Table of Contents
Learn how to play Mak in The Bazaar with this in-depth hero build and strategy guide!
State of the Meta
| Build | Early | Late | Projected Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peacewrought | Average | Great | 7-10 | A+ |
| Self Poison | Below Average | Great | 7-10 | A |
| Magic Carpet | Average | Above Average | 4-7 | B |
While it isn't a play style I particularly enjoy, Mak shine through its versatility in terms of items you can build around. Peacewrought has emerged as the new Fixer Upper this season, giving Mak a clear direction for an entire run. Looking at many 10 wins builds, it seems Library is a great support piece, naturally driving that build away from weapons.
Apart from that new build, Mak has plenty of ways to build around other items. Magnus' Femur still is pretty good, Magic Carpet plus Runic Great Axe as well, while Poppy Field gained Barbed Claws. On top of those, the self poison build also looks like a strong build, meaning Mak has plenty of directions to explore.
Example Best Builds
Incense is more of a placeholder, indicating you want something that will help you slow things down and build your Regen in piece more than anything.
Staff of the Moose is another way to build around Peacewrought.
The Basics
I feel like Mak is a pretty safe character to get at least 4 wins with, as the pairing of Regeneration plus Poison in the early days is pretty strong. However, unless you find a weapon with a connection to the poison synergy, or manage to upgrade a Reagent related item early on, Mak requires operating a switch, or at least invest a lot of gold, around day 4 or 5 to keep up with everyone's scaling.
In that second phase, Mak has three main avenues to explore: creating loops in between weapons supported by Poppy Field, the potions synergy or leveraging enchantment on beefed up items connected to its signature reagents. At the moment, I believe the Poppy Field build is the best one, and probably top tier across all characters as well.
If you have to keep only one thing in mind about how to play Mak, here it is: Get your first wins through having more regeneration than your opponent can damage through. Yet, always keep in mind we don't play The Bazaar for a bronze run, so anticipate the need to create damage if you aim for more than four wins.
Mak Builds Tier List
Poppy Field, Spider Mace and Floor Spike are the core items here. The rest just makes the build even stronger. Ouroboros Statue can be swapped if we find some healing through an enchantment or Runic Potion.
| Build | Early | Late | Projected Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poison / Weapon Hybrid | Above Average | Fantastic | 4-10 | A+ |
| Vat of Acid | Below Average | Great | Inconsistent | A |
| Potions | Below Average | Average | Inconsistent | B |
| Reagents | Above Average | Below Average | 4-7 | C+ |
Although there are a lot of items to support it, I feel like the potions build only clicks if you find Athanor alongside great enchantments on your key potions to quickly end PvP fights. Or Potion Distillery plus a way to grant more ammunitions to your potions. Recycling Bin plus Vial Launcher is a thing, but needs a lot of haste to be fast enough in the later days.
On the other hand, Poppy Field makes almost any poison related weapon a menace, while giving you more freedom to build around it as well. Both builds are capable to go the distance and score a Gold run, but one requires less work, and is easier to transition towards if you started with a generic Poison plus Regeneration build early on.
Last on the list is the Reagent build, which often acts as a support to the other two, but can reliably get to a silver performance with a beefed up Philosopher's Stone plus either Calcinator or Retort. Yet, this build typically falls short in the later days, limited by the speed of those items, and the fact disruption can be extremely impactful against them. The burn item has a better shot at a high score, as the damage is dealt faster than poison is.
There are a few other items to consider as the backbone of a build. Typically, these will be opportunistic pick-ups you find early, or as an attempt to salvage a failed start. They are pretty self-explanatory, so simply follow their condition to mount a cohesive build.
Amongst those, Vat of Acid clearly is the best one potential wise, but Nightshade is pretty easy to support and build around.
Starting Kit
While the key items for a Potion build aren't small, and the best ones start at the silver rarity, I still tend to favor the enchanted item over the Gold Skill with Mak. First, although Vanessa or Dooley can have more aggressive starts, Mak feels decent in the early days, so I want to secure a bronze run on top of quickly being able to take on elite monsters. Then, I am very happy to be offered Philosopher's Stone or Spider Mace, as both represent a clear path I can follow. Even Tazidian Dagger isn't a bad pick-up.
I don't think the Gold skill is wrong to pick, but often more risky as you start with less gold, and might not be able to leverage the skill early in your run. This is more of a long term investment, leading to more inconsistent results.
Early Stages
This is the part of the run when regeneration items will shine, frequently keeping us alive and able to win through the Storm even if we can't deal much damage. Typically, we will find some poison items as well, which will represent a decent foundation to take on Monsters, and rack up a few PvP wins.
Then, until we can build the power of the likes of Philosopher's Stone, Calcinator or Retort. Or surround Athanor with enough potions, we'll typically just work with some sort of regeneration based build. See this phase as a passage to earning enough gold you will spend later on to complete your build. Plus, Mak has a lot of items worth keeping in your stash for extra gains through your run, so there will be plenty of reasons to spend. The Tome of Yyahan or Potion Distillery for example.
At this stage, the dream is to get a starting enchanted item which gives us a build we can work towards. If nothing comes around, we should start getting more aggressive with our encounters picks around day 3. Then, quite a lot of foundational items starting at the silver tier will be available, such as Poppy Field, Staff of the Moose, Vat of Acid multiple potions or Floor Spike.
PvE Encounters to pick early on
Day 1
Viper is the best monster to beat loot wise. Even a Fang isn't so bad if you plan on forcing a weapon build, as it doesn't get much faster than 3 seconds if you need something to start your loop.
Otherwise, Trained from Kyver Drone is a pretty good skill to pick up, as Mak has ways to build a decent slow strategy, especially if you got a Spider Mace.
Day 2
Giant Mosquito has the best loots here, no matter your build, but especially if you plan to go for Weapons or Slow synergies.
Day 3
Dabbling Apprentice has some good stuff for a potion build, although Scout Trooper's Gunner is ideal in my opinion for that route. Eccentric Etherwright remains my favorite target and often a good point of reference to assess the strength of my start.
Day 4
Boilerroom Brawler has the very important Energy Potion while Bloodreef Raider also holds a few good loots for a potion build. Otherwise, maximize gold and experience.
Day 5
Sabretooth's Diamond Fangs is insane in a Potion synergy while Shiny Fang is a great loot for a weapon based build. Kyver Commander and Gorgon Noble both hold great skills for any build.
Racking Up PvP Wins
Once we get to the later days, Mak can really start to struggle if we have not assembled a build able to race for damage. Indeed, even with a lot of Regeneration, most opponents at this point will have some sort of scaling ability, which gives them inevitability during a fight. Combined with Mak's complete lack of shield generation, we have no choice but to become the heavy hitter to keep our momentum going. PvE encounters might not give you the impression your build is slowly losing momentum, but PvP should clearly show why the Weapon / Poison build is superior at the moment.
Obviously, enchantments will play a huge role in enhancing our build, particularly when it comes to turning our now rather slow poison items into heavy hitters with the Obsidian enchantment. Shielded is also a good one to consider as once again, Mak really has nothing to create Shield apart from enchanting an item. These are particularly important for the Reagent build, as your now beefed up Calcinator or Retort will be perfect recipients for most scaling enchantments.
The potion and weapon builds will function with various enchantments due to being faster off the gate. Turbo is a great one in the potion strategy if you have the ammunitions to keep up, especially to make Rainbow Potion fast enough to become a real disruption tool. Shielded or Restorative can make you impossible to kill in a weapon build able to charge a Floor Spike or Spider Mace fast enough.
For now, Mak doesn't have many items in the higher rarities we are eager to pick up in order to round out our build. In the later days, except for enchantments and new skills, most of our power ups will come from upgrading the items we picked up at the bronze or silver rarity.
Here are the few ones I would consider late in a run:
A great item to create loops in between two items.
When Hasted, this will make your entire build much faster. Particularly good in the Reagent build which tends to be quite slow towards the end of a run.
This becomes a beast if you can enchant it with any percentage based bonus.
When it comes to monsters, Mak will ironically mostly look for skills you can loot on the weaker ones each day. While it makes for a good comeback opportunity if you couldn't really get going early on, it also means we often will have to pick in between the maximum experience and gold gain or a potential great skill.
Once again, the Weapon / Poison build will show its dominance, as the presence of Spider Mace in that build allows picking slow skills as well. This makes it almost impossible not to find a good monster to face each day with that build.
Potions have a few solid skills to pick up, but mostly will try to upgrade its items through looting them on certain monsters.
As for the Reagent build, I feel like it is the one most eager to beat up elites to gain as much experience as possible. Not that there aren't any synergistic options available, but the level up rewards tend to guarantee a much-needed scaling for that build to perform in the later days. Otherwise, your enchantments will dictate what you are after at this stage of the run.
Monsters looting skills for the Weapon / Poison Build
Monsters looting skills for the Potion Build
Monsters looting skills for the Reagent Build
Closing Words
I hope this guide was helpful, and I wish you luck in The Bazaar! If you have any questions or if you're looking for coaching, feel free to reach out on Discord @den_ccg.
Good Game Everyone.
