♥♥♥♥ the hag i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate the hag

[darkheart irl]

DURRRR your healer is going DIRECTLY into the pot DURRR sorry your hero is gonna be on death's door out of the pot bc they were already low on health DURRR sorry actually the hag is IMMEDIATELY gonna do an AOE attack after they're out of the pot LOLL OOPS SORRY UR HERO IS DEAD BC UR DEATHBLOW ROLL WAS ♥♥♥♥ AND U COULD DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT LOLLL SORRY. completely fair and balanced boss
i don't see for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ second how that was fair? like i understand theres gonna be some bullsh1t permadeath that there's no real way to prevent but oh my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ god that was absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous. so damn glad i don't have to deal w her again (i think) but jesus christ that's so stupid. that's so unbelievably stupid. durrdurrr your hero is gonna die based on complete bullsh1t RNG that u had NO WAY of preventing ermm LOLL

i dont expect any comments totally agreeing w me bc that's how darkest dungeon be but DAMN. i just needed to rant about this i'm so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ mad dude

quick edit for specifics, this is referring to her champion version (hag witch). i have dealt with the hag before i just really really hate her and now i no longer have to put up with her. i made this in a fit of rage at 3am so it's kinda incoherent. advice for future files appreciated regardless :')

[Alex Darkcrowne]

DURRRR
I'm a boss with less HP than Unclean Giants, minimal PROT and DODGE

DURRRR
Into the Pot! can be dodged, and Guarded against

DURRRR
I die so hard to the doggo and Mark teams

[Deepwood]

It 100% sucks when you lose a hero fighting the Hag. I've been there myself. Alex has a point though. There are different ways to navigate this fight. My favorite is to get a good Mark comp with Occulist as support and just blast the Hag ignoring the pot. Check the wiki if you ever struggle with a boss unless you want to avoid spoilers (but potentially get your team killed) .

[darkheart irl]

Originally posted by Alex Darkcrowne:

DURRRR
I'm a boss with less HP than Unclean Giants, minimal PROT and DODGE

DURRRR
Into the Pot! can be dodged, and Guarded against

DURRRR
I die so hard to the doggo and Mark teams

in my defense i wrote this at like 3am stop throwing rocks at me i know i'm dumb as hell
small edit: to account for my wording possibly sounding ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-ish this is meant to be very lighthearted and i'll keep your tip abt marking and houndmaster (i think) in mind for any future files :') i have a skill issue

[darkheart irl]

Originally posted by Deepwood:

It 100% sucks when you lose a hero fighting the Hag. I've been there myself. Alex has a point though. There are different ways to navigate this fight. My favorite is to get a good Mark comp with Occulist as support and just blast the Hag ignoring the pot. Check the wiki if you ever struggle with a boss unless you want to avoid spoilers (but potentially get your team killed) .

yeah that's part of my problem, i'd love to go look on the wiki for strats and such but i REALLY want to avoid spoilers :') i just needed to rant abt this somewhere, i appreciate it a lot though!

[Alex Darkcrowne]

You can always go into the boss fight, see what they're about, then bail if your party can't handle it.
Obviously free the person in the pot or pyre first, but it's an option.
The only punishment you get for running away from fights is some stress.

For Hag, just bring a damn Hellion and make sure she doesn't get grabbed: guard her with a doggo or an old man.

[darkheart irl]

Originally posted by Alex Darkcrowne:

You can always go into the boss fight, see what they're about, then bail if your party can't handle it.
Obviously free the person in the pot or pyre first, but it's an option.
The only punishment you get for running away from fights is some stress.

For Hag, just bring a damn Hellion and make sure she doesn't get grabbed: guard her with a doggo or an old man.

i understand what you mean!! however this was referring to hag witch (champion hag), so i've fought her before i made this thread + she was almost dead already when this happened so i didn't see a point in running away <:] sorry for not being more specific abt that! i appreciate your advice a lot though anyways, for future files

[Alex Darkcrowne]

Originally posted by Flynn:

i understand what you mean!! however this was referring to hag witch (champion hag), so i've fought her before i made this thread + she was almost dead already when this happened so i didn't see a point in running away <:] sorry for not being more specific abt that! i appreciate your advice a lot though anyways, for future files

Ripostes are also an option, since one of her attacks, I think it's Meat Tenderiser is an AoE.

The tactic for Hag is very straightforward: blow her up.

[YaBoiBeanz]

For me it's the Sunken Crew. As soon as anchor man pops up, I attack him. He always manages to scrape by with 1 hp, just enough to trap my front man and conveniently heal himself fully.

[No One]

Originally posted by Flynn:

like i understand theres gonna be some bullsh1t permadeath that there's no real way to prevent

There isn't.

DD is a well-balanced game in the sense that there is a way, somehow, to prevent every death. A 100% no-death run is not only possible, but is achievable without being an obsessive like a speedrunner or something.

If you want, I can just tell you. I don't volunteer, because spoilers. IMO 100% of the game is figuring it out for yourself. Once you get it, the game is just plain boring.

[darkheart irl]

Originally posted by prp426:

For me it's the Sunken Crew. As soon as anchor man pops up, I attack him. He always manages to scrape by with 1 hp, just enough to trap my front man and conveniently heal himself fully.

oh GOD i haven't fought them yet but that sounds awful godspeed

[Skinny Pete]

The only bosses that should really present any kind of threat are the Fanatic (who you can just avoid anyway) and, maybe, the Countess (and similarly you do not actually have to fight her). And to a lesser extent the Shambler or (if you have CoM) the Thing. And again, both of those are totally optional.

[RopeDrink]

Shooting from the hip here, but overall threat is along the lines of:

1. Fanatic
2. Countess
3. Croc
4. Sleeper
5. Miller
6. Baron
7. Viscount
8. Vvulf (MAA)
9. The Thing from the Stars
10. Shambler
11. Shrieker/Guardian (Easy to Avoid/Pierce - but still nastier than non-DLC)
12. Flesh
13. Swine/Prophet
14. Pounder/Crew (Attrition)
15. Hag/Necro
16. Collector

Realistically, the only boss I go out of my way to avoid is the Fanatic -- and when it comes to bosses like the Countess, Croc and Sleeper, that is when I consider using my ShB Scales + prep a little more than usual. Everything else is a question of how hard you want to counter their gimmick -- assuming you know what it is.

We can talk all day about debuffing the Prophet, or clearing marks from the Swine, or spamming AoE/Bleeds on the Flesh, etc.

Meanwhile, the Hag is an amusing case of poor health + a gimmick which is handled best by not handling it at all. In short, to ignore the pot and blow her up - which (at most) requires projection - something people should be respecting LONG before entering Champion.

It's one of the most accessible answers, so she falls on her face at the bottom of the list. I honestly can't remember the last time she survived long enough for a potted hero to hit death's door, nevermind kill anyone, except maybe when I was completely blind to the game and/or respecting the Pot too much.

Even the Necro and Collector can coax more mechanical respect than the Hag, and they're technically easier than she is.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

Realistically, the only boss I go out of my way to avoid is the Fanatic -- and when it comes to bosses like the Countess, Croc and Sleeper, that is when I consider using my ShB Scales + prep a little more than usual. Everything else is a question of how hard you want to counter their gimmick -- assuming you know what it is.

I think the main decision on Countess is whether to go at her with the optimal Court team (VES/JES/FLA/HEL), which isn't actually particularly great against the Countess (although it can do the trick), or come back with a more mobile team (to recover from the shuffles), grab the last firewood for some camping buffs and go in fresh.

I think if you can bring the normal VES/JES etc. team up to nearly full strength (and throw on one or two buffs), you might as well just go ahead right then with little risk, but if they're much below that, it's worth coming back with a team specifically tailored for her.

[No One]

I don't understand why the countess is supposed to be difficult.
I went in blind with a scouting party...but I couldn't figure out what the gimmick was supposed to be before I left. I just went in with whatever I felt like and it worked out. Had to look it up later.

[RopeDrink]

I don't understand why the countess is supposed to be difficult.
I went in blind with a scouting party...but I couldn't figure out what the gimmick was supposed to be before I left. I just went in with whatever I felt like and it worked out. Had to look it up later.

And that's the type of comment someone else will say about pretty much any boss on the list, except maybe Fanatic. You can usually fumble your way through most of the other bosses (unless you fell out of the 'missed absolutely everything needed' tree). For example, no projection, healing or debuffs for the Prophet, so he plops rubble all over you while you're chopping at Pew's for days - and even then, you might survive.

Countess is a mixture of the previous Court bosses - annoying anti-heal of the 1st, along with heal/cure of the 2nd, just with more health and ST burst windows. Normally, that is the point where I'll sacrifice an invitation and bring in the Riposte-squad, because at that point, you don't need excess invitations anyway. Regardless of how people personally rank them, all the DLC bosses are typically more intricate and spongy compared to non-DLC, and her mechanics/longevity can drag out an unaware player (compared to many of the others).

Personally, I find the Croc infinitely worse, because the last thing I want is to waste invitations for moveskills, and the usual VES-JES-FLG-HEL isn't the best croc-squad.

Either way, compare anything mid-tier to the Hag - who can only kill heroes if the player doesn't focus her down, be it too much pot respect, not enough projection, or just low damage in general. Ironic how the Fanatic + Hag are on opposite ends of the scale (despite their very obvious similarities).