Why does he exist just to annoy the hell out of me and drag my party down early on?

why does he exist just to annoy the hell out of me and drag my party down early on?

>first round stun
>pop pop pop
>pop pop pop pop

it could be worse

I take a dump all over him every single time. I don't know why people think he's hard. You must be running really terrible teams if you don't punish him 3 rounds in a row for being so weak to stuns.

He's literally the first dungeon boss that punishes you for spreading your damage out instead of focusing on a single target. You must be retarded or have shitty compositions to lose to him.
The order is: Highwayman > Collector > MaA > Vestal

He's not that bad, all in all.

Getting a shambler on the last hallway to the boss is a heartbreaker though.

>drag you down

Free loot isn't dragging you down, it's propping you up.

because with my luck, he always sentence the one person that can stun.

He is like the Witch on steroids and acts 3 times a turn.

Plus I don't prepare for the pick when I have other things to deal with

Shamblers are random encounters? I thought they were altar only

There's a chance a shambler will appear in any hallway encounter if your torch is at 0.

Shambles can be encountered on torchless runs and increase in encounter % on higher difficulties

Worst part was, the same thing happened twice in a row on two boss runs.

>if your torch is at 0.

>torchless runs

oh. I am too much of a wennie to do those

They're fun. You make progress a lot faster if you know what you're doing. Plus some of the best trinkets are dark only.

>You make progress a lot faster if you know what you're doing

that is the problem. I am not confident in my skills/management to do a torcheless run.

and this is coming from a guy who has beaten 5 of the 8 tier 3 bosses (Flesh, Swine King, Necromancer, Siren, and Hag) and on the 3rd CC quest.

Oh. With enough hours you'll start pushing yourself just to see what you can do. I've been doing challenge runs. Already did a Houndmaster only run. I'm in the middle of a 2 Leper / 2 Occultist dark run. Some bosses are a joke with them, some are a huge pain in the ass. I kind of miss the grave robber though. The utility of clearing so many diseases makes Stygian a lot more reasonable.

>Already did a Houndmaster only run

isn't quad dog broken as fuck?
>stun
>mark
>repeat biscuit + single target move until death

>The utility of clearing so many diseases makes Stygian a lot more reasonable.
diseases are the one thing I really have not had an issue with

Anyone can clear diseases when you've got plenty of time to send one of your half a dozen complete teams on the bench for 5 weeks, but on Stygian when you've got a time limit and your resources are stretched thin enough as it is, being able to clear out demon STDs without spending extra weeks or gold is a huge advantage.

>send a shitty level 2 team with an antiquary to make a quick buck
>send them well supplied so don't have room in inventory for treasure at the beginning
>figure I'll just get it all on the way out
>run goes well, but towards the end shit gets real bad with stress
>manage to finish the quest with everyone alive but on the brink of death
>last room furthest away is a secret room with 7500 gold's worth of items
>could have pulled them out at any time
>only 1 leper survives with 199 stress
>returns as the only man standing, feel like he has a grudge and horrible trauma because the boss sent him and his men to die for profit

Send his ass packing with a "thanks for the hard work, now go die in a ditch".

No, he has proved he is the strongest, willing to survive. He will have more use in my future plans.

>long champion dungeon
>first encounter is a collector

Get your stuns on mate.

I think you mean
>First encounter
>This

Pig sticker isn't too bad.

>Cripple them

Tense and atmospheric as fuck too. I really love all the nice background touches they added for when the lights go out
> Warrens
> Torch goes out
> Music becomes intense both in and out of combat
> pigs can be heard squealing in the background

It's like you can almost imagine the swine folk circling you in the dark and stalking you.

Yes it is

Don't let him hit you. Easy every time.

huh? collector is literally free stress healing

That's not spooky violin pirate, but ill take it

>decide to send lvl 3 party of Occult / Plague Doc / Highway / Crusader to warrend for my first veteran level
>come out with 3 crimson cursed dudes with all on low ass hp
>but still victorious
I thought they would be up to the task they got so fucked up

Trinkets make or break a ton of teams. Very few are stable and reliable without trinkets.

Get a hellion instead of crusader, take the dual stuns of PD + Hellion and you wont have that problem.

>some compulsive idiot interacts with a shambler alter
>Quest was already done and had a perfect party for him

>Two shambler altars in the same hallway
>Party is in no shape to fight after clearing the boss