I love everything about Wintertusk so far except for a side boss, Frostbranch, the hardest boss I have ever faced. I can't even beat him with a full party of Legendaries!
Frostbranch's cheats are completely unfair, and there are too many of them! He can put two 50% Smokescreens, he has the useless ability of giving you a Stun Shield when he has no Stun moves, and he can just randomly Efreet the entire party for 1119 damage, without warning!
Not only that, Frostbranch's cheats are TIMED and can activate DURING the battle sequence! That's the worst part about it.
He seriously needs to be changed. I'm normally not one to complain, but this is too much. At the very least, take away his ability to use Earthquake. This takes me and my entire party ALL the way back to square one after about seven agonizing turns of preparation to kill the Smokescreens get rid of his Tower Shields.
Each of the bosses that cheat has what you could call 'rules'.
I only faced him once so i am not too sure about this but i think you have to hit him with the smoke screen on. That shield he gives you is a badge of courage, because you took the chance to hit him through the smoke screen. Whoever has the badge of courage does not get hit with his cheats.
Like I said, I only faced him once so can't be too sure.
I beat him on my first try this morning with three other people. Sure we almost died, but in the end--after we beat him--we all laughed and said that cheaters never win. But those Efreets he casts ARE annoying!
OK, it is possible to beat Frostbranch, my level 60 fire wizard soloed him tonight. Thanks to this thread for helping me understand his cheating. Here's how I did it.
His cheating goes in cycles. A cycle begins when he throws the two smoke shields. It ends when he throws earthquake. It seemed to last about 4-5 rounds per cycle, I don't remember it ever going only for 3. If you throw any shield or blade, the cycle ends next segment. This is generally bad, you want the cycles to last as long as possible.
I'm not 100% sure what's going on with the efreet. The only time he threw it was right after I threw an area effect spell (Dragon). So it's probably a bad idea to throw area effect spells. Don't use a minion, he'll throw the wrong spell at the wrong time and mess everything up.
Healing worked normally.
As soon as a cycle starts with the smoke shields, hit him with an attack spell. Ideally a wand pop because it costs nothing and has a high cast chance. If the attack doesn't fizzle, he gives you a badge of courage. Any smoke shields on you disappear. The mark of courage looks like a stun shield, but it doesn't circle around you. The mark doesn't last forever-- it starts moving again after the next earthquake.
It's going to take special gear and a special deck to beat him. I wore all of my cold protection gear. My deck had the max number of efreets, a bunch of helephants, 2 sprites and a pixie, and one wyldfire. Sideboard had four fire cats. (Imps would have been better because less chance to fizzle.) Finally I wore an amulet which gave me a fire elf. Might have been a good idea to use fire elfs instead of the fire cats, but I didn't have any fire elf treasure cards. You want a high percent, low pip attack spell on the sideboard, because you MUST have it when it you need it.
I knew he would start with the smoke shields, so my first spell was a wand pop. It went right through and gave me the mark. Next I threw Wyldfire for the extra damage, to help make up for no blades. When I had 8 pips, I threw efreet at his minion for a one hit kill.
About this time the cycle restarted. I didn't have a wand pop up, so I ditched a helephant and threw fire cat off the sideboard. Sometimes it would fizzle and need to be repeated. When the smoke shields were gone, I accumulated pips and threw efreets. As necessary I used the sprites, usually when I had an odd normal (nonpower) pip.
Whenever he throws earthquake, you know the cycle will start again with 2 smoke shields in his next action. So immediately after he did earthquake, I threw a wand pop or fire cat, anticipating his smoke shields. That worked perfectly, he always threw the smoke shields after earthquake.
You will need to use some of your low level attack spells to take down his tower shields. Once he threw a shield just before I threw efreet, but the efreet went critical, which balanced the tower shield. He can critical, but he didn't seem to have a lot of critical block. I brought the fire elf along to help get rid of multiple tower shields, but the coward hid at the bottom of the deck :-) and I never got to use him.
It's still a tough fight, because he throws Wyvern, Cold Kraken and Coldzilla. With no shields, you will need your cold resist. The 90% weakness from the efreet was handy. He got me down to 300 health before my final efreet killed him.
I'm not a big fan of these cheating bosses who require decks and tactics you will never use again, but this guy at least is beatable.
I fought him again this morning with my Balance Wizard. Will admit i used a life henchman because it was still early and my pet was still asleep and not casting spritely.
He uses the efreet on anyone who does not have a badge of courage.
The battle was tough, but in the end, I did win.
On a side note: During the battle, after my life henchman died, I tried buying another, but could not because my crowns was not showing. This happened before, and I know it happens at wee hours of the morning (CST). Since I still won, the fact I was unable to buy the henchman saved me 60 crowns.
I think Frostbranch is a great boss fight for a solo wizard! He's not much fun with a group, though because a full round of Efreet will make anyone a bit worried. Every other round is just demoralizing.
I've fought and beaten him several times on my own. The trick is to kill the minion quickly, and then hit Frostbranch over and over again, with whatever damage you can muster. He will give multiple badges of courage instead of casting Efreet, if you just don't stop hitting him with damage spells. About halfway through, a thoughtful wizard will heal, shield, and assess the situation.
Frostbranch is a very mean tree, indeed.
It was a heck of a lot easier with my Pyromancer and my Theurgist. I have never been so glad to have Link heavily packed in my spell deck and a wand hit ready to hand.
:)Hmm you got a point, but you have to admit they made wintertusk same way as celstia and I do hate frostbranch I saved my group when I went in I kill 3 of them and the other one was kill by another person so I got badge of courage how I got I am not really sure
Each of the bosses that cheat has what you could call 'rules'.
I only faced him once so i am not too sure about this but i think you have to hit him with the smoke screen on. That shield he gives you is a badge of courage, because you took the chance to hit him through the smoke screen. Whoever has the badge of courage does not get hit with his cheats.
Like I said, I only faced him once so can't be too sure.
Hannah Lifebringer level 60 Life
No, Ki should not change these hard bosses! Come on, we need a challenging area with tough bosses for those of us who are experienced. KI cant just cater to players who want an easy game, we need some bosses to be a challenge for the experienced player. Maybe not a lot of them, to keep players like you happy, but there needs to be some that are very hard for those of us who like the challenge.
Each of the bosses that cheat has what you could call 'rules'.
I only faced him once so i am not too sure about this but i think you have to hit him with the smoke screen on. That shield he gives you is a badge of courage, because you took the chance to hit him through the smoke screen. Whoever has the badge of courage does not get hit with his cheats.
Like I said, I only faced him once so can't be too sure.
Hannah Lifebringer level 60 Life
No, Ki should not change these hard bosses! Come on, we need a challenging area with tough bosses for those of us who are experienced. KI cant just cater to players who want an easy game, we need some bosses to be a challenge for the experienced player. Maybe not a lot of them, to keep players like you happy, but there needs to be some that are very hard for those of us who like the challenge.
No one's asking for an easy game. I sure don't want an easy game. I just don't want an impossible one, and Frostbranch, from my experience, is pretty high up there.
Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll try and beat Frostbranch again laer and see how it goes.
Okay, many of you have posted quite a bit, so I know you know the game.
So, here is my advice! UnStoppable! it's an enchantment, I know you have heard of it, if you have been to Celestia!
Let's not try and make the game too easy, come on, it's a side quest. People need to stop and think of a way, rather than just whine about it asking for the easy way out.
Not trying to offend anyone, but too many things change to make things too easy. Let's keep some things a little challenging.
He isn't even that hard, use unstoppable, attack quickly, he dies! Why is that hard?
This boss killed me twice before I managed to beat him. I had help from 2 other players and it was a tough battle. The key I think is to earn the badge of courage so he does not use efreeti on you. Whenever you have a smoke screen on you use a single attack spell on him (even your wand if that is all you have); if you don't fizzle you will get a badge of courage. Then you will be able to attack without the efreeti 90% weakness on you. Like somebody else said avoid AOE or multi attack spells since these will not earn you a badge of courage, even if you beat the smokescreen when you use them. The earthquakes come about every 3 or 4 rounds but dont do much damage by themselves. Use Star spells and the school ring for you school to help boost damage.
I'm sorry I dont mean to be rude, but how could a whole team of legendaries, fail at Frostbranch.
Me a level 58 balance and my friends cole lifeflame and luke skywalker, were doing some side quests as we are not yet level 60, and we stumbled across frostbranch, I was actually kind of hoping for something interesting and we got just that, although we defeated him very soon.
Even without critcaling, and Cole didn't even need to rebirth, we killed him off so quick.
A handy tip we learned, if you have stun shield (mark of the warrior) you wont get hit with Efreet.
Ok, now what you are doing wrong is not using your wand on the first turn you enter the fight. That stun shield, that is what will make him not use efreet or smokescreen on you for the rest of the fight. On my first try, I tried soloing without experience of him, huge mistake. I died to an Earthquake. Also, if you have a feeling he will use efreet on you, PASS. the earthquake is helpful, since it takes off the -90% weakness. On my second try, I almost beat him, soloing once again. The third time, I realized the needed strategy, and i soloed him and winning with still 1,800 or something of that left in health out of my 3000. So just learn his strategies, and he is like cutting a birthday cake (unless you have difficulty with that which would be a little odd XD)
-Nicholas Rubyshard, Legendary Pyromancer P.S. what school are you?
I love everything about Wintertusk so far except for a side boss, Frostbranch, the hardest boss I have ever faced. I can't even beat him with a full party of Legendaries!
Frostbranch's cheats are completely unfair, and there are too many of them! He can put two 50% Smokescreens, he has the useless ability of giving you a Stun Shield when he has no Stun moves, and he can just randomly Efreet the entire party for 1119 damage, without warning!
Not only that, Frostbranch's cheats are TIMED and can activate DURING the battle sequence! That's the worst part about it.
He seriously needs to be changed. I'm normally not one to complain, but this is too much. At the very least, take away his ability to use Earthquake. This takes me and my entire party ALL the way back to square one after about seven agonizing turns of preparation to kill the Smokescreens get rid of his Tower Shields.
Do Single attacks only. Or it will do efreet or smoke screen.
Ian MythSatff-43 life Wolf Blood-16 balance Christoper DragonStirder-9 fire Logan MythBlood-10 myth Noah StormSword-8 death
Ok, now what you are doing wrong is not using your wand on the first turn you enter the fight. That stun shield, that is what will make him not use efreet or smokescreen on you for the rest of the fight.
Disagree with the "stun shield" is what will make him not use "smokescreen" the rest of the fight. Best as I can tell it does keep the Efreet away but I've always had a minion up so not sure if that's a requirement or if he actually won't use Efreet any more if you have the "mark of courage." In my experience with or without that mark he will still pop smokescreen on you every 5 or 6 rounds.
To those who always feel compelled to throw in the "I don't want the game easy" remarks whenever someone says this or that mob is too difficult, the vast majority of the time the people aren't saying they want a cake walk game. They just find a particular mob extremely difficult for their game play.
I don't want an easy game either and I find the "cheating" bosses a cop out by development. It doesn't take a lot of planning or skill the add a mob that's darned near impossible to beat. What takes the utmost in talent is developing challenging and very challenging mobs for every school.
With the many instances in W101 I don't think it would be too terribly difficult to have the mobs contained therein tailored to the school and numbers entering. That to me would be the challenge rather than just adding a load of crazy "cheats". /shrug
I know right. enen though i soloed him he cheats way too much. An efreet pops out. Then he says a true warrior and puts a stunshield. too muuuuuuuuuch :x
:)Hmm you got a point, but you have to admit they made wintertusk same way as celstia and I do hate frostbranch I saved my group when I went in I kill 3 of them and the other one was kill by another person so I got badge of courage how I got I am not really sure
and btw I am legend death despite that it says I am a novice wizard
Frost branch is easy all you have to do is go head forth and attack him you will get a mark of courage and the genie will not hit you hope this helps Joshua shade . legendary necromancer
I love everything about Wintertusk so far except for a side boss, Frostbranch, the hardest boss I have ever faced. I can't even beat him with a full party of Legendaries!
Frostbranch's cheats are completely unfair, and there are too many of them! He can put two 50% Smokescreens, he has the useless ability of giving you a Stun Shield when he has no Stun moves, and he can just randomly Efreet the entire party for 1119 damage, without warning!
Not only that, Frostbranch's cheats are TIMED and can activate DURING the battle sequence! That's the worst part about it.
He seriously needs to be changed. I'm normally not one to complain, but this is too much. At the very least, take away his ability to use Earthquake. This takes me and my entire party ALL the way back to square one after about seven agonizing turns of preparation to kill the Smokescreens get rid of his Tower Shields.
tip have fire shields to you get marked then your good the -90 he takes off you , if you can't attack before this no worries save pips for a big attack if your ice well change him to fire and stack +25 on him and blades on you attack and hes dead you have 4 or 5 rounds before he uses main attacks i solo him all the time plan your moves out and time them right you will be fine :-) hope you get it . cheers
First of all, who the heck is Frostbranch and where in Wintertusk is he? And second, This boss seems as hard as Sylster Glowstorm in the Waterworks.
Just try building up as much blades, traps, and auras (star spells) as you can, and use the strongest single-attack spell that you have in an all-out attack on him. Hopefully you are storm so you can use Supercharge. If all seven of your pips are power pips, use Supercharge, and you should get a stormblade that gives you +240% to next storm spell. Then, use the three types of feints if your party members have them. What I mean by this is the regular Feint spell, the amulet Feint spell, and a Feint treasure card will all come in handy, giving you around 230-240% to next spell. Also, use some other charms that will be sure to come in handy such as Balanceblade, Dragonblade, Hex, and Curse, along with some storm blades, and elemental blades. Now for the auras. Since you can't use two auras combined, Vengeance is the best spell for you. With this spell, it is possibly a definite chance you will perform a critical hit. Finally, for the icing on the cake, use the Gargantuan spell on a leviathan, to go with the supercharge, and it should end up doing about 267,526 damage, therfore, overkilling him. If you don't have Leviathan, then use Gargantuan on your strongest spell on him, doing around 190,000 damage.
Hope this helped!
Tyler Soulstaff Level 60 Myth Focus is the key to success.
Stacking blades and traps won't work on Frostbranch. You don't have time to do that. I died multiple times before I figured out his pattern and knew what to do.
He has a 5 turn cycle. Each time I played him, he went first.
Turn 1 - He interrupts with 2 smokescreens and casts his own spell. You will want to use a shield or blade here and hope it gets through. Turn 2 - A regular turn. You will want to use another shield or blade here. Turn 3 - Both of the smokescreens should be down now. Use a wand or some other damage spell on him to get the Mark of Courage. This will prevent the Efreet from attacking you. On subsequent rounds, you can choose to heal or use another blade. Turn 4 - Cast your main damage spell. Kill the minion first. Turn 5 - He interrupts with an Efreet if you do not have a Mark of Courage. He will also cast Earthquake here to wipe out everything. I usually cast a Shield here so it gets applied right after the Earthquake hits.
The cycle then repeats back at Turn 1.
After the first cycle, I generally use a heal on turn 3. I also cast my bubble spell on Turn 3 during one of the cycles to get a permanent boost. Any additional blades you get are gravy as you will cast them during Turns 1 & 2 with the smokescreens up.
Big thanks to Wombat21 for helping me understand Frostbranch and formulate a strategy for him. I have since defeated him, so this thread is no longer needed. You can lock it up if you want, KI.
I love everything about Wintertusk so far except for a side boss, Frostbranch, the hardest boss I have ever faced. I can't even beat him with a full party of Legendaries!
Frostbranch's cheats are completely unfair, and there are too many of them! He can put two 50% Smokescreens, he has the useless ability of giving you a Stun Shield when he has no Stun moves, and he can just randomly Efreet the entire party for 1119 damage, without warning!
Not only that, Frostbranch's cheats are TIMED and can activate DURING the battle sequence! That's the worst part about it.
He seriously needs to be changed. I'm normally not one to complain, but this is too much. At the very least, take away his ability to use Earthquake. This takes me and my entire party ALL the way back to square one after about seven agonizing turns of preparation to kill the Smokescreens get rid of his Tower Shields.
I understand what you mean i faced him with three crown wizards and he was incredibly hard, when i finished battling him i had 540 health left out of 3,540...
:x 