Playstyle & Rotation Mara Fellowship Hero Guide

Playstyle Overview

Mara is a melee DPS who utilizes combo point builder/spender abilities to deal damage. The goal is to generate Energy through her poisons and Hemorrhaging Strike, build combo points with that Energy, and then spend the combo points to deal damage. When played well Mara deals potent AoE damage and very high burst in both single target and AoE situations, and to achieve this we will want to follow these rules:

1. Keep important abilities on cooldown and maintenance debuffs applied.
2. Avoid overcapping resources. Combo points, Energy, and even charges of certain abilities should always be kept in mind and overcapping any of these is typically wasteful and a DPS loss.

Energy and Combo Points

Mara utilizes two key resources: Energy and combo points. Her Energy has a cap of 200, while her combo points cap at 6. Energy is consumed to activate all of her damaging abilities, both builders and spenders. Combo points are accumulated through Backstab, Widow's Bite and Skittering Blades and spent on her finisher abilities - Queen's Fang, Hemorrhaging Strike and Arachnid Assault.

Energy is generated through uses of Widow's Bite, active debuffs on enemies, the Maiden Of Death ability, and any poison damage with Venomous Delight talented.

Rotation and Cooldown usage

Energy management, combo point generation, and proper cooldown management are all very important to keep in mind when playing Mara. Make sure to keep Seething Poison from Brooding Shadows and the bleed from Hemorrhaging Strike active. Avoid overcapping charges of Brooding Shadows and Widow's Bite, and avoid having Maiden Of Death and Matriarch Macabre off cooldown for too long.

The abilities we want to use depend on the amount of targets around us, and which cooldowns we have available. We essentially want to use most buttons sparingly outside of our Maiden Of Death windows and deplete everything that we have inside of them. We will want to hold Maiden Of Death, Final Stratagem and our Weapon Ability to use all 3 in combination with Matriarch Macabre if it'll be less than 35 seconds until it is up and ready to use in a good situation for it. Otherwise use them as they come off cooldown.

Mara Priority List

1. Debuffs:

1. Maintain Seething Poison with Widow's Bite from Brooding Shadows on the priority target at all times (I recommend applying it to the 2nd or 3rd kill target in lower level or farm content)
2. Maintain Hemorrhaging Strike on all targets when fighting 3 targets or less and it will last it's full duration (apply to all targets no matter the count if playing a Hemorrhaging Strike focused setup)

2. Combo Point Generation (0 to 3 Combo Points):

1. Skittering Blades when fighting 8 or more targets
2. Widow's Bite when fighting 4 or less targets (7 or less with Puncture talented) (if playing with Feed The Queen and Malevolence talented, only build towards Arachnid Assault with Widow's Bite, so Feed The Queen stacks are up for Queen's Fangs)
3. Skittering Blades when fighting 3 or more targets (2 or more with Feed The Queen talented (if energy economy allows for it)
4. Backstab when fighting 1 or 2 targets

3. Spending Combo Points (4+Combo Points AoE/5+ Combo Points Single Target):

1. Spend Hemotoxin procs by using 6 Combo Point Hemorrhaging Strikes (if playing with Hemotoxin talented)
2. Arachnid Assault when fighting 3 or more targets (5 or more with Feed The Queen talented)
3. Queen's Fang when fighting 2 or less targets (5 or less with Feed The Queen talented)

4. Poison Priority List:

1. Apply Seething Poison on priority target with Widow's Bite from Brooding Shadows if not already active
2. Use Volatile Poison with Skittering Blades from Brooding Shadows when fighting 4 or more targets while avoiding overwriting itself as the explosion damage will be lost
3. Caustic Poison with Backstab from Brooding Shadows on 3 or less targets

Opener (Without Modifying Talents):

1. Brooding Shadows -> Widow's Bite to put up Seething Poison
2. Hemorrhaging Strike
3. Maiden Of Death
4. Weapon Ability
5. Generate and spend combo points as outlined above
6. When Maiden Of Death has run out, and all charges of Brooding Shadows are depleted, use Final Stratagem to reset and refund all cooldowns and charges and use them again

Playing with Assassin's Guile, Malevolence and Deadly Scheme

Assassin's Guile:

The Assassin's Guile Talent gives us a 40% damage multiplier for our finishers for 5 seconds after using one of our Poison empowered generators from Brooding Shadows, meaning we can fit 4 global cooldowns into this damage window. We will want to prioritize getting as many Queen's Fangs or Arachnid Assaults off within these windows as possible. In AoE situations this can be a bit awkward to play around since our Volatile Poison from Skittering Blades lasts 6-8 seconds, so when we want to chain together Assassin's Guile windows we will want to alternate between Volatile Poison and either Seething Poison from Widow's Bite or Caustic Poison from Backstab depending on the situation. We can also use Arachnid Assault from Brooding Shadows, but that will mean that the first wave of the 3 attacks will not be buffed by Assassin's Guile.

Malevolence:

The Malevolence Talent gives gives either our Queen's Fang or Arachnid Assault finishers a 100% damage increase upon using the other one, stacking up to 2 times. We will want to use as many buffed versions of the most effective finisher for the situation in combination with our other multipliers as possible. It is especially important that we have two stacks of the buff for the most effective finisher ready before we enter our Assassin's Guile window so we can spend both of them inside of it. When we're outside of the Assassin's Guile window we will want to alternate between having 2 of the most effective finishers buff and spending one to go back down to 1. When in single target situations it is more effective to not worry about how many combo points we use for Arachnid Assault, the important part of using it is to get the buff for Queen's Fang. If we are at 0 then the most important thing to do is acquire 1 so we are ready to spend a buffed version of the most effective finisher on a potential Deadly Scheme proc.

Deadly Scheme:

The Deadly Scheme talent gives us a buff that guarantees our next Queen's Fang or Arachnid Assault will critically strike after generating 200 Energy. We will want to spend this buff together with as many other damage modifiers as possible. We will ideally want to use them inside of Assassin's Guile with a Malevolence buff for the most effective finisher for the situation. This Talent is quite tricky to keep track of, so I'd suggest not paying too much attention to it while you're still learning how to play with Malevolence, or generally if there is a lot going on on your screen.

Single Target Opener with Malevolence and Assassin's Guile:

1. Brooding Shadows -> Widow's Bite to put up Seething Poison
2. Hemorrhaging Strike
3. Acquire 2 stacks of Queen's Fang buffs by using Backstab -> Arachnid Assault
4. Maiden Of Death
5. Weapon Ability
6. Brooding Shadows -> Backstab
7. Queen's Fang
8. Widow's Bite
9. Queen's Fang
10. Generate and spend combo points as outlined above while keeping the flow of Malevolence going as outlined above as well
11. When Maiden Of Death has run out, and all Brooding Shadows chargers have been depleted, then use Final Stratagem to reset and refund all cooldowns and charges and use them again

AoE Opener with Malevolence and Assassin's Guile:

1. Brooding Shadows -> Widow's Bite to put up Seething Poison
2. Queen's Fang
3. Acquire 2 stacks of Arachnid Assault buffs by using Skittering Blades -> another Queen's Fang
4. Maiden Of Death
5. Weapon Ability
6. Brooding Shadows -> Skittering Blades
7. Arachnid Assault
8. Skittering Blades or Widow's Bite depending on target count
9. Arachnid Assault
10. Generate and spend combo points as outlined above while keeping the flow of Malevolence going as outlined above as well
11. When Maiden Of Death has run out, and all Brooding Shadows chargers have been depleted, then use Final Stratagem to reset and refund all cooldowns and charges and use them again

Playing with the new Sinner's Pride talent

In single target situations the Sinner's pride talent makes combo point efficiency more important than getting the damage buff from Maiden Of Death onto our Widow's Bite and Brooding Shadows poisons , this means we will swap from depleting our stacks inside our Maiden Of Death windows to wanting to deplete them outside and letting them build up while Maiden Of Death is active.

Utility and Defensives

Outside of our damaging abilities we have a few useful Utility and Defensive abilities.

Stalker Step - Instantly teleport behind the targeted enemy or player, getting increased move speed by 50% for 4 seconds. This does not break stealth.

Shadow Protection - 40% damage reduction for 4 seconds on a 30 second cooldown. Use this to mitigate incoming damage.

Enveloping Web - An instant 4 second stun on a 30 second cooldown. Use this to interrupt stunnable targets casts.

Buffs and Debuffs

Buffs and Debuffs are extremely important to track for Mara, unfortunately the base UI doesn’t place the display of these in a great location. As a result, I’d recommend moving them closer to the center of your screen using the “EDIT HUD” feature in the game menu.

Here is a link to my UI if you want to just pick up and play:

https://fellowship.wago.io/BfvhF3DWj