Amazing difficulty in Void's Edge in Elite!

[miyel19]

Just finished Desolated Wastes and Void's Edge in Elite at level 81 as a Spellbinder, so just short of reaching level 82 to update my gear with what I stored from other characters.
I played mainly soldier-based builds for now and these areas were not at all a problem until now, even in Ultimate.

I already received some suggestions in other discussions to enhance this Spellbinder build:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2dJ445Z
But I thought that with a pretty good armor and defense abilities, and with all resistances at 80%, except the secondary Life Leech resistance at 50% which is not that bad, I would make it as easily as I have done it before in Malmouth.
But I died 2 times confronting Ekket'Zul, the main boss here, and almost 1 or 2 times more with further champions in Void's Edge, which nearly one-hitted me.

Reading their abilities in the Monster database, the main thing I noticed that would explain this is their ability of "Reduction to enemy's health".
Is this precisely countered by a maxed out "Life Leech resistance", meaning my 50% was too low? Or by another skill or ability?
Or maybe my armor absorption which is still only 76% instead of 100% should be upgraded too with better gear? I don't know if this really reduces the "Reduction to enemy's health" attack..

Anyway, don't quite understand why I was so easy and tanky until now and suddenly so weak in these areas.

[RodHull]

A few points.

1) From around where you are onwards Id always try to have 100% absorption the difference is noticable.

2) Life leech resist does sort of effect life reduction but often mobs who do those attacks also debuff you so that doesn't help. Cthonian support mobs and bosses are particularly debuff heavy.

3) Your OA and DA are to low, crits will hurt a lot

4) That particular area is quite punishing for mages, bosses like Ekketzul are harsh as they are fast, tanky, get right in your face and hit really hard (note they do lots of dot damage and physical damage as well) Just wait till you have the pleasure of fighting Grava'Thul the cthonian nemesis or the mage killer as I call him

5) Kiting is your friend, that area dont sit still long clear methodically so you have safe spaces to pull mobs to, ekketzul fight hit and run dont try to face tank him. Nothing jumps out as being so bad you cant do that area, i just think you need to modify your tactics if your used to facetanking stuff with other characters.

[miyel19]

@RodHull That explains it very well and clearly, thanks!

To some of your points:

3) I find this part rather hard, as others told me so before with my soldier-based builds, specifically that my OA was too low as I went rather full DA.
At least it allowed me with a Warlord to die only once in the whole game facing the last boss in Act 6 in Ultimate.
With this Spellbinder, I focused mainly on Physique (as it helps avoiding being critically hit), and Spirit (for the magical attacks), not on Cunning.
Should I have more Cunning as it increases OA and physical/bleeding damage of my weapon? I prefer keeping the Bonescythe axes for now as I found that they are the strongest weapons compared to scepters.
Of course if I can also find items giving more OA I’ll consider them, but I think I’ll take your point to have a bit more Cunning then.

4) No thanks for the nemesis! I’ll try to avoid it and run, run, run away, and globally from all nemeses ;)

5) You are right. I didn’t kite enough.
I learned it though with my soldiers, even if I’m rather used to facetanking, but even with my Warlord I had to kite sometimes at the end.
I think I was overconfident and just surprised in the Void’s Edge.
Also I just had reached the max skill points in Arcanist and was experimenting Devastation for the first time. I thought is was great and funny and watched stupidly the fire and aether rain descending on Ekket’Zul before realising I was dead, lol

[RodHull]

Originally posted by miyel19:

@RodHull That explains it very well and clearly, thanks!

To some of your points:

3) I find this part rather hard, as others told me so before with my soldier-based builds, specifically that my OA was too low as I went rather full DA.
At least it allowed me with a Warlord to die only once in the whole game facing the last boss in Act 6 in Ultimate.
With this Spellbinder, I focused mainly on Physique (as it helps avoiding being critically hit), and Spirit (for the magical attacks), not on Cunning.
Should I have more Cunning as it increases OA and physical/bleeding damage of my weapon? I prefer keeping the Bonescythe axes for now as I found that they are the strongest weapons compared to scepters.
Of course if I can also find items giving more OA I’ll consider them, but I think I’ll take your point to have a bit more Cunning then.

4) No thanks for the nemesis! I’ll try to avoid it and run, run, run away, and globally from all nemeses ;)

5) You are right. I didn’t kite enough.
I learned it though with my soldiers, even if I’m rather used to facetanking, but even with my Warlord I had to kite sometimes at the end.
I think I was overconfident and just surprised in the Void’s Edge.
Also I just had reached the max skill points in Arcanist and was experimenting Devastation for the first time. I thought is was great and funny and watched stupidly the fire and aether rain descending on Ekket’Zul before realising I was dead, lol

Max out inner focus its imo one of the best passives in the game it really helps with OA, and no never bother with cunning for casters unless you need say 5 points to help wield a dagger or something. You want to find a good mix of + x% OA/DA stuff (so like inner focus for example) and then flat bonuses on things like green jewellery (really easy to farm) think of it like if inner focus is giving +12% OA and you get 250 flat OA bonuses thats another free 25 OA on top of that over all your gear, devotions and skills it all adds up thats how builds you see people post get 2800+ on both

Yes do avoid him hes horrific :)

As for the last part its normal, sometimes if ive played a certain character a while then swap i get confused over buttons and style of plays in hectic fights, its just about getting used to not playing a particular way.

[miyel19]

Exactly for hectic fights, and not getting used to play the same way.
I try to vary from tanky builds, face-tanking etc, to move to more magical builds, but I'm so used to the first even in other games that it's a learning process!
And thanks for reminding me of Inner Focus that I neglected a bit, and your other recommendations.
Good timing, as I just reached the next level and can apply some of them ;)