Caretaker is WAAAAAAAAY unbalanced

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I know its not a bug. Just a poorly designed part of the game. I understand people wanting a bit more of a challenge but this doesn't give any but the most hardcore players any chance whatsoever.
With all due respect, Caretaker is one of the easiest bosses in HOS once you work him out. Like any well designed boss, understand the attack patterns and you will beat him. I beat him on Deathmarch first go, wish there were more like him in the game.
 
Please don't nerf difficulty on the higher settings. The base game is already too easy. If people complain about difficulty, then you make medium and easy settings easier, but keep the challenge in death march and up - so basically what you guys did for TW2.

As I mentioned before, the higher difficulty levels will still remain tough and really challenging.
 
Oddly I tried it lower difficultly and it didn't seem to make much difference. I have worked out its patterns but I feel having it a) restore it's own health if it hits you b) restoring it's health from the 50 souls it summons and each soul providing too much health for it c)disorientation effect when it uses it's main attack d) controls unresponsively when trying to get out of the attack zone e) camera being awkward in small environments f) immune to pretty much everything - and I could go on but won't. I hope they fix this in the patch like they promised.

Oh and I am all for keeping the diffuculty up for higher levels but for those who don't want to spend an entire evening fighting one boss adjusting the lower levels to make it a little less unfair would be appreciated. Remember though this is Witcher not Dark Souls.
 
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I really really hope that with "balancing changes" you don´t mean that they will get easier?! This would ruin the experience. Me and (as much as I have read on social media) most players find that these bosses were actual really good! If I should say one thing that the expansion made better than the main game, it was for 100% the balancing of the bosses! They are strong and challenging, if a few people find that they are too hard, they shouldn´t maybe play on Death March :D If there is one single boss that is maybe sometimes a bit "bugged" (I wouldn´t say "too strong" or "op) it´s the caretaker, because sometimes he gets into a loop where he stuns you and heals up to full life, by killing a few ghosts. However most people beat him after a few tries. Finneas fist fight was way harder in comparision to that fight :D
Instead of that you could maybe make Eredin harder, because most people beat him after first try, even on Death march :)


If someone was too lazy what I wrote, this guy sums it up pretty well:

I think Caretaker got nerfed. I fought him after 1.11 patch,and he really wasn't that difficult. I beat him on my first try and he didn't drop my health below half. It was still a good fight. The fight was simple for me though, use Quen, roll around, get an opening, use Thunderbolt, attack and use the occasional Igni.

I kind of wish I fought him before, would have been interesting.
 
... camera being awkward in small environments...

I solved this by luring him to the paved area behind the house: as he attacks just dodge backwards towards a corner, and when you're nearing the end of the area roll behind him, rinse, repeat; there's less shrubbery and crap to get in the way of the camera, he seems to summon souls less often, and he's more than happy to fight in a straight line which makes evasion really simple.
 
I had a very hard time with the Caretaker with my current Alchemy build. I managed him on the first try because my Geralt is nearly indestructible just like the Caretaker. But my problem was that I am dealing very little damage per strike. If he would have summoned the ghosts over and over again it would have been impossible to beat him. Luckily he only did this twice IIRC so after that I wore him down in a long an tedious battle.
By comparison the other battle mentioned here (which is supposed to be more difficult) was a piece of cake for my Alchemy Geralt. Of course I took a lot of damage but nothing my potions and decoctions could not handle. :)
 
Oh and I am all for keeping the diffuculty up for higher levels but for those who don't want to spend an entire evening fighting one boss adjusting the lower levels to make it a little less unfair would be appreciated. Remember though this is Witcher not Dark Souls.

It would seem that exactly this happened with patch 1.11.

Since buyers of the DLC obviously like the game and have probably done at least one playthrough, I think it is fair that a DLC is a bit harder and makes you look a little bit closer at the game mechanics, and whether you need to improve your Geralt in order to prevail. That is, try different builds, improve your mutagens, collect more skill points from places of power, get better equipment, use potions, oils, bombs etc. even if you did not need that or neglected it anyway for your first playthrough.

As for the caretaker, besides noting the patterns of his attacks, here is one tip: He cannot charge through obstacles and neither goes around them, so you can for example fight around the well and evade his charge by dodging, if you get the well in a straight line in between him and you. In that case he will charge into the well and get stuck.
 
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As for the caretaker, beside noting the patterns of his attacks, here is one tip: He cannot charge through obstacles and neither goes around them, so you can for example fight around the well and evade his charge by dodging, if you get the well in a straight line in between him and you. In that case he will charge into the well and get stuck.

This is exactly how i fought him on death march, i observed his fighting patterns and used it against him, most of the fight was done around the well.
 
Replayed HoS on DM NG+ 1.11, and I found the Caretaker to be the easiest boss among the main three, the most predictable. Found him harder back in DM NG 1.10, not sure if 1.11 nerfed him. Anyways, Caretaker basically only has 3 special moves:

1. Attack A - Charge, which he'll do when you're quite a distance away from him
2. Attack B - Energy attack (similar to Eredin), where he hits his sword to the ground and causes an explosion
3. Heal - where he summons a few ghosts and kills them for health

Both his special attacks will be followed by a brief moment where he's exhausted giving you the chance to attack. In my first playthrough, I defeated him by dodging (simple dodge, not roll) his charge attacks, but this only allows 2-3 hits before he's back and running. Found it harder to defeat him in DM NG+ with the same strategy, but I realised if you cast an attacking sign(igni) near to him, this will automatically activate his Eredin attack. He seems to get way more exhausted after the Eredin attack and gives you the chance to hit him 6-8 times before he's back and running. So when he's about to slam his sword to the ground roll behind him and swirl him to death. His healing move is just a matter of playing catch. Used a combat/alchemy build. Seriously I still find Toad to the most unbalanced boss in HoS, tho I've seen people with pure sign builds igni him to death in a matter of seconds
 
I don't know... I think that The Caretaker is unbalanced, but... My experience: I always played at "Death March" and, for me, it was REALLY difficult. He didn't killed me at all but he charged his life really bad, but as a "serie Souls player", I liked it. After you learn his patterns, is easy but you need a nice sword and quen. A lot.

I don't know how he behaves on lower difficulties, but at Death March (at least for me) he is difficult especially when he invokes his "minions".

Just... Don't let The Caretaker hit you.

The Olgierd ghost's is way more harder.
 
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No one has mentioned the Xbox1 achievement of having to activate all 5 ghost at the same time, then killing them :) I have yet to get that achievement and may have to resort to playing it on the easiest level.
 
Game+ mode made him really interesting but couldn't pull off a no death even with heavy prepping , 3 tries , roll , quen, counter and back strike, thunder bolt.
 
So it looks like he can only summon the spirits two times, so it’ll take a while but you can kill him by just dodging and attacking, even if he heals from the spirits. I’ll also add that Quen gives you a couple more hits while he’s stuck in the ground after an attack.
 
Okay, repeated necro. Always trying to... (Struggles momentarily as a corpse reaches above the earth to grab his ankle.) See? Look at this. Every couple of years. (Stomps on the hand.) Seems like it's a topic that...(Stomp.)...just...(Stomp.)...won't...(Stomp.)...stay...(Stomp.)...DOWN...(Stomp.)

There.

(Retrieves a broom and dustpan. Tidies up.)
 
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