So... the Head Hunter...

[evilerevilhero]

I don't know what to make of the Head Hunter and his place on the team. I just can't make heads or tails with him. On one hand, his attacks feel satisfying when they hit a small chance to instant kill, can unmissingly(when they don't change positions) smash an enemy's Blocks and Wards or resistance to nothing and its' ultimate deals a lot of damage plus 50% chance of instant kill.

On the other hand, he feels so fragile despite having a potentially high physical resistance coupled with his poor accuracy in life or death situations makes it all the more painful to watch. It makes it so that one item that makes attacks never miss all the more crucial but even then, it seems like it is always the first to die.

What is the best way to utilize the Head Hunter? And while we're at it, what about the Ghoul?

[ewpayne]

He is my favorite.

His stats are powerful.

If you unlock extra accuracy stuff for him he's golden.

Get his contract as much as you can. With that you have a 10% to kill up to 2 people, or 7% to kill all 4 minions. Even with a boss fight he can take out lackies.

I have 2. The 1st in is slot 3, and he has a ball and chain with a contract as his two equipment. As a result I can keep him stuck in that position and constantly barrage with his throwing cleaver attack to maximize my chances of autokill. The second is in slot 2, and he will either use his ultimate ability or remove enemies defenses. My 4th slot is usually the bride. My first slot is the bone golem for defense.

For upgrading, there's no wrong way to go. You can go all damage and your attacks will be devastating. You should invest maybe 4 stat points into accuracy to make sure he has 100% or better. He will be atrocius against evasive enemies unless you equip him with the rare artifact that gives him auto hits.

Killing quickly and often is key. With maxed wrath you can have 2 auto kill strikes back to back, and hope that you auto kill 2 enemies as a result. That makes the fights heavy in your favor.

[Ghostlight]

Extreme dps and handles high armour and stances - yes please! However super super squishy and dies a lot. The only time I have managed to use him well is if he spends most of his time in position 2 behind a Widow. It's hard though as he likes to move around a lot.

Try a damage reflecting build....

Lich - Blood Phantom - HH - Widow

Lich: Spam damage buff on HH and Phantom
HH: Kill everything with amazing dps
Phantom: Keep taunt and damage reflect aura up on Widow (watch enemies kill themselves, especially if they are hard-hitters)
Widow: Stay in Cocoon to soak damage and heal through it

Can replace HH with Zombie as well for more survivability

[gamester512]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

Extreme dps and handles high armour and stances - yes please! However super super squishy and dies a lot. The only time I have managed to use him well is if he spends most of his time in position 2 behind a Widow. It's hard though as he likes to move around a lot.

Try a damage reflecting build....

Lich - Blood Phantom - HH - Widow

Lich: Spam damage buff on HH and Phantom
HH: Kill everything with amazing dps
Phantom: Keep taunt and damage reflect aura up on Widow (watch enemies kill themselves, especially if they are hard-hitters)
Widow: Stay in Cocoon to soak damage and heal through it

Can replace HH with Zombie as well for more survivability

I actually like to use Liches in a sort of "turtle" build, two Liches in back, and two Skeletons in front. Both Skeletons keep using Astonishing/Mystic Fortitude each turn, while the Liches use Shard Swarm every turn (sure, it hits 1 random target each time, but it does a lot of damage and Shard Swarm ignores Ward). The skeletons rarely if ever take any significant damage, and the Liches can really pile on the damage....and in the event either Skeleton ever dies, one of the Liches can just summon in a new one mid-battle.



I actually like using the Headhunter as a way to disrupt the enemy team's formation, and I'll stick them on both Damage & Stress teams. On Stress teams, I'll put him on a team with a Banshee, Wraith, & Dark Knight and then keep the Banshee in "NOOOO!" stance, and then use the Wraith and Headhunter to continually shuffle the enemy team around to repeatedly trigger the Banshee's stance. And the Dark Knight is there to tank and provide a bit more Stress damage.

On damage teams, I stick the Headhunter with at least one Crit-focused Bride (that is kept in Deadly Watch), a Vampire, and a Skeleton (Skeleton for tanking, Vampire for high single-target damage + life-steal).



I will likely try different variations of such teams soon though, as I haven't yet unlocked the Blood Phantom, Fallen Dhampir, Black Widow, or the Unfrozen just yet.

[spicydee67]

50% chance for an outright kill is OP AF - he won many battles for me by getting quick 1 shots at the start.

[Sheperd Doggy YT]

He is easily the strongest character you can use, and I mean EASILY. The best comp for him is to bring 3 Dark Knights and put him in position 4. Your Dark Knights will tank the enemies, replenish Wrath and also some magic and even heal themselves when they need it. Just use his ultimate ability to kill the strong enemies and spend the magic you easily get the Dark Knights on killing the weaker enemies. You MUST give your Head Hunter a Mechanical Eye, he's literally useless without it, don't even bother improving accuracy.
Don't use him until you get the Never Miss from Mechanical Eye. Your Head Hunter will get hurt during the fight so taking Battle Eternal is great, since your enemies should be 1 or 2 numbers down by the time you need it. You'll probably need another Head Hunter so you can cycle their health bars with the Mortuary. This is a risky playstyle for him but it's the best way for me.
If you want a similar team comp but less risky just get a Bride of Iratus on 4th row instead and make sure you give her Vampire Fangs and the Artifact that let's her bypass block as well as the ability upgrade to interrupt stances through ward. The only way this team really fails is if they have some insane backline pressure, but I had great success with it on the Catacombs and the Cathedral, both the squads I should add

[Ghostlight]

Dark Knights drop like flies on GAW/EH.

[voronin_mike]

In beta, I also thought him completely useless. However, currently he is quite workable. His main problem is low accuracy, but you can easily raise it enough that he generally hits - except merc barracks. There - just don't bother with him. Otherwise, he can remove armor/resist, shuffle enemies, hit several at once without spending Rage, can autokill, etc. Actually, I currently use one with minimum autokill - and his utility skills still are very useful. As for survivability he can get good enough armor that he is more survivable than the Knight. Maybe Vampire Fangs, too, if you also build him as utility provider...

[Ghostlight]

I haven't played a HH in ages because yes he used to die too much, so we will test this buff. I'm thinking of trying:

Lich HH HH Golem

Lich will simply buff the HH's, but can throw magic damage now and again
HHs: For all that meaty damage
Golem: Damage soak and drop wards on most wounded back unit

[ewpayne]

Your lich in this setup can do poison cloud and your HH can use the hook to pull/stun combo into the death cloud.

[Ghostlight]

Lich can't cast Cloud from position 4, and anyways it would do Stress damage. I do not see the point of doing that in this team.

[ewpayne]

If you go

HH / HH / Lich / BG

HH does aoe throw with chance to autokill all, moves forward.
HH2 does the same.
Lich clouds.

If someone dies in position you clouded, the next person to take their place gets hit by it.

Just an option to add more autokill chances.

[Ghostlight]

If you want to be doing Stress damage and pull and push enemies out of Lich clouds there are far better ways to do it than with a HH. :)

[Vejita]

I found that headhunter with a mechanical eye and a lot of wrath generation was very good. I often started him with the human foot, allowing two actions from the start which sometimes equated to two dead enemies immediately with his ultimate.

Oddly enough, he spent most of his time in my stress party(eventually replacing my skeleton). Wraith, Shade, Banshee, Head Hunter. He was useful for killing things my stressers would have difficulty with, and could apply stress as well himself in a pinch. I rocked the whole final floor with that party without once breaking a sweat, including the Magister.

He is definitely squishy though. I had an extremely high evasion comp going to keep him alive.

[funkmonster7]

Better than Lich Cloud: Shade Cloud.

My ninja team: Bride/Shade - HH - HH - Bone Golem. Shade for dealing with bosses and elites. Bride for general purpose and overwatch. You can even spec HH drag skill with the 100% damage and stun, but random targets. When half of those enemies get stunned, they're free pot shots. And the best part is the Bone Golem takes part too, just sadly no stun nor ignore block.

Shade even has an accuracy debuff that moves targets. A single target can get chain-dragged into the cloud, pushed out of the cloud (because of a second target entering it from the second HH), then re-enter the cloud because of Bone Golem. It's pretty much dead by that point.

I can only imagine the strategy to be even more cheese when I get Black Widow which has a built-in redirect attacks to itself.

[monkeyshine]

like settra said, mechanical eye is so good on HH. if you get unlucky, you can still use the mechanical aim (12 accuracy) ire passive plus the magic skill whip (25 accuracy).