My initial and overriding strategy before any Boss Hunt is to see my teammates' choice of character.
If in any of the Zombie-based Boss Hunts, I see a gamer of low rank choose a Chomper or Cactus I leave immediately.
Likewise in the Plant-based Boss Hunts, if I see anyone of low rank choose an Imp or Captain Deadbeard the game is lost beforehand and I leave the team instantly.
This is based on bitter experience and innumerable attempts at beating the Crazy Boss Hunts (I’m unfortunately missing one, namely Spooky Squash on Crazy)
In general, if there is only one healer (me for example) in any of the more challenging Boss Hunts the chances of getting through the Hunt successfully are minimal and I'd most likely leave, all depending on the rank of my teammates and their choice of character.
I know that this isn't a particularly polite thing to do, but in my view, anybody attempting to take part in a GW2-based Boss Hunt ought to have looked at the innumerable examples on how to successfully get through a Boss Hunt on either YouTube or Reddit. It’s honestly a serious business if one wants to succeed.
I would like to stress that a gamer of high rank who chooses any one of these unsuited characters obviously knows what they are doing, and what the risks involved are when choosing one of them, and I would see the game through.
Otherwise, it is incredibly frustrating to be on a team with teammates who have little understanding of what's required both in terms of character choice and in terms of game mechanics because they haven't researched the requirements for a successful Boss Hunt.
@ManicMossieI think the variant/abilities also matters a bit as a chomper with all stock abilities is a lot more concerning as a teammate than a yeti chomperor disco running chomp cannon alongside vampweeds because that usually shows they understand what the weaknesses of the class like every other chomper usually being unable to destroy the burgers/popsicles without chomp cannon.
A sunflower running dark flower on yeti king is just asking to be frozen or scientist running sticky bombs over heal bombs would lead to headaches later.
Cactus' main problem is she has no mobility at all and her kit requires the enemy to come to her which goes against a lot of what boss hunt does. Damage is good but a corn, citron, peashooter, or even torchwood can deal good damage to while also being able to book it to the objective when they need to.
Hardly ever saw rose being used outside of party or nec and tbh those two variants carry her hard in hunts.
Engineer was strangely in that same boat and i never understood why since I would personally put him above soldier due to his crowd control and overall better abilities for the mode.
Even with the better hunt characters it raises questions when i see a cozmic brainz or rock pea as the other versions are better/faster for hunts. Legendaries were always good because they regain health if below half in meters.
Not that a player can't pull it off as i beat the gnomes on hard as a top scoring cozmic brainz and won with a rank 2 2nd place sqwuak on crazy as camo ranger.
@stukapookaYes. You’re absolutely right. There are of course variants within the broad range of “not so useful characters” that can successfully pull off a Boss Hunt. You mention the Yeti Chomper as a case in point, and I agree.
A good point, when you mention that there are abilities amongst the “ideal characters” for a Boss Hunt that one should definitely not use (You mentioned as good examples, “Dark Flower and the Scientist’s “Sticky Bomb”).
As regards Rose, I have only used Nec, and her (as with the other Roses’) great strength is of course that she can slow down even Bosses, which comes in particularly useful when up against the Yeti King.
I found her difficult to use mainly because it was the first time, but if Boss Hunts do return, I would like to try and use her more.
I have never used them, but some of the soldier variants are definitely ones that would be useful.
I just hope that the Boss Hunts will actually return to the game, as they really were one of the top challenges of GW2.
That said. When reliving the Boss Hunts of 4 years ago I wonder after such a long time whether I can still pull off a successful Boss Hunt on Crazy again. Whatever. The main thing is for them to return.
@stukapookaGood idea re the guides and tier lists as the many newbies to the Boss Hunt will of course need as much help as possible, but it will be bit of a job for you (rather you than me :-) That said. It would be an enormous help for me too as I will have much more confidence in my newbie team mates (hoping that they are on the forum).
Look forward to reading it, as there could be details on how to tackle the Hunts which I’ve never considered.
Re the Engineer I have used him (The Electrician) in The Brothers Gnomus hunt with success, as he is an effective heavy hitter, but I haven’t tried the other variants as I found the Brothers, although difficult, to be the easiest of the four and I quickly moved on to The King’s Day Out and Spooky Squash.
@ManicMossieI would love to do them so it wouldn't be a hassle. 🙂
Ranking them as variants instead of just as classes would be difficult as someone like base all star and superbrainz would be s tier as a whole in my opinion but cozmic brainz or baseball star would be trickier to pin down.
Every sunflower would probably get S do to healing alone but ranking them individually will be hard as sometimes ones like vampire flower can either be really good or get folded immediatly depending on the difficulty and accuracy of the player.
I find every engineer to be good but if one had to be singled out as less useful its probably roadie z. The extra health is nice but being close ranged is a bad thing when the boss is hitting you in the face like spookys flame breath for massive damage and the cursed gnomes are getting closer where you don't want them.
Gnomes were the easiest hunt but i personally found the minions in that hunt to be a bigger threat than the boss. Especially the shooty gnomes.
@stukapookaI think I would do, as you're suggesting, namely ranking them as Classes and then within each class mention those that are preferable for the Hunt.
For example. Take The King's Day Out and when looking at just two characters that would be part of the Team Composition
One could say here that most of the enemies in this hunt can freeze one and therefore it is essential to have at least one Sunflower, and preferably two.
With crowd control in mind, Alien Flower and Power Flower are particularly well adapted to this Hunt, although the Vampire Flower is also useful due to her ability to heal herself when inflicting damage. Fire Flower is also worth looking at, as when aiming between two enemies that are close to one another both enemies can be hit with the same shot.
Re. the abilities you mentioned in your last post, one could say that it would be recommended to use the Rainbow Flower rather than the default Healing Flower, as it drops single sundrops constantly rather than the latter which does so only in small groups every couple of seconds.
One could then go on to the Citron class and point out that the elevated health and the Peel Shield give some heft to the team's firepower and that their speed-boosting ability makes them ideal when the Yeti King begins to dance. Last of all their EMP ability is useful for slowing down the Yeti King etc. etc.
Finally one could mention those character classes that would not be suitable such as the Cactus (slower rate of fire with a focus on long-range shots) and Chomper classes (exclusively Melee and Close Range characters), but in the same breath point out that of the Chompers the Yeti Chomper would be a good choice as he is also a ranged character.
Looking back on what I have just written about the Sunflowers and briefly, the Citron Class, has hardly made a dent on what will become a Guide on how to beat the Yeti King, so it is a h... of a job that you're taking on, but it would be great if you had the time to make one, but it will definitely be a challenge.
My hopes are still held high for the return of our favourite modes. I've somehow been able to wait about 4 years (without realising) without our favourite modes. I hope that we will finally see the long awaited changes in the Mystery Portal. 🤞
I know I've said it here recently, but it's great seeing all these posts lately!
Boss Hunts were great, although hard and crrraazzzyyy could be frustrating at times. Getting so close to victory and then failing after half and hour of work never feels good though. But beating these was ever so satisfying!
As far as tier lists and who is good for these that I've seen discussed here, there are some that are amazing, and some I'd never bring.
Toxic Brainz is practically designed for bosses, since he doesn't have to vanquish to fill his meter, just punch, and they have a lot of health to do so on! He makes an excellent candy carrier for spooky squash since he can jump to half health on his own and with a scientist with heal beam with him, he's extremely survivable. Vampire Flower and Stuffy Flower are my go-to healing plants. They can keep themselves alive very well, and stuffy also helps her allies with the heal stars that spawn from her shots. I ended up playing healer a lot of these since a lot of others don't want to do it, and I have some MMO healer experience as well. Having two of us in discord as scientists as the anchors in spooky squash and tossing the heal balls at each other with the run and throw and then get back into the circle trick was huge too, as I always use the heal beam for these, since the team has to otherwise run around a lot.
@ManicMossieIt was also the fact that the team had to split up as two would have to anchor the guardian and hoping they could hold ground while the remaining teammates were capable of defeating it while also praying the squash in his passive state doesnt take up to the top of the aquarium or else the anchorers are in trouble. It really stretched teamwork as just one player in the two pairs not doing their job harms the whole hunt for its first phase.
Sasquatch was only difficult in the garden sanctuary phase as the burgers didn't oneshot you for failure. Frankly if they just hinted at the magic gardens saving you better the hunts instructions would be fine.
@ManicMossieI've said it before and i'll say it again that gw2's boss hunt was the peak of co op in the series and its not even close.
Gw2 having them removed alongside the other portal modes made it a much worse game than what it should be and harmed its replayability.
Your points are interesting @Hieldanka and @ForeverKnights. I will pick up on these tips if we can play Boss Hunts again (or maybe even Ops). I didn't have this kind of skill back then (skill issue) so I never considered anything like this. When I reached critical health, I would just try to escape and heal up, or at least survive long enough for teammates to respawn. I'll really need to warm up again with these events to be honest, it has been a while. Thank you for the tips! 👍 I will keep these in mind if playing these hunts or possibly Ops.
