[SANCTUM SPOILER] Yeah, I Think I'm Done

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exsea#1724 wrote:

holy shit.

how long is that bullet phase? i m a mace user that bonks enemies with my weapon.

if i keep running around all day thats all i ever can do in that situation

The bullet hell phase lasts until his next phase transition. It's not a problem if you got damage, however, currently the disparity between low DPS builds and meta builds equals mountains apart.

Thing is, while I initially had trouble with the floor 3 boss, getting past her at some point wasn't a problem, but this guy is the last one (floor 4) and he has a lot more ES and HP, plus his stun meter is gargantuan by comparison. I think I managed a fully broken armour proc (needs full stun) 2 or 3 times throughout the entire fight. The previous boss needed around 25-30 seconds for a full break.

It made very clear to me how much the game is balanced around multiple skill setups and combos, which just isn't how I've ever played PoE nor do I want to. Corrupting Cry should be viable on its own. I don't expect it to delete anything, but its current implementation is an utter joke compared to PoE 1. I could run T16 maps, Ritual, Breach etc. no problem, thanks to corpse popping, but anything more advanced than that just took far too long. 2-3 levels (my gem was lvl 18) wasn't gonna make a notable difference here.

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oestergreen#1184 wrote:

Should GGG balance encounters around people who open their passive tree and random-click 80 skillpts and call it a day and expect to clear content/bosses?

What a well thought out reply. If you need some handholding for your builds, feel free to ask for guidance.

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BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

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AsheIsTrash#0409 wrote:

Throwing the game away because you had one bad run is a massive rage bait and even tho I don't like this phrase I have to say it to you... skill issue.

Mate, it wasn't just "one bad run". I've been trying for days to get my last Ascendancy points.

Yesterday, my Ultimatum run was cut short with really bad RNG and serious damage mods, and then Tornado Bird™ shotgunned me from off-screen before I could react. It didn't help that he was buffed with Chaos Damage against my 58% Chaos res, plus I had to dodge an exploding circle, exploding heart that debuffed me, all while being chased by a creepy stalker and a tornado.

Then I had a really, really good Sanctum run, probably my best run yet, with tons of boons, merchants and even the fickled Blessings of the Wind, and I got fucked over by a boss with 10x the health bar of the previous ones, with more ES, on top of a 40% less damage penalty. The rest was pretty much all good stuff or manageable.

Seriously, just stop with this "git gud" bullshit. I bet I'm better at mechanical gameplay than you anyway.

I agree with your sentiments so much. So many ignorant people spam 'skill issue' anytime another person has any criticism. It's ironic because most of them are just plebe's that looked up a spark archmage guide and bought some shit off the trade site and are trivializing the game - as if that somehow makes them a fking god gamer. Then they go around telling everyone else they are bad just to boost their own ego. Almost never to they offer any evidence of their claim and even less often do they offer advice (because they don't have any).

It's obvious from the GIF's that you are indeed a mechanically competent player. Just ignore those basement dwellers you're doing fine. You are not bad because you don't like something.

I have a lot of issues with poe2 as well but it's still an amazing game in a lot of ways. Hopefully we can still find a way to enjoy the game despite it's flaws.

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BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

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exsea#1724 wrote:

holy shit.

how long is that bullet phase? i m a mace user that bonks enemies with my weapon.

if i keep running around all day thats all i ever can do in that situation

The bullet hell phase lasts until his next phase transition. It's not a problem if you got damage, however, currently the disparity between low DPS builds and meta builds equals mountains apart.

Thing is, while I initially had trouble with the floor 3 boss, getting past her at some point wasn't a problem, but this guy is the last one (floor 4) and he has a lot more ES and HP, plus his stun meter is gargantuan by comparison. I think I managed a fully broken armour proc (needs full stun) 2 or 3 times throughout the entire fight. The previous boss needed around 25-30 seconds for a full break.

It made very clear to me how much the game is balanced around multiple skill setups and combos, which just isn't how I've ever played PoE nor do I want to. Corrupting Cry should be viable on its own. I don't expect it to delete anything, but its current implementation is an utter joke compared to PoE 1. I could run T16 maps, Ritual, Breach etc. no problem, thanks to corpse popping, but anything more advanced than that just took far too long. 2-3 levels (my gem was lvl 18) wasn't gonna make a notable difference here.

holy shit.

i really hope ggg reworks this. and thanks for your info. i m "bad" at bullet hells so being stuck in infinite bullet hell sucks ass, especially for trumelee builds. i guess the best way for me to proceed is to use POE1 mindset and delete him asap using high dps.

Multipost, forgot to quote. Sorry!

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BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

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Horky#6225 wrote:

I'm not too great at embedding pictures, so I can just tell you what my 79 warbringer has. 1881 warcry dot dps without any active damage bonuses, 2999 life, res cap, 623 strength, 6401 armour, etc. DoT damage goes up to around 2290 dps per stack after getting the damage boost from recent warcries.

That's not the point of the build. I could easily grab more damage, but it's not worth the trade-off. In your case, it's the amount of STR that does it, but your defenses lack quite a bit. I was running Cloak of Flame, Enfeeble and Encase in Jade. Quite a bit of difference in tankiness there. That means I have roughly 50% effective PDR at all times for the big hits, as long as there's no max res penalty or penetration. I'm also unaffected by Armour Break. Point is that boss fights are still boss fights and I can take a chill pill knowing I won't get wiped easily. However, the scaling currently is lackluster.

Sounds good. I was doing cloak of flame and a lot more defense, but decided to trade it off for much better clear speed. I have other ideas that I may adjust to help with survival, but I'm not having any troubles outside of stuff that would kill me anyways, regardless of how much survivability I have. Unfortunately that seems to just be part of the life/armour experience right now. I'll likely change it up when I get more serious on my warbringer. Going for those last 4 ascendancy points is a giant PitA.

You really played well, and I can't imagine how taxing that would be for a whole 18 minutes.

I hope fortune smiles upon you on your next attempt!

I didn't read the six pages of this thread, but I'm playing a build that is as far from being meta as can be - bow gemling, that ignored ES for the longest time and tried to survive relying on armor, evasion and little more than 2k HP.

I failed my first two attempts on Zarokh by first running out of HP (healing flask ran dry) and then by running out of honor.

Now I'm clearing lvl 80 ToS in about half an hour - which I don't recommend, because the loot is shit, but I'm too weak to run lvl 80+ maps and reliably survive there.

Here are some tips:
- spend currency on a good set of relics. I eventually spend close to a hundred ex on a set that gave me +5 max. honor resistance, 80 honor resistance, +57% damage vs. monsters and 56 sacred water gained on room completion.
- if you, like me, can't nuke Zarokh down in under two minutes, you need to be prepared to not run out of life and mana. I put two support gems in my main attack that leech life and mana, respectively. I also change my spirit gems and their support gems so that I regenerate mana faster.
- change your skill, spirit and support gems in a way that helps you to fight a long boss fight without any adds (see the point above this one). I've got a support gem on my main attack skill that gives me +35% damage on lightning damage for 3 seconds after I've killed a shocked monster. Will that help me in that boss fight? No. So out with it. In comes instead a support gem that gives me +25% damage against enemies that are within 1 meter.
- Zarokh has 30 resistance against all elemental types. He's got 0 vs. chaos. He's got a good chunk of armor (6,867), so make sure you use a support gem that can either break 30 resistance of the type of elemental damage you deal or, if you're dealing physical damage, something that can lower armor. As a Gemling I can use my highest attribute to satisfy the requirements of gems, so I can use the Vulnerability curse which negates his armor for a few seconds, which is much less effective than I thought it would be, but I guess that has to do with how shitty armor is in general
- ailments (shock, stun, broken armor, etc.) generally have something to do with a threshold that must be reached to take effect and that threshold depends on the targets life (it's a bit different from ailment to ailment, but the target's life usually plays some role). Zarokh has a shitton of life. This means the threshold you need to reach to e.g. stun him is extremely high. So high that, with all the breaks he takes by porting away and switching phases, you will usually only see him affected by your ailments a few couple times. WAY too few to rely on it, e.g. I got a spirit gem that gives me a frenzy charge whenever I stun an enemy. Are maybe three extra frenzy charges over the entire boss fight worth it to keep that gem active instead of switching it for e.g. a skill that reduces his close to 7k armor to 0 for a couple of seconds? No. So out with it.
- one thing that I saw in the clips that OP added to the post was that he's doing the same mistake that I did in the beginning: keeping distance, dance around in front of him and try to dodge the gazillion projectiles that fly around. Where's the problem with that? You don't deal damage while you dance the flaming orb flamenco. Zarokh deals suprisingly low damage for a boss. Stay close to him and try to stay behind him, which will enable you to avoid most of his hits since he doesn't do AOEs and only attacks forwards. He's got that phase where he ports to the middle, starts to spin and throw lightning while all these bubbles spawn around him that freeze you for an aweful long time if you happen to run over them. Since I realized how little damage he actually does and how important it is to not waste any time and to keep damaging him as often and as hard as you can, I have started to completely ignore his lightning attack and the bubbles. I just stand still, right next to him and pump damage into him. That change in tactics has changed this phase from the most frustrating one to the most effective one for me, since he's basically immobile and I can unleash on him everything I got. Try it. Just stand still and let one round of lightning wash over you and see how few damage it deals to you and how few honor it drains.
- You must, and I can't stress this enough, avoid certain afflictions. If you don't have anything that boosts your speed beyond the usual 30-35% speed boost from your boots, then you simply can't get the -25% speed penalty affliction. It will kill you during the two sequences at 66% and 33% life of Zarokh where you have to run over six hourglasses within a given amount of time or face instant death. -40% damage dealt for you and your minions is a deal breaker, too, if you struggle with taking him down anyway. Same goes for +50% monster health. If you're just going for the ascendency, then ignore getting keys and favor getting water, boons, and avoiding afflictions. There are shrines on the map that give you three choices which all involve accepting some negative effect to receive some positive one. If you couldn't avoid getting one of the terrible afflictions, try to reach one of these shrines in hopes of being offered to exchange it for something else. I remember getting rid of the -40% damage affliction by accepting a one time hit with 1,200 physical damage. 75% or in my case 80% reduces that to 240-300 lost honor. That's a bargain.
- You can't afford to be picky with what room type to choose when making your way through a floor. Avoid afflictions, pick up boons and water, visit a merchant when you have enough water to be able to trade. If you choose to run a ritual trial just because you don't like the gauntlet trial and end up with picking up an affliction then you deserve anything that happens to you on that run.
- Should you fail the hourglass challenge during the fight with Zarokh, you can allegedly alt+f4 before he's finished his instant kill animation. That's supposed to avoid your character's death. I haven't tested it but it might well be possible. Maybe you can even try the fight again. But I don't know that since I never tried it (although I wished I had known this before, because I got fooled once by an hourglass that spawned behind one of his still active mirrors and thus killed me).
- If you're running ToS for the ascendency, make sure to use the lowest possible level of a Barya that still gives you access to that ascendency. For the one that includes the fight against Zarokh, it's a level 75 Barya. The level of the Barya determines the level of the monsters (and thus bosses) during the trial. It also affects the loot, but if you're in there for the ascendency, you need to ignore loot in that case.

Nah, man, I'm good. I'm playing the same type of build in PoE 1 right now and having a blast. My character had more DPS in campaign than what I could get on my lvl 88 Warbringer in PoE 2, lol. Though, in fairness, PoE 2 mobs have lower health. I did the Zarokh fight once, and that was it for me. I'm not gonna touch the game again until major updates drop.

18 minutes kek skill issue

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Carinyc#0837 wrote:

18 minutes kek skill issue

Oh, yes, the infamous "skill issue" when surviving a bullet hell fight for more than a quarter of an hour. Such kek, much wow.