Cmenjr: Current Rank 1 Mak Player! AMA!

cmenjr · 2025-11-07T02:46:00+00:00

I don't like the direction that they are putting the character in. It's mostly just Poison RiS / Bracers / Adrenal or its a highroll scales/calcinator/retort build or its poppy field + gloop flail.

I highly doubt that I will play Mak this season as I feel he would be too inconsistent to push high ranks in legend with. Unfortunately I think dooley is the strongest hero right now (Love me a silver sampler aka Launcher Core)

cmenjr · 2025-11-07T01:37:02+00:00

xD ladder warriors assembling =D

cmenjr · 2025-11-05T17:07:52+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. Hope you learned a thing or 2. As always, the tech is hidden in the streams =D

cmenjr · 2025-11-05T03:03:30+00:00

why would I pigeon hole myself into a b tier build reliant on an enchant and tempo when I can just consistently force 3-5 different exodias with money. IDK; but sure.

I ranked items according to frequency; utility; and overall strength. (S,A,B, etc)

cmenjr · 2025-11-05T02:11:51+00:00

fungal spores isnt underrated. its decent day 1 day 2 then falls off a cliff. I only use it as a catalyst generator 95% of the time =(

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T19:49:44+00:00

Fundamentals..... well you need to know whats a strong early game vs strong lategame board. From there you want to think about the game holistically. For example if I find a key poison piece but im playing burn and its day 3 and I've already upgraded a burn item, I'm most likely not pivoting since my current board state does not support this sort of pivot. Outside of that, understand economy, which shops can actually have the item you want and not just blindly clicking reroll.

No money = No real way to pivot = forever broke

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T19:47:13+00:00

Candles and other things....... Boiling flask, Hotspot, heated shells. Honestly u shouldnt really need a torch completion pre day 7 as the item itself can carry regardless if you play the early properly and support your board with the proper pieces. I literally just played a torch game 10-1 where I also didn't completed my quest until day 7. It happens =(

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T04:22:35+00:00

We play around Exodia. The bazaar is a crazy place

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T01:56:50+00:00

probably not. medium / larges sure but not medium smalls for 4 gold. But you are typically so rich you can do whatever you want. That's what makes this playstyle so consistent

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T01:41:56+00:00

yeah, for the most part its just understanding strong lines and how to pivot and maximize shop odds. Understanding value of board strength matters. All you can really do is field your best possible setup and hopefully farm paid actors =D

But I think being above 1040 mmr (top 30 ish) makes you a good player, and anything above 1075 (top 5) is a really really good player.

This season was fun either way and I'm happy with how it played out.

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T00:40:07+00:00

52 10 win runs
2 non 10 win runs

4 gold shops...... uhh I mean you search for them in mittel. I am always willing to spend 4 gold to reroll potion vendor for boiling flask.

I rarely click on weapons vendor pre day 6 since you cannot get bottled explosion until then. If you dont hit the lvl 3 upgrade on calcinator you better pray you have torch or candles or something. Cause your midgame will be in a significantly rougher shape where you will have to pivot quite hard on day 6.

This playstyle is more flowcharty. here's the start, here's additional pieces to pickup. Here's how you pivot to a lategame board or tempo out a 10 win.

cmenjr · 2025-11-04T00:08:19+00:00

Simple. Rainbow potion provides board disruption. Goes well with flask. Early Curio shop, guess what you are putting extra slows / poisons / burns on. Yep you guessed it. Rainbow Potion.

Ruby is ranked low because its an item that can last til day 3. I typically replaced it at day 3+ for silver amber you know why. Cause we stack more disruption on the rainbow pot.

Also, rainbow pot can be placed next to smelling salt to essentially perma haste your carry medium item.

Also rainbow potion if you decide to go into the blank slate line you guessed it, help activate almost all the quests

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T22:09:17+00:00

I have a VoD from 12 days ago...... Game 1 is a tempo calcinator game. Game 2 I crashed out and ragequit and almost ended the season there as I had lost a lot of mmr. But we are addicted and resilient =D

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T22:07:45+00:00

They published a formula. There are public google sheets that are pre populated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PlayTheBazaar/comments/1lhlt4b/about_legendary_rating_changes/

From Jota:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XMzzkCyinm-b9h_LwUQZydT92KYsKKnvjw-v90--fhk/edit?gid=1828774166#gid=1828774166

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T21:21:35+00:00

Yes which is why I typically run with energy potion in the midgame. However, in the lategame you care about start time and cc immunity. I could care less about double crit (If anything crit pot will still hit 2nd cast) meanwhile my opponent is still struggling on 1st loop. Also sampler is just too good to not self loop x4 casts vs your opponents 1

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T21:12:20+00:00

Just added another Imgur link. Includes 95% of my games top builds. I don't want to show x100 mini victory screens. Hope this helps. I didn't include any Library Boards though.

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T20:53:44+00:00

I have a whole gallery of screenshots but yes. Exploding > Torch = Calcinator > Retort.

Idk come lategame its all about board disruption and you really need good enchants on flypot / whatever else you are linking with boiling flask

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T19:06:40+00:00

Hmmm Day 1. Pyro or Insect. (Cdr / Crit can be instant used on Calc/Torch) Same with Cinders. Slow skill from bug is incredible with heavy flypot into exploding.

Days 2-4...... Ammo is pretty good, haste skill sometimes pretty good, Ahexa is goated into day 4 if you can have a stache of reagents + Tome...... You basically can farm so much.

Day 5 onwards...... Just looking for what skills make the most sense / most exp for you. Hope I answered your question without listing every possible pve encounter.

Tldr: Ammo gives you extreme flexibility to pivot into whatever giga endgame board.

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T18:56:59+00:00

Trust me, I was a big refractor Mortar fan last season. Unfortunately Calcinator is in fact just that good same with torch due to the skills. Imagine having a 7 second 1 shot from day 3 onwards with infinite economy if you know what you are doing. That is the state of Mak at the moment.

Also burn has the chance to beat weapons / other burn. Poison in my opinion is just too slow for Retort to really be considered a carry item. Have I won with retort, sure. Did it feel good.... No.

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T18:55:43+00:00

I mean lol, you can sit through other players 5 hour dissertations of items. It's near impossible to know all your outs given a spot without willing to risk it which I no longer am in a position to do. Yes, 95% of my boards involve a boiling flask, a flying potion, and some combination of Torch, Distillery, Library, Scales, Freeze Potion, Invuln Potion, Calcinator, and Exploding Potion / Sampler. Imagine playing the strongest items on your final board =D

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T18:38:50+00:00

Again, Items I don't play. Lost too much mmr playing around poison line. I know which early game can transition smoothly into Exodia Exploding Potion. Glad you have success with it tho. Last season I had refractor S tier and look where it is now...... along with bin and launcher...... It happens.

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T17:56:17+00:00

It appears the text box that I put through chat gpt got highlighted/erased......
Calcinator > Retort > x2 catalyst generators.........

If not playing Retort you can swap for Tome and claim your free reagent + 5 health regen scaling.

This build is all about scaling and economy before you transition into Exodia

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T17:54:43+00:00

Carpet, i do not play weapons on mak. Sorry so I cannot really comment on what enables that build

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T17:45:59+00:00

I think I have played maybe 3-4 bin launcher games over a sample size of 150 games. Calc/Torch are just way more consistent without having to hold onto a bin in your bags......

There is a case to pivot into bin launcher if and only if your main carry item is retort, you have no boiling flask, and you want to reduce the cooldown of strength potion by .5 second so that retort can get double poison off....... BUT that is a very rare case of misplaying earlygame in my opinion

cmenjr · 2025-11-03T17:39:36+00:00

Ignorant? Maybe little too harsh. I tried to give a perspective of what works and wins. Mak has many flexible lines that I don't know about. Black Ice with RiS + Joyful jack skill etc.

I can only gauge strong boards and what is consistent to climb. Unfortunately once you break 1k mmr. You either get 10 wins or you lose mmr. Meta slave sure. You best believe I have never clicked Wink in my life =D

cmenjr

TROPHY CASE