Borderlands 2 character guide: getting your Mage on with Maya

There's a price to pay for picking a mage class in most RPGs, and no, I'm not talking about pansy armour and low agility. See, another definition of "wizard" is "old man in a dress with a stick", and another way of saying "old man in a dress with a stick" is "profoundly disempowering and dull".

Fortunately, Borderlands 2's supernatural class isn't cut from that cloth. She looks how Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill might look if you gave her a mild case of vampirism. Here's a guide to her skills, care of confirmed Borderlands nut Matt. Read up on Salvator the Gunzerker if you like things a little more direct, or check out Zer0 the assassin if swords are more your thing.

Like Lilith from the first Borderlands, Maya is one of the world's six Sirens - ladies with ace supernatural powers. Her Phaselock skill lets her freeze foes in time, making her the most suited to co-op games of all four Borderlands 2 characters.

Hoisting the most dangerous enemies into the air and preventing them from fighting back can turn the tide of battle, and there are optional upgrades that make things even more useful. The Helios skill in the Cataclysm tree transforms Phaselock into an inferno, causing explosive damage to all foes nearby. Invest heavily in the rest of the tree, and you'll evolve into a walking natural disaster of fire and acid.

If you're the caring, nurturing type, however, Maya's Harmony skill tree is the better pick. Superb health-regen boosts and the ability to drain vitality from foes should be enough to hold off death while you run around keeping the other guys in shape. The Restoration skill lets you heal team-mates by shooting them, while the Res upgrade for your Phaselock skill lets you resurrect fallen allies.

The final skill tree turns Maya into a speedy shock-trooper, with improvements to firing and movement speeds. The Converge skill upgrades Phaselock to pull nearby enemies towards it, lining up easy grenade and rocket kills, while Kinetic Reflection offers some cool survivability - every time you kill a foe, you'll briefly reflect all incoming bullets.

Her skills don't particularly favour any specific weapon types, but you'll still need to think about what you're wielding. Phaselocked foes are a perfect target for a slow firing heavy-damage weapon, but you'll want to keep an SMG handy for when this is on cooldown. You can't go wrong with a chunky shotgun, but sniper rifles have their place - if you're struggling to survive a very tough fight, you can always heal your team with bullets from a long way away.

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