Same thing as Shaktiboy’s BeeFour Axton build and Insulated Discordant Bee Gaige build I linked. One of my favorites builds and I thought I would move it over since I haven’t seen it yet.
Certain links will be broken but I’ve replaced the one I can. It would be a ton of work to replace all the work Bahroo and company did in the past lmao
I have all 6 classes unlocked for 72 OP8 and this particular Maya build is very robust and flexible for general mobbing and DigiPeak runs.
A lot of classes need to run in UVHM mode with a heal gun of some sort (Rubi/Grog) on swap. This build is built around the same concepts as the “BeeFour” and “Insulating Discordant Bee” builds linked below for Axton and Gaige. And just like for those builds, you do NOT need a healing gun on swap at all, and you have an inherent slagging engine from your skill trees that is so effective you don’t even need to use slag grenades.
Similar to the Axton build linked below, this Maya one is more suited to a mid- and long-range fighting style, and you’ll need to play cat-and-mouse when your shield takes a hit. But like Axton, taking a hit should be rare if you’re playing at the proper distance. By contrast, the Gaige build can play at all ranges effectively and can face-tank pretty well even when under direct fire.
Maya, Axton, and Gaige are the only three classes that have enough shield buffing skills, health regen skill, and some type of aggro management skills that make full time use of The Bee possible, and to also make it uneccessary to keep a heal gun on swap. It took a while and a lot of help/criticism/education from others to find my ideal Bee-centric build for general UVHM OP+ mobbing with Maya, but at last I’ve found it.
The skill tree and what makes it different from most popular Maya builds
When looking at the skill tree, bear in mind that this build concept requires the following COM from main game, specifically for the +5 bonus to Ward, which pushes it to 10/5 points for a -80% recharge delay. This build will not work correctly with a Legendary Cat or other siren COM.
Legendary Siren (Cooldown Rate +51%, Gun Damage +37%;
+5 Ward, Accelerate, Mind’s Eye, Flicker, Foresight)
I’m dubbing this build the " Bouncing Ruin Bee " as a mnemonic to distinguish it from other Cataclysm or Bee-centric builds. This build is designed 100% around maximizing uptime for The Bee shield, and 5/5 Sub-sequence (which makes your phaselock “bounce” to other targets) and 1/1 Ruin both play a large part in that. Therefore: Bounce + Ruin + Bee shield = Bouncing Ruin Bee
What’s different about this specific build? Five things all specifically oriented around maximizing up-time for The Bee and min/maxing the best buff synergies for Maya:
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10/5 in Ward gives you -80% shield recharge delay. This is a faster native recharge delay than either Axton or Gaige can achieve. For example, a Bee shield that has a 3.67 second recharge delay on Axton has only a 3.32 second recharge delay on Maya.
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Max investment in cooldown speed for your phaselock: COM + relic + Quicken skill.
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Max investment in Sub-sequence, Converge, and Suspension. Compared to a build without Sub-sequence, this build can triple the number of convergence “yanks” and the number of Ruin slagging procs. Yes, Sub-sequence is buggy at times and won’t always bounce successfully to other targets. But it is successful far more often than not, and when it is, you can routinely get three fast Bee-augmented kills of the target that’s been locked. This gives you 15 streams of incoming healing from Sweet Release, and it also interrupts enemies shooting at you not once, not twice, but three times per cast of phaselock. Sub-sequence is what makes your phaselock keep as many enemies as possible from shooting at you, which directly improves your Bee uptime.
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Ruin is an important skill in this build concept. You often get to auto-slag enemies up to three times per case of phaselock (via Ruin), and if they’re slagged they go down that much faster with the Bee whacking on them. Oh, and they’re in a nice tight cluster from the converge “yank”. So by killing more enemies faster, that’s fewer enemies shooting at you in a given amount of time, which indirectly improves your Bee uptime.
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Reaper is also an important skill in this build concept. The bonus from Reaper is applied after the total damage from both your gun and The Bee. so 5/5 reaper increases your Bee’s amp damage by 40%.
These five unique elements synergize to minimize the “glass” portion of the “glass cannon” effect of The Bee. In fact, it minimizes the effect so much that you literally never need a heal gun at the ready for any UVHM situations.
It’s a very strong build concept that is the equal of the Axton and Gaige builds linked below in my sig block.
A. It supports a huge variety of weapon preferences equally well.
B. It burns down single targets faster than even sweet spot hits with a Pimpernel on a Zero built for Pimpernels. Squeeze>burst>dead on anything except Badasses and Constructors.
C. It’s completely robust without ever needing a Rubi/Grog on swap ready to save your bacon.
Refresher course: Why The Bee?
In part, because it enables you to deal with UVHM difficultly even with crappy white and green guns .
In normal and TVHM playthroughs, The Bee was widely considered OP and broken. However, in UVHM mode, and especially in OP1-OP8 play, the Bee is instead an equalizer to get ahead of the ramped up HP Pools and Health regen scaling of UVHM play, especially at all levels above 61. The problem is that while nearly every class can benefit from the huge extra damage output of The Bee, not every class can realistically deal with The Bee’s main tradeoff, which is a low capacity coupled with a long recharge delay time (roughly a 6-second baseline before buffs/modifiers). Only Axton, Gaig,e, and Maya have the ability to effectively minimize the downsides of The Bee.
It’s worth remembering (or learning) that The Bee and all amp shields already gain a huge extra bonus from weapons that have “splash damage”. Basically, The Bee (and all amp shields) deal their full listed amp damage value for the initial hit from every bullet, plus one more scaled hit for the splash hit from every bullet. So, for example, if the weapon you’re using has an 80% splash bonus, then the Bee hits twice as follows:
100% of listed amp damage for the initial bullet hit
+
80% of the listed amp damage for the splash hit.
So you would get the bullet damage itself + the gun’s splash damage itself + (amp damage * 1.80)
To see my own in-depth testing of The Bee in UVHM2 OP+ environments with LOTS more details and commentary, refer to Updates on The Bee at 72 OP+ levels.
To see which weapons have splash and more detail about amp damage and splash, here are three useful links:
Bahroo’s explanation of Amp shields
Bahroo’s explanation of splash mechanics and splash bonuses
A comparative survey of common splash weapons + The Bee by Seraphor
The gear
Guns:
For general UVHM mobbing and coop, pretty much anything you like. Seriously. I like the way SMGs “feel” with The Bee, so I run with a Hellfire, a corrosive Bitch, a general purpose AOE splash gun like an Ogre or Hail, and some type of FFYL gun in the 4th slot (Norfleet, DPUH, or SWORDSPLOSION!!!) Pimpernel snipers are also amusing and fun with The Bee (and therefore often replace my AOE splash gun in the 3rd slot. The new, improved Hornet is also very strong. It’s hard to decide between the Floating Hornet and the Twin Hornet. The Floating prefix gives very fast and long bursts with high accuracy. I can burn down a constructor in Opportunity with 5 super fast bursts.
Tediore Plasma Casters (with Dahl stock and Maliwan grip) are also just peachy with this build too, especially to splash into converged clumps.
Note: You will NOT need a heal gun on swap. Keep them in your backpack!
For harder OP4+ play, such as an OP8 solo run, you’ll need to start abusing some well-known guns that make for a “broken” combo with the Bee, namely:
A fire Sandhawk, a corrosive Sandhawk, a shock Bitch or shock Gromky Lyuda, and a shock Norfleet.
Other gear:
COM: Legendary Siren (Cooldown Rate +51%, Gun Damage +37%;
+5 Ward, Accelerate, Mind’s Eye, Flicker, Foresight)
Relic: fire Bone or corrosive Bone
Shield: Inflammable Bee or non-elemental Bee (Tediore capacitor for the fastest recharge delay).
Grenade: Your choice, since Ruin alone will do all the slagging you need. I still run with Magic Missile just because they hit really hard and their homing action helps me find enemies that aren’t in sight yet. And they regenerate.
Playstyle
Phaselock the first target you see, then start shooting. Always go for the locked target itself, because you want the healing streams from Sweet Release in play as soon as possible, and you want to bounce to a new phaselocked target ASAP for more Converge yanks and more Ruin procs. Always prioritize the locked target up in the ball. Shoot the other targets while the bounce is traveling to its next target.
Play at mid- and long range, relying on more accurate guns. Don’t get too up close and personal, and if your shield takes a hit, strafe or sprint for cover to give it time to recharge up to full. Your playstyle is more “cat and mouse” ala Axton.
The 7 points that can arguably reassigned elsewhere
There are 3 points in the Cataclysm tree and 4 points in the Motion tree that many players will disagree with. Bottom line: feel free to reassign these to whatever you like.
4/5 Fleet: Some will argue that these points are better spent in Inertia and/or Accelerate and/or Mind’s Eye. These are good arguments from a min/max perspective. I tested all these alternatives but still prefer the UTILITY of 4/5 Fleet. You should strive not to get hit much at all, but if your shield does get one-shot to nothing, this skill is a lifesaver because it helps you avoid more hits while sprinting/strafing behind cover.
Helios, Cloud Kill, Backdraft, and Blight Phoenix: Some will argue that these points are better spent in Flicker instead. To me it’s the same. Flicker is just as underwhelming and scales just as bad at TVHM and especially UVHM levels. Again, for me the choice comes down to UTILITY. Sometimes, that reactive melee-range damage from Blight Phoenix and Backdraft is just what the doctor ordered. (and the Phoenix wings just look cool) More damage added to each phaselock from Helios? Sure, why not. Acid cloud to add some corrosive AOE? For only 1 point? Sure, why not. If you feel strongly that 5/5 Flicker is better, then by all means go for it.
Yes, but Sub-sequence sucks
That’s a matter of opinion, and as stated above, my testing shows that it clearly increases Bee uptime. If you feel strongly, put those 5 points elsewhere. But then you’re not really using this particular build concept anymore. ^.^
The arguments against Sub-sequence are that if the bounce gets stuck in geometry trying to get to the next target that its AI has chosen, it’s doing you no good and your cooldown for the next phaselock is delayed for the full duration of Suspension. Therefore, if you don’t use Sub-sequence, you can get the next phaselock out faster; as fast as possible.
This central argument against Sub-sequence is true enough, but the logic of this argument IMO fails to balance:
- “getting the next phaselock out as fast as possible”
versus
- “but when Sub-sequence does work, it’s like getting 3 phaselocks within the span of 1, for free”.
In my observation and testing, the 3x Converge yanks plus the 3x Ruin applications that Sub-sequence OFTEN gives you are priceless for maximizing uptime of The Bee and keeping the pressure off of you. The fact that Sub-sequence fails to find another target roughly 25% of the time, on average, does not detract from the other 75 percent of the time when it gives you 3x Converge/Ruin procs.
That said, I fully agree that if you’re not using a Bee shield, then Sub-sequence might not be worth it. One reason Sub-sequence works so well in this particular build is because The Bee helps you kill the locked target so fast that you have plenty of time for the bounce to lock other targets during the total span of phaselock. If you can’t kill a locked target very fast, then you’re not getting the most out of Sub-sequence. The Bee is synergisitic with Sub-sequence.
Hope this was helpful to all the Maya players. Try it; you’ll like it!
