Sounds like you got unlucky with enemy spawns, did it lapse into night time? I have yet to take on yagluth in my fresh playthrough, all other bosses were much the same and didn't add an noticeable change except for possibly being slightly optimised and not as buggy

Perhaps the bow and arrow peach strat isn't the way the fight was designed? You can stand toe to toe and 1v1 every boss in the game. I don't have the best reflexes so if I miss a parry I run out and shoot a few shots while recovering health then jump back in. Also, I think it's incredibly immersive that the woodland monsters come out of the forest to heal their injured elder, same as you destroying their forest attracts them. The shamans' AI even changes to prioritize healing the boss over damaging you. Pretty great imo.

You are not prepared...

The one that stressed me out was Yagluth. Oh dear GOD! His regen was a almost more than I could handle (and he was a pain to take out before H&H). I died 8 times before defeating him (solo play).

Originally posted by TangoBlue:

The one that stressed me out was Yagluth. Oh dear GOD! His regen was a almost more than I could handle (and he was a pain to take out before H&H). I died 8 times before defeating him (solo play).

It's good to not have someone yell at me for "not being prepared" or "being bad at the game". I feel like there's genuinely something wrong with the boss fights. Even Eikthyr was really hard.

For me, the first 4 bosses felt about the same. "Course, I didn't get mobbed either.

Oddly enough, I felt that Bonemass was easier to take out after H&H than the last 3 times I did it. Might be just a perception problem...or experience and preparation made it seem that way...

Originally posted by TangoBlue:

For me, the first 4 bosses felt about the same. "Course, I didn't get mobbed either.

Oddly enough, I felt that Bonemass was easier to take out after H&H than the last 3 times I did it. Might be just a perception problem...or experience and preparation made it seem that way...

Bonemass was easy before too, in my opinion. Took a while to kill because of his health, but otherwise he was easy to beat if you had serpent stew, sausages, shield, mace, health potions and poison resistance. Iron armor too.

1. Start bossfights during the morning and clear the area beforehand (and destroy any spawners)
2. Make sure to be Rested, have 3 foodbuffs up and have health and stamina meads ready.
3. Always fight bosses in melee (except for Moder air phase) as it deals far more damage than the bow.
4. Adjust your weapon choice to the boss' weaknesses and resistances. (this mainly goes for Bonemass and Yagluth)

Remember that bosses/mobs get a huge buff of hp and damage when a party fights them

Originally posted by FTZ35:

1. Start bossfights during the morning and clear the area beforehand (and destroy any spawners)
2. Make sure to be Rested, have 3 foodbuffs up and have health and stamina meads ready.
3. Always fight bosses in melee (except for Moder air phase) as it deals far more damage than the bow.
4. Adjust your weapon choice to the boss' weaknesses and resistances. (this mainly goes for Bonemass and Yagluth)

All are checked. I don't think we were at fault. Hell, I'm the most experienced but my friend managed to deal most damage on him.

Yup, I agree with what everybody said. Taking out bosses is, if not "easy", very doable with preperation. I had originally screwed up with Yagluth (I went in overconfident and not taking in the health & stamina changes). This cost me 8 lives and my boy went from 60-70 skill levels down to 30-40. Had to run in, collect my tombstone, get back to base, change clothes then back to the fight. Again and again. In the meantime, he had healed up some. Very frustrating, I blame myself, not the game.

I think it would have been a lot better if mobs weren't spawning in waves and waves during the boss fight. Suddenly we were fighting greydwarves and shamans instead of just The Elder. It was literally unplayable (unironically).

Originally posted by hand_sanitizzzzer:

It's good to not have someone yell at me for "not being prepared" or "being bad at the game". I feel like there's genuinely something wrong with the boss fights. Even Eikthyr was really hard.

This is not me accusing you of being bad at the game. I'm just genuinely curious as to what measures up as being 'hard'. I can understand the 2nd and other bosses being more difficult, but I soloed the first boss with little to no difficulty, using 24 flint arrows and under 2 minutes to bring him down.

Someone during the H&H debacle accused me of lying about being able to defeat the first boss with little to no difficulty. So I recorded a short video of it. Skip to 2:23. That's where the boss fight starts.

https://youtu.be/a5F9K_Wz7FY?t=123

There are video's of people beating the bosses without armor using just their fists. The elder seemed like a boss the first time I fought him (not anymore), Yag is tough solo, the rest were pretty tame for 'bosses'. Trolls and stone golem feel tougher than most of the 'bosses' in Valheim. And I'm just an average player at best.

I cleared the Elder a couple days ago with the same strategy I used before.

Clear the area before summoning, use the best foods I had (carrot soup, minced meat, and deer stew), then just fire arrow him til he died. Use the indestructible stone monoliths around his summoning area to block his ranged attack, and kite him around his summoned roots. It seemed easier tbh, but that's probably because I had prior experience with the game.

Fight lasted maybe 5-10 minutes? Didn't keep track, but he died reasonably quickly. I might have lost 1/3 of my health bar at one point. Overall though, felt pretty good. I did delay it a day because the time I was prepped and ready, there was one of those vicious thunderstorms going on around the spawn. Easier to fight when it's not raining.

Have not fought Bonemass, but if the first two bosses are any indication, he'll be about the same difficulty as before. Just have to be prepared, max out your gear (for the available level of work station), and prepare the area beforehand if it looks bad. This helped enormously against Bonemass before, so I'll be doing the old leveling everything above the waterline again.