What to do against that first killer bee

[Timbermaw]

I always have to teleport away from the first few killer bees i encounter. That or using a potion of might/speed for each one.
Teleporting usually doesn't work since they are so fast -- they don't lose your track and find you immediately afterwards.

Anyway, if there are 2 or more killer bees in a level, i have to skip the entire level. And they show up so soon it's not funny. And chase you like a nightmare.

also: https://crawl.develz.org/mantis/view.php?id=3931
Killer bee thread!

[KoboldLord]

What background are you using that's causing you to have trouble? As long as there's a corridor nearby to head for, and you take pains to only aggro one or two bees in the swarm at once, they should be manageable with most combinations. Bees aren't too smart about staying with their pack leader, so you should be able to lead them away piecemeal. All by themselves, they're not all that much worse than any other evasion tank, and you can usually rest off the poison as long as they don't stack too much at once.

[Mackerel]

What I had to learn was: as soon as I see the first bee, I need to stop. I must not get close enough to see three of them. At the stage where the first bees show up, I can defeat one bee, probably two. But if I have to deal with more than that -- even one at a time in a hallway, and certainly if they surround me, I won't be able to survive. If I haven't been paying attention and have moved close enough that 3 or 4 of them have seen me, it's probably the end. So the first lesson is: pay attention. Don't hold down a travel key.

Let that first bee -- and perhaps her buddy -- chase you to a hallway. Kill them one at a time there. Rest up. Then creep close enough that one more bee can see you. Repeat.

[Timbermaw]

Huh, i thought they were like orcs.. never thought about luring (on purpose) only some of them.

[Happy Corner]

By the time the first killer bees show up, you often have seen at least one blowgun and poison needle stack (or even curare if you're lucky). That can make a huge difference in dealing with them. Especially if you're not playing a mage who can just mephitic cloud them into an orgy of stinging each other.

[smock]

You can lure orcs, too. Orcs shout, which wakes up buddy orcs. But until those buddy orcs spot you, they don't all follow you. Though it seems like some pick up your scent immediately, I think it's still better to take a few dozen steps back, in hopes of shaking some of the buddies.

[cerebovssquire]

A simple wand of enslavement can be used as well; just lure them into a corridor and enslave the bee at the frost. Especially considering the killer bee's vulnerability to poison and their low MR, this will quickly bring a pack down. You'll only be fighting a single and hopefully poisoned bee at the end. Other wands that check MR (confusion, disintegration...) will work equally well.

[galehar]

You can lure orcs, too. Orcs shout, which wakes up buddy orcs. But until those buddy orcs spot you, they don't all follow you. Though it seems like some pick up your scent immediately, I think it's still better to take a few dozen steps back, in hopes of shaking some of the buddies.

Orcs often spawn in bands with a band leader. They'll stick with their leader.

[smock]

You can lure orcs, too. Orcs shout, which wakes up buddy orcs. But until those buddy orcs spot you, they don't all follow you. Though it seems like some pick up your scent immediately, I think it's still better to take a few dozen steps back, in hopes of shaking some of the buddies.

Orcs often spawn in bands with a band leader. They'll stick with their leader.

Hm. I've had some success at luring orcs away from their leader. If I end up in LOS of 3 sleeping orcs and 1 sleeping orc priest, I back off, keeping just one orc in LOS and wait. When it spots me, I take a few steps back around a corner and intro a corridor to keep out of LOS of the orc priest. When the orc enters the corridor, I pick it off and reevaluate -- either flee to heal or pop my head up to see where the remaining orcs and their priest leader are.

Even though they stick with their leader, a bit of luring can keep the dangerous leader out of LOS until some of the minions taken care of.