... I hate Thornrunner

Seriously, whose idea was this? It's as if this boss was specifically designed to be annoying.

Proximity shield/fast running AI? Puncture/Firestorm? Come the fuck on. He's not undoable (died twice on him on cruel through my own fault, didn't die to him on normal), but he just isn't fun to fight. I don't find running around the entire zone like a headless chicken trying to catch this slippery bastard fun and I don't think many other people do.

He can be killed, but it's simply not worth the effort because doing so isn't fun. He's far from the hardest boss out there, but his mechanics make fighting him really unpleasant.

This is just my opinion though - do I suck and miss some simple tactic that mitigates the annoyance or is there legitimacy to my complaint here?

Thankfully, he's optional - I don't have to play Hidden Patch ever again and likely won't, aside from doing it once later on on merciless (when I get to merciless) just for the sake of completion, should it ever spawn. I have beaten it on normal (no deaths), recently on cruel (two deaths, my fault for not TP'ing out soon enough) and have no desire to replay Hidden Patch on either normal or cruel.

TLDR: I've seen bosses that are technically harder, but they were nowhere near as annoying.

His rain of sorrow isn't terribly bad compared to the atziri guardians but the prox shield is a pain in the ass.

I guess you are, like me, not playing a FotM build (PA/SRS) ... or non-FotM like any trapper!?
Then indeed... this guy is annoying and a waste of time to kill. This guy is just missing tar and flickr strike to be "perfect" :D
I usually change direction as soon as I see his "rain" in maps...

I can see how traps might work and I even have Bear Trap, but I never figured out how to control it properly. Guess that's partly my fault. When I drop it in front of enemies, they almost never step there. When I drop it ON the enemies, they leave before it activates. I know there should be a way to use it but I haven't figured it out yet.

I have an ice golem, but that didn't help too much, either.

Yeah, not playing a FOTM build or a trapper, I'm Split Arrow/Puncture.

NEVER ever fight him as a ranged.

The point where you can murder him comfortably as a ranged, you might as well have done something else more productive.

For melee it's just staunching quicksilver with powerful hits.

Tormented Temptress says hi.

*Sees a Tormented Rogue next to Thornrunner*

"Nonononono, don't do that... you actually did it. Fuck me."

It became too stupid to get under the dome, so I had to switch out to a melee to deal with it while running a damn frag piece area.

Wait till you do wakakakky tikikikiki map(yes i don't know it's name exactly)

The unique strand, your in a for a treat.



Peace,

-Boem-

Whakawairua Tuahu I believe... The boss in that map periodically teleports on top of you though, so it's a lot easier to deal dmg to her than a snake permanently on run.