2º Boss.

[Clint Westwood]

I give up. How the F&%$ do you beat that thing?

[RopeDrink]

Act 2 is (arguably) the easiest boss of the lot. In general, it is a simple test of projection.

Each round, it will inflate the back (or front) lung, and if you don't do enough damage to deflate that lung (indicated by a line on the health bar, a token, and visual size), then the boss will have access to more potent attacks. Once the main bulk of the boss has been sufficiently damaged, it will begin to inflate both lungs simultaneously.

So, your task is to whittle down the main bulk (middle) while managing the side-lungs - or burst it down, if you're ready to tank the bigger bursts -- but really, all you need to beat the boss is at least one good back-rank hitter, one front-rank hitter, and then, some damage for the middle.

Just like almost every other boss, DoTs work very well here - particularly heroes like PD, who can hit the back-rank with Plague Grenade to chip-damage a lung while blighting the main bulk at the same time. Similarly, your bruiser-styled heroes will be good at smashing the front lungs or pumping the boss with raw damage.

Ultimately, it's just a matter of making sure your team can hit any rank with moderate damage on demand - and if you do, then the boss is barely any threat whatsoever, because without inflated lungs, it does bugger-all.

[LordMondayIX]

You can also try killing one of the lungs, but that's not generally recommended. Reason being it will spread more stress, burn, and debuffs around with its attacks when a lung is dead.

Sometimes I go that route, particularly if I can just pile on blind on the boss (even though that doesn't effect sundering exhalation) with party members like Finale JES or Burning Stars OCC paired with a healthy dosage of 'the blood' to just axe off the back lung. But no you should probably just try and take him down the normal way with a solid mix of front and back damage.

Also don't feel too bad if you let the boss get off a sundering exhalation. It's not always going to be possible to disable both lungs on a given turn with a bad stroke of luck, so you should primarily build to kill him quickly rather than have the most optimal possible lung targeting.

[RopeDrink]

Truly, the only way Seething Sigh can challenge the average bog-standard team is if the player can't stop it from Exalting numerous times, pressuring them with big AoE bursts or the threat of meltdowns.

Assuming you can reliably pop lungs on demand (which is stupendously easy to build for), then there is no threat other than chip damage + possibly having a designated lung-popper get blinded at a bad time, which may (or may not) allow it to sneak an Exalt here and there.

Now, let's say you're in the DLC honeymoon phase of pairing DUE+CRU together and farming memories - one of which has no viable lung-popping projection (DUE), and another who prefers building for the back-or-front primarily (CRU).

You can simply use a Banneret Crusader -- allowing him to take over back-rank responsibilities via Zealous/Lance, much like you would an Alchemist PD via Plague Grenade -- leaving DUE to Riposte the normal attacks while popping front-lungs or slapping the main bulk.

Granted, there are heroes better suited to both sides of the fence, but ultimately, that consideration alone will address A2 mechanic and turn it into a non-issue, leaving you with 2 spare heroes to do whatever you want in-between.

I'm not exaggerating when I say Act 2 is arguably the easiest end-boss in the game -- and I won't be surprised if it gets any kind of buffs in the future.

[The Darkest DeDeDank]

Simplest answer is sharpshot HWM and ravager hellion. You can use those to hit the front and back lungs very hard and free up the other heros to damage the main boss. If you cant hit rank 4 then either nuke the boss or nuke the front lung and try to mitigate the damage from sundering exhaltation

[Aleddra]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2973257745

[calderon]

Originally posted by The Darkest DeDeDank:

Simplest answer is sharpshot HWM

Under adverse conditions HWM becomes your enemy in this fight.
Positive relationship can completely block your preferable combat skills and force you to use not upgraded and unwanted ones.
It's very annoying because you do not have choice and have to choose or use unwanted skills. Player is punished for building positive relationships as well as negative ones. This should be mandatory only for negative relationships.

At the beginning the Seething Sigh can randomly block movement of your all heroes. After destroying the left lung the first row is empty and occupied untill end of the fight (combat skills Point Blank Shot, Take Aim and three completely useless in the first row).
My HWM was blocked in the first row without combat skill which can attack row number 2,3 or 4. He was completely useles because outcome of positive relationships forced me to use unwanted skills.

The best way to win is to create a dancing team at the cost of losing attack or defence power (especially if your goal is to achieve grand slam).

[thorin.hannahs]

I just did it with The Usual Suspects Alchemist PD/Seraph VES/ Sharpshot HWM/ Wanderer CRU. It was closer than I would have liked as I couldn't spread the damage effectively enough to pop a lung and hit the main body. Pre-patch PD/JES/FLG/MAA absolutely destroyed the boss. Jester allows your rank 1-4 damage dealer to go twice which reduces the punishment of a poorer party comp and his ability to apply blind in underrated.

[thorin.hannahs]

Originally posted by calderon:

Originally posted by The Darkest DeDeDank:

Simplest answer is sharpshot HWM

Under adverse conditions HWM becomes your enemy in this fight.
Positive relationship can completely block your preferable combat skills and force you to use not upgraded and unwanted ones.
It's very annoying because you do not have choice and have to choose or use unwanted skills. Player is punished for building positive relationships as well as negative ones. This should be mandatory only for negative relationships.

At the beginning the Seething Sigh can randomly block movement of your all heroes. After destroying the left lung the first row is empty and occupied untill end of the fight (combat skills Point Blank Shot, Take Aim and three completely useless in the first row).
My HWM was blocked in the first row without combat skill which can attack row number 2,3 or 4. He was completely useles because outcome of positive relationships forced me to use unwanted skills.

The best way to win is to create a dancing team at the cost of losing attack or defence power (especially if your goal is to achieve grand slam).

Do you mean negative? Do positive skills get locked in now?

[calderon]

The check of the relationships (after leaving an inn) results in 3 ways:
1. No effects
2. Add positive or negative effects(s)
3. Add positive and negative effect(s)

Positive and negative effects block the affected skills. You can not skip them. Positive effects are so frustrating.

I wrote many times to devs but they did not want to change it to enable players to freely choose or not the skill(s) with positive effects.

[Guzu]

Originally posted by calderon:

The check of the relationships (after leaving an inn) results in 3 ways:
1. No effects
2. Add positive or negative effects(s)
3. Add positive and negative effect(s)

Positive and negative effects block the affected skills. You can not skip them. Positive effects are so frustrating.

I wrote many times to devs but they did not want to change it to enable players to freely choose or not the skill(s) with positive effects.

Positive relationships don't lock-in skills. You can still swap them around as usual.

Even when you get negatives, it can only be a total of 3 so at least one skill can still be Pistol Shot. This is highly unlikely though as negative relationships favor upgraded skills so you most likely will have the skills equipped that you need for the fight anyways.

The goal of a run is also to avoid negative relationships by keeping the stress down and using inn items. Preferably, you get 6 positive relationships but avoid getting negatives at all costs.

[thorin.hannahs]

Originally posted by Shalai:

Originally posted by calderon:

The check of the relationships (after leaving an inn) results in 3 ways:
1. No effects
2. Add positive or negative effects(s)
3. Add positive and negative effect(s)

Positive and negative effects block the affected skills. You can not skip them. Positive effects are so frustrating.

I wrote many times to devs but they did not want to change it to enable players to freely choose or not the skill(s) with positive effects.

Positive relationships don't lock-in skills. You can still swap them around as usual.

Even when you get negatives, it can only be a total of 3 so at least one skill can still be Pistol Shot. This is highly unlikely though as negative relationships favor upgraded skills so you most likely will have the skills equipped that you need for the fight anyways.

The goal of a run is also to avoid negative relationships by keeping the stress down and using inn items. Preferably, you get 6 positive relationships but avoid getting negatives at all costs.

That is all fine and dandy but if positive skills don't lock you in I just don't see what the problem was. If taking a positive skill over a regular skill is tactically unsound just don't do it? I have had plenty of positive skills that I simply do not use and I am not forced to use them. Unless I have just been extremely lucky in all the time I've played.

[Guzu]

Originally posted by thorin.hannahs:

That is all fine and dandy but if positive skills don't lock you in I just don't see what the problem was. If taking a positive skill over a regular skill is tactically unsound just don't do it? I have had plenty of positive skills that I simply do not use and I am not forced to use them. Unless I have just been extremely lucky in all the time I've played.

Exactly. You can use the blessed skills if they fit. If they don't, you are not forced to equip them. The -1 stress on "useless" skills can be swapped in and out to reduce stress during easy fights.

[calderon]

Originally posted by Shalai:

Originally posted by calderon:

The check of the relationships (after leaving an inn) results in 3 ways:
1. No effects
2. Add positive or negative effects(s)
3. Add positive and negative effect(s)

Positive and negative effects block the affected skills. You can not skip them. Positive effects are so frustrating.

I wrote many times to devs but they did not want to change it to enable players to freely choose or not the skill(s) with positive effects.

Positive relationships don't lock-in skills. You can still swap them around as usual.

My mistake. You're right.

[Madjestik85]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

Act 2 is (arguably) the easiest boss of the lot. In general, it is a simple test of projection.

Each round, it will inflate the back (or front) lung, and if you don't do enough damage to deflate that lung (indicated by a line on the health bar, a token, and visual size), then the boss will have access to more potent attacks. Once the main bulk of the boss has been sufficiently damaged, it will begin to inflate both lungs simultaneously.

So, your task is to whittle down the main bulk (middle) while managing the side-lungs - or burst it down, if you're ready to tank the bigger bursts -- but really, all you need to beat the boss is at least one good back-rank hitter, one front-rank hitter, and then, some damage for the middle.

Just like almost every other boss, DoTs work very well here - particularly heroes like PD, who can hit the back-rank with Plague Grenade to chip-damage a lung while blighting the main bulk at the same time. Similarly, your bruiser-styled heroes will be good at smashing the front lungs or pumping the boss with raw damage.

Ultimately, it's just a matter of making sure your team can hit any rank with moderate damage on demand - and if you do, then the boss is barely any threat whatsoever, because without inflated lungs, it does bugger-all.

this is complete nonsense! Firstly: the side lungs are immune to debuffs such as bleeding, fire or poison.
secondly: it puts blindness on the heroes and inflates both lungs. after which you do not have the opportunity to remove blindness and deal 15 damage to each lung. this is impossible. Boss 2 is broken. in patch 1.0 I killed 10 times and it wasn't easy, but it was possible. now this is madness and broken game balance

[Guzu]

Originally posted by Madjestik85:

this is complete nonsense! Firstly: the side lungs are immune to debuffs such as bleeding, fire or poison.
secondly: it puts blindness on the heroes and inflates both lungs. after which you do not have the opportunity to remove blindness and deal 15 damage to each lung. this is impossible. Boss 2 is broken. in patch 1.0 I killed 10 times and it wasn't easy, but it was possible. now this is madness and broken game balance

It's actually very true. You stack dots on the boss while dealing with the lungs mechanics, by the time you get to the threshold of 30% you should have enough dots to get through the final phase very quickly.

There's nothing impossible about this boss. You can easily beat him on a completely fresh account just with the starting heroes without anyone even dying.

Also, the requirements to pop the lungs are 12 to the front and 9 to the back.