if i may make a suggestion, maybe make the central connectors (the ones in front of the head) slightly weaker in front, and stagger the minion spawning a bit, in order to give the player enough time to chew through the first line of defence before the minions spawn. then the boss has a chance to re-spawn some of the connecter armor while the players have to deal with the minions. also, maybe use the connectors from a different species in front of the head? like buginis? while i can understand the desire to make this dark souls level tough, after the 16th. time getting torn apart by minions while the boss watches on is incredibly frustrating. I assume the nerve bundle regen factor stacks, and that boss has allot of those, making any progress negligible. at least with a frailer armor on the core you have more of a chance to break through, but it just feels like it's a crap shoot, more than skill, to beat that boss. unless of course there's a particular strategy i just haven't thought of to kill it.
in my play-throughs i've focused on playing as buginis to avoid getting in close and using the flak thrower with overlapping arcs to shred the first two bosses, and i got agonizingly close to beating this boss with that strategy before the minions dragged me back kicking and screaming. next go-round i'm planning on putting flack throwers radiating outward to damage minion assailants.