The lantern-nester

The lantern-nester
Scenery 25 of 31 · Grevnfast, the Skara-mouth outer headland. Alone · Nightmare · Hunter.

This was the closest of the Hunter's test fights: in every play style the hero dropped below half health at least once, and the lowest was 33%. On Nightmare the nester ignores your roots, slows and weakens. Spend them on its flock and people, and kill the nester with damage.

What you hold

You hold 13 spells: your two starting spells plus one draft from each of the eleven earlier bosses (ordinary sceneries give none). Taking an upgrade would rank a spell up instead of adding one; no tested draft order did. You have 24 talent points.

• The Open Shot: tap physical Bolt; one arrow whose damage is set by how far it travelled before it hit.
• Loosed: held physical Beam that looses separate shots; you cannot move while holding it.

A draft deals four cards: the first is always your own spell (one your talent tree pays for), from the third draft one is an upgrade, the rest random. The rule: At each boss draft take, in this order: a new damage, control or summon spell; if none is offered, an upgrade of a damage, control or summon spell you hold; if neither, any new spell. Between two equal cards, take the Hunter's own.

The build we used: alongside, caltrops and snare were the own first card, and open wound an own spell dealt as another card. Footwork pays for only those four Hunter spells, so once they were held the first card was always an upgrade. Every later pick was a random card: umbralmire, rust, judgementfall, sunwell, relay, cinderburst and wayshrine.

If you are dealt something else: all ten builds held the same four Hunter spells. The other seven picks spread over 54 different spells, and every draft order cleared.

Talents

Your choice; this is what was tested: all 24 points in Footwork (Hunter talents), in order. Rule: buy in the deepest row the tree has opened, new talents before second ranks. Rows open at 5, 10 and 15 points, the ultimate at 20.

1. The Light Hand ×2: Light spells (the 3-charge ones) deal 3% more damage per point.
2. The Bow Itself ×2: Bolt spells deal 3% more damage per point.
3. A Larger Clock Again ×1: +2% maximum health per point.
4. Between Two Shots ×2: Medium spells (the 2-charge ones) recharge 3% faster per point.
5. Footing ×2: Statuses from enemy attacks and ground effects wear off 2% sooner per point.
6. The Shot After the Blink ×1: Deal 4% more damage per point with your first shot within 1 s of a blink.
7. Loosed in the Air ×2: Shots loosed while jumping deal 4% more damage per point.
8. Never Twice From the Same Place ×2: Deal 4% more damage per point with shots loosed at least 1.5 m from where your last shot left.
9. Set Down Drawn ×1: Landing from a jump or blink has a 5% chance per point to make your next shot count as crossing the whole room (other Bolts get 10% of that per point).
10. The Arc ×3: Your jump carries you 8% further per point.
11. Short Ground ×3: A shot within 1 s of a blink cuts the blink cooldown by 6% per point (once per blink).
12. Time on His Feet ×2: Each blink, and each jump (once per second), takes 0.25 s per point off the recharge of the spell you cast last.
13. The Running Shot ×1: A shot landing within 1.5 s of a blink starts 5 s in which every blink, jump or 3 m walked looses an arrow (25 s cooldown).

The fight

1. Alone you face the nester, three stair-vultures, the muster-serjeant and two hold-levy. Snare, caltrops, umbralmire and rust work on them.
2. The cast (answer: walk out) leaves damage over time. The fetch (answer: walk out) can also be stopped: be inside the 2 m ring hard against the beacon drum's foot when it lands.
3. Flight drop: jump (Space / North). Lane downdraught and Stage shed: strafe.
4. Below 50% health, Lane downdraught and Stage shed leave the moveset. Flight strike (answer: blink, Shift / East; no run ever had to answer it) and Mantling (answer: kite; it hits whatever stands next to the nester) join it.
5. Shoot The Open Shot from far away. Hold cast (left mouse / South) on Loosed between tells; a blink or jump ends the channel. Cycle spells with Q/E / L1/R1.
6. Kill everything in the yard and the room clears.

What goes wrong

• Health, in every style: the lowest was 41% up close, 45% at loose distance and 33% at a wide berth. The worst draft order (12½ minutes on average) reached 33%.
• The walk-out attacks: the cast and the fetch landed 1725 times across 60 runs for 180 health in total. Jump and strafe tells landed 52 times and cost no health.
• Nightmare has no pause. Alone, going down is Defeated: nobody can revive you. Retry the room.

Tested

60 automated fights on the shipped rules: ten random draft orders, each in three styles (up close, loose distance, wide berth) at two skill levels. All 60 cleared with no downs. Fastest 4 min 21 s, slowest 15 min 5 s, lowest health 33%. The build above bottomed out at about 45%. These were automated test runs, not human play.

Screenshots

One complete fight in the current build, played by an automated test player with the game's normal controls: the Hunter alone on Nightmare, holding the build used above. The fight took 6 min 34 s of game time.