[Top 3] Borderlands 2 Best Builds For Maya

Splash art showing Maya the Siren. She's holding up her hand which is glowing blue, showcasing her powers.
Top 3 Builds for Maya the Siren in Borderlands 2


As BL2’s flagship Siren, Maya enters Pandora as a versatile and fun character to play. But how do you make the best build with all she has to offer? Here’s the answer with the top 3 builds Siren builds!

1. Harmonic Healing

Maya the Siren holds out her hand, showing off her Phaselocking ability.
Best for: Support

This build is all about turning Maya into a team support character. Best for multiplayer play, you’ll be using her Harmonic tree to its full effect, while pulling from the other two trees to round things out. You’ll transform your Phaselock into the ultimate support tool, all while dishing out decent damage. 

For this build, you’ll want to invest in these skills:

  • Harmony Tree: Mind’s Eye 5/5, Sweet Release 5/5, Restoration 5/5, Elated 1/1, Res 4/5, Recompense 5/5, Scorn 1/1
  • Motion Tree: Ward 5/5, Accelerate 5/5, Inertia 1/1
  • Cataclysm Tree: Flicker 5/5, Foresight 3/5

With this build, you’ll be recovering health and shields frequently, while lobbing Phaselocks at enemies, reaping the benefits of both damage and healing every time!

This is a great build for multiplayer, though you may want to build differently for solo play. Restoration is a highlight here, supplying huge amounts of healing to you and your team. Recompense gives Maya some nice spike damage to punish enemies with, while Inertia gives a good shield and reload boost when killing enemies. Finally, Elated and Res transform your Phaselock ability into an excellent healing tool, reviving teammates and recovering health at the same time. 

What This Build Does Best:

  • Healing: So much in this build gives you healing,  with Elated and Restoration being big players.
  • Team Support: Skills like Sweet Release can heal you and your teammates up to 15%, while Restoration lets you deliver healing via shooting, up to 6% of the damage!
  • Revives: Being able to instantly rez a teammate with your Phaselock is great, especially in situations where you can’t reach them to help. 

Use This Build If You..

  • Like Playing Support: team healing and rezzing makes you an important team player here.
  • Prefer Survivability: By sacrificing damage skills, you increase your survivability with this build and all its healing.
  • Want Phaselocking’s Full Potential: this build essentially upgrades your action skill into a top tier healing ability.
  • Don’t Plan On Soloing - this build does struggle in single player games. But if solo end-game isn’t your cup of tea anyway, this build is a great option. 

2. Cataclysmic Calling

Maya Phaselocking an enemy, holding them midair.
Best For: Damage

While Maya is often regarded as a Support character, her potential for DPS is actually very high and nearly up to snuff to characters like Salvador. Investing into her Cataclysm tree yields explosive results, with high damage outputs and loads of elemental effects. 

For this build, you’ll want to invest in these skills:

  • Cataclysm Tree: Flicker 5/5, Foresight 5/5, Chain Reaction 5/5, Cloud Kill 1/1, Reaper 5/5, Blight Phoenix 5/5, Ruin 1/1
  • Motion Tree: Ward 5/5 Accelerate 5/5, Converge 1/1
  • Harmony Tree: Mind’s Eye 5/5, Wreck: 2/5

 A great way to dish out damage in Borderlands 2 is with elemental effects, and this build brings a ton of it to the table. Ruin transforms your Phaselock into an all out elemental attack, while Flicker increases the likelihood of you applying elemental damage with attacks. 

This build also brings you better overall gun performance, increasing gun damage and bullet speed with Accelerate and improving magazine size and reload with Foresight.Overall, this is the best way to turn Maya into a DPS machine. Her Phaselock will be pulling enemies into each other, applying elemental effects on them, all the while enjoying big gun damage bonuses.

What This Build Does Best:

  • High DPS: basically every skill here is geared towards damage. 
  • Elemental Damage: Flicker ensures you lay down elemental damage near constantly, while Blight Phoenix rewards kills with more elemental damage. 
  • Phaselock Offense: Wreck, Converge, and Chain Reaction all work together to make your Phaselocks very, very scary for enemies. 
  • Crowd Control: Converge helps group enemies, while skills like Blight Phoenix add nice support in spreading elemental damage across the battlefield. 

Use This Build If You:

  • Need DPS: As mentioned, everything in this kit contributes to damage. So if that’s all you need, look no further.
  • Play Solo: High DPS is needed especially in late solo game, so this is a great option if you’re looking to play that way.
  • Want Elemental Damage: Do you find lighting enemies on fire, throwing coercive damage at them, and electrocuting them all at once satisfying? This is the build for you. 

3. Progress In Motion

Maya in a snowy landscape, using her phaselock to keep an enemy midair.

Best For: Leveling and Phaselocking

As awesome as it is to blast enemies or play the role of support, you still need something to get you to that point. That’s where this leveling and survivalist build comes in. It offers good healing and damage output, so you can stay alive and down enemies as needed.  

For this build, you’ll want to invest in these skills:

  • Motion Tree: Ward 5/5, Accelerate 5/5, Kinetic Reflection 4/5, Converge1/1, Quicken 5/5, Sub-sequence 1/5
  • Harmony Tree: Sweet Release 5/5, Restoration 5/5, Elated 5/5, Sustenance 4/5
  • Cataclysm Tree: Foresight - 5/5

You’ll notice great defense in this build with max Ward boosting your shield capacity by a whopping 25%. Phaselocks now provide great support too with the Elated and Converge providing healing. Quicken and Sub-Sequence seal the deal, turning you into a Phaselock spamming machine.

For getting through the base game, this build does the job. Frequent Phaselocks help control enemies, deal damage, and heal, while more general skills like Foresight and Accelerate give you an edge with your guns.

What This Build Does Best:

  • Defense: Ward gives a great boost to shields. Paired with good equipment, the 25% boost goes a long way.
  • Health Regen: Skills like Sweet Release provide consistent and good healing.
  • Overall Performance: While this build helps a lot with survivability, it’s not so focused that you’ll feel lacking in other departments.
  • Phaselock Spam: Maxed out Quicken gives you a Phaselock cooldown rate of 30%.

Use This Build If You...

  • Need To Level: You don’t need a focused build to grind levels, just something to keep you alive and doing damage - and this build does the job.
  • Play Solo: This build gives you plenty of support to stay alive in solo situations.
  • Need A Well Rounded Build: All out Healing or DPS not working for you? Try this hybrid build.
  • Want A Build For Every Situation: this is a great build for your average playthrough. 

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Nothing fuels a creative career like diving into a good game. When in doubt, I pick up a controller and see what new experiences there are to uncover.
Gamer Since: 2000
Favorite Genre: RPG
Currently Playing: Hades
Top 3 Favorite Games:Borderlands 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Shovel Knight


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