I am trying to figure out what was so different between fighting the same giant spider just a few weeks apart.
Fight 1. Lvl 18 fighter thrall, full Cimmerian heavy armor, Hardened Steel shield, and Predatory Blade. HP ~3900. Spider down, thrall at 50%. No sweat.
Fight 2. 2 weeks after first. Thrall at Lvl 19, 4000+ HP, same gear, and the thrall dies after his health falls like a rock.
I’m wailing away in both fights with the Mitra religion spear with damage kit in both fights. I can’t think of anything I did different between both fights. So again, has something changed with Boss Creatures lately with either damage output of increase of health?
Did you have an authority build in the first fight?
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Isnt the Predatory blade a waste on Thralls since heavy attacks do only 1 dmg? RnG on poison stacks maybe? RnG on spider heavy attacks maybe?
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Thralls should never be given The Predatory Blade or shields.
You did not mention what type of fighter thrall. Was it the same thrall in both fights or different thralls? If they were not the same thrall, this could easily be the answer with all other questions and variables thrown out the window.
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No matter how correct this is that @Tephra said above @tvolm, in your question if things changed, the answer is YES! Thralls should never be the heroes of each story and fight you do in this game, only YOU.
But people love strong thralls too and their role play is the great commander, not the great fighter. So devs gave us the flexibility to do both. The one who wishes to build great warrior now is stronger than any thrall this game has.
The one who wishes to build commander will build authority like @Kikigirl said and the Thrall will be really strong, almost like the go(o)d old days.
Then again, apart the fact that shields and predatory are no thrall weapons, not even the sword of Crom any more, T4 Darfari and volcano thralls were always more capable thralls against poisoning enemies and no matter things look different now, “this” didn’t change.
I keep reading here that relic hunters are the best and, personally, i laugh!
What really changed to way better and holds strong secrets is the named bearers, but this i’ll leave you to discover your self!
Have fun, be anything you wish, because now you can and it works 
.
Cheers!
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It’s usually the spider what kills my thralls. Thralls will gleefully rack up a full stack of poison.
The boss what could use a fix is the crocodile. Not because it’s overpowered, but because its model and attacks are wonky since early access.
The overpowered ones I consider Landslide and Vinebeast. All they do is spin around.
Landslide blocks building in a considerable part of the desert, because you don’t want a purge lead by Landslide.
[quote=“Firalex, post:6, topic:227256”]
Landslide and Vinebeast
[/quote]Do the boss monsters on the map have actual names? on console it doesnt show anything, i would like boss names on console please.
They do have actual names, but you will only see them in your death notice when they kill you.
Those bosses are actually called Rockslide and Rotbranch.
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Totally agree NesterT2. PC players also get to see the boss names if using a mod like Hosav’s Custom UI, it flies up on screen with the damage per hit info, and it adds so much to the immersion knowing the name of the boss you’re fighting. But on Official we can only see the names in the logs.
Names like End of All Hope for the spider with the Nemedian Helmet drop for instance. It’s such a waste to have those names hidden in logs etc. Funcom, please consider making boss names visible when you hover over them, or when standing over their mangled corpses 
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Wrong, that DID change since Survival was the attribute that protected these thralls against poison, an attribute which has been removed from them and the corresponding code disconnected so pre-3.0 thralls don’t benefit either…
Why do you laugh? 
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Because deep down we all know the player is the best fighter
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That is true, but the player isn’t really a thrall now is he? 
unless we’re all thralls of Funcom 
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Oh my sweet innocent child, of course we are. Just like our thralls cannot leave us, we too cannot leave.
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What substitute it?
Because years now @Jimbo says something correct!
There’s not a best in this game!
And from what i’ve experienced… Numbers means nothing. They should, but in some cases they don’t.
I don’t know why i cannot explain why, i see only results and only what i am experiencing so far. From times to times you will see people come here and say that they have a Janos, a Teimos, a Lian, a Berserker, a Spinas, etc… Real beasts, like no other, but their numbers are normal and their perks normal too! They dont see ghosts, they say the truth.
Again, i don’t know why this error happens, but occasionally it does and if it will happen to you, then you’ll understand .
Cheers m8 
Nothing… well… Grit now I guess giving them armor as their “protection” stat
I think you don’t quite understand what @Jimbo means by that when he says it… it has a very specific context to it…
And that’s pretty much it… that context matters… and you need to set some parameters by which you want to rank things for there to be a “best”…
So no… there is not “best” thrall universally… because I might be suggesting you an RHTS when in reality you want something to put in an armorer bench… or to dance and remove your corruption both of which for the RHTS is absolutely useless…
BUT… if you’re looking for the best fighter thrall template to start out with… who objectively has the best combat-balanced stats and has the best chance to turn out to be the better fighter, then that’s it…
I am going to point out something and I need you to try and understand it… I’m not trying to be mean
Your anecdotal experience means absolutely ZERO…
I know that you’ve been playing this game for a long time and know many cool tricks and tips That’s not what I’m talking about here.
A lot of things that you have experienced in the past though have either been changed by Funcom with or without your knowledge, and lot of other things were never like you thought in the first place since you judged them based on the momentary “feel” of it… and humans aren’t the most reliable instruments for objectively measuring things…
So when we have actual numbers and facts to back something up and I can go ahead and measure things completely objectively (like I did with your thralls when you said your purge archer outdamages a Dalinsia and has more health regen), without having to rely on my personal feelings… - in these types of questions that’s what matters… and not the anecdotal thing you might have experienced at some point in time that you yourself can’t even explain 
Well the last such case turned out to be Charles with his Teimos and while he certainly did not lack enthusiasm… I wouldn’t exactly call him a reliable source…
Despite all that though, I always make sure to mention that regardless of what numbers and data say… the goal is to have fun and enjoy the game. So you can use whatever thrall / weapon / build you feel like and you don’t have to explain that to anyone
What me and others are trying to do though is correct misinformation as much as possible, that’s all, we’re not saying don’t use this or that…
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Try a shield on your thrall. I know it’s not usually recommended in many cases, due to glitching and confusion of the thrall AI, but they do sustain less damage in the long run from the constant blocking. It takes longer to kill something usually, but they’re far more tanky. I only had a single thrall die to a spider in recent memory, but that was because I had to retreat back a bit after taking too much damage myself. My thrall was a bit weaker than my usual berserkers and I refused to give up when I probably should have (ran out of healing potions).
In an objective context, true.
In our subjective microcosmos, the anecdotal experience means everything.
I know the numbers inside out (largely thanks to your updated list), but those numbers don’t mean squat if, in my game, the best-statted thrall always underperforms when their AI breaks due to too many knocks on the head with a truncheon.
So maybe my favorite thrall does less damage per swing than the best-by-the-numbers thrall, but the best-by-the-numbers wastes the whole fight watching the paint dry on the nearest wall, or lying flat on his back because the opponent keeps swinging more aggressively. At the same time, the humble Deirdre Deathbringer keeps up the aggression, constantly staggers her opponent, and ends up being more useful in practice than she ever should be in theory.
Objectively speaking, Deirdre Deathbringer is a worse thrall than a Cimmerian Berserker, so I’d never tell anyone to get a Deirdre rather than a Berserker - but in my game, it may be true that Deirdre is the more useful of the two. (More objectively, if I spent hundreds of hours testing and analyzing these thralls in identical circumstances in my Single-Player, the Berserker would likely come out on top anyway - but out of the hours I spend with each thrall, whatever random code affects the thralls’ AI, some of them seem to be more active than others.)
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Nope… also… you’re not helping…
Yet again… more anecdotal nonsense… Thrall AI is not individual… or personalized in any way…
So yes… if the server is performing poorly then one of your thralls might be acting up… but assuming that said thrall will always be doing that and another won’t just because it happened like that once is just reading too much into it… (unless there’s a specific reason for it, like you giving a shield to the thrall and increasing the chance of a bug)
Now you’re describing the RNG of a fight… which has nothing to do with the stats of thralls… if you had 2 berserkers instead and one of them kept being knocked down in a similar manner… the other one would still do way more damage than your Deirdre… so this is just cherry picking…
Come on now… let’s not make this any worse than it already is
The bottom line is this… making a statement like “Numbers means nothing” about a piece of software that’s built from numbers… is “flat-earther BS” at the very best And I hate math as much as the next guy… so it’s not like I’m overly a fan of numbers 
As is the fact that you quoted and commented only on the points in my post that were quite obviously described as subjective experiences, and ignored my points made from a more objective point of view.
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Well ofc why would I quote and comment on the parts I agree with?
Plus I was running out of comment space!