This page offers some guidance on how to defeat Gladiator Talons, which are a Court of Owls enemy first introduced in Case 5.2: Inside Gotham’s Walls.
What are Gladiator Talons?¶
You’ve met the normal Talon enemies, now get ready for Gladiator Talons! They’re big, they’re tanky and they’re not that easy to defeat!
You will also need to fight two of these at once later in Case 5.2 so you’ll need to quickly get acquainted with their attack patterns and the most optimal way to defeat them!
The Gladiator Talon.
Gladiator Talon Attacks¶
Their main strength is definitely their tankiness. It can take ages to whittle down their health and on top of this they will also heal to almost full when they’ve been damaged to around a third of their health and there’s no way to interrupt or prevent this from happening. That being said, they also have some pretty nasty melee and ranged attacks that you’ll also need to be wary of.
Shield Defense¶
A lot of the time, the Gladiator Talon will be holding up his large shield, blocking any damage from incoming standard attacks. To break his shield, you’ll need to perform heavy attacks.
You’ll need to break their defense to do some damage!
Shield-Club Attack Combo¶
With this attack, he’ll first perform a shield swipe, then try to stab at you with his spikey club. He’ll follow that up with another shield swipe and then a big swing of his club again. He does this sequence of attacks all the time so you’ll quickly get the hang of how to dodge and swoop the different parts of this combo.
He’ll occasionally do a variant of this attack in which he begins with the club poke and then follows the pattern from there.
Look out for the red circle that indicates a strong attack!
Shield Slam¶
During this attack, the Gladiator Talon will jump up and slam down his shield into the ground. If you’re caught in this it will deal a lot of damage and also knock you to the ground for a few seconds. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to dodge so you shouldn’t get caught out too often - just make sure to dodge well away to avoid being caught in the area of effect.
Don’t get caught in the shield slam!
Shield Shooter Ranged Attack¶
If you spend a lot of time in ranged combat with this guy then you’re going to come across his ranged attack, in which he shoots little bullets out of his shield. He’ll more than likely shoot one or two in relatively quick succession so make sure you’re ready to dodge.
Dodge his ranged shield shooter attacks!
Regeneration¶
As mentioned, at around 1/3rd health the Gladiator Talon will pause and heal up almost the entirety of their health bar. You can’t prevent this but you can try to hit him as many times as you can whilst he’s in this state so as to negate some of the healing. He will only do this once in a fight.
Just when you thought they couldn’t get any tankier - they go and regen! What the heck!
How to Fight Gladiator Talons¶
Now that you’re acquainted with the Gladiator Talon’s attack patterns, you can start to slowly whittle away their health. The key is to use strong attacks to break their guard then beat them up until they come at you with their shield swipe attack. After that initial swipe, you’ll have to dodge the series of attacks that follow. But once they’re out of the way you can continue the sequence of breaking their guard with a heavy melee attack and smacking until they perform their attack pattern.
Once you know their attack patterns you can easily dodge and hit opportunistically.
Occasionally, if you need to break away from melee combat to heal or reposition, you will need to dodge the Gladiator Talon’s slam down attack or their shield shooter ranged attack. The slam down is easy to dodge as they jumps quite high and you’ll be able to anticipate where they land and roll away. Their ranged attack is slightly rarer but still quite easy to dodge as you’ll get a little red arrow on the floor to warn you it’s coming.
Fighting More Than One Gladiator Talon¶
If you’re fighting more than one at a time, you’ll definitely want to focus on one first. Once you’ve gotten both to regenerate their health, you can probably just fight them back and forth. If you’re low on health though and have no healing, it may be a good idea to defeat one of them completely as they’ll typically drop a heal. That being said, if you do choose to focus on one of them first, you’ll definitely want to keep a close eye on the whereabouts of the other. They’ll often either perform frequent slam attacks or try to jab at you with their club weapon. So make sure you’re primed and ready to dodge at a moment’s notice!
You thought one Gladiator Talon was bad… how about two?!
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