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Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 1:23 pm
by Bowz
Im a 170 druid. One of the best dps druids on my world. I experimented with so manh builds and i just cannot figure out.... Why do so many people love bees? They don't do neary as much damage as vines, they don't last as long and they cost more energy. Even the aoe range is a joke. Why do people use them??

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 2:52 pm
by Letus
Well they do poison damage and if you look at warden gear etc. They dont have resist poison so they tend to do a lot damage and the aoe isnt good but it helps a lot

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 2:59 pm
by Bowz
Poison dmg dont mean a thing if its still less than vines tho? And vines is peirce, lure of assassins makes them more effective, with bees there is no poison lure

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 4:17 pm
by Somber
Don't really need a lure if it's an unresistant damage type...

I see bees really useful at lower levels when starting out a new druid who is luxed out with Greater-Royal bee rings. You can literally kill 5-6 mobs at once, gaining gobs of XP due to the AoE. At higher lvls the energy consumption gets crazy.

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 5:39 pm
by Bowz
I can see why it wud be useful if u grouped many mobs together and use the aoe. In practice this rarely happens :/

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 6:25 pm
by Somber
That's because past lvl 91ish when you finish leveling on pirates it becomes counter-productive to group mobs as they start to hit a lot harder and have more HP.

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 9:31 pm
by AngelEyes
Hello,
I am MotherNature a level 180 druid who is a dps build much like yourself. I do like bees and use them avidly. Currently I have 49 swarm and 50 vines. I have noticed at boss in particular that they don't have much resistance to poison based attacks. Half of the time my swarm will actually hit higher than my vines do to the difference in resistance. While leveling however it's quite the opposite. So I understand where your coming from when you say bees aren't that great. But in reality they are quite useful for both leveling and bossing especially.
One thing I must say that is a downfall of swarm is the AOE aspect. It's nice to hit more than one mob and everything but the area isn't big and I would rather it be just one mob than 4-5+ due to the fact I sometimes accidentally pull adds at bosses. Druids really aren't meant to take on additional mobs during a boss and usually leads to death. So I'm not sure if the AOE was something to restrict us and force tactics or if it was actually meant to help us. Seems like it just gets us killed when it comes to the AOE aspect.
Anyway I hope this shed some light in the pros and cons of using stinging swarm. Personally I love the skill.

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 8:11 am
by Bowz
So it hits higher on bosses? Hmm i can see why that wud b an attractive aspect. Personally i always preferred vines but i suppose if you use both its not an issue. Thanks

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 10:31 am
by GhostLord
So it hits higher on bosses? Hmm i can see why that wud b an attractive aspect. Personally i always preferred vines but i suppose if you use both its not an issue. Thanks
It can be an issue, it burns your energy like a wildfire, if you plan on using it to level, be ready to use alot of restos.

Re: Stinging swarm/ bees

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 4:16 pm
by AngelEyes
Yes the energy issue is a huge downside. Mine takes close to 1,000 energy at level 49 swarm. So for leveling it's not very practical. The only difference is I have over 2,000 energy sigils to help out... And that still isn't enough for my taste.