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.

[ArcyPaweł]

Enigmaniac님이 먼저 게시:

Man at Arms님이 먼저 게시:

if youre refusing to use the tools youre given then i dunno what to tell you other than to get guud with what youre using

I simply don't see the point of using an awkwardly feeling clunky bow/crossbow that has you sit defenseless and stationary for each shot, which inevitably nets you a rollercoater ride for half your health pool. I've tried repeatedly to experiment with setups, from more attack speed to weapon cooldown reduction but can't make it feel un-clunky.

Have you tried guns? They attack instantly unlike bow/crossbow

[Enigmaniac]

ArcyPaweł님이 먼저 게시:

Enigmaniac님이 먼저 게시:

I simply don't see the point of using an awkwardly feeling clunky bow/crossbow that has you sit defenseless and stationary for each shot, which inevitably nets you a rollercoater ride for half your health pool. I've tried repeatedly to experiment with setups, from more attack speed to weapon cooldown reduction but can't make it feel un-clunky.

Have you tried guns? They attack instantly unlike bow/crossbow

Yes, and mentioned it early on in the thread. They're ... okay-ish. I just don't get why people claim the baked-in dodge of the E to be great; it fails more often than a cointoss chance and landing the damage while dodging is very iffy.

[Firecam]

Kudos to you to avoid ranged weapons, as an axe user i respect that. I'm not at your level yet but i'm playing on brutal.

[Sparky]

Styx, Behemoth and Valencia. Easy way to beat these bosses is to switch off of double shield and use a shield spell combo. My favorite is skeleton shield because it often gives you a little extra time of the boss not paying attention to you. The key with Styx and Behemoth are staying as far away from them as possible without losing aggro. The further the better. Styx you'll find he can't hit you with most of his abilities if you are on the opposite side of the crystal and he won't lose aggro. When he spawns his minions focus on killing them before going back to damaging Styx. For the behemoth take note he is rather slow and he can't charge through objects so instead of using a shield just find unbreakable objects like rocks or trees. Hope this helps!

[vøid]

Sparky님이 먼저 게시:

Styx, Behemoth and Valencia. Easy way to beat these bosses is to switch off of double shield and use a shield spell combo. My favorite is skeleton shield because it often gives you a little extra time of the boss not paying attention to you. The key with Styx and Behemoth are staying as far away from them as possible without losing aggro. The further the better. Styx you'll find he can't hit you with most of his abilities if you are on the opposite side of the crystal and he won't lose aggro. When he spawns his minions focus on killing them before going back to damaging Styx. For the behemoth take note he is rather slow and he can't charge through objects so instead of using a shield just find unbreakable objects like rocks or trees. Hope this helps!

I struggled against Styx for quite some time yesterday trying to solo him in brutal, but then I figured out a way to obliterate him. Ice shield is all you need. Don't go too far, and as soon as you see him preparing to launch his projectiles in circle, go give him a big hug with your ice shield on, absorbing every single projectile, and dealing a ♥♥♥♥ ton of damage. You only need to do this like 4-5 times and he'll be down. I did not even have to try and damage the summoned gargoyles. If you feel frisky about it, also equip skull shield with health regen and give him a hug when he launches this attack to go back to full health in seconds.

[Mercurial]

All the build advice is nonsense.

He said he uses primarily Greatsword. Greatsword is more than fine for all three of those fights.

Luckily, Greatsword is pretty much the best weapon in the game, or tied with it. It has top class DPS, a movement skill that doubles as DPS, and an invul skill. Very few bosses require you to think about maybe not using a Greatsword, and those three aren't one of them.

Behemoth

Behemoth is an easy boss, especially with Greatsword. His primary attack that he does right at the start, summoning a star of shockwaves, leaves you room to stand close enough to swing on him with greatsword. Other than that, just stay back and use an offensive spell, or dash behind him while he's doing a melee series to combo him. Learn how to dodge his triple ram. It predicts where you'll be and then locks in. This is the kind of thing you will have to learn to beat harder bosses in V Rising. If you get into trouble, press E. Magically safe.

When he summons his pets, Greatsword Q can interrupt the bear slam. When he summons his orbs, stay away from them. When he summons his twin, use your Chaos Barrage ult, which should kill it immediately or close to it. Don't mess up, and the fight isn't difficult.

Valencia

Valencia is harder. If you want to cheese it fairly easily, go with a spell damage build and focus on blocking her Spear Multihit attack with Frost Shield. If you want to play it normally, focus the Iron Maiden when she summons it, and stay behind it when it's trying to face you. Learn how to dodge her regular attack without using skills. Use a counter to block it when she tries to kick you into the Maiden. Use a dash to get into offensive position when she does her Multihit Spear attack. When she summons spear rain, use your Greatsword E invul.

Styx

Without Frost Shield, Styx is the hardest of the three.

If you want to cheese it fairly easily, use Frost Shield and a spellpower build to block the entirety of his blood daggers summon.

To fight it normally, you can either use high level Draculin blood and movement speed gear to walk away from his flip heartstrike attack, or save your weapon invulnerability skill for it. Stick to the center so you don't aggro dangerous mobs, but don't count on the crystal to block shots. Learn to dodge his shadowballs and fencing strikes without skills. If you're struggling with killing the gargoyles quickly, it's fine to use your ult on them, to keep the fight simple.