Those Bees >:O

[Garglius]

So I spent the evening playing Arcade Mode by myself, 2 players and 3 players, and all I can say is that the game essentially becomes 'How do I deal with the bees?' Single player is left with very few options (especially vs the bee boss) resorting to perfectly timed attacks or the luck of finding an iron shield.

Multiplayer has to have one person on lightning cloud duty, as its the only thing that can hit the bees while in the air. (Boss fight revolving around running like fools while the cloud tries to kill the 10+ bees that the hives had a chance to spawn in like 6 seconds).

Also, while I'm at it, could there be some tweaking on the health when you respawn in Arcade? Perhaps a percentage rather than being set at 1HP. Kinda blows when you respawn at 1HP and a monster rushes you right at the start of the next room and you die right away.

 

[Tylerthedragon]

I like to use the jump attack with my two-handed weapon, which can hit the bees if you do it correctly. Try it, its much quicker than using the shield.

 

[Sharlow]

I grab my first skill as the air pet. He's the second option in the air tree. He can blast the bees while they're in flight, so what I do is rush to the left hive with a 2h weapon, and tear it down. By the time I've knocked both hives down, four bees total are out. Then I run about while my cloud takes care of the bees.

 

[GarlicJelly]

Is the "bee boss" the boss fight with 2 hives, a rabby and 2 slimes? That one is more about priority, kill hives first -> kill rabby and slimes -> kill bees. The hives have the potentional to break you completely so make sure you kill them FIRST in every room. If the said "bee boss" is an empowered bee (mini-boss) then try to move down or up as he flies down to strike you, turn around and give him a swing while he's close to the ground. If you do that you can also attack/kill other monsters like slimes and rabbys.

As for the 1hp on respawn I think that it's OP, if you die in Arcade mode you have to start over. Getting a second chance is really strong, starting off with 1hp is probably the only way to ensure that it's not breaking the game completely.

 

[Garglius]

Thats good and all, but trying to go for an S rank is impossible when you have to wait for your cloud to kill them.

 

[Teddy]

Thats good and all, but trying to go for an S rank is impossible when you have to wait for your cloud to kill them.

Friggin' bees!

Cloud Strike is the easy way out, but there are other very powerful strategies if the bees are pissing you off.

The Blade Flurry is very powerful as it can stunlock any number of bees to death, and it's also shield and attack cancelable. In essence you can use it to create a wall of death for the bees to fly into, and if you timed it wrong or something attacks from behind you can safely cancel it into your shield. Since Blade Flurry is a high DPS skill, it's also good for quickly dispatching of bee hives!

Whirlslash is also a good skill vs. bees. If you have the Brutal Start perk which gives you the claymore weapon, a whirslash could basically be called "delete all swooping bees around me"! If you use animation canceling, a basic 2h-attack canceled into a whirlslash is also pretty decent DPS even against single targets, while also providing some area crowd control (for the beehive fight).

If you perfect guard the bees, your shield can withstand twice the amount of hits (so the basic shield would survive 6-8 hits)! Since you can shield cancel perfect guards, if two bees dive almost at the same time, you can re-tap the button to perfect guard both attacks!

In multiplayer, the bee boss becomes a whole different beast. You pretty much have to have a strategy before going in. Usually, this would be something like "QUICKLY!! KILL THE BEEHIVES!" and then group up at one of them to limit the max amount of bees to a single hive. If one person is going very heavy single target DPS, and especially if that person has an offensive perk, with three people you can usually split 2-1 where the offensive character takes on one of the beehives by himself. After that, kill the elite slimes and then the rabby.

Hope that gave you some ideas!

 

[Tylerthedragon]

Friggin' bees!

Cloud Strike is the easy way out, but there are other very powerful strategies if the bees are pissing you off.

The Blade Flurry is very powerful as it can stunlock any number of bees to death, and it's also shield and attack cancelable. In essence you can use it to create a wall of death for the bees to fly into, and if you timed it wrong or something attacks from behind you can safely cancel it into your shield. Since Blade Flurry is a high DPS skill, it's also good for quickly dispatching of bee hives...

Hope that gave you some ideas!

I do think that bees are very strong for the point of the game they are encountered. I'm always up for a challenge, but 9/10 times in arcade mode I die from bees because I cannot concentrate on the swarming enemies punching me to death, and I am never quick enough to pull out my shield and deflect them without getting hit Immediately after trying to attack. I tried to get the cloud to kill them, but it didn't work.
Here's a video of me trying to beat Arcade mode in the Demo, and ultimately failing every time because of bees.

 

[Sharlow]

Thats good and all, but trying to go for an S rank is impossible when you have to wait for your cloud to kill them.

With the cloud I have no issues clearing the room in 17 seconds, which is S rank without taking a hit. Take out the left hive, blow through arrows for the second. The cloud takes care of the single bee the spawns from the left while you burn down the right hive. Kill the second bee, and you're finished.

 

[Chris Soames]

One little trick I've been working on is using chain lightning on a mob on the ground, just as a bee swoops down, even if its no where near you, the chain lightning hits it. If chain lightning is powered up a few levels, its often enough to one or two-shot them!