Borderlands 2: How to build your Siren, and the things that make her great

Most players, newbies and veterans alike, will have very few ways to manage their health in the early levels. Sure, health vials can drop from many sources. But, in my experience, they don’t drop when you actually need them. Putting a couple of points in Sweet Release, will solve that problem.

Now you’re in for a choice. Which tree to go down first? While the Cataclysm tree is very sexy, you don’t “need” the skills that are in it at this stage of the game. You’ll be killing things just fine with whatever gear you got. Continuing down the Harmony tree to get Wreck is always an option, but you don’t really “need” that kind of firepower either just yet.

So, I recommend you go down the Motion tree. Ward is a great skill that improves your shield capacity, and recharge delay, and since it’s buffs are percentage based, it gets better and better as you level up. Next skill for me is Suspension. At 5/5, it adds 2.5 seconds to your phaselock. These 2,5 seconds plays a huge role in Maya’s dps output when other skills come into play. Converge. One of Maya’s best skills. Inconspicuous on it’s own, but very powerful paired with other skills. More about that further down the line.

Skillpoint distribution at level 18[bl2skills.com]

From here on, I max out Sweet Release and Wreck, and if I play Co-op a lot, I also put a point in Res. Your siren can now start dealing some serious damage, and can keep herself and her teammates on their feet.

What to do now? Do you want to manipulate the minds of your enemies? Want to tend to the needs of your teammates? Or do you simple want to shoot things until they die? Most people, including myself, will choose the third option at this point. So, let’s go for that!

Maya’s main dps-skills are Wreck, Chain Reaction and Reaper, closely followed by Foresight. Why Foresight, you might say. It just increases your mag size and reload speed. Exactly! Pure dps! Plain and simple! So, put 5/5 in Foresight.

Skill distribution at level 32[bl2skills.com]

Although Maya is sometimes referred to as an elemental character or a support character with healing abilities, her main ability is to “control the ebb and flow of the battlefield”. Exactly how her combat style was described when you created your character. The skills that are instrumental in achieving this are as follows:

Converge
Creates a singularity that pulls all enemies, except oversized enemies such as Loot Goon Goliaths, together. Combined with Ruin, all these enemies will also get slagged. The fact that all enemies are pulled together, gives you enough time to reload, get your shield back online or simply re-position yourself.

Wreck
At 5/5 it increases your fire rate by 50% and your gun damage by 30% while you have an enemy phaselocked. Boosted by a COM (Class Optimization Modifier), you can reach up to 110% increase in fire rate and 66% increase in gun damage. This is a serious increase of Maya’s dps output.

Chain Reaction
While you have an enemy phaselocked, your bullets have a chance to riccochet towards another enemy. At 5/5, this chance is 40%, but if boosted by a Blurred Trickster COM, it can reach up to 88%. These riccochets can cause crits (critical hits) and apply status effects, as in damage over time (DoT’s). On a gun that fires single bullets, this is great, but when you add multiple bullets into the mix, things really take off. Shotguns are a good example of this. At 11/5, every pellet fired by that shotgun has an 88% chance to spawn a riccochet towards another enemy. These pellets are buffed by the same skills and buffs as the original shot. Pulling the enemies together with Converge and also slagging them with Ruin only increases the effects. Add certain unique gear into the mix, and there will be mayhem. More about that when we get to the gear section.

Reaper
Enemies that have more than 50% of their healt intact, recieve increased damage. At 5/5 you deal 40% more damage, and at 11/5 it goes up to 88%. This damage buff is multiplicative. Which basically means that it comes in after all the other buffs are added, and multiplies it all. Shielded enemies recieve this damage boost too, as long as their health is above 50%.

Ruin
Ruin in itself does little damage. What makes this skill so great, is the fact that it has a 100% chance to slag. Paired with Converge, you get a purple haze. It’s also very useful for slagging large bosses.

To sum things up: When Maya phaselocks an enemy and pulls the rest of them towards the initial enemy, they will all get slagged, thus taking more damage from non-slag weapons. They are also grouped up, so you can “go to town” with a shotgun, and rip through them all. Or you can use more accurate weapons and pick them off one by one. When you phaselock an enemy, there’s a whole world of hurt that opens up with the activation of Wreck and Chain Reaction. And on top of all this is Reaper.

There are a couple of skills that are key skills in certain builds. I’ll touch on them briefly.

Thoughtlock
The capstone skill of the Motion tree is Thoughtlock. It basically turns your enemies against each other, and serves as a great way to take the pressure off of you. The drawbacks on it are that the targeted enemy isn’t stationary, and will usually turn it’s back on you if there are no other enemies around. Thus making it very hard to hit crit spots. A thoughtlocked enemy is also considered an ally by the game, and thus you can get some unwanted effects in Co-op.

Elated
Regenerating 5% health per second at 5/5 is pretty sweet. But regenerating all your teammates health at the same time is even sweeter. The health regen is based on your health. Equipping gear that increase your max health, and add a COM that boosts elated to 11/5, and you’re looking at 11% health regen per second, Once again 11% of Your max health. This is especially good in the OP levels.

In TVHM, you’ll encounter tougher variants of the enemies you’ve already faced. Thus, you need some better damage output. You’ll also, most likely, go into Fight For Your Life (FFYL) more often. Immolate is probably the best FFYL-skill in the game. While it can seem unimpressive, what happens is the following. At 5/5, 50% of your gun damage (all boosts included) are dealt once again. On top of this, you can also get fire-on-flesh bonus, crit bonus and finally slag bonus. All of them multiplicative. At one point there was an exploit, which allowed you to one-shot some of the raid bosses using this mechanic. It has since been patched, but can apparently still be used. It’s just a damn good skill.

Chain Reaction… If you ever wondered why Maya has such great synergy with the unique sniper rifle, the Pimpernel, this is it. Because of the Pimpernel’s unique bullet spread, it’s capable of dealing massive crit damage on enemies. Simply put… Aim at the groin area of human enemies, and get the bullet split to go off in their heads. All those splits will deal crit damage, and all of them have a chance to proc Chain Reaction. Do you see the potential? You can clear out rooms full of enemies in a single shot. Absolute Top Tier skill! Don’t pass it up!

Moving further down the tree, we have Cloud Kill. It went from worst skill in the game, to OP over night, when Gearbox released a patch a few years back. It’s too powerful for TVHM, but since we’re there, why not pick it up. Especially since we have to pick some less desirable skills to get all the way down to Ruin. While we’re at it, we’re also putting 5/5 in Reaper.

To get to Ruin, we have to spend 4 more points in either Flicker, Helios or Blight Phoenix. Helios works fine in Normal mode and TVHM, but becomes lackluster in UVHM. Putting one point in Blight Phoenix can be a good thing, because it stuns melee enemies that rush up to you. Giving you time to deal with them. The damage, however, is not really worth mentioning, and it will also blow up barrels nearby, so be careful. This leaves Flicker. It gives you a better chance to cause status effects. While unconfirmed, it’s said to have a positive effect on your slagging chance when using Scorn, so that’s where I put my points. And so we have arrived at Ruin. Do yourself a favor, and pick it up. Best slagging tool in the game, in my humble opinion. It will also help stripping shields as a bonus.

Skill distribution at level 53[bl2skills.com]

If you want to grab Ruin earlier, you can just move some points around as you please.

With TVHM capped at level 50, you won’t get any loot above level 50. It is therefore highly recommended that you don’t go leveling up beforehand. The enemies you face now will scale to your level, or if you’re playing Co-op, the level of the highest ranked player in the team. The enemies will have double health and health regen. On top of that, they often use elemental weapons. The use of slag is almost a necessity at this stage, because your character is not complete yet. And even at higher levels, slagging makes things so much easier. When using a non-slag weapon on an already slagged enemy, you deal double damage in TVHM. In UVHM, it’s triple damage. Use slag! This is why it’s a good idea to grab Ruin before entering UVHM.

With the enemies now being a lot deadlier, you’ll likely need some more options to heal yourself (and friends). Elated is a great way to start, and Restoration is always appreciated by your friends. One or two points in Restoration is usually all that’s necessary, as you should be able to deal some damage by now. The Healing from Restoration is a percentage of the damage you deal. Do the math, and find your sweet spot. I also put a point in Mind’s Eye here. It’s a good skill, but not a significant one, and with at least one point in it, I can boost it with a COM.

Skill distribution at level 60[bl2skills.com]

Which order to allocate the remaining skill points is always a dilemma. Since we’re already in the Harmony tree, we can go for some additional healing. Some of you might think you have enough healing as it is, and you may very well be right. But, the healing you have up until now, is all based off your phaselock. This is where skills like Sustenance and Life Tap come into play. They are also needed to reach all the way to Scorn. So… 5/5 in Sustenance and 2/5 in Life Tap. Scorn is optional.

Sustenance is a passive health regen at 2% of your max health per second when maxed. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to deal with those nasty DoT’s that you catch from time to time. Life Tap isa kill skill, that basically turns anything you deal damage with into a Moxxi-weapon. 2/5 puts you on par with most of them. Not counting the Grog and Rubi, since they heal way more. Why not use one of them, you might ask. Well… If I use a Grog just for healing, I will have to stop shooting while I heal. This is more of a dps-loss than one might realize. That’s why Life Tap is so good. The only drawback to it, is that it generates an annoying sound when it’s active.

And last but not least we have Scorn. A great slagging tool that can be thrown while in FFYL. It’s also useful for blowing up barrels and things like that. Optional skill!

Skill distribution at level 68[bl2skills.com]

Inertia is a really good skill. It’s not needed in TVHM, but it becomes very useful in UVHM and OP levels. The bonus to reload speed doesn’t need clarifying, but the shield regeneration part could use some. Under normal circumstances, you will probably never notice this skill. 4% at 5/5 isn’t a lot. However, this can be a life saver when you have downed the last enemy and have an active DoT eating away at you. The shield regen will counter the DoT, and increase your chances of staying alive. Much like Sustenance does with your health. These two are great skills to have, and I guarantee that you will regret not having them.

Quicken increases your cooldown rate. More cooldown, more phaselock. Maya loves cooldown buffs! The remaining two points go into Mind’s Eye.

Final build at level 80[bl2skills.com]

While Maya has smoe really great skills, there are some that just don’t get the job done. Some of the excluded skills are really good, but I just want other skills more. At some point, choices have to be made. Here’s a brief explanation to why they were left out, or not maxed out.

Accelerate
This is a good solid skill. It works very well with the Sandhawk, which has slow moving pellets. But, it changes the distance on the split of the Pimpernel shots. Not as bad as Velocity does for Zero, but enough for me to pass on it. Optional!

Kinetic Reflection
This is another really good skill, but it’s highly situational. To get the most out of it, you need to max it, and boost it to at least 10/5 with a COM. It’s usefulness is also limited to areas where enemies shoot you with bullets. But… It’s fanatastic when you meet those requirements. If I’m using a Blurred Trickster COM, then this skill would be a no-brainer.

Sub Sequence
This is a skill that some like, and some don’t. If I’m going for a Thoughtlock build, then I would definetly pick this up, but for everything else, I’ll pass on it. The main reasons for this are that I prefer to have control over which enemies I phaselock. Second reason being that with this skill, you phaselock ball will run it’s full duration whether there are any enemies left or not. It also has problems passing obstacles a lot of the time, rendering it completely useless for the duration.

Thoughlock
I’ll simply refer to what I said earlier.

Mind’s Eye
Same thing as with Accelerate. There are other skills that I want more. For certain bosses where I can’t use phaselock, I might do a respec and max it.

Recompense
There were one build a long time ago that made use of this skill, but these days it’s only good for one thing. The Haderax insta-kill. In all other cases, enemies have so much more health compared to their damage output, that it’s simply not useful.

Helios
It’s not a bad skill in Normal mode and in TVHM, but it just doesn’t cut it in UVHM. Like almost every “Rank-skill”, it suffers from poor scaling. One of the main reasons that it doesn’t work in UVHM is because it hits before Ruin has activated and slagged the enemies. With a Thoughtlock build, you would often use Sub Sequence, and then the enemies would be slagged already when the second enemy gets locked. Better, but still not good, in my opinion.

Backdraft
Another “Rank-skill”, and it suffers from the same poor scaling as the rest of them. Useful for a glitch, but that’s all the is to it.

Blight Phoenix
Yet another “Rank-skill” with poor scaling. One point to get the stun effect is optional, but any more is just a waste of skills.

Maya loves guns that have multiple projectiles. Preferably guns with projectiles that split into multiple pellets. These pellets are usually referred to as unlisted. Example: The Sandhawk fires 8 projectiles per shot, but only one projectile shows on the infocard. On a shotgun, you will see a damage value multiplied with the number of pellets. Those are not unlisted pellets. This is important when using Amp shields, and especially the Bee. Unlisted projectiles will all get full amp bonus, while the amp bonus will be divided by the number of projectiles on guns such as shotguns. Unlisted projectiles is something that Maya can make great use of.

Pimpernel
One of the most powerful guns in the whole game. It’s charactristic split is something that Maya can exploit to the max. When hitting the sweet spot on an enemy, it will split and travel up, and make another split into 5. When this final split hits a crit spot, it will cause multiple critical hits at once, causing massive damage. As a sniper, you’re often in the situation where the enemy has full shields and health. And since Maya gets her damage output mainly from Wreck and Reaper, this only increases the damage dealt. I just so happens, that the Pimpernel has a type of splash damage that also gets boosted by Reaper. Her ability to phaselock enemies and at the same time slag them makes for perfect setup a lot of the time. Since the split projectiles are all unlisted, they all get full amp bonus from the Bee. And now for the final blow: All of these projectiles have a chance to proc Chain Reaction and repeat the process. 40% chance at 5/5 and 88% chance at 11/5. This is why Maya is so good with the Pimp.

Sandhawk
The BeeHawk combo is well known in the community, and very good on any character. Maya takes it a bit further by utilizing Chain Reaction and The Cat COM. Apart from larger enemies, it’s hard to hit with all projectiles on regular enemies, but Chain Reaction is a thing here too. Just not as spectacular. Even if the regular Cat COM’s are very good, the arrival of the Legendary Cat turned this gun into a monster in Maya’s hands.

Twister
A very special shotgun in many ways, but what makes it so good on Maya is, obce again, Chain Reaction. (Starting to sound like a broken record here!) The Twister also has a unique propert that allows it’s projectiles to hit more than once on an enemy and also to penetrate and hit the enemy behind as well. Definetly good on Maya!

The ♥♥♥♥♥
With it’s pinpoint accuracy and crit bonus, you can empty a full mag right where it hurts the most. Phaselock holds the enemy in place, aaaaaand… Dead!

Interfacer and Conference Call
Both these shotguns have great synergy with Maya’s skills. You should know which those skills are by now.

Bekah
Another split projectile weapon. Very good for general mobbing.

Hail
Assault rifle with an arced firing pattern and split projectiles. Also a Moxxi weapon with Life Steal, should you require it.

Blockade
A really tanky shield with built-in damage reduction. A shield with high capacity and fast recharge rate works really well, since Inertia takes care of the initial recharge delay. Parts recommended: Bandit, Bandit, Bandit

Antagonist
A really nice shield in all aspects. The reflected damage packs enough of a punch to actually hurt enemies, and the chance to slag is always welcome. Only drawback is that you will often slag yourself. Recommended parts: Hyperion, Hyperion, Hyperion

Evolution
A really great shield if you’re running a Nurse build. This shield increases your max health to very high levels, and offers a lot of protection at the same time. Recommended parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Hyperion

Bee
Paired with the Sandhawk and a Legendary Cat COM, Maya is able to dish out some serious dps. Her shield skills makes it easier to keep the Bee fully charged. However, despite her skills, it’s not a tanky shield, and once you take the slightest hit, you’re in trouble. Because now you don’t have the amp damage and as a shield, the Bee leaves a lot to be desired. Use it wisely! Recommended parts: Maliwan, Maliwan, Maliwan

Maya can make good use of other shields too, but those are more situational.

Legendary Siren
A very well balanced COM that offers everything that a girl will ever need. Boosts cooldown rate and gun damage as well as 5 tier one skills. Additinaly, it boosts movement speed when an enemy is phaselocked.

Legendary Cat
Maya’s Raid boss COM. Boosts all the dps skills, and boosts SMG damage by 143% at OP 10. Complete overkill outside raid boss arenas, but great inside of them.

Legendary Binder
A great alternative to the Legendary Siren. It has Thoughtlock build written all over it, but works really well on any build, really.

Blurred Trickster
If you want to “Go to Town” with the regular mobs on Pandora, then this COM will put a smile on your face. Max out Chain Reaction and Kinetic Reflection, and use a Blue COM for best results.

Maya doesn’t have the skills to make grenades powerful enough to use them as wepons at higher levels. Their usefulness lies in added crowd control with singularity grenades, and additional slagging. I personally use the Quasar for some extra shield stripping, and a low level Bouncing Bonny grenade for slagging raid bosses.
You can never go wrong with a cooldown relic on Maya. Bone of the Ancients also offers some added elemental damage, but the cooldown is where it’s at.

That was a lot of text! Hopefully, you found most of it useful. Maya is not a character with whom you should rush right into the thick of it and expect to soak up damage like Krieg. She’s a character that you should use to group up enemies, and then bring the pain. Take your time, and you’ll do fine!