Is this comp viable for wolves at the door?

[blueknite]

PD-VES-FLAG-HEL
On PD is poisoned herb and blasphemous vial. VES has junias head and sacred scroll. FLAG has sun cloak and barristans head. And HEL has heavens hairpin and dismas' head. 2 are level 6 2 are 5. all with fully upgraded weapons and armour, but only level 4 abilities? This would be my first time attempting it and I kind of dont wanna lose em.
EDIT: Did it. Didnt do a full clear, but I got the centre and the left treasure rooms. HP was fine, but stress was a little spooky.

[Jevmen]

NO NO NO NO NO!!
dont try this boss without a man at arms, the damage of the bombs can oneshot a hero, only man at arms can tank it with the 80% protection, and unlike the prophet the bomb explosion cant be dodged.
you need 1 man at arms and 1 vestal, the other 2 are open to election.
also watch out for stress in this short quest, MANY madmans and stress bandits i had problems with hearth attacks the 3 times i did the quest.
just use a man at arms to tank every hit from the bombs and 2 damage dealers to kill vvulf

[TimTim3000]

Yes, a Man at Arms is essential for this mission. On his turn, guard whoever has the bomb. If you have a prot trinket I would give that to him as well.

[blueknite]

I mean. All the guides say to use a MAA but I did it with the comp I listed. I didnt come close to dying, but the stress almost screwed me over. two of my heroes became afflicted but my vestal came through in the clutch as courageous.

[sasiji]

I think it is ok.
It isn't hardest mission in game tbh.

That team i think can be used in any short mission.

[RopeDrink]

Most comps are 'viable' if they have a means of pumping damage onto Wolf. The longer the fight goes on, the more damage and stress will be done via bombs, adds and screams, so you really need to make sure you can hit him whenever possible (starting at the back ranks) and kill him as soon as possible.

Optional methods are to have a squad that can AoE adds and keep Wolf up front. Adds aren't the main threat but they are a constant nuisance if you ignore them. If you have limited projection, this is a must.

Optimally, people have an MAA (a dedicated bomb-soaker) - bombs being the biggest damage threat of the fight. You don't absolutely HAVE to use one, but they heavily dampen the impact of bombs and allow you more freedom to manage adds or pump damage into Wolf.

Some people make the mistake of attacking the bomb barrels. There's really no point as they will riposte you and respawn anyway, hence MAA is the go-to so he can soak bombs instead.

Just like every boss-fight in the game, Wolf is pretty cheeseable, but cheesing is not mandatory, just infinitely easier than the alternatives if you want to avoid losses.

[Jevmen]

Originally posted by blueknite:

I mean. All the guides say to use a MAA but I did it with the comp I listed. I didnt come close to dying, but the stress almost screwed me over. two of my heroes became afflicted but my vestal came through in the clutch as courageous.

yeah i forgot to say, this quest is extremely stressfull because of basucly 2 stress dealers each encounter (champion madmans specialy)

[patrol]

The man at arms strategy goes out the window if Vvulf decides to throw 2 bombs instead of one xD

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by patrol:

The man at arms strategy goes out the window if Vvulf decides to throw 2 bombs instead of one xD

I mean, there are some classes with skills that can ally mark. Keep the MAA marked (assuming marking does in fact work as the tooltip indicates, it's been a while since I wikied anything about this game) and guarding, and the odds of 2 becoming a problem drastically reduces. Same thing with the prophet.
That said, the only one off the top of my head that can mark a separate ally is Antiquarian, so probably not the best option to bring, although the party buffing can be quite useful in a lot of situations, dpsing a boss isn't one of them.

Leper with Withstand/crusader with bulwark also gets a pretty significant protection buff, and a 3rd line antiquarian utilizing 'protect me' offers a mobile guarded option for theoretical multiple bombs as well.

IIRC Vulf can't launch multiple bombs, so it's theoretical.

That said, people overfocus on the cheese strat that is MAA, and don't consider how usable other 'tank' heroes can be. Those like Leper or Crusader, as mentioned before. There are also things like Aegis Scales from the Shieldbreaker DLC or just using shieldbreaker's mobility alongside serpent's sway. A highly mobile party with a tank somewhere in the ranks could easily simply use their own mobility attacks/general movement to get the tank where he's needed, albeit that would potentially be basically wasting most of a round to do so, but still an option, if not as easy.
Vulf is fond of guarding his allies too, iirc, so that means your frontline nukers can still potentially smack him if he's at the back.

There are other options. In Darkest Dungeon, there are ALWAYS other options, aside from trying to no-death the final darkest mission.

[patrol]

Originally posted by JtDarth:

IIRC Vulf can't launch multiple bombs, so it's theoretical.

I'm referring to a bug that existed quite a while ago where vvulf would at random throw 2 bombs at once (read: in the same turn). At that time his guard ability would also bug out and waste one his action and go to the second 1 or give you a turn.

I also belive that was when there weren't any DLCs for the game yet, don't quote me on that since it was a long time ago and i'm not sure.

[Morsk]

Originally posted by patrol:

The man at arms strategy goes out the window if Vvulf decides to throw 2 bombs instead of one xD

The bug reappeared with Butcher's Circus, and was only recently fixed again.

I brought a mark squad and killed the barrels. I find the MAA overrated, especially when he can't bring his camp buffs, and wonder if he only became popular because the mechanic reminds people of Prophet. The barrel is easy to kill, the riposte is low and completely avoidable if you want to 1-shot it with mark, and killing it gets rid of it for two turns. (Because Vvulf can't use a barrel on the same round it's summoned.)

Vvulf drops mark-related loot, is an actual outlaw a bounty hunter would pursue, and the area is full of humans, so I felt this was probably the intended way to fight him.

[Magni]

Originally posted by Morsk:

Originally posted by patrol:

The man at arms strategy goes out the window if Vvulf decides to throw 2 bombs instead of one xD

The bug reappeared with Butcher's Circus, and was only recently fixed again.

I brought a mark squad and killed the barrels. I find the MAA overrated, especially when he can't bring his camp buffs, and wonder if he only became popular because the mechanic reminds people of Prophet. The barrel is easy to kill, the riposte is low and completely avoidable if you want to 1-shot it with mark, and killing it gets rid of it for two turns. (Because Vvulf can't use a barrel on the same round it's summoned.)

Vvulf drops mark-related loot, is an actual outlaw a bounty hunter would pursue, and the area is full of humans, so I felt this was probably the intended way to fight him.

...that's not how it works. Vvulf will use Bombs Away! if there's a barrel at the start of the round, and he'll always use Get Them! if there's no barrel. The only way you get two turns without bombs for killing the barrel once is if you kill it after Vvulf has already performed all his actions for the round.

And if you use mark for that, you just used half your team just to get rid of the bomb. While two Raiders wail on you and Vvulf stresses you out. That isn't a particularily sustainable state of affairs.

BH is great for busting up Vvulf himself (though he has to mark himself unless you skip the Jester or risk an Occultist isntead of a Vestal), but you want him on that, not on the bombs. MaA can deal with the bombs using only one character's skill each turn, which is more efficient. And if you get the double bomb bug or something? Well, bring some aegis scales.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Magni:

Originally posted by Morsk:

The bug reappeared with Butcher's Circus, and was only recently fixed again.

I brought a mark squad and killed the barrels. I find the MAA overrated, especially when he can't bring his camp buffs, and wonder if he only became popular because the mechanic reminds people of Prophet. The barrel is easy to kill, the riposte is low and completely avoidable if you want to 1-shot it with mark, and killing it gets rid of it for two turns. (Because Vvulf can't use a barrel on the same round it's summoned.)

Vvulf drops mark-related loot, is an actual outlaw a bounty hunter would pursue, and the area is full of humans, so I felt this was probably the intended way to fight him.

...that's not how it works. Vvulf will use Bombs Away! if there's a barrel at the start of the round, and he'll always use Get Them! if there's no barrel. The only way you get two turns without bombs for killing the barrel once is if you kill it after Vvulf has already performed all his actions for the round.

And if you use mark for that, you just used half your team just to get rid of the bomb. While two Raiders wail on you and Vvulf stresses you out. That isn't a particularily sustainable state of affairs.

BH is great for busting up Vvulf himself, but you want him on that, not on the bombs. MaA can deal with the bombs using only one character's skill each turn, which is more efficient. And if you get the double bomb bug or something? Well, bring some aegis scales.

I mean, he said 'mark squad' and my brain went '4. Occultist 3. Musket/Arba 2. HM 1. BH'
With that squad, you can focus speed to force Vulf to only focus on Bombs, Occultist and BH can nail the big man, and you can swap Arba and BH's roles if Vulf winds up at the back/barrel in bad location. Doesn't solve the 'raiders' problem, but should be able to neutralize bombs and potentially deal massive damage to Vulf. With a rank 5-6 upgraded BH, it should be at most 4 or 5 turns before you can just have everyone focus Vulf to finish him off, I think, unless you are on stygian/bloodmoon. With occultist available to heal, the raiders shouldn't be able to kill you that quick, not with the bombs out of the equation. Or just use the entire party to focus down Vulf within a few turns from the start, and just eat a bomb or two, using musket/arba or occultist's healing skills if needed.

Of course this assumes no unlucky crits.

[No One]

You bring an MAA so you win even if you suffer RNG screw. It's not impossible to win without an MAA; instead it's about being impossible to lose with a MAA/VES combo and some modicum of player skill.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by No One:

You bring an MAA so you win even if you suffer RNG screw. It's not impossible to win without an MAA; instead it's about being impossible to lose with a MAA/VES combo and some modicum of player skill.

'guaranteed win' = BORING in a LOT of people's books.

[Magni]

Originally posted by JtDarth:

Originally posted by No One:

You bring an MAA so you win even if you suffer RNG screw. It's not impossible to win without an MAA; instead it's about being impossible to lose with a MAA/VES combo and some modicum of player skill.

'guaranteed win' = BORING in a LOT of people's books.

This is Darkest Dungeon. It's not so much "guaranteed win" as it is "much lower chance of everything going horribly wrong."