NERF BARNICLE MEG!!

I don't think it needs to be nerfed its challenging for sure . When I faced that meg i had my crew mate constantly repping and bucketing. I think the amount work and supplies it takes to take one down is not balanced with the loot given. I found this meg easier to take down then the fire meg.

I have never sunk to AI before

First time for every thing.
Frankly. We need more dangerous npc. Everything has been nerfed until it just a skip rock and it’s dead. Tweak it but don’t nerf it until nobody wants to do it.

Hey so I get the frustration with the new megs, especially when experiencing them for the first time but having done several barnacled dread’s at this point, I would say they are a lot easier to take down then Red Maw if you do a couple of things

Here is some advice to help with future fights:

Equip Knives:

• The throwing knives do a LOT of damage and are incredibly helpful at killing the ocean crawlers, damaging the meg, and stopping the charge. On a duo sloop you only have one cannon and need to shoot the dread three times (with a regular cannon ball) to damage it enough to stop its charge. Having your duo throw knives at it while you shoot it is VERY effective and gives a lot of leeway if you miss a shot or two. If you never get bit, your duo can keep throwing knives and you will kill it much faster then just with one cannon.

Use Scattershot:

• When the meg is charging, scattershot is your FRIEND. One scattershot at point blank range is enough to stop its bite on a duo sloop (although you should try to also hit it with a couple of knives thrown at it or a cannon ball). While reloading your cannon, you can change ammo type mid reload. Start loading, pull out the cannon shot radial and select scattershot instead of a cannon ball. Scattershot really is your BEST friend when it comes to preventing your boat from being damaged.

Stay Stationary and don’t rotate.

• I’ve seen people advise rotating with the meg to keep an angle on it constantly but honestly I think that is bad advice. Timing the rotation can be difficult and if the meg is trying to bite you rotating can cause you to lose angle on the meg at the worst moment. If you stay stationary, the meg will almost always bite the side of the ship and you should always have an angle on it to stop it from charging. When the meg is at the front or the back of your ship, just throw knives at it until it moves back around into cannon range.

Pay Attention to Timing

• When the dread bites you, it isn’t immediately going to bite you again. From what I have seen (although it’s hard to nail down exactly and this might depend on the individual meg), you have a brief grace period of at least until the meg comes back around to where it first bit you. So if the meg bites your ship on the left, it will swim under your ship (and appear on the right side) and make its way back over to the left side of your ship (the meg circles your ship). Once it is by the left side of your ship again, you should be expecting another attack to come relatively soon. At this point I would recommend having someone on cannons (even if there are still holes) so you can stop the next charge. If you get hit, stopping the charges are super important so you don’t end up in a damage/repair cycle.

All of this advice also applies to larger ship types. I usually do it on a three person brig and we take dreads down VERY quickly (for the record, the damage threshold is increased on larger crews, it’s about 3 cannon balls for a duo sloop, 6 for a three person brig, and I would guess like 9 for a four person galleon).

TL;DR Use throwing knives on the meg in addition to using cannons, stock up on scattershot to stop charges, keep your ship totally stationary, and be prepared for more bites when your “grace period” after a bite is roughly over .

It could be and probably is bugged. I have done a few kills on the Barnacle meg which were super easy, but took a lot of cannons. Then I had one that was like you described, and it kept ramming our sloop over and over with like zero time to fix anything, which caused us to sink. SO, after having that happen after I had already done a few, I would say it gets bugged sometimes and attacks inconsistent with how it should.. It also sometimes hits the boat and sends it flying into the air, flipping upside down as well.

@capn-sot Weird I've killed that one and the redmaw both solo and with my duo mate multiple times each without even taking a bite. Maybe I/we should've been in the comp/NAL scene 😂🤣

Nah they need to buff it

I am thoroughly enjoying the challenge. I haven't had so much fun with an encounter in a long time.

I really believe they should leave it as tough as it is and trust that players will learn to adapt.

Only thing that needs fixing, in my opinion, is when it turns into Kerbal Space Program, as funny as that can be it's clearly a bit broken.

@drewdigon said in NERF BARNICLE MEG!!:

All of this advice also applies to larger ship types. I usually do it on a three person brig and we take dreads down VERY quickly (for the record, the damage threshold is increased on larger crews, it’s about 3 cannon balls for a duo sloop, 6 for a three person brig, and I would guess like 9 for a four person galleon).

It's 2, 4, & 8 actually. 2 cannonballs per cannon essentially. 1 cannonball exactly though if you're a solo on a Sloop. These numbers applied to all normal Megalodons & the two Ancient Megalodons. However, as a side note, if you hit an armored part of the Barn. Dread, it will do reduced damage by a rather decent amount so you will get your ship bitten a few times until you get some of the armor broken off but once you do, you'll be fine. Oh, and you have to deal the damage >BEFORE< the final animation of the charge. Once the Megalodon commits to a bite animation, no amount of damage will cancel it. This is why it may seems like you need to do 3 hits on a Sloop sometimes because you got the 2nd hit in too late.

@drewdigon said in NERF BARNICLE MEG!!:

One scattershot at point blank range is enough to stop its bite on a duo sloop

Becuz each "bullet" of a Scattershot deals 50% of a normal cannonball's damage, and it has four bullets, thus totaling the damage of two normal cannonballs. Also, scattershot is very unnecessary in all honesty against Megalodons. Normal cannonballs are just fine.

@drewdigon said in NERF BARNICLE MEG!!:

The throwing knives do a LOT of damage

They deal 60 damage per throw and have an insane DPS but very short range. Most of the time, the Megalodon will not be within range for poking so you're better off with a Sniper or Pistol (70/55 damage respectively). Against both Ancient Megalodons, it's honestly recommended to have a Sniper for in my opinion. Damage from guns can actually break Dread's armor and if you can break that armor while he is out of cannon range with a Sniper, perfect! Redmaw basically requires constant damage from a Sniper when he isn't in cannon range since he is a DPS check. You must always be damaging him or you will be punished.

@burnbacon said in NERF BARNICLE MEG!!:

Frankly. We need more dangerous npc. Everything has been nerfed until it just a skip rock and it’s dead. Tweak it but don’t nerf it until nobody wants to do it.

Totally agree. These new Megalodons are still pretty easy to manage though and kill (I think I was also only ever in danger against Redmaw and that was because of a Skevin ship spawning on me in mid-fight which ruined the DPS check you have to do for Redmaw)... BUT they are harder than basically any other PvE encounter in the game right now.

Use the tridents of the dark tides. Stop screwing up the game!

@capn-sot think it just takes some practice, I hear poison darts are good weapon for them and sometimes need to prioritise cancelling next charge instead of fully repairing between attacks.

I killed it on open crew sloop

@sweetsandman The Meg is launching my ship to space. We literally sunk in the Air. No need to be a rude about it. SOT even said they are getting lots of reports about these issues. You seem like a running reaper.

@capn-sot said in NERF BARNICLE MEG!!:

@sweetsandman The Meg is launching my ship to space. We literally sunk in the Air. No need to be a rude about it. SOT even said they are getting lots of reports about these issues. You seem like a running reaper.

Fixing a bug is different than nerfing them.

In a bug free encounter, these new megs absolutely DO NOT need nerfed.

I have not encountered this issue before. Every time I've fought a barnacled meg, it was an appropriate amount of challenging (although I will say they massively need to buff the amount of hunter's call loot when you defeat it. It's kind of not worth it right now aside from commendations if you're gonna go for that wild seas curse). Every time you fight it as a solo, you only need to hit it twice with a cannon before it starts the actual bite animation in order to stop it from biting.

However, just because I haven't encountered it personally does NOT mean that it's not an issue that exists for some people. I think a lot of people here could benefit from the idea that even though something's supposed to be hard, a bug that makes it nearly impossible should not be overlooked. Especially if it's causing trouble to someone who did NAL.

Just keep it in mind that everyone has had different experiences.