Best way to kill Shrieker?

[RIP]

I know that I don’t actually have to kill it, but since I have enough gold already and hates to see my heroes getting stress, I decided to kill it. My first attempt with marking party went successful but somewhat unconvincing, since the bird easily takes off the mark with 3 action turns.

The combination that I have on my mind is Arbalest - Jester - MAA - Abomination. Jester uses Battle Ballad - Battle Ballad - Solo - Finale, MAA uses Command and Defender if needs to, Arbalest and Abomination just deal damage.

Any other suggestions or any thoughts on that combination?

[Glioburd]

Your party seems pretty okay, but I wouldn't pick an arbalest if no one else can mark the target.

I always kill it with two highwaymen with their riposts. I put one healer and one random guy, I had some luck with a hellion last time. But could be anything else. Not sure if it's the most efficient team, but all these free shots from ripost help a lot since the Shrieker has 3 actions per turn.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Dr. Doctor:

I know that I don’t actually have to kill it, but since I have enough gold already and hates to see my heroes getting stress, I decided to kill it. My first attempt with marking party went successful but somewhat unconvincing, since the bird easily takes off the mark with 3 action turns.

The combination that I have on my mind is Arbalest - Jester - MAA - Abomination. Jester uses Battle Ballad - Battle Ballad - Solo - Finale, MAA uses Command and Defender if needs to, Arbalest and Abomination just deal damage.

Any other suggestions or any thoughts on that combination?

You seriously need to jack up ACC because Shrieker's dodge is ridiculous. It's also pretty much useless to debuff its dodge. First, you have to hit it, then you have to succeed against its debuff resistance, and even if you do that successfully, its three actions a turn mean that lasts only one round. You're better off just trying to hit it for damage.

If you DO decide to debuff, though, you want the debuffer to be fast and to act first.

Also you're putting all your eggs in one basket with Jester because you only have 4 turns. So he either hits with FInale or you're hosed.

Anyway I'd load up on ACC, DMG and CRIT. Any trinkets with two or more of those is a must have. Sun Rings, Focus Rings (although they're nerfed), Ancestor's Pen, Prophet's Eye, etc. or the +ACC to either Melee/Ranged depending on what you plan on showering the enemy with.

Eldritch Slayer/Beast Slayer (or both) are great quirks to have on a hero for this. Similarly, the Eldritch/Beast Slayer rings are good trinkets. OCC also has a bonus against Eldritch, and pretty good CRIT on Sacrificial Stab, so buff him and put him in third place if you bring him.

Or try the Jester thing. Let us know how that works. Note that all Jester's skills currently buff his Finale, so you might also consider actually just doing damage with him for two rounds. Maybe someone who knows more of the math of the game can say whether it's better to do two Battle Ballads and rely on the other characters. As it appears to me, though, you're foregoing three rounds of damage by the Jester in the hopes that the damage other characters get (including crits) will make up for it, and in the hopes that Finale doesn't miss with the crow's outrageous dodge.

[Roger Feederer]

Let Jester use its buff song for +ACC (and possible Finale finisher) and riposte it to death. My favorite party for Shrieker is Man at Arms - Highwayman - Jester - Vestal.

[RIP]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

You seriously need to jack up ACC because Shrieker's dodge is ridiculous. It's also pretty much useless to debuff its dodge. First, you have to hit it, then you have to succeed against its debuff resistance, and even if you do that successfully, its three actions a turn mean that lasts only one round. You're better off just trying to hit it for damage.

If you DO decide to debuff, though, you want the debuffer to be fast and to act first.

Also you're putting all your eggs in one basket with Jester because you only have 4 turns. So he either hits with FInale or you're hosed.

Anyway I'd load up on ACC, DMG and CRIT. Any trinkets with two or more of those is a must have. Sun Rings, Focus Rings (although they're nerfed), Ancestor's Pen, Prophet's Eye, etc. or the +ACC to either Melee/Ranged depending on what you plan on showering the enemy with.

Eldritch Slayer/Beast Slayer (or both) are great quirks to have on a hero for this. Similarly, the Eldritch/Beast Slayer rings are good trinkets. OCC also has a bonus against Eldritch, and pretty good CRIT on Sacrificial Stab, so buff him and put him in third place if you bring him.

Or try the Jester thing. Let us know how that works. Note that all Jester's skills currently buff his Finale, so you might also consider actually just doing damage with him for two rounds. Maybe someone who knows more of the math of the game can say whether it's better to do two Battle Ballads and rely on the other characters. As it appears to me, though, you're foregoing three rounds of damage by the Jester in the hopes that the damage other characters get (including crits) will make up for it, and in the hopes that Finale doesn't miss with the crow's outrageous dodge.

Just killed it with the party. I actually killed him on third turn(because I accidently used Solo instead of Battle Ballad on 2nd turn D:), and my jester did 80 something damage with crit. Using Battle Ballad and Command seems to work pretty fine against Shrieker.

The only problem was that my Jester would have been Death’s Door if not for Aegis. I’m thinking of replacing his trinkets for high dodges instead of crit and dmg next time.

[Shaman]

i use houndmasters, they do bonus dmg to beast and dog treats buff acc. So usually arbelist, 2 houndmasters and someone in front. Will have to try man at arms with the changes in CoM

[No One]

I use ARB-JES-HM-HEL and usually can kill both the nest and the shrieker itself. Mark the nest so it eats ♥♥♥♥. Then try to land huge bleeds on the shrieker with the hellion. JES uses sing-sing-dirk-finale.

The HEL and HM can self-heal if stuff goes south, and you can also patch up the JES and/or guard him. If you just want to kill the shrieker itself, then this is also a good party for that.

[nightshift]

Main rule is to not care about healing in any way, no heals, and deffinetly no stress heals. You only have 4 actions so you better make them count.

What worked for me is to have a Jester Battle Ballad 2-3 times, depending on where you end up for the fourth round (if on the back, then Dirk Stab or Solo your way to the front on the third round), then Finale. Battle Ballad is great to increase Finale potential and the Crit + ACC of your party.
High crit classes like Grave Robbers Knife Throwing to increase ACC, then Lunge, Shadow Step, Lunge. The More GR's you take the better. Get Trinkets that provides +Crit, +Acc. Also Bleed res for everyone.
Now you can also take an MAA to Buff your Acc, but with a Jester already doing Battle Ballad, you're better off taking another DD like a Dualist Advancing, Point Blank Shooting Highwayman or a Hellion with Heaven's Hairpin. Houndmaster can also be a good idea with Dog Biscuits.

Marking the Shrieker doesn't make sense as it wears off in a single round with it's 3 actions. Increase your Acc+ Crit chance is the key. Shanguine Snuff on Cursed heroes works wonders if you have one Craving for Blood.

[LaserGuy]

I did Jes/HM/HM/Occ against him the other day. Stack DMG on the HMs, Acc and debuff on Occ. Use battle ballad on Jester, mark/debuff him with Occ, double dog treat with the HMs to clobber him. Dead on second round.

Prime with holy waters at the start of the fight to resist his bleeds.

[Spektr]

Houndmaster+Houndmaster+MAA+Flagellant, all trinkets into ACC. Did him twice recently on champ, he died pretty quickly on 2nd or 3rd turn. MAA goes Command right at start, and dogs just spam their basic attack all fight.

[Timus]

I like ARB + ARB + HM + BH. In most cases I don't need more than 2 rounds for the kill.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1241245728

[Dire Wolf]

I have never killed the nest and the brid but I beat the bird easily with arbalest, vestal, bounty hunter, hellion. Hellion can hit the bird no matter where it is, vestal debuffs dodge and aoe heals, arbalest just snipes, bounty hunter marks if bird is in back position or hits if it's in front position. Arbalest has very high accuracy to begin with but you could sub her or the bounty hunter for a hound master in this setup. You could also arbalest, vestal, houndmaster, bounty hunter. It is hard to keep marks on the bird but with three markers, a an arbalest or bounty hunter can crit for like 60 on a marked target, so it's worth one of them marking.

[Dire Wolf]

My guys would die without a healer, one crit beak attack is like 30 dmg plus a strong bleed. Leper seems really bad cus of his low base accuracy. Arbalest with the bandana can crit a marked bird for like 1/4th his hp.

[Timus]

Originally posted by nightshiftgamer:

… Marking the Shrieker doesn't make sense as it wears off in a single round with it's 3 actions.

I disagree: It makes perfect sense once every one of your heroes benefits from the mark. You trade one ordinary hit with (level 5):

Arbalest’s Sniper Shot: +100% DMG, +15% CRIT vs marked
Bounty Hunter’s Collect Bounty: +90% DMG vs marked
Houndmaster’s Hound’s Rush: +100% DMG vs marked

So roughly +200% DMG.

The Arbalest’s mark is especially good in the Shrieker fight because it has the potential to reduce it’s high amount of dodge: -30 DODGE debuff (140% vs 75% resistance). The Arbalest is generally great in this fight: High base accuracy, relatively high HP, and a backup heal to get heroes from death’s door.

[LaserGuy]

Originally posted by Timus:

Originally posted by nightshiftgamer:

… Marking the Shrieker doesn't make sense as it wears off in a single round with it's 3 actions.

I disagree: It makes perfect sense once every one of your heroes benefits from the mark. You trade one ordinary hit with (level 5):

Arbalest’s Sniper Shot: +100% DMG, +15% CRIT vs marked
Bounty Hunter’s Collect Bounty: +90% DMG vs marked
Houndmaster’s Hound’s Rush: +100% DMG vs marked

So roughly +200% DMG.

The Arbalest’s mark is especially good in the Shrieker fight because it has the potential to reduce it’s high amount of dodge: -30 DODGE debuff (140% vs 75% resistance). The Arbalest is generally great in this fight: High base accuracy, relatively high HP, and a backup heal to get heroes from death’s door.

Occultist is better since he is fast enough to go at the start of the round and let your Arbalest just attack.

[Timus]

Originally posted by LaserGuy:

... Occultist is better since he is fast enough to go at the start of the round and let your Arbalest just attack.

That's a good point, he's definitely faster. But I don't like him in this fight because he's such a skinny dude. One crit-peck and he's at death's door. And a more minor point: The -DODGE debuff from his mark is not as good as the Arbalest's one.