill that gives you a chance to cause the very same health damage you’ve just received from your enemies. When going further to Sustenance, it allows to regenerate health and the lower it is – the better it regenerates. But my personal favorite is Life Tap: whenever you kill an enemy, you steal his health and regenerate yours. While it lasts for a short period of time, when maxed with 5 skill points, you can get up to +6% Lie Steal which is nice.
Maya has a real potential to become more durable against bullets than any other fighter, including Salvador the Gunzerker. When maxed right and improved well, Kinetic Reflection can become her savior in any situation: it will reduce bullet damage to nearly nothing and will send projectiles right back at the bandits. When I tried that out in the combat, it looked like this: I walked into the crowd, killed a bandit and the rest of them died from their own bullets. Of course, it won’t always work that way, especially against tougher and smarter enemies but I can assure you that it will save your life and will save it a lot.
Motion
Motion Tree mostly focuses on crowd control and defense skills. With the help of some skill you will gain an opportunity to reflect enemy bullets, brainwash multiply enemies to fight for you or even disrupt multiple enemies at once.
Ward
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +5% Shield Capacity and -8% Shield Recharge Delay per level.
Accelerate
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +3% Gun Damage and +4% Bullet Speed per level.
Suspension
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Increases the duration of Phaselock by 0.5s per level.
Kinetic Reflection
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy causes you to deflect bullets against nearby enemies, reducing damage to you by 10% and dealing 20% damage per level for a short time.
Fleet
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Your Movement Speed increases by 10% per level while your shields are depleted.
Inertia
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy regenerates 0.8% of your Shield per second and increases your Reload Speed by 10% per level for a short time.
Converge
Tier – 3
Levels – 1
Effect: Your Phaselock ability now also pulls nearby enemies toward the original target.
Quicken
Tier – 4
Levels – 5
Effect: Increases the Cooldown Rate of your Phaselock's Ability by 6% per level.
Sub-Sequence
Tier – 5
Levels – 5
Effect: When an enemy dies under the effects of Phaselock, there is a chance for your Phaselock to seek out and affect another target (20% chance per level).
Thoughtlock
Tier – 6
Levels – 1
Effect: Phaselock causes enemies to switch allegiance and fight amongst themselves. Additionally, Phaselock's duration and cooldown is increased (3s and 4s respectively).
Harmony
Harmony tree is mostly oriented on healing and health regeneration.
Mind's Eye
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +5% Critical Hit Damage and +6% Melee Damage per level
Sweet Release
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: Killing an enemy who is currently Phaselocked creates 1 Life Orb per level which automatically seeks out and heals you and your friends. The healing is stronger when you or your friend's health is low (up to 15% per Orb, does not increase with level).
Restoration
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: +3% Maximum Health and attack allies to heal them for 6% of the attack damage per level.
Wreck
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: +10% Fire Rate and +6% Damage with guns per level while you have an enemy Phaselocked.
Elated
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: You and your friends regenerate 1% health per second per level while you have an enemy Phaselocked.
Recompense
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Taking Health damage has a 10% chance per level of dealing an equal amount of damage to your attacker.
Res
Tier – 3
Levels – 1
Effect: You can instantly revive a friend in Fight for Your Life by using Phaselock on him/her.
Sustenance
Tier – 4
Levels – 5
Effect: Regenerate 0.4% of your missing Health per second per level.
Life Tap
Tier – 5
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy gives you 1.2% Life Steal per level for a short while.
Scorn
Tier – 6
Levels – 1
Effect: Melee Override. Press [melee] to throw an Orb of Slag that constantly damages enemies near it. This ability has a 18 second cooldown. Pressing [melee] when Scorn is on cooldown will perform a regular melee attack.
Cataclysm
This tree is focused on elemental effects and makes you a better Siren.
Flicker
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +6% Elemental Effect Chance per level.
Foresight
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: Increases Magazine Size and Reload Speed with all weapon types. +4% Magazine Size and +5% Reload Speed per level.
Immolate
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Adds +10% Damage per level as Fire Damage to all shots fired when in Fight For Your Life.
Helios
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Phaselocking an enemy causes a fiery explosion, damaging all nearby enemies. +1 Helios Damage Rank per level.
Chain Reaction
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: While you have an enemy Phaselocked all of your bullets that hit enemies have a 8% chance per level to ricochet and hit another nearby enemy.
Backdraft
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Your melee attacks deal additional Fire Damage. Also, when your shields become depleted you create a fiery explosion, damaging nearby enemies. Your shields must fully recharge between explosions. +1 Backdraft Damage Rank per level.
Cloud Kill
Tier – 3
Levels – 1
Effect: Shooting an enemy creates a lingering Acid Cloud, which lasts for 5 seconds, dealing constant Corrosive Damage to enemies who touch it. Only one Acid Cloud can be active at a time.
Reaper
Tier – 4
Levels – 5
Effect: You deal +8% increased Gun Damage per level to any enemy who has more than 50% of his health remaining.
Blight Phoenix
Tier – 5
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy causes you to deal constant Fire and Corrosive Damage to nearby enemies for a short time. The damage is based on your Level and the Level of the Blight Phoenix.
Ruin
Tier – 6
Levels – 1
Effect: Action Skill Augmentation. Phaselock now slags, corrodes and electrocutes all nearby enemies.
Also, for more information on skills you can and should visit this site. There you will find a skill constructor that allows players to build their own skill tree and count the number of skill points required to become an effective warrior. Planning with this constructor will help you to see the future potential of your character and bonuses he will get after spending points on this or that skill.
Classes in Borderlands 2 differ from those offered in the first title. However, many of them share pretty much the same possibilities and skills. You will still find Lilith, Brick, Mordecai and Roland in the Borderlands 2 but only as game characters and not as playable heroes. From the very beginning you will be offered to pick 1 out of 4 classes but the additional fifth character (and class) can be purchased and downloaded via Xbox Live. Those gamers who preordered the game, will get the downloadable content for free.
Classes in Borderlands 2:
1. Salvador the Gunzerker;
2. Zer0 the Assassin;
3. Maya the Siren;
4. Axton the Commando;
5. Gaige the Mechromancer (is the first DLC available for download via Xbox Live).
Maya the Siren
Maya is a playable Siren class character in Borderlands 2 and has a lot of in common with the Lilith, Siren from the original Borderlands title. For those who do not know, Sirens are females with mystical backgrounds and incredible powers. At any time given only 6 Sirens can exist. So far we know only four Sirens which gives as little tip to expect the next two in the Borderlands 3 (I am pretty sure it will appear in the closest future): Lilith, Maya, Angel and Steele. Sirens never share the same ability because each Siren has a unique one to herself. For example, while in the original Borderlands title Lilith used to have Phasewalk (a great ability that gives you a possibility to walk through another dimension for a short period of time), Maya has the ability to Phaselock enemies and make them immobile.
As an infant, Maya was identified as a Siren and given to the Order of the Impending Storm, the ruling order of monks on her homeworld of Athenas. Being isolated from the rest of the world, Maya trained her Siren powers in secret until she reached adulthood. After that she was revealed to the public as their Goddess and Savior. In order to learn more about her Siren lineage and being pushed and irritated by Order's short leash, Maya has made a decision to travel all around the world and as far as Pandora is one of Siren’s Meccas, this planet appeared to be her first destination. Well, there is the other side of the story in which Maya phaselocked and executed her handler Brother Sophis after realizing that the Order was using her to extort money and obedience from the people of Athenas. That is also one of the main reasons why Maya headed to Pandora. After Handsome Jack learned of Maya through Hyperion surveillance footage of Athenas, it presumably didn't take much effort to get the Siren on the train at the beginning of the game.
Maya’s special ability is called Phaselock and it gives her the ability to suspend foes in another dimension. This ability is good for doing different things including locking opponents in stasis, suspending foes in another dimensions all the other stuff. Phaselock is extremely useful against enemy crowds, especially in cooperative mode. But, with the right attitude you can make it effective when playing in Single Player. Phaselock’s duration is 5 seconds and it takes only 13 seconds for it to cooldown.
Investing Skill Points: Recommendation
Maya’s primary action skill aka Phaselock usually suspends enemies midair, temporarily preventing them from moving or attacking. But, based on your investments, Phaselock might turn into either a tool that increases critical hit bonuses or tool that regenerates your health. Maya feels herself perfectly well when playing in a team because her ability to disable and suspend enemies gives her teammates an amazing opportunity to take down enemies with no back fire.
Investing in Either Motion or Cataclysm skill trees can make you really effective in Crowd Control with the help of elemental powers. You can also attempt to combine both trees to become unpredicted and effective. While shopping in the Motion Skill Tree, I would recommend to invest 5 points in Ward. This will give you Shield Capacity +25% and Shield Recharge Delay -40%. The next step is to spend just 2 points on “Accelerate” to add +6% to gun damage and +8% to Bullet Speed. Now, in order to add +2.5 seconds to Phaselock duration (trust me – this is vital), you will have to give out 5 points (again). Now put one into Converge, 3 in Inertia in order to add 2.4% to your regeneration speed per second and 30% to Reload Speed. And the last move (olive in martini, so to speak) is investing 3 points into Quicken.
Now, it’s the highest time to move to the next skill tree and spend some points there. When shopping in Cataclysm, spend 5 points on Flicker to add 30% chance to cause Elemental Effects with guns and open an opportunity to set an opponent on fire, electrocute him/her and else. For additional reload speed, add points to Foresight (if necessary). By all means Max out Helios (5 points). This will cause your Phaselock to release a Fire Nova. When in action Fire Nova deals Fire damage to nearby enemies and possibly affecting them with the Burn effect. Do not forget to put 1 point into Cloud Kill in order to release a stationary Corrosive cloud when a bullet connects with an enemy. Of course, you can spend the points left the way you find best but this, so far, is pretty much optimized recipe for dealing high damage and being effective at the same time.
Harmony skill tree focuses on making your character tougher and more effective in close combats. Sweet Release is a nice thing to invest in as well as Restoration, Elated and Res. I personally enjoyed Recompense, a skill that gives you a chance to cause the very same health damage you’ve just received from your enemies. When going further to Sustenance, it allows to regenerate health and the lower it is – the better it regenerates. But my personal favorite is Life Tap: whenever you kill an enemy, you steal his health and regenerate yours. While it lasts for a short period of time, when maxed with 5 skill points, you can get up to +6% Lie Steal which is nice.
Maya has a real potential to become more durable against bullets than any other fighter, including Salvador the Gunzerker. When maxed right and improved well, Kinetic Reflection can become her savior in any situation: it will reduce bullet damage to nearly nothing and will send projectiles right back at the bandits. When I tried that out in the combat, it looked like this: I walked into the crowd, killed a bandit and the rest of them died from their own bullets. Of course, it won’t always work that way, especially against tougher and smarter enemies but I can assure you that it will save your life and will save it a lot.
Motion
Motion Tree mostly focuses on crowd control and defense skills. With the help of some skill you will gain an opportunity to reflect enemy bullets, brainwash multiply enemies to fight for you or even disrupt multiple enemies at once.
Ward
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +5% Shield Capacity and -8% Shield Recharge Delay per level.
Accelerate
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +3% Gun Damage and +4% Bullet Speed per level.
Suspension
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Increases the duration of Phaselock by 0.5s per level.
Kinetic Reflection
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy causes you to deflect bullets against nearby enemies, reducing damage to you by 10% and dealing 20% damage per level for a short time.
Fleet
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Your Movement Speed increases by 10% per level while your shields are depleted.
Inertia
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy regenerates 0.8% of your Shield per second and increases your Reload Speed by 10% per level for a short time.
Converge
Tier – 3
Levels – 1
Effect: Your Phaselock ability now also pulls nearby enemies toward the original target.
Quicken
Tier – 4
Levels – 5
Effect: Increases the Cooldown Rate of your Phaselock's Ability by 6% per level.
Sub-Sequence
Tier – 5
Levels – 5
Effect: When an enemy dies under the effects of Phaselock, there is a chance for your Phaselock to seek out and affect another target (20% chance per level).
Thoughtlock
Tier – 6
Levels – 1
Effect: Phaselock causes enemies to switch allegiance and fight amongst themselves. Additionally, Phaselock's duration and cooldown is increased (3s and 4s respectively).
Harmony
Harmony tree is mostly oriented on healing and health regeneration.
Mind's Eye
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +5% Critical Hit Damage and +6% Melee Damage per level
Sweet Release
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: Killing an enemy who is currently Phaselocked creates 1 Life Orb per level which automatically seeks out and heals you and your friends. The healing is stronger when you or your friend's health is low (up to 15% per Orb, does not increase with level).
Restoration
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: +3% Maximum Health and attack allies to heal them for 6% of the attack damage per level.
Wreck
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: +10% Fire Rate and +6% Damage with guns per level while you have an enemy Phaselocked.
Elated
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: You and your friends regenerate 1% health per second per level while you have an enemy Phaselocked.
Recompense
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Taking Health damage has a 10% chance per level of dealing an equal amount of damage to your attacker.
Res
Tier – 3
Levels – 1
Effect: You can instantly revive a friend in Fight for Your Life by using Phaselock on him/her.
Sustenance
Tier – 4
Levels – 5
Effect: Regenerate 0.4% of your missing Health per second per level.
Life Tap
Tier – 5
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy gives you 1.2% Life Steal per level for a short while.
Scorn
Tier – 6
Levels – 1
Effect: Melee Override. Press [melee] to throw an Orb of Slag that constantly damages enemies near it. This ability has a 18 second cooldown. Pressing [melee] when Scorn is on cooldown will perform a regular melee attack.
Cataclysm
This tree is focused on elemental effects and makes you a better Siren.
Flicker
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: +6% Elemental Effect Chance per level.
Foresight
Tier – 1
Levels – 5
Effect: Increases Magazine Size and Reload Speed with all weapon types. +4% Magazine Size and +5% Reload Speed per level.
Immolate
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Adds +10% Damage per level as Fire Damage to all shots fired when in Fight For Your Life.
Helios
Tier – 2
Levels – 5
Effect: Phaselocking an enemy causes a fiery explosion, damaging all nearby enemies. +1 Helios Damage Rank per level.
Chain Reaction
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: While you have an enemy Phaselocked all of your bullets that hit enemies have a 8% chance per level to ricochet and hit another nearby enemy.
Backdraft
Tier – 3
Levels – 5
Effect: Your melee attacks deal additional Fire Damage. Also, when your shields become depleted you create a fiery explosion, damaging nearby enemies. Your shields must fully recharge between explosions. +1 Backdraft Damage Rank per level.
Cloud Kill
Tier – 3
Levels – 1
Effect: Shooting an enemy creates a lingering Acid Cloud, which lasts for 5 seconds, dealing constant Corrosive Damage to enemies who touch it. Only one Acid Cloud can be active at a time.
Reaper
Tier – 4
Levels – 5
Effect: You deal +8% increased Gun Damage per level to any enemy who has more than 50% of his health remaining.
Blight Phoenix
Tier – 5
Levels – 5
Effect: Kill Skill. Killing an enemy causes you to deal constant Fire and Corrosive Damage to nearby enemies for a short time. The damage is based on your Level and the Level of the Blight Phoenix.
Ruin
Tier – 6
Levels – 1
Effect: Action Skill Augmentation. Phaselock now slags, corrodes and electrocutes all nearby enemies.
Also, for more information on skills you can and should visit this site. There you will find a skill constructor that allows players to build their own skill tree and count the number of skill points required to become an effective warrior. Planning with this constructor will help you to see the future potential of your character and bonuses he will get after spending points on this or that skill.
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