UVHM decent damage just with bee shield?

[[Ar]Curry]

Hey folks.
It's been a while since i reached UVHM. And since i gave up last time because it surprised me how powerful the enemies are, I want to push through it now and maybe reach out to the OP levels.

Please don't misunderstand me. I won't complain about the difficulty. But I think, the only way to do good damage is with the bee shield, and of course slag. But my slag options are limited, playing as Maya with her phaselock slagging enemies

My current equip is (as mentioned) the bee shield, moxxis good touch, Toothpick, two sniper rifles, and some infection cleaner, peak opener, and the unicornsplosion.

So my question is now: How can I do good damage without the bee shield? I feel weak without it

[Kobeth]

Maya's bread and butter loadout for UVHM is bee shield + sandhawk, if you want to drop the bee shield your damage are going to invariably suffer and there's not much you can do about it. Unfortunately, Maya's good damaging skills kinda fall off at higher levels which kinda limits her offensive options. Thankfully, thanks to her Legendary Cat class mod, Maya is the best SMG user in the game and SMG is a pretty good weapon class in this game, so if you don't have this class mod, go farm one and get yourself a decent SMG. Get yourself an additional decent slagging option like a Slagga for exemple, and if you want to replace the bee shield you may go for a more defensive option like the Antagonist or the Evolution for exemple, the issue is that these shields are considerably more difficult to get than the Bee and you pretty much already need to use the Bee to get them anyway. Other good shield options might be the Sham or the Neogenator (which is a poor man's Evolution).

[[Ar]Curry]

So, bee shield is a must, at least for Maya. Okay. Yeah, a Slagga sounds good, but haven't farmed it yet. Maybe I should. Thx for the clarification.

[Nakos]

Uhh... why are your options "limited" with Maya?

Maya is the character who has the EASIEST time slagging stuff: Ruin, Cloud Kill, Converge. Pretty much everything in the area is slagged. Her turnaround time on her Action skill should be less than 10 seconds by UVHM.

Here's a level 50 build: https://bl2skills.com/siren.html#415001000023030000005540510501

leading to something like this around 80:
https://bl2skills.com/siren.html#415051050055052005515540510501

Any character can pick up a slag weapon. Any character can toss a slag grenade (or a slag singularity). Maya doesn't really need to bother with that. She can yank enemies around the battlefield and slag them all, almost constantly.

You should have a Proficiency Relic by UVHM, and once you're in UVHM, look for a set of Bone of the Ancients (they come in Fire, Shock, and Corrosive, try to get one of each).


The Bee shield is powerful. In a lot of situations, it's fine. But as you head towards the more difficult encounters, you might want to consider some sort of Adaptive instead. The Neogenator is available at around the same time the Bee is. It's a bit harder to obtain, but it's not too bad.


Maya is strong at elemental damage. Match the elements with the targets: Fire for animals and people. Shock for shields. Corrosive for armored targets (or bots). Explosive as the jack-of-all-trades alternative.

Maya is also strong with SMGs, go grab a Lascaux. A new Lascaux spawns every time you zone into Frostburn Canyon. Zone in and out a few times and then go collect 3 or 4 at once and pick the best one. Replace it as often as it feels old, the drop will level up as often as you do.

Use a Cat mod, a Wild or a Scheming are probably best. Use the Legendary one if/when you find one. A Legendary Siren is good too.

The bullet sponge effect is very strong in UVHM, replace your weapons and gear OFTEN. If a weapon is more than 3 levels out of date, I generally consider it junk.

[[Ar]Curry]

Originally posted by Nakos:

Uhh... why are your options "limited" with Maya?

Limited because I just have my phaselock for slag. I don't have a good slag weapon because all I found felt like trash, and slag grenades are dropping as often as you can find shiny pokemon. My cooldown is at 12 seconds, so I have to wait for this 12 seconds to rinse and repeat phaselocking, killing, hiding

Currently, I've got a leg. Siren Class-Mod, so I don't want to go with a non legendary cat mod. For the loot midget farm location in the wildlife preservation, I have to do some more progress yet, for it seems the best way to get myself the Jenkins challenge done and a cat mod.

And what exactly do you mean with the bullet sponge effect? Like, using the sham for absorption?

[Draekus2]

Maya......Slag.......hmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7GOGNswYF4&t=29s

edit :
for loot midgets
Thousand Cuts is the way to go..

double edit ;
remember, Maya is an Elemental Powerhouse
more Elemental damage means less need for slag.
don't waste slag on trash mobs
Phaselock the Big Bads, let Ruin do it's thing
profit.

[Nakos]

Originally posted by ArCurry:

And what exactly do you mean with the bullet sponge effect? Like, using the sham for absorption?

Enemies have huge health pools in UVHM. And they heal if you leave them alone. And, they go up by a surprisingly large amount each time you (and they) level up. The difference in relative damage an on-level weapon makes as compared to an older one, is huge.

Originally posted by ArCurry:

My cooldown is at 12 seconds, so I have to wait for this 12 seconds to rinse and repeat phaselocking, killing, hiding

UVHM is always a step up in difficulty. But once you start getting UVHM weapons it shouldn't be too bad.

The issue with the Bee is that it makes you fragile, a proverbial glass cannon. Sometimes it's fine to be a glass cannon, and ... sometimes it's not. If you can snipe from long distance, then yeah, it's probably fine. But if you're in an up close encounter, then it probably isn't.

12 seconds seems a bit long for the start of UVHM, but ... I do tend to push pretty hard at trying to get the cooldown as low as possible.

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Draekus2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7GOGNswYF4&t=29s

Gotta say ... it kills me to watch you leave that level 80 legendary Cat on the ground :P

[Draekus2]

@ Nakos : the one i had WAS better, wasn't it ?

[Draekus2]

here's my level 80 build :

https://bl2skills.com/siren.html#555001554052052023005504510501

[[Ar]Curry]

so, if I put all five points into sub-sequence, it's possible to get an endless loop of my phaselock, right? So the cooldown isn't so important anymore

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Draekus2:

@ Nakos : the one i had WAS better, wasn't it ?

Sure ... but I'd probably have still at least grabbed it, even if I was just going to sell it.

[Draekus2]

Originally posted by ArCurry:

so, if I put all five points into sub-sequence, it's possible to get an endless loop of my phaselock, right? So the cooldown isn't so important anymore

you really don't need to put 5 points in Sub-Sequence for it to be effective.
i usually only use Phaselock on serious Baddies, and occasionally a moving target.
that's usually moving toward me.

[Palehorse]

This may be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n468AZBiZ0w

[Ken]

Originally posted by ArCurry:

so, if I put all five points into sub-sequence, it's possible to get an endless loop of my phaselock, right? So the cooldown isn't so important anymore

No. You won't ever have an "endless loop." Your downtime will be fairly short tho.
Sub-sequence is awesome on it's own, but it really shines when you have some skills to enhance it's effect. The duration of Phaselock is really important for that reason.

Consider putting points in Helios and you'll get a nuke when you phaselock a target AND each time sub-sequence acquires a new target you'll get another nuke.

If you have points in Converge the enemies will be pulled more and more tightly into each nuke each time sub-sequence acquires a new target.

If you have points in Cloud Kill then Converge will keep the enemies in the Cloud Kill area while they are taking Helios nukes and sucking on Ruin effects. ( Assuming you have points in ruin)

I use a black hole shield also, all the gravity effects allow me to keep the enemies in the phaselock "killzone." It is very effective in solo play especially. It won't be as effective against enemies that Phaselock can't lock, but it's great crowd control so you can focus your fire on bosses, which is helpful in a lot of cases. Mayas ability to heal helps a lot with bosses too.

I usually carry a Quasaar. In areas with crazy tough mobs, like digistruct peak, Black Hole Shield + Quasaar + Converge makes you Godlike while phaselock is active. You phaselock and kill one enemy and then everything is pulled together and sitting in your Helios and Cloud kill area slagged and ruined and dying while subsequence pops easy, mostly depleted targets into the air for you.

My Maya does carry a Florentine to slag / shield break but I rarely even use it against non-bosses. Ruin does my heavy lifting in the slag department for me. My TTK is already great. lol

You definitely do not need a Bee shield and your skills can do most of the slagging for you. That doesn't mean you should not enjoy the game with the Bee shield and a more direct slagging method.... it just means you have options, so don't approach UVHM with the idea that there is ONE WAY to do it.

I am an OP8 Maya and nothing at all in the OP8 storyline gives me any trouble. I have a decent win ratio against most of the raid bosses solo, Voracidous being the main exception. I can't seem to beat him "on level." My win ratio against him..... even when I go into a no-op level 72 Voracidous with op 8 weapons.... is very low. lol

You can do it. The higher levels are a lot more fun. Good luck and enjoy!

[[Ar]Curry]

I've got myself a nice Slagga, and a bone of the ancient with corrosive bonus, which boosts my cloud kill pretty much. So yeah, I'm a glas cannon, but at least, I can rely on my corrosive cloud, that kills pretty much almost everything. Right now I explore the caustic caverns and those crystalisks are very tanky. But I think, with a good shotgun, I can handle them