The last difficulty in the cathedral.

[$noochie boochie$]

Can anyone tell me how to get through it? I'm specifically talking about the last boss. It launches homing balls that, when hit, create zones on the ground that deal damage. And these zones do not disappear! Which means that sooner or later the entire arena will be littered with them, which in turn means that no matter where you stand, you will take damage. The boss has too many lives to just kill him quickly and there are no life crystals in this mode. How do I fight him if I keep getting damaged?

[Game Smithing]

Hey noochie boochie! I would recommend you try to save your best build for the last stage of the cathedral. Use the first 3 stages as a way to banish unwanted skills or skills that will not fit into your "best build". This first stage of the boss fight is a bit of a race to get him to the next stage before the ground is too littered with damage areas, so you might have better luck trying out different builds/runes or getting some more progress into your skill tree!

[$noochie boochie$]

I understand your point, but there is no skill that can protect against damage. I can increase my block or armor, but I will still take some damage. Because, as I wrote above, after a certain period of time the entire (literally ALL) arena will deal damage to me.
In other words, I have to get the boss to stage 2 before I die from arena damage. The only way to do that is by increasing my damage output enough to make his millions of HP melt away a little faster than it does now. In turn, this can be done by upgrading the skills of other characters from the tree, which affect everyone. Did I understand correctly? AKA grind wall?
I made a screenshot for example. There is simply no place where you can be without taking damage to yourself.
https://imgur.com/a/pjDwT8h

[Ulyaoth]

Hello there,

IMO your Rune Setup is a very important part for Cathedral.
Also, some chars might suit better due their Ascension Power than others.

I almost always use Reroll Mastery + Gambler + Omnipotent.
While this is absolute Chaos w/o any controll over Skills, it rarely happens that you get screwed over completly.
You can use Rerolls wisely to improve your passive stats and you learn to adapt from anything w/o needing a set build.

Example Run:
Necromancer has a very solid Ascension Power, since those Abominations deal quite some damage, give you guaranteed DoT Passives and they can turn aggro away from you.

Since you loose all control over your Active Skills, using Runes that fit for every scenario is strongly advized. Either for offense or defense, but something that potentially can aguemnt everything.
I used Dash Mastery, Elemental Flow, Misfortune's Embrace and Synergetic to increase everything about DoTs and buffs.

Every passive i picked was either DoT enhancement in any way, Skill Chains and overall Buffs. i never picked anything Skill realted.

Ritual of Heresy +8
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3444997865
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3444997922
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3444997949
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3444997990
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3444998018

Judging by your image, you definetly dont deal enough damage.
The first Boss appearance is some sort of DPS Check and the 2nd Phase is river dance.
Weapon Mastery is a dead Rune, since you only get this Skill in Round 1, then it gets removed.
Depending on your overall progression, you might consider coming back later before you smahs your head into a brick wall.

Hope this can give you an idea,
Cheers!

[Mokkun]

Theoretically the build in that picture should be able to clear stage 4 just fine.
However, judging by runes, you're short on a lot of power in both runes and I'm guessing meta-progression levels.

I also can't see what upgrades you're focusing on, but you should use the in-between rounds special upgrades to shore up whatever your weaknesses are, which could be defensive, speed, or it could be damage.

Otherwise, when taking normal upgrades during a round, focus on things that give you short term benefit. You don't have the duration of a normal game to scale up, so things like skill chains that take 150 levels to get going aren't worth it. The build in that picture needs cast frequency, multicast, slow on hit, benefits to ice skills, and probably crit as its priorities.


But in general, Cathedral is not an entry level mode. It does tend to assume that you've got a reasonable amount of meta progression, especially rune slots and power, under your belt.

[DamarusRex]

You have to find a way to deal sufficient damage quickly enough to get the boss HPs as low as 55-60%, to avoid 100% of the map to crawl under void "mines".

1) max out your characters trees (some perks give you HPs back)
2) whenever you have a build that seems to rekt bosses super fast, screenshot the build and try to replicate it or optimize it in even better ways, while trying it with other characters
3) once you nail the characters that are most efficient for you (and 2 or 3 builds that work really well), find out your best weapons and upgrade them with artifact
4) find the artifact that works best with the above
5) save your best builds for last round of cathedral

I use the rune that give rerolls every 5 levels too, it's very useful to get your build right by the end.
Another tip is to pick speed, armor or health at the end of each round reward, depending how you manage. I personnally tend to pick additionnal HPs every round to have a little room for errors just in case.

[Mokkun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSPjPkZQbc

And of course there's this guy doing stage 900.

[CrescentShade]

Invest in Doom stocks lol

But really each wave should only take you like a couple minutes tops; if you're in the final boss at close to 30 minutes that's a dps issue; when you get the boons after the first 3 waves, go for stuff that directly effects your damage output: Damage, Crit, Cooldown, etc; wasting upgrades on HP or Def just means you take longer to kill bosses and the final boss and that means more time to take damage you wouldn't be taking otherwise because the enemy wouldn't be alive.

also you seem to not have all rune slots unlocked or filled; big oof

[Paratech2008]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles on the 3rd Cathedral.

I've been trying to beat it with every character and some characters aren't very good on it no matter what.

[KoshLovesYou]

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles on the 3rd Cathedral.

I've been trying to beat it with every character and some characters aren't very good on it no matter what.

The trick really does come down to knowing what skills you want to select LATER, and what skills you're okay clearing out of the way to abandon early on in the 'easier' phases. But yeah, the AoE muck and sapping can be agony and its easy to get trapped.

Don't let those 'across the map' Doom beam casting tentacles stay alive, is my bit of advice, they're worth focusing on dropping even more than the Lords when they spawn. The others less so.

[Paratech2008]

The problem is I have so many skills available that I don't always get the ones I want on the last area.

I've had ones offered in the first three areas but not the fourth.

I have 10 characters maxxed out at level 170.

[KoshLovesYou]

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

The problem is I have so many skills available that I don't always get the ones I want on the last area.

I've had ones offered in the first three areas but not the fourth.

I have 10 characters maxxed out at level 170.

Are you slotting the "Skill Inclination" rune for the type you're looking for? I find that one more useful than "Skill Affinity" myself. I usually select skills that AREN'T that type for the first few. But very possible to get RNG'd.

[Mokkun]

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

The problem is I have so many skills available that I don't always get the ones I want on the last area.

I've had ones offered in the first three areas but not the fourth.

Take reroll runes. Reroll Mastery, and especially Endless Refill are your friends. Only use rerolls on the in-between round upgrades, and for active skills. Save at least 10 for the last round.

[DamarusRex]

When you'll be efficient enough to stay alive until last round without too much struggle, you'll be able to farm the first 3 rounds with trash spells that "suck" for you. And once the last round is about to start, you go full-gas on your favorite stuff with rerolls.
I made a list myself consisting of spells I like and which I can choose from regardless of their type. As long as I get these together, the last boss first chunk of HPs goes to ashes in a matter of 1min tops, before he teleports to his lair.

[$noochie boochie$]

In the end, I completed the cathedral on the last difficulty for the death knight, opening a rune that removes two active skills but in return gives a 70% damage increase.

Originally posted by CrescentShade:

Invest in Doom stocks lol

By the way, it is thanks to this status.

[lex.mcmurray]

I love this game but this level is simply too much. It's a long road to get to the final boss, then the difficulty spike when you reach them is unforgivable. I love the game but I'll never finish it or unlock the last character because I'm not wasting my life grinding through the very achievable first parts of the level only to get slapped to hell by the boss, over and over. Kinda depressing tbh cus I'd love to try the last character and has sort of turned me off the game as a whole... but I did really enjoy my time up until this!