Handler, easy enemies but hard bosses?

[MacEelse [BE]]

I like the game a lot, i mostly play solo. For that i like the handler as he gets his trusty dog to help him out a bit as a 'kinda' second player. But at bosses, the handler system/dog kinda sucks imho.

-Any boss that is off the ground, my dog is worthless, the biggest strenght of the handler just goes away.

-The 'keep pressing to howl' feel a pain to me, i want healing/buff, i want it NOW, not in 5 seconds.

-The animation of the 'snapping your fingers to make your dog howl' is priority it seems, you casually raise your hand to snap your fingers, the whole ordeal takes 3 seconds. I thought a dodge will overrule that animation, but it seems not. If you are unlucky enough to have started snapping your fingers just as any boss starts an attack, you will happily stand there with your hand raised getting kicked off more damage then the dog would heal.

And to make things more fun, i took the summoner as a second archetype. So neat, those balls you get at the start. It makes the enemy encounters easier, until, i found out i was at the last boss and the balls are equally or even more useless to anything flying.

The first part of that last boss i can manage now, as he does sometimes give you 10 seconds of rest so you can actually use your dog to heal. But the seconds part, no way. All in all i like the game, but my chosen handler/summoner makes the gap between enemies and bosses seem very huge, certainly when confronting the last boss.

I can't stand to hear the dramatic choir music anymore starting that last boss : waaa.... waaaa.... waaaa... waaaa...

I would say i start over, but, the dog won't get any more usefull in that. Does anyone know if the other summoner creatures actually do anything against him?

[Insanitor]

Originally posted by MacEelse BE:

-Any boss that is off the ground, my dog is worthless, the biggest strenght of the handler just goes away.

Yeah, nevermind the 20% damage provided by the Dog. Futher 20% if you put it as Attack Dog... You can also use it as a great source of heaiing, if you change it to Support dog. And the Free Ress, if you still have a relic charge.

The Dog is by no means useless in boss fights, you just can't expect it to beat the boss for you.

[bagonzago]

Pretty much what the title says.

[MacEelse [BE]]

Originally posted by Insanitor:

Originally posted by MacEelse BE:

-Any boss that is off the ground, my dog is worthless, the biggest strenght of the handler just goes away.

Yeah, nevermind the 20% damage provided by the Dog. Futher 20% if you put it as Attack Dog... You can also use it as a great source of heaiing, if you change it to Support dog. And the Free Ress, if you still have a relic charge.

The Dog is by no means useless in boss fights, you just can't expect it to beat the boss for you.

oh, i wouldn't want it to just beat a boss for me. But as i said, actually do something. And with the 'something' it does, not getting me more likely to get killed. Seems you didn't really read my post, have you? oh well...

[TyresTyco]

I would love if the dog had a mounted lasergun. On a cd ofc.

[Judas Iscariot]

Originally posted by MacEelse BE:

And to make things more fun, i took the summoner as a second archetype. So neat, those balls you get at the start. It makes the enemy encounters easier, until, i found out i was at the last boss and the balls are equally or even more useless to anything flying.

Level the summoner and you get 2 flying summons and then you get a root reaver which is a great tank. You will want the ring that gives your minions lifesteal which will keep you healed.

The root reaver, even though he cannot fly, gets 2 throwing attacks that leave an explosive weapon in the enemy which can hit for quite a lot. Also, you may want to consider investing in the rugged trait for your summons as that gives them a lot of health and I believe the dog counts as a summon.

[MacEelse [BE]]

Originally posted by TyresTyco:

I would love if the dog had a mounted lasergun. On a cd ofc.

I would be happy if they would make the commands for the dog switchable. I would prefer to be able to set it to: tap: howl, double tap: come back, hold : attack.
And have either the commands animations : pointing, or finger snapping be overruled by other commands like dodge, shoot, etc.

I also had some occasions where my good dog rezzes me, JUST before a boss strikes me, so, being rezzed to get smacked down. A little 2 second window where you don't catch damage would help a little there. Just to be able to dodge.

Game is fantastic, guess it is bit frustrating to get a defeat because of the things I said.

[Leown]

Originally posted by MacEelse BE:

...

So Handler in general is a utility support class, the dog in general will function different depending on which howl you want obviously you already know this. Having the dog out in general already gives a decent damage buff and they also just buffed the Howl distance i believe to 40m making the snap less annoying. The buffs given are already pretty potent and last a decent while.

I've been combo'ing Archetypes since i swapped around a lot myself and just found i liked Handler as my starting AT better. im currently Using Summoner and it works you also don't deal a lot of damage to them especially with kinship being active and the dog buffs give them that extra kick.

However unlike the dog, The summons have to be changed out sometimes depending the boss the Dog at least gives utility during boss fights and will have your back on adds usually with a free revive every 90s (if you dont wanna get rezzed right away move while your downed it'll break or slow it down). Otherwise the most you can do if your going to use the rollers is for boss bombing, lifesteal (dmg increase i think i'd have to check again) and a healing field for that extra health regen on Summon sacrifice.

This is also the case if your playing summoner main. your either blowing them up for the bonuses and taking Hunter for the gun damage if the summons are useless or your swapping your summons for the extra breathing room while the boss is slowly getting chunked if allowed. Minion builds have to kinda change per boss or well be treated like bombs sadly on some bosses.

Rollers- Are best for grounded bosses and general add clear on ground best for bombing low CD.

Flyers- flexible squishy deal decent damage to any boss really lil higher CD if used for bombing not much though.

Tank- High hp decent dmg decent ranged dmg, High CD but high dmg bomb, can die easy on fast moving bosses or ones that have too many attacks.

Your either going to want to full force build out Rings and neck with Summons in mind or a mix or flat out go for more overall damage and go in expecting to sacrifice more then just letting summons damage over time.

Apologies if im repeating myself im tired af and just reading forums lol

[Mr.Fluffins]

Dog is great, it's just that some boss fights are clearly not designed around anyone but the shooting class, so you get handicapped since your dog is either useless or dead most of the time, regardless of what you do.
Oh and the resurrection bugs out sometimes and doesnt work.