Zevos' Boss Manual

[Zavos]

Here is a google doc with my boss fight strategies and condensed theorycrafting, all in one place

These are the bosses I've covered so far

• Amara Farell
• Frostwyrm
• NymFoe & the Dollmaker
  
• Dr. Lash

I'm also working on creating a spreadsheet for all current equipable items. It will be posted here as soon as it is complete.


Enjoy.

 

[Xeivous]

Interesting. However I would make a note for Frost Wyrm that you ought to use the thermal pack consumable you can get out of gift baskets on the Uveto station to fight him, as it allows you to bring whatever armor you care to bring.

 

[Galgano]

Is it Tarvos? I always thought it was Tavros.

Any particular reason why you don't add merc notes? Have you not played one? Or maybe the bosses are too easy for mercenaries?

 

[Ormael]

Mercs got not so hard for those fights than Smuggs or especialy Techs. Somehow 2/3 of current bosses seems to pretty hard pick on techs weaknesses like or relaying on superior shields or using mainly energy weapons.

 

[Zavos]

Is it Tarvos? I always thought it was Tavros.

Any particular reason why you don't add merc notes? Have you not played one? Or maybe the bosses are too easy for mercenaries?

• Mercs arn't gimped like Techs, and they arn't one trick ponies like smugglers.
  
• I really, really despise them from a role playing perspective.

 

[Noob Salad]

I steamroll everything.

Actually that's not entirely true, it's more fun just losing, except when it's like a quest or boss battle or something.

 

[Ormael]

Weeeellll(p) mercs are like cannonballs or close to that. What is needed when you headbutt all your enemies? xD

For brains over brawls we need to go techs and that cool to know we will with power of....ummm...SSS - space (smut) science ^^

 

[Nonesuch]

I really, really despise them from a role playing perspective.

Interested by what you mean by that.

 

[Couch]

Probably that Mercs imply a more aggressive Steele relatively lacking in other methods of solving problems beyond violence. Which is true to an extent, though in general the alternative solutions Smugglers and Techs have to a handful of puzzles is more than made up for by Merc's superior class design. Not that I'm fond of this as a method of balance.

That said, I play Mercs near-exclusively just because I like feeling like my character is good at combat. If Techs weren't so gimped in so many ways then I'd be playing them all the time.

 

[Zavos]

Interested by what you mean by that.

I just don't like the flavor for it. The class specific dialogue peeves me just a bit too often. Also, headbutt. why?

Edit: Hiding this here in case my laptop nukes my saves again or i wana restart on another system. Nothing to see here.

 

[NotYouNorI]

Also, headbutt. why?

Why didn't they call it "sucker punch"?

 

[Xeivous]

Probably that Mercs imply a more aggressive Steele relatively lacking in other methods of solving problems beyond violence. Which is true to an extent, though in general the alternative solutions Smugglers and Techs have to a handful of puzzles is more than made up for by Merc's superior class design. Not that I'm fond of this as a method of balance.

That said, I play Mercs near-exclusively just because I like feeling like my character is good at combat. If Techs weren't so gimped in so many ways then I'd be playing them all the time.

The only puzzle I remember mercs getting gimped on was the single turret fight you can't avoid on Tarkus. Which isn't really a big deal.

 

[Ormael]

Mercs are like those charas form meme of "if violence not solve your roblems then you not using enough violence"
Probaby in more than few cases it may be really mess up perspective as Merc class been merely dumb characters on steroids....ohh an SC 1/2 Marines on stimpacks...damn now I will always think about this class as SC Marines -_-' But let go deeper...then smugs are...ummm Ghosts? and Techs...hmmm High Templars ^^

 

[balitz Method]

Gameplay-wise it's a Mass Effect sort of situation where it's both really boring to easily pew-pew your way through everything and kind of frustrating in that everything's designed around the "pew-pew through everything" class - not to mention that the other classes have weaknesses and tendencies while the merc-type classes can do everything and won't ever run into a situation where their class limits will make for a difficult encounter. So a combination of easy baby mode and also frustration over other, more interesting classes not getting the same amount of balance tweaking.

Really they're -only- interesting to play from a roleplay perspective but only if you want to play an aggressive character.

 

[Wsan]

I don't think pew-pew (in ME) and punchmans (in TiTS) is particularly boring - if anything, all of the combat in TiTS is boring. It's a text game; not that that precludes it from having "good" combat (whatever that means to you), but it's clearly going to be of lesser concern.

 

[Nonesuch]

I don't think pew-pew (in ME) and punchmans (in TiTS) is particularly boring.

Soldier in ME is so boring in comparison to any other class, including Engineer. Look at me, my special ability is to shoot people in slow motion.

I agree with everything Couch said fwiw, just wanted it confirmed that my feelings regarding Mercs were shared. Perhaps them being the easy combat option and Techs/Smugglers getting more flavour outside of it should be embraced, rather than attempt to make them more interesting from a story point of view.

 

[Wsan]

Soldier in ME is so boring in comparison to any other class, including Engineer. Look at me, my special ability is to shoot people in slow motion.

That's cool as heck though. I never liked any of the special classes in ME, I just wanted efficient shootmans.

 

[Nonesuch]

That's cool as heck though. I never liked any of the special classes in ME, I just wanted efficient shootmans.

It'd be cool if literally every other shoot the mens game in the world didn't also feature it. And this game didn't have an option to hit the mens with your face at sub-light speed.

Also Infiltrator = maximum efficiency.

 

[Owens]

I've only played the Tech Specialist and Mercenary classes so far. Smuggler hasn't interested me, figure I should do a run through with them eventually. But I have to agree with what everyone else says here: Mercenary makes combat a joke. They literally can smash their way through all the encounters by virtue of their ludicrous damage output (200% damage for one attack, 10% chance of crit, raw 20% to kinetic damage), making advanced tactics unnecessary. They shrug off most damage, due to innate resistance and stun/paralysis recovery, which is boosted by whatever armor they happen to be wearing. Group fights are dealt with by Cleave, or are blasted down by amplifying consecutive ranged attacks. They don't need to stand up if knocked down, since their reduction in stats can be ignored by your natural toughness and damage multipliers. And once per battle, just regenerate most of your health and energy for free! The only thing that might screw them over is grapple attacks, and the cum-cow perk line now gives you a way to auto-escape grapples, something only Tech Specialists used to have with Static Burst. If you don't mind being a bimbo Merc, you can curb-stomp almost everything in your path with no worries. They are the easy mode class.

Having said all this, I don't think the Mercenary class is bad. Hell, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun to wreck everything that tries to jump you. And lust inducing enemies can still get you if you're not careful, so you're not totally invincible. It just feels that they other classes struggle quite a bit, and have to optimize their gear choices if they want to be viable, while the Mercs can just roll whatever they want and still probably come out on top. Frustrating, but I main Tech anyway, so I guess I like the pain.

 

[Couch]

Soldier in ME is so boring in comparison to any other class, including Engineer. Look at me, my special ability is to shoot people in slow motion.

I agree with everything Couch said fwiw, just wanted it confirmed that my feelings regarding Mercs were shared. Perhaps them being the easy combat option and Techs/Smugglers getting more flavour outside of it should be embraced, rather than attempt to make them more interesting from a story point of view.

I don't think it's particularly possible to bring the other classes all the way up to Merc's level without nerfing Merc as it stands, but the gap between Merc and Tech at least should be narrowed. I don't ever play Smugglers, but the people who play them seem to be quite satisfied with their features. Tech has at least five different features that ought to be completely reworked or just plain cut outright. The flavor options outside of combat aren't frequent enough and aren't that much more useful enough that they make up for how much more Techs struggle in dealing with the game's core mechanics.

 

[Noob Salad]

Saw "Soldier" and "Engineer". Was like "Wait you can't stop time in TF2, though?"

I'm a dummy.

 

[null_blank]

Though in my head canon I totally see Steele as a smuggler, this thread is the exact reason why I favor Merc over the other 2 classes. Even with proper gear, bad RNG can result in Lash/Frost wyrm totally stomping out Smuggler/Engineer classes. Though the Merc is not immune to a series of bad rolls, I find that Smugs/Engy are far more vulnerable to it than the Merc because of low DPS (or rather, damage per turn), weaker defenses, no Second Wind. In addition, combat takes longer with Smugs/Engy which makes certain parts of the current game a bit tedious.

 

[Nonesuch]

Was like "Wait you can't stop time in TF2, though?"

If you play on CTF maps TF2 Engineer does exactly that.

 

[Noob Salad]

Haven't played since...bots?

 

[SorenMageofMareth]

I like Merc and I cannot lie. Those other jiggers can try to deny but when you need shit dead and you wanna be you get merc to blow them up sky high!

Mercs the fave. Heavy and visceral could only be better with more opportunities to use his experience and gun qualifications for cenmatic biggun fights. Or mugging power armor.

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

Mercs the fave. Heavy and visceral could only be better with more opportunities to use his experience and gun qualifications for cinematic biggun fights. Or mugging power armor.

I prefer to ignore obvious guidelines the game sets for what archetype Mercenary characters should go along the lines of, and instead making them firm, lanky and reserved soldier types. But I can't deny the appeal of having some Merc class specific interactions centered around Power Armor or MOAR DAKKA.

 

[anniebannannie]

i dont exactly understand how techs are gimped, ive never had any issues outside of lash.

 

[Ormael]

@anniebannannie Latley few bosses got reistances that counter quite much techs main type of dmg. And there is issue that their supposed to be sor tof space mages...but their got worst way to regen mana aka...none whle other classes can regen (energy) in combat.

 

[anniebannannie]

@anniebannannie Latley few bosses got reistances that counter quite much techs main type of dmg. And there is issue that their supposed to be sor tof space mages...but their got worst way to regen mana aka...none whle other classes can regen (energy) in combat.

Techs have an ability that bypasses resist, and with the massive ammount of shields i have i can usually pop an energy regen

 

[Couch]

If you have infinite supplies, sure. If you don't have infinite items on then the only way for Techs to replenish Energy during combats is to stop and go back to get more Energy refills, which also eats up inventory slots.

Techs also suffer from too many of their features being active abilities, which don't stack because you can only use one active ability per turn, rather than passive ones which do. Some of their features, like Weapon Hack and Shield Hack, do nothing useful. Weapon Tweaks and Second Strike are trap options for them because all of their special attacks are gun-based, so picking melee options has no synergy for them. Overcharge and Volley don't scale in damage at level 8. Their healing options trade a precious nonrenewable resource, Energy, for one that automatically replenishes to full after every combat anyway, so using them is typically worse than doing nothing at all.

They're fully capable of defeating any of the game's challenges so far, but that's because TiTS is an easy game overall. As soon as you do a run with another class it becomes evident how Techs don't have enough perks to make up for their poor performance in several basic areas of combat. They have a lot of Shields going for them and not much else that other classes can't do better.