Witherbeasts are too influential

Mostly solo NM2 player and I'm finding that witherbeasts are far too gamebreaking, relative to every other creep.  Not only  are they pretty hard to kill before burrowing, but once they burrow you really only have 3-5 seconds before your barricades go down.  Why is it that my defenses ONLY fall to witherbeasts and nothing else? 

What is everyone doing to handle these guys?

place a trap where they like to burrow and focus your DPS on them

That's why you should prioritize it and kill it before it burrows itself

They're a nuisance for sure, but even after burrowing, I've never seen barricades fall nearly as quickly as you state. I've had 2-3 witherbeasts burrowed at the same time and still haven't seen that.

To answer your question, I usually just put a trap or two in the spot they burrow for extra damage. A dps hero also helps a lot. Otherwise frost tower freeze + shatter them is an option too.

Monk, Squire smash insta kill. Cannonball tower. Or just damage them?

I find mages that are hard to get to way worse if its like 3 at a single place.

When you stand right next to them and you know your barricade is getting pounded by dps, and they lose their healthbar so you cant judge if they are about to die or you should run back and repair. That is the most annoying part of them imo.

I think they should be more distinctive on the map so you can target them more effectively given how important it is to kill them, especially when solo. Perhaps make their dot on the minimap pink instead of white or something. 

they should make monk and squire groundslam abilities unearth them

And any CC that makes mobs levitate/displacement. (pet abilities included)

Yes we should make the only mob that makes the game a challenge much easier. Good call

IMO they aren't gamebreaking at all, they create a challenge that needs to be dealt with. They are nothing in comparison to when sharken were first introduced in dd1. As others have stated try and learn their burrow locations and place traps there, if you're still having trouble use a squire or a monk to shatter them once they freeze. 

I'm almost ready to start NM3 (strictly solo player, too). I think it depends on your build and the lane. I run tower squire, wall squire, monk, and huntress (no DPS). I don't care much about them, except when summoners are with them. Even then, my walls have enough health it isn't certain death. I've been alt-tabbing depending on wave make up/bosses.

I usually smash (pole or shield) or oil/fire them. I also keep an eye on tower/wall health.

Yes, they are dangerous if kept alive; however, if you are having problems DPSing them in time, consider using the barricade trick to force them to burry far away from main walls.  I rarely see anyone do it, but when all your classes are builders, it will save your life.  Unfortunately, you need to be either apprentice or squire for this to work.  Otherwise, just shatter them after they are frozen which may be easier to do, though doesn't always work.

Like many said, learn where mobs like witherbeasts and healer are staying, place your defense so they get target easily and first. And target these 2 with highest priority. Then it should be relativ easy to deal with. They are kinda the only challenge left, so i can understand why people want them to be nerfed. Like every challenge in this game. People don't want to play, just to afk farm. Devs should respond for sure, kappa.

Please keep them the way they are. I want NM enemies to feel like an actual Nightmare.

@MicD0ck quote:

IMO they aren't gamebreaking at all, they create a challenge that needs to be dealt with. They are nothing in comparison to when sharken were first introduced in dd1. As others have stated try and learn their burrow locations and place traps there, if you're still having trouble use a squire or a monk to shatter them once they freeze. 

Yes, nerf withers and add in sharken. Muhahaahhaa

I don't know if they just had a bug, but at one point they used to be a huge problem because everything is going find, a few witherbeasts come and go and your walls are like at 80% hp and suddenly a new witherbeast burrows and your walls die in about 5 seconds.  Perhaps they've fixed it as this hasn't happened to me in a long time, but it used to be a serious freaking issue.

I've noticed that sometimes they are easy to kill and sometimes they literally take 1/4 damage.  I'm not sure what is going on but there is a serious inconsistency.  I think that's what is making it frustrating. 

@Injuis quote:

I've noticed that sometimes they are easy to kill and sometimes they literally take 1/4 damage.  I'm not sure what is going on but there is a serious inconsistency.  I think that's what is making it frustrating.  

I just want to throw this out there to make sure but you know about lane resistances right? Just asking cause it would reduce the damage your doing by 3/4.

Personally I like witherbeasts as they are the only regular enemy that I truly have to keep a eye on to make sure they die 

Could you elaborate on the lane resistances?  I was lucky enough that the beast was the only unit left but both my DPS hero and towers were doing roughly 1/10 of their unmitigated damage.  1/10!!!!

That definitely corresponds with the seemingly invincible witherbeasts i've encountered.

@Injuis quote:

Could you elaborate on the lane resistances?  I was lucky enough that the beast was the only unit left but both my DPS hero and towers were doing roughly 1/10 of their unmitigated damage.  1/10!!!!

That definitely corresponds with the seemingly invincible witherbeasts i've encountered.

If you look at the descriptions of the lanes during the build phase you'll see the lane resistance at the bottom. Also, during the build phase a brown line showing the pathing indicates physical resistance, purple means magic resistance and white means no resistance. In higher difficulties the resistance goes up to 75% (IE: magic resist takes 75% less damage from magic attacks).

The resistances of the lanes are random and not always exactly the same every time you play a map. Paying attention to which lanes have which resistance is a critical part of deciding what to build. 

Squire towers are all physical damage. The huntresses explosive trap is physical but becomes magic with the uber for it (baloon, geyser and poison dart are all magic). Everything an apprentice does is magic damage. Squire, Monk and Huntress hero damage left click is all physical (though you can get a weapon with elemental damage which is magic). Monk right click ranged attack is magic. 

I wouldnt mind witherbeasts being slightly nurfed for solo play, especially in NM4. Right now solo play needs 4 builders and cant really afford to use a dps hero without dropping an important piece of defenses. This means you can dps the witherbeasts, and you cant out repair the witherbeasts, meaning that unless your frost tower can freeze them without randomly switching targets for who know what reason so you can shatter them, you end up slightly screwed. Atleast if your in a group you can all just double or triple repair a wall and it will never drop even if their are like 3 witherbeasts.

Or instead of nurfing witherbeasts let me use all my heros for solo play and ill be happy with that as well, but trendy seem to not like that idea at all.

freeze them with a freeze tower and smash them?

@Angelatic-Birdy quote:

freeze them with a freeze tower and smash them?

that works like 60% of the time, but if the witherbeast starts to burrow while the frost tower is channeling on it, it resets the channel, and this also causes the frost tower to switch targets a lot of the time. Othertimes since the frost tower is slowing the witherbeast other mobs sometimes pass the witherbeast and then the frost tower changes targets before freezing it.

@Spencer1K quote:

@Angelatic-Birdy quote:

freeze them with a freeze tower and smash them?

that works like 60% of the time, but if the witherbeast starts to burrow while the frost tower is channeling on it, it resets the channel, and this also causes the frost tower to switch targets a lot of the time. Othertimes since the frost tower is slowing the witherbeast other mobs sometimes pass the witherbeast and then the frost tower changes targets before freezing it.

Haha, 60%?  More like 20% of the time.