Hey starverinos! I've got a new speedrun of Enraged Klaus that I think you lot might find some interest in. It's by far the most brutal and difficult fight I've gone up against so far.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the devs didn't even attempt to balance Enraged Klaus because I think that he was never meant to be fought. I'm guessing the enraged form is simply a deterrent to killing the gem deer, and so they cranked his stats up to a preposterous degree, and then just forgot about it.
How preposterous, you ask? Let me tell you. Remember the original, unnerfed Toadstool? You know, the impossible fella that had 156,500 health and required, at maximum, 26 dark swords wielded by Wilson to defeat. Enraged Klaus requires 17 dark swords. He has 111,952 effective health! And when you think about it even more carefully, Toadstool had periods in which he had a 5x damage vulnerability, so if you went through all of the math, I think Enraged Klaus might end up with more effective health than even original Toadstool.
Wait, you say, Enraged Klaus clearly has a total of 41,159 health between the two phases. Yes, that's true, but you also need to take into account the increase in his armor value. If he had a true 41,159 health that's remotely analogous to anything else in the Don't Starve universe, you'd expect that he would die after 6 dark swords wielded by Wilson. But, in fact, he wouldn't even be half dead. You would need an additional 11 dark swords to finish the deed.
That's because when he transforms into his enraged version, every attribute that he possesses is increased by a factor of 2.7. His health goes up. His physical size goes up. His speed. His attack cycle. His damage. The distance of his lunge attack. And his armor.
Ever since Toadstool, the devs have made sure to eliminate pigmen and bunnymen from the boss equation, and Enraged Klaus is no exception. His frequent, melodious screams forces them into an impromptu square dance. They just can't resist. So how on earth are we gonna take Enraged Klaus on when he has so much health to whittle down? We will enlist the help of little bitty bees. Each bee will only do a couple of damage per sting, but when there are a few dozen stinging at once, the damage adds up quite nicely. Besides dishing out my own punishment for Klaus, it is imperative that I retain his aggro for the duration of the fight so that the bee battalion is not diminished. If you leave the bees by themselves to do the job, Enraged Klaus will have no trouble whatsoever slicing through hundreds of the little buggers.
The 2nd phase (after killing off both gem deer) is really a test of endurance. It is fairly simple, if not precise, dodging that must be sustained for around 10 straight minutes. Taking even a short break means some of your bee companions will die.
The 3rd phase is where the fun really begins. It's easy for things to quickly go horribly wrong, and it's hard not to panic. During this phase, Klaus has 13,720 health, so it will still last for around 5 minutes, but the dodging has become much more complex and difficult. He introduces a lunge attack that has insane range. It's possible (and necessary) to dodge this attack, but the window is pretty small.
I can fairly reliably kill Klaus in ideal conditions (eternal day, autumn, etc) but the night and winter chill adds some additional difficulty. Oh, and for any devs reading, sometimes I would randomly attack my bee buddies even though I did not press control (I have a program that captures my key presses, so you can see for yourself what I pressed). Finally, I know that I can sidestep the 2nd phase if I whittle down the default Klaus' health to just above 0, and then kill a gem deer. Enraged Klaus' current health will be a multiple of what the default Klaus' current health was, so for example if I killed a gem deer when Klaus' health was 44, then Enraged Klaus will have 120 current health. But come on, I can't do that. This has to be a fair fight. I gotta face Enraged Klaus at his best.
I hope you all enjoy the fight!