Hateful Virago, Bone Bearer, Swine Skiver, Squiffy Ghast

[White Shadow]

I've recently come back to this awesome game after over a year's break and was surprised by some powerful new enemies lurking around in the Champion dungeons. I think they were great additions btw, as Champion level dungeons were lacking a bit of a new flavour to them.

So over the past couple of weeks of taking teams into Champion dungeons, I've gotten to fight these guys a fair bit and am curious how would everyone rank them in terms of difficulty, from hardest to easiest, and explain your choice (but let's not argue, as everyone seems to have a different opinion on this).

This is how I'd rank them (though it might change as I face more of them):

1) Swine Skiver - Nasty thing that. The reason I put him on 1st place is due to the sheer damage he can do whilst still having high enough health and dodge, and the worst of all, the debuffs he inflicts on your back ranks. I've managed to keep my team alive against the Virago for several turns, but with this guy, you have no choice but to dispose of him as fast as possible or risk losing someone. I find you really need to have the likes of Occultist to strongly debuff his DMG or someone with a very good pull ability. But even then, he has a whooping 9 SPD, so you better hope the puller goes before him.

2) Hateful Virago - Until recently, I had her at number 1, and she might still overtake the Skiver for me if I'm not careful. I think the nastiest things about her are a) the super high dodge chance ~48%, making half of your attacks miss her, and b) the heal blocking fungus, so you're forced to either kill her first or kill other enemies via bleed/blight to dispose of corpses instantly. The reason I put her slightly below the Skiver is because at least her attacks in themselves aren't too damaging by comparison, and her danger level depends more on the enemies she spawns with.

3) Bone Bearer - The buffs they give their comrades are pretty strong and being able to raise the slain makes them high priority targets. I think they're mostly dangerous depending highly on who they spawn with. With spearmen or generals, they can be a challenge, but not so much with the dead weight guys or graveyard slashers or bump in the night-ers.

4) Squiffy Ghast - After fighting about 4-5 of these, I honestly think they're significantly easier than the other 3. From those 4-5 times I fought them, I've been hit by the Offkitter Jig exactly once. Most times they seem to use Maddening Shanty, which is hardly dangerous at all and also seems to miss half the time. And then, Offkitter Jig doesn't seem that bad if your party's stress is in check. Most times a couple of well-placed crits from one of the allies, stress-heals the whole team back to how it was. I think they can be dangerous for a high-stress hero, but I think you have to be really unlucky (and this applies to most enemies in the game anyway). (Maybe my opinion of him will change in the future though).

Let's hear about your rankings and experiences with these guys.

[DeepDorkFantasy]

Hellion + Mister Dudez Bone Bearer = <3, so I never enter Champion Ruins without her.

[White Shadow]

Do you mean you find Hellions most useful against Bone Bearers?

[Forever Blonde]

These are real tough enemies, esp if u are unprepared to fight them or your party compilation have no tools to take them down asp. But u cant learn a thing u think u know right? Bone Bearer is the weakest of them i think - just because he has no offensive skills. Just do not make a mistake killing an undead enemy while he`s still alive and breathing(not really) - and u`ll be fine.Also these type of enemies has one particulary pattern: they hide in the back row behind their cannon fodder comrades, meaning if u pull them in the front or manage to jeopardize their position with something like BH stun granade - they become vulnerable. Example: u are in Warrens mission and u have Men-at-Arms at ur disposal with a shield stun.For a better result u need to equip him with a stun chance improving trinket. As soon as its ur turn - stun Swine Skiver and try to keep him stunned as u focus him with all ur party. u can also do it with PD stun grenades etc. The point is not to allow Skiver to play his game. But the easiest tactics - is to have 2 long range heroes with marking ability.Example: Arbalest + Houndmaster combo. Lets assume ur fighting Bone Bearer or Virago. As the round starts - mark her\him and keep focusing her\him with long range skills. And if u happen to have Occultist - try to stun her\him at the same time or pull monster in the front row or attack with something like Iron Swan if u have Hellion. Prioritize these monster as target n1, keep them stunned, and if u can shuffle their position - this is the key to winning. Also mind what type of trinkets and skills u have on ur character. Virago of the Weald is human type - so bring heroes with Human slayer(increased accuracy against her dodging ability) perks and maybe equip some Accuracy ring on ur characters or use accuracy boosting skills like Men-at-Arms` "Command" or GR auto accuracy boosting "Thrown Dagger". Also u might consider to break a camp early and buff ur party with something that improves accuracy like BH`s "This is how we do it" or Arbalest`s" Restring Crossbow", Highwaymen "Clean guns" etc.

[White Shadow]

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

Also these type of enemies has one particulary pattern: they hide in the back row behind their cannon fodder comrades, meaning if u pull them in the front or manage to jeopardize their position with something like BH stun granade - they become vulnerable.

That's very true. I noticed that as well. They all (apart from Squiffy Ghast) seem to prefer to stay at the back and don't like to be pulled to the front. They all also seem to be Size 1, which is sneaky, because Size 1 means they can end up having 3 other enemies to support them. It also means they can only be targeted when they're in a certain position (Size 2s for example can be hit so long as your character can target one of the positions that they occupy).

Well, I shall experiment some more strategies, especially with the Skivers. Warrens are bad enough already, but with them there, it's even worse.

[Zunkin]

Your list is pretty much spot on. I would put them in the same exact order. The Swine Skiver in particular is quite the nasty little beast and deserves top billing. Unlike the Virago, with it's anti-healing fungal grow, the Skiver is very luck dependent which means that some fights it won't do much to you and other's it can single handedly put a well built party through the meat grinder.

There is nothing quite like a Swine Skiver rolling high on its initiative roll and landing multiple crits with "cripple them" along with blighting and debuffing half your team before anyone even gets a chance to move.

Even with a properly built, well geared party you can get a lucky Swine Skiver that through a combination of good initiative rolls, dodges and speed debuffs can land two back to back "cripple thems" before you can focus it down and remove it from the fight. That by itself is enough damage to put low HP characters on death's door or damn close, and worse yet with a DOT on top of it.

As for dealing with the Skiver and the other elite champion mobs my advice is to make sure you have a very fast and accurate party capable of projecting high end stuns and large amounts of damage into the back rows of the enemy team. Speed is key here. You want to run fast characters with speed trinkets or quirks on top since if you let these beasts move they can put you in a whole world of hurt.

As a general rule of thumb I like to have at least three characters capable of dealing heavy damage to the last two rows of the opposing team and each of them with a speed of 9 or higher. Occultists are great as are Hound Masters, Hellions, Flagellants, Man at Arms, Bounty Hunters, Grave Diggers and Plague Doctors.

[White Shadow]

Yeah, I noticed the same. Some of the times they go down painlessly, giving you a false sense of security, whilst other times they mess your whole team up before you get a chance to do much of anything. Stunning them, moving them to the front, or debuffing their DMG have been the best tactics so far from what I've tried. You're right, speed seems highly important here, since theirs is quite high as it is.