First playthrough hard walls ruining the experience

[Enigmaniac]

So, I'm experimenting my way through this first run on normal difficulty to learn about not just what works, but why it works (or doesn't) and taking my time but now I'm at end-game-ish and completely stuck on hard walls. I've cleared the lvl 77 bosses, crafted and upgraded all I can at this point and been crafting and re-crafting, using the available potions, trying out spell combos, even restricting progress attempts to bloodmoon only.

But all lvl 78+ bosses are complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Stunlocks, no cooldown between their attacks and all faster than the cooldowns of 2 defense spells + veil can keep up with, doing a third of my healthpool in a single hit on a regular basis, just plain undodgeable attacks etc. I've had no progress in probably upward of 40 hours of play at all, letting me conclude this was not remotely designed as single player content. This needs *severe* nerfing.

The only thing that might be the tiny room for improvement left would be to waste dozens of hours grinding materials for sleightly better T3 skill gems in hopes it'll let me unlock T4, but that would be too punishing and anti-fun.

[SubRosa]

Give an example of exact boss you are struggling and your setup against it, gear+spells

[sno0ks]

get gud. normal is too easy. 3rd of your bar in 1 hit makes no sense. is your gear level up to par? use blood potions. most of my jewels are crap but i one shot most bosses. you can solo any boss with any build. "severe nerfing" they've already nerfed it into the ground. seriously. get good and stop ruining games.

[theworld]

Can you explain why you cannot do what people do in the numerous videos of these bosses on Youtube?

I mean there are all kinds of builds in those videos out there, surely there's something you should be able to emulate.

[theworld]

Originally posted by Enigmaniac:

just plain undodgeable attacks

Who has them?

[Dribs]

It does not need severe nerfing no. Instead I think its just a plain old skill issue.

Cant wait to hear what you’re going to say about Adam, if you make it that far that is

Dust yourself off and try again. Or maybe take a days break to clear your mind. None of these bosses are really hard. And you might just be on a 40 hour tilt not thinking straight.

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

Most bosses are easier in solo, tbh.
MP gives the option to fail and run back in, but the fights in itself get more crowded and confusing.

[Enigmaniac]

Styx, Behemoth and Valencia, as I implied above with hard wall above 77. It'd be pointless to look above that. At best I get them down to 25-30% health.

I favour greatsword so far. Both bows I consider just too slow and clunky to tolerate despite wanting to like a ranged spec, pistols I just don't like and don't at all feel why people claim its inherent dodge on the E is good. The dodge range is very small and rarely does it allow I-frame prevention of damage.

Mace E is beyond useless and Q very awkward to use, scythe and axes I've dabbled in but dislike the overall feel of. Slashers and whip can be fun-ish against mobs but really lack enough umph to deal with boss fights. Spear is less than useless against bosses entirely.

Spells, my fave is bloodrage for selfheal, faster movement+attack and bit of extra damage. Veil (any), which basically boils down to whichever has the best current gem (frost atm). Deathward is preferred shield, the immaterial form spells feel quite ineffective (usually not outlasting more than half of a boss attack sequence) but has had its moments.

Void has proven solid as a poke, bone explosion/ball lightning often miss due to high mobility in bosses and usually lack in range to remove things like Valencia's iron maiden effectively. Volatile arachnid ulti seems to work quite well for me, as it is very shoot-and-forget but I've dabbled in most of the ultis available at times.

Spell combos ... any with the above, really. Double shields (green / purple), shield + immaterial, shield plus poke, double poke, shield/rage, poke/rage... I've ran out of variants.

Greatsword is unenchanted sanguine (just haven't found any okay greatsword blue) but doubt just a few percent extra is going to make a difference. Full dread plate set, amulet of blade master for the attackspeed.

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

Originally posted by HdF Almut Grete:

Most bosses are easier in solo, tbh.
MP gives the option to fail and run back in, but the fights in itself get more crowded and confusing.

Edit: Sad i never saw unnerfed-brutal-Dracula. :( The 2.5-times nerfed one was kind of a pushover.

[Wanderlust]

Well there's your problem. When fr

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

Behemoth is hard. maybe one of the hardest bosses (at least for me).
Batteling it outdoors, running around some tree though ... is kind of cheese and easy.

Styx has the big crystal in the arena to dodge around. Wait with attacks till he goes behind you (kind of drcula later will do) and get him burning or such while kitting. Avoid the big rotating slashers with teh craystal and you are fine.

Valencias iron maiden has to die fast (and prolly 2 times). The rest is kind of step aside from the spear throw and veil dodge the fan.

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

For spells and stuff you could focus on one "thing" like chaos and burn and selfheal with spellvamp.
Skelli-spam also works great on Styx and Valencia.

Also get the updates from the events (if not already maxed).

[ArcyPaweł]

Are you sure you got best gear you can? Epic weapons (ones with purple aura) are kinda hidden. They got not guaranted drop from level 80+ rifts. They will increase your weapon gear level by 4, which should both greatly increse damage you deal to them and decrese their damage to you. Also 80+ rifts can give you level 4 jewels which can help a lot

[Enigmaniac]

Altar passives I've all unlocked. Purple enchant can't be done without the unlocks behind Styx iirc. Purple weapon crafts require the gems unlocked by Styx, putting me in a catch-22. I'm not sure what the droprate for lvl 4 skillgems in rifts might be, but I've only found 2 in said 40 hours of grind and if throwing another 200 hours onto that in hopes for luck is ... not a solution.

Also, said purple enchants I've only found 2 so far, despite the grind indeed dipping into rank 2 rifts and both were crossbows.

[sno0ks]

Originally posted by Enigmaniac:

Altar passives I've all unlocked. Purple enchant can't be done without the unlocks behind Styx iirc. Purple weapon crafts require the gems unlocked by Styx, putting me in a catch-22. I'm not sure what the droprate for lvl 4 skillgems in rifts might be, but I've only found 2 in said 40 hours of grind and if throwing another 200 hours onto that in hopes for luck is ... not a solution.

are you underleveled. i beat styx on my first try. and im not saying this to flex. i was properly leveled and he just wasnt that bad. the girl with the iron maiden was harder.

[theworld]

Originally posted by Enigmaniac:

Altar passives I've all unlocked. Purple enchant can't be done without the unlocks behind Styx iirc.

Onyx tear? Have you tried talking to Merchant in Gloomrot?