Maya is BACK - DOT damage boost thanks to last game update - new build forecast

Borderlands 2 Maya the Siren
#1

(edit: my mistake -> Oct 29th 2015 update does NOT boost DOT in all the game)

Woops ! Yesterday it seemed that Cathy (one of my siren) was melting loaders with her Hornet as she has never done before in UVHM. Then, I did some weapon testing on the target dummy in Sanctuary, NOT knowing anything about the game update. I just noticed that the damages dealt with the Hornet was incredibly and dramatically increased. I was astonished.

This is just an effect of the last game update (dated Oct 29th 2015). Some Maya skills in her Cataclysm tree have been boosted: Cloud Kill, Helios, Backdraft (?!?) and Blight Phoenix (only with Nov 9th hot fix). Maya has finally “regains” what she previously lost with UVHM: damages for some skills not scaling well with with (high) levels.

Consequences: possibly new Maya builds using skills that were considered as “waste” (Helios, BackDraft, Cloud Kill, Blight Phenix… to mention a few). The Cataclysm tree is “revived”.

Thanks Gearbox for this update that brings a whole new fresh wind in the gameplay.

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#2

Cloud Kill is so amazingly strong now that it can bring down the likes of Constructors, Saturn and Badassasaurus to their knees. This change alone helps drastically make up for Maya’s previous lack of decent DPS against enemies that she can’t Phaselock. For the first time, I feel as if I can take on Threshers as Maya and not just feel exhausted about it because I can’t use my action skill against them.

Having played around with some of the skills, I can say that Helios and Ruin both feel better overall as well. I don’t think Helios is quite strong enough to be considered fantastic, but it can make decent dents in smaller enemies now and butter them up, and for a crowd control skill that’s all it really needs.

Blight Phoenix is still, unfortunately, total garbage. I went to Caustic Caverns with 5/5 in it and watched basic Varkids still not even have their health regen countered by it. It definitely does more visible damage than it used to, but it needs a massive 8X boost like Light the Fuse got in order to be anywhere near viable, I think.

I haven’t tried Backdraft yet, I might fiddle with it next.

I definitely noticed the increased DoT damage overall, which feels just amazing right now. While I still think the health regen in UVHM is total ass, it pleases me to see DoT now able to overpower it effectively. Using my Hellfire combined with Cloud Kill can melt pretty much any flesh enemy, and I find that Cloud Kill on its own takes care of a lot of armored targets.

Maya can finally play based around hit-and-run DoT stacking tactics combining the improved DoTs and Cloud Kill in higher difficulties, and it just feels fantastic right now. Everything just melts.

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Backdraft is OP?
#3

Did LtF get buffed? I dusted off my Maya after the update, but haven’t done much with Krieg.

#4

Yea I would like to know that too.

#5

Oh, sorry. I was referring to how LtF got a massive buff in UVHM exclusively. It gets somewhere around an 8X buff compared to in Normal and TVHM to make it usable I believe.

#6

Awesome. The infection probably will melt enemies even quicker. Cant wait to try it on her with these latest changes.

#7

I have not really noticed the DoT boost itself, only the boost to Maya’s skills. (not saying there aren’t any, just that I did not notice)

  • Cloudkill is now very good and something you can actually consider as a primary damage dealer.
  • Helios can now kill trash mob on it’s own, provided they are slagged and Helios is at 10/5. You can’t build around it but it makes the Fox and Witch COMs decent and makes the Binder COM even more interesting.
  • Blight Phoenix is still garbage, even at 10/5 it doesn’t even make a dent in OP0 trash mobs.
  • According to @Exotek Backdraft is now a powerful primary attack :smile:
  • I have not noticed any change to Ruin’s damage…but it was already good enough with just the 100% slag chance.

I’ve been playing Maya with a Hell Fox COM all morning with just a Slagga, relying on Helios and Cloudkill to do the dirty work. Even with an uninspired loadout and build and not really used to the timing of those 2 skills, I was able to solo pretty much anything I tried without too much trouble.

#8

The general boost in DOTs does make me wonder: by how much got the damage buffed? Percentage-wise I mean.

#9

It’s not a general boost to DoTs, just an ajustment on the damage of a few skills

#10

I will likely be taking 1 point from Flicker (for 4/5 Flicker) and putting that into Cloud Kill, for all my Builds that include Flicker. Didn’t have much time last night to test Cloud Kill against Armored targets. Spent most of my playtime in Normal Mode with RR + Breakneck Banshee going from Claptrap’s Place all the way to Sanctuary, killing and searching everything along the way, hoping to get one of the newly available Dahl Efficiency skins. Everything I shot died right away, since my Siren and equipment are OP8. Then, spent the rest of the night farming the Loot Train on OP8 hoping to get one ore more of the Dahl Efficiency skins. Didn’t find any skins.

I might actually include Helios with my Binder Build (current Build is outdated and inaccurate…needs updating) for 10/5 Helios. One thing I did note is that Cloud Kill wasn’t that impressive (on OP8) against the Little Snowmen that appear during the Mr. Frosty fight. Granted, they are weak to Fire and not Corrosive . Will probably have to test against Loaders on OP8. :blush:

Forum ID: Poisd2Strike
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Gun Prefixes | Gun Parts | Max Stats
Maya OP8 | Banshee RR / NRR | Binder | Cat | Nurse | Siren | Trickster B / M

#11

I don’t know at OP8 (I never got my siren past OP2) but at OP2, a ruin phaselock and a single bullet to trigger cloudkill is all it takes to kill an armored Psycho.

#12

I started a 1life Maya to celebrate the buffed Fastball droprate and Cloudkill’s usefulness. I specced Foresight, then Immolate, and now (at level 16, with CK) I absolutely trashed Wilhelm. Took approximately 15 seconds with a level 7 Harold and CK. This is an amazing skill now.

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#13

I was testing a lot of different builds out last night on stream, and I’ve reached the following conclusions:

  • Helios is still bad. Even with 10/5 points in it, the Fox COM, and a (now text-fixed!) incendiary BoA, it wasn’t enough to beat out OP8 health regen. This was in the Southpaw Steam and Power on non-shielded, slagged flesh targets. Cloud Kill was actually killing them faster than Helios was. The initial damage was also very lacking.
  • Cloud Kill is beyond outstanding. It was killing shielded flesh targets without the corresponding BoA by itself. I tested out a Bullet Witch full corrosive build in the SSaP featuring a Slow Hand and a Pimpernel, and it was killing enemies in 2-3 shots. Cloud Kill has so far gotten me more Second Winds than my Norfleet has, and if you hold a Grog with it active, you really can’t die. I don’t actually want to take it into the Washburne Refinery because it seems unnecessary–if the build and skill can kill non-element matched enemies on OP8 in two shots, I don’t need to see what it’ll do to matched targets that are slagged.
  • As a side note, I can go through entire areas with just a Grog Nozzle and Cloud Kill now on OP8, fleshy targets or not. Cloud Kill beat out OP8 DoTs in some situations when I had a Blockade equipped.

I think I will be writing a guide on the corrosive build at some point. It performed very admirably.

#14

That’s weird
At OP2 it can kill them, and at OP8 it can’t even keep up with their health regen ?

Also, I agree: the new boss is cloudkill :sunglasses:

#15

OK, so after re-testing it, I need to retract/edit my statement. With the:

Hell Fox COM
Incendiary BoA
11/5 Helios

vs.

Non-shielded, slagged flesh targets

…at OP8, it can beat out health regen. It will tick off half of a regular bandit enemy’s health without any other source except Ruin and Helios. I don’t know what I was doing wrong yesterday…

On the upside, this means that my build can be even better with a simple COM switch. Very exciting times for Maya.

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#16

Ok, that makes more sense :smile:

So…is it good ? no
But is it bad ? neither

I would pick this to go down the tree now, but you can’t really build around it

#17

I can’t call that just yet, because this was just Helios, meaning that I wasn’t shooting them, meaning that I didn’t also have Cloud Kill active. CK itself can outright KILL unshielded, slagged flesh targets even without the corresponding BoA or COM, so if I add that damage on, it might be enough.

Combine this with something like Sub-Sequence to keep Helios active and a Quasar to ensure that many enemies stay near Cloud Kill/some form of splash damage, and the potential for Helios really starts to look promising. Not to mention the fact that the whole “shields hamper this build” issue is completely removed with the Quasar.

EDIT: Initial testing confirms: THIS. WRECKS. FACE.

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#18

Is 10/5 Helios worth it on a Binder build?

#19

IMO, yes. Not because it’s awesome, but because it’s better than the alternatives.

If you’re not doing melee Backdraft is pointless, and I think that Helios is now better than Flicker overall.

#20

Word. So at this point, 10/5 Helios > 4/5 Flicker unless you’re using Lifetap