At the same time, I can't imagine an encounter is designed to require a certain class.

Some Misguided folks will claim that you need a Bladedancer to defeat Crota. This is folly. Warlock and Titan can bring him down just as well, so if you have someone who wants to use the sword, don't hesitate just because he's the wrong class, because there is no wrong class.

I feel like the original left side strategy, killing the boomers, is the way to go, but everyone is terrified of the scary wizard and I haven't even seen it myself since we've been trying these alternative strategies.

We just avoided spawning wizards in the first place by avoiding the Boomer fire.

So for the groups that have and will run Crota, what's worked and what hasn't worked?

For the PS4 crew, it was a matter of careful timing and tons and tons of frustration. We pretty much had to bring him down before Ogres spawned, because they just cause everything to go south quick...

Here are two perspectives:

Mine:

And Cyber's:

That strategy in the vid will only work if everyone communicates well so no one blows up each other with rockets coming out of the bubble.

I took a group of randoms and we beat it hard on the second try with ease and again within the hour (as a 31 too and couldn't regain health, lol) . The middle strategy is the best.

Yes taking down swordbearer may be a nuisance but just keep jumping up high and shooting rockets at him. It's best if you can stun him quick with a sniper as he comes out then everyone else can finish him.

Then have one guy designated to sniping boomers on the side the sword carrier runs at Crota. Someone who is good with the icebreaker is perfect for this but make sure he doesn't kill both boomers or else wizard spawns. When doing this, you can stun the boomers and the sword carrier can run at Crota with any class and not get hit. That was my role, ;).

When it is time for Ogres, have everyone run to one of the towers they spawn out of. Kill both quick (it's actually easy using this tactic) and the tricky part is when everyone runs out of the tower back to the Crystal Room, there will be Thrall and Cursed Thrall waiting on the top steps so everyone needs to do their best dodging them.

After that it's rinse and repeat and you'll take down Crota.

You basically need a good sniper on boomer duty, a good sword carrier, and rest of the guys with rocket launchers in the middle taking down Crota. Remember when it is the third time running out(right before you kill Crota), there may be some Thrall in the Crystal Room and they can hit you through the glass window so be aware.

If you have a few Titans on your team, one of them can actually go with the sword carrier and drop a bubble shield either on the top rock which he jumps off of or on the towers where the boomers spawn. This is a better way to protect sword carrier and the shield will produce orbs for him as well. If you do this, the other 3 shooters should have Gjallahorns (it takes 3 Gjallahorn rockets to take down Crota).

Let me know if you have any questions.

The Crota encounter is frustrating. With the sword randomly vanishing the instant it drops and the crippling heavy ammo bug, attempting to down Crota (on normal AND hard) has been an incredibly unpleasant experience.

We tried the window method on both difficulties and I'm convinced it's a bad strategy: the swordbearer continually steps out of view, leading to delays in downing him, and one of the first keys to success with attacking Crota in the center is to kill the swordbearer ASAP. And while it's great that 5 people are immune to boomers, the boomers continued to ruin our sword guy.

When we did the window method, I found that even when the swordbearer stepped out of view for me, some of my teammates were able to hit him. Even then, he's behind a rock, you can shoot a Gjallarhorn right at the rock and the Wolfpack rounds will hit him. The window strategy does require that you deal with the boomers in the tower (either by Titan bubble, blinding grenades, killing them and the Wizard that spawns, or even just a hunter going invisible) - but every strategy will require the same kind of attention and methods to neutralize the boomers. I definitely am a proponent of the window method. It's still not easy, but I feel like you are much more likely to succeed with some precise teamwork this way, taking some of the more frustrating variables (like the Wizard and Ogres) out of the picture.

We tried the window method on both difficulties and I'm convinced it's a bad strategy: the swordbearer continually steps out of view, leading to delays in downing him, and one of the first keys to success with attacking Crota in the center is to kill the swordbearer ASAP. And while it's great that 5 people are immune to boomers, the boomers continued to ruin our sword guy.

It took some time, but we eventually started to get the hang of this method. The things that helped the most were hitting the sword bearer with a flashbang to keep him from running, finding the perfect approach to and placement of the titan bubble in the boomer tower, and coordinating that first shot on Crota to take down his shields.

Later on, I saw this strategy:

Titan bubbles required.

This looks interesting. It's maybe a bit higher risk than the middle ledge, having to hang out in the room as the thrall and ogres spawn, but could definitely work as long as everyone has a way to heal from those friendly thrall back scratches.

-Disciple

The Crota encounter is frustrating. With the sword randomly vanishing the instant it drops and the crippling heavy ammo bug, attempting to down Crota (on normal AND hard) has been an incredibly unpleasant experience.

I'm hearing reports that if someone shoots at Crota before the sword is picked up, the sword disappears... I sounds bogus to me, but who knows -- maybe that is a thing.