Brigand 12 Pounder

[Kel'Thuzad]

How do you beat this thing?

70% Prot, immune to stun/blight/bleed. You need to use most/all of your heroes turns to either kill the reinforcements, stun them, or heal/buff. It summons a new reinforcement at about the same rate you can kill them..
Only ocassionally have a spare action to attack the cannon, and it only hits for about 5 damage.
If it gets off even one "BOOOOOOM!" attack, it's pretty much gg.. And that guy who lights the fuse is eventually going to survive an attack or resist a stun.

[Random Sanity]

Same way you beat its lesser cousins - max upgrades, a lot of sheer tenacity, and the masochism to eat damage from the non-matchman adds turn after turn.

The whole pounder line is basically the epitome of fake difficulty - creating a ridiculous damage sponge and calling it "challenge".

[LaserGuy]

My strategy for this was:
Kill the matchman every round (obviously). Best hero for this is, IMHO, the Grave Robber. Bump up her damage with trinkets and she'll have a good chance to 1 hit kill him every turn, and her ACC will get boosted into the stratosphere by repeated thrown dagger attacks. She's also the fastest hero, so the odd time that she misses or doesn't kill him outright, somebody else can cover.

The rest of the party should focus on killing the bandits, mostly, and the cannon last. You can't outheal the bandit's damage easily. You can have somebody debuff them constantly, I guess, but I prefer just to kill them. This will mean for the first few rounds you won't do much damage to the cannon, but that's fine. When the cannon summons reinforcements, it doesn't always resummon the attacker bandits--often it works out that it will only summon the matchman, so 2-3 of your guys can target the cannon on those rounds. This strategy also tends to pull the cannon to the front, which makes it more vulnerable to your heavy hitters--I like a Leper for this fight, since Hew is strong enough to seriously hurt one bandit and do a bit of damage to the cannon at the same time.

In the latest version, a couple of riposting heroes might be able to make short work of the bandits while you mostly focus fire the cannon.

[X AE A-12]

Alternatively, you can use a stun and aoe heavy composition. As long as you stun the matchman, you can do grapeshot, suppressive fire, etc.

[Kel'Thuzad]

I have half a roster of Level 4's with level 3 weapons, level 4 armour and level 4 skills. They're ripe for a boss fight. But it just feels like this fight requires a specific group composition, so I've been avoiding attempting it again (abandonded first attempt).
The problem is I can't do any other quests or they'll level up to Champions and be unavailable for veteran bosses.

I was thinking it might require a 'mark' group. Like a Bounty Hunter using the -Prot ability, then hammering it with Sniper shot, etc. But if you do that, the bandits aren't getting killed/stunned- and you just die by different means.

Originally posted by Random Sanity:

The whole pounder line is basically the epitome of fake difficulty - creating a ridiculous damage sponge and calling it "challenge".

I agree. I didn't have any trouble with the 8 pounder, but this one is ridiculous.
It's also very RNG dependant. Getting a BOOM instead of a MISFIRE can tip the whole fight.

[Superfluous J]

I just beat the 18 (16?) pounder. I did it with a front-line MAA who bolstered the entire fight, a HWM who Hounds [whichever] every round depending on what was needed to kill the matchstick guy, an Arbelist who was generally who killed the matchstick guy, and a Vestal who was supposed to heal all the damage I'd take but in 15 rounds - until I killed the Pounder - she did not do a single heal and instead dealt damage to the Pounder. I think once she needed to hit the Matchstick guy.

My guys were down to about 80% health when I was done. As in, they could have lasted 5 times longer before reaching death's door.

FAR harder than beating that boss was getting to it. Same with the 12 Pounder. I took 3-4 attempts just to REACH it, frequently losing an adventurer or at least getting to a point where it was imminent before bailing.

[Ilsensine]

Most bosses require a well designed group if you want an easier fight, you can't bring any four guys and expect to succeed, that would be too easy. :p

If you don't have the right classes for the job, you might want to fire some of your higher level guys to train the ones you need... or skip that boss. I know it sucks but that is a problem with the game right now, the heroes often level too fast so you can't kill all the bosses without cleaning your roster a few times.

For the pounder I always bring a group in which each hero can target any ennemy position like Grave Robber (or Arbalest) / Vestal / Houndmaster / Hellion. Makes it easier to kill the matchman every round even with one or two unlucky rolls. How I deal with the other brigands after dependis on the situation. I try to kill or stun them every round but it's not a big deal if a lesser ennemy gets a hit once in a while.

Honestly, I find that the brigand pounder is the easiest of all the bosses because it's the only one who never gets to hit me! Sure this is a loooong fight sometimes but who cares? ;)

[X AE A-12]

Originally posted by Kel'Thuzad:

I have half a roster of Level 4's with level 3 weapons, level 4 armour and level 4 skills. They're ripe for a boss fight. But it just feels like this fight requires a specific group composition, so I've been avoiding attempting it again (abandonded first attempt).
The problem is I can't do any other quests or they'll level up to Champions and be unavailable for veteran bosses.

I was thinking it might require a 'mark' group. Like a Bounty Hunter using the -Prot ability, then hammering it with Sniper shot, etc. But if you do that, the bandits aren't getting killed/stunned- and you just die by different means.

Originally posted by Random Sanity:

The whole pounder line is basically the epitome of fake difficulty - creating a ridiculous damage sponge and calling it "challenge".

I agree. I didn't have any trouble with the 8 pounder, but this one is ridiculous.
It's also very RNG dependant. Getting a BOOM instead of a MISFIRE can tip the whole fight.

Yeah I beat my last one with a mark group. It was disappointing that the cannon cannot be debuffed though, so the protection stays.

A buffed arbalest, HWM, or grave robber can all 1 shot the matchman.

Skip the healer for this fight and use the arbalest or a crusader as a backup healer. The goal here is damage damage damage.

[Kel'Thuzad]

I'm thinking of something like:

4- Vestal (mostly for stuns, and the odd heal if needed)
3- Plague Doc (bit useless in Weald but good against human crew in the boss fight)
2- Bounty Hunter (can use 'Finish Him' on anything the Vestal stuns. Good Uppercut stun)
1- Leper (Can Hew damage one the boss and one of the crew, or big Chop hits on the boss).

Plague Grenade should blight the back 2 to death, meaning I dont need to stun or kill them, if I can just eat their attacks for a few turns (heal through it with Vestal).

An Arbalest might be better than the Vestal, but not sure.

Either that or a Mark group. 4- Arbalest 3-HWM 2- Bounty Hunter 1- Leper or MAA
Arbalest can't target cannon in position 1, but I suppose there will always be crew to attack.

edit: Probably leaning towards MAA over Leper due to Rampart stuns and Bellow. Along with Dodge/speed buff. But he will hit the cannon for less than the Leper.

[Eno]

I had Come Hither on BH and Daemon's Pull on Occultist. I usually used one of those on the Matchman and finished it off with either Crusader or MAA. I managed to get a hit or two in on most rounds, didn't last too long.

[Scootz]

I think I used Vestal, GR, BH, Hellion. I'd just stun the Matchstick guy mostly. GR and Hellion dealt damage, if stuns failed I'd just kill him. Vestal with double heal trinkets just group healed - way more then what they could harm me.

[Jamie A. Rose]

A strong enough Arbalest can one shot the fuseman every round. BH can stun the fuseman if she misses. Mark the cannon for extra damage. Occultist can mark or drag fuseman to the front, also can heal. I use Man-At-Arms to tank since he can cover BH and riposte which gets rid of the reinforcements.

It's a very slow fight, but if you do it right the cannon never gets a shot off.

[Mv]

That is a pretty weak boss, most likely you are using a bad comp or bad trinkets.

Grave Robber or Arbalest - Vestal or Occultist - Houndmaster or Bounty Hunter - Hellion or Man-At-Arms
Trinkets that increase your SPD and DMG. Dont waste time marking the boss with your houndmaster. Its a long and boring fight.

[Jamie A. Rose]

The pounders are the easiest bosses in the game, they just take forever to kill.

[Eno]

Oh yeah, take man slayer rings.

[Kel'Thuzad]

Originally posted by Scootz:

I think I used Vestal, GR, BH, Hellion. I'd just stun the Matchstick guy mostly. GR and Hellion dealt damage, if stuns failed I'd just kill him. Vestal with double heal trinkets just group healed - way more then what they could harm me.

Problem with those heal trinkets is the -stun% chance. If you're not healing, you really want to be using that stun.

Don't have man slayer rings. Also don't have a Grave Robber.