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 you will want to follow these rules:

1. Keep important abilities on cooldown. There are maintenance-type debuffs that you should be trying to maximize, whilst using your cooldowns as often as possible.
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 your Seething Poison from Brooding Shadows and bleed from Hemorrhaging Strike active. Avoid overcapping charges of Brooding Shadows and Widow's Bite, and avoid having your Maiden Of Death and Matriarch Macabre off cooldown for too long.

The abilities you want to use depend on the amount of targets around you, and which cooldowns you have available. You essentially want to use most buttons sparingly outside of your Maiden Of Death windows and deplete everything that you have inside of them. You'll want to hold Maiden Of Death, Final Stratagem and your 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 your priority target
2. Maintain Hemorrhaging Strike on all targets where it will get full value, if fighting 3 targets or below (no minimum target cap with From The Shadows talented)

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) (with Feed The Queen talented you'll want to only build towards using Arachnid Assault with Widow's Bite, so you have Feed The Queen stacks for your Queen's Fangs)
3. Skittering Blades when fighting 3 or more targets (2 or more with Feed The Queen talented, while avoiding running out of energy)
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 (with Hemotoxin talented)
2. Arachnid Assault when fighting 3 or more targets (4 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 overriding before it has run out on most targets
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 you've depleted all your Brooding Shadows chargers, then use Final Stratagem to reset all your cooldowns and refund all your charges and use them again

Playing with Assassin's Guile, Malevolence and Deadly Scheme

Assassin's Guile:

The Assassin's Guile Talent gives you a 40% damage multiplier for your finishers for 5 seconds after using one of your Poison empowered generators from Brooding Shadows, meaning you can fit 4 global cooldowns into this damage window. You'll 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 your Volatile Poison from Skittering Blades lasts 6-8 seconds, so when you want to chain together Assassin's Guile windows you'll want to alternate between Volatile Poison and either Seething Poison from Widow's Bite or Caustic Poison from Backstab depending on the situation.

Malevolence:

The Malevolence Talent gives gives either your Queen's Fang or Arachnid Assault finishers a 100% damage increase upon using the other one, stacking up to 2 times. You'll want to use as many buffed versions of the most effective finisher for the situation (see Spending Combo Points above) in combination with your other multipliers as possible. It is especially important that you have two stacks of the buff for the most effective finisher ready before you enter your Assassin's Guile window so you can spend both of them inside of it. When you're outside of the Assassin's Guile window you'll 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 you use for Arachnid Assault, the important part of using it is to get the buff for Queen's Fang. If you're at 0 then the most important thing to do is acquire 1 so you're ready to spend a buffed version of the most effective finisher on a potential Deadly Scheme proc.

Deadly Scheme:

The Deadly Scheme talent gives you a buff that guarantees your next Queen's Fang or Arachnid Assault will critically strike after generating 200 Energy. You will want to spend this buff together with as many other damage modifiers as possible. You will ideally want to use them inside of Assassin's Guile with a Malevolence buff for the most effective finisher for your 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 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 you've depleted all your Brooding Shadows chargers, then use Final Stratagem to reset all your cooldowns and refund all your 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 you've depleted all your Brooding Shadows chargers, then use Final Stratagem to reset all your cooldowns and refund all your charges and use them again

Utility and Defensives

Outside of your damaging abilities you 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.