Looking for insight into Ellena, the First Slith

[Duck]

Does anyone else feel there is something off about this mob?

I've had characters be instagibbed by Ellena twice now. Ever since the first time I can't help but feel paranoid. I took a hardcore character there last night and lost it after about 60% of the way through the fight. I was surprised to be killed so quickly again, but confused this time because I had most of my resists at 80%, with low resists around 60%. Her damage types are physical, cold, and frostburn and I had 80% cold resist, as well as level 14 Maiven's Sphere of Protection (24% dmg reduction) and level 12 Aura of Censure (reduce mob dmg by 15%). I was about level 42 or so with around 5800 health. I still felt squishy here and there to be honest, but to be what appeared 1 shot by a boss? Again? I feel like one of her attacks might be buggy.

Is there something about this boss that I don't understand? Currently, I'd rather just avoid the quest if that's how it's gonna be.

[Tsel13]

After the 1.2 patch Sunder capabilities was added to a lot of the Bosses.
She can sunder now.
If you don't avoid it, any damage you take while Sundered will be greater.
Each Sunder is RNG on how great the Sunder effects will have on your character.

[Duck]

Okay, that might help explain it, but I don't feel that it tells the whole story. I ran another character just fine through Veteran Normal on hardcore. And, the first time I was instagibbed by Ellena was before sunder was added. I don't think going from full health to dead instantly before and after sunder on the same boss has much to do with sunder but I could be wrong - death for different reasons? I still feel one of her attacks is buggy.

[Chan]

What's your DA?

[Tsel13]

Yes, to what Chan is asking.
What is your DA (Defense Ability)?
Also, what is your AR (Armor Rating)?

I know you're writing you're experiencing insta-death, but know, the geysers, pools, and symbols you stand in will damage you and keep damaging you until you move out of them.

[Ultimatum]

Originally posted by Roseyla:

Does anyone else feel there is something off about this mob?

I've had characters be instagibbed by Ellena twice now. Ever since the first time I can't help but feel paranoid. I took a hardcore character there last night and lost it after about 60% of the way through the fight. I was surprised to be killed so quickly again, but confused this time because I had most of my resists at 80%, with low resists around 60%. Her damage types are physical, cold, and frostburn and I had 80% cold resist, as well as level 14 Maiven's Sphere of Protection (24% dmg reduction) and level 12 Aura of Censure (reduce mob dmg by 15%). I was about level 42 or so with around 5800 health. I still felt squishy here and there to be honest, but to be what appeared 1 shot by a boss? Again? I feel like one of her attacks might be buggy.

Is there something about this boss that I don't understand? Currently, I'd rather just avoid the quest if that's how it's gonna be.

Ellena, the first Slith, shouldn't be that hard of a boss actually. As a matter of fact she is just pretty basic slith attack pattern except for the fact that she actually has a sunder, but even if you were sundered I don't believe that would have much of an impact. Now, I can only assume that because you were lvl 42, that you played on Veteran difficulty, and some of your defenses were not exactly in order, judging by what you said, possibly DA and/or Armor itself, which further leads me to believe that you were using some equipment pieces that were FAR below your level. There are any death pools in her arena as far as I remember so it was most likely a crit she did to you while you were under the effect of sunder?

Mage Hunter is indeed a "squishy" class, at least at those lower levels like lvl 42. Also, were your devotions in order? That can possibly have an impact on your death as well. In any case I truly believe it was just an unfortunate critical strike. I would strongly advise you to avoid some of those side areas if you're playing Hardcore, and especially on Veteran, since that difficulty inflates monster stats including health and damage which may indeed result in a big waste of time if you loose your HC character. Judging by your playtime I would assume that you have gear stashed away for leveling, so I would advise you to use it so you can get past Normal ASAP. Once you get into elite difficulty at around lvl 50 (or little before that), you can farm those "starting " areas for empowered blues and normal legendary items, which will make your character much more easier to play, especially on HC. If you insist on playing on Veteran, that's another matter, of course, but good luck for future characters.

[Chan]

I want to say it's probably a combination of sunder+low enough da for crit and then it just... happens. Also with HC I recommend you never, ever take a hit you can't say with 100% confidence you'll live through. It's always better to be extra paranoid and assume the worst as losing hours of work is miserable. If you want a good mage hunter ARR build I've been using one and I've been face tanking everything minus like Korvaak on ultimate. Very tanky and lethal.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

if you're getting insta gibbed by Ellena of all things, you must have some serious stat/resist deficiency, even with Sunder it shouldn't really happen since Elena doesn't have any hard hitting moves in general like regular bosses/compared to other bosses
even standing on the vents shouldn't be instantly lethal usually, nor eating the nova
she's basically just a progressed version of the prior slith bosses

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Each Sunder is RNG on how great the Sunder effects will have on your character.

that's, not true? - sunder is fixed per boss and always gives a predetermined amount of debuff, in Ellena's case it's 30% DT

[Safarel]

Originally posted by Chan:

If you want a good mage hunter ARR build I've been using one and I've been face tanking everything minus like Korvaak on ultimate. Very tanky and lethal.

Actually on any character regardless how tanky it is, how much hp he got, and do this happen on softcore or hardcore I will never stay under Korvaaaak meteor attacks on phase 3

[Chan]

Originally posted by Safarel:

Originally posted by Chan:

If you want a good mage hunter ARR build I've been using one and I've been face tanking everything minus like Korvaak on ultimate. Very tanky and lethal.

Actually on any character regardless how tanky it is, how much hp he got, and do this happen on softcore or hardcore I will never stay under Korvaaaak meteor attacks on phase 3

The only I've felt uncomfortably close to death are Korvaak and Morgoneth on ultimate. Korvaak's meteors and pretty much all of his attacks once he's all fiery are pretty scary. Morgoneth constantly spitting out skull projectiles doing like 2-3k a piece had me kiting for my life lol. Though yeah the meteors have such a massive time delay before they land I can only assume being hit by more than one is a death sentence. I will continue to manually dodge those! :D or use mirror.

[Tsel13]

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

if you're getting insta gibbed by Ellena of all things, you must have some serious stat/resist deficiency, even with Sunder it shouldn't really happen since Elena doesn't have any hard hitting moves in general like regular bosses/compared to other bosses
even standing on the vents shouldn't be instantly lethal usually, nor eating the nova
she's basically just a progressed version of the prior slith bosses

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Each Sunder is RNG on how great the Sunder effects will have on your character.

that's, not true? :wombatthink: - sunder is fixed per boss and always gives a predetermined amount of debuff, in Ellena's case it's 30% DT

Then how did you get your 70% Sunder that you posted in the past???

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Then how did you get your 70% Sunder that you posted in the past???

what?

Originally posted by Tsel13:

- sunder is fixed per boss and always gives a predetermined amount of debuff

"it depends on the boss"
some bosses have different ranges of sunder: Ravager as example gives 105% DT
it's not fixed to 30% "on all bosses", some bosses have more (and i think a few has a little less?)
it's not even fixed on same enemy class, so ex Calla gives less sunder than Ravager
Benji has 2 different sunders in different amounts (doesn't stack, but tooltip will claim it does), and Aleks has an even higher sunder on his slow Meteor
*and then you get additional scaling based on difficulty too

[Tsel13]

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Then how did you get your 70% Sunder that you posted in the past???

what? :wombatthink:

Originally posted by Tsel13:

- sunder is fixed per boss and always gives a predetermined amount of debuff

"it depends on the boss"
some bosses have different ranges of sunder: Ravager as example gives 105% DT
it's not fixed to 30% "on all bosses", some bosses have more (and i think a few has a little less?)
it's not even fixed on same enemy class, so ex Calla gives less sunder than Ravager
Benji has 2 different sunders in different amounts (doesn't stack, but tooltip will claim it does), and Aleks has an even higher sunder on his slow Meteor
*and then you get additional scaling based on difficulty too

Scroll down to your post where it shows 70%

https://steamcommunity.com/app/219990/discussions/0/5774239504129218154/

NOTE: I'm not arguing. I just believed what was posted previous.
It is a relief to see Sunder does not sunder that high.

[madrigal]

Originally posted by Roseyla:

Does anyone else feel there is something off about this mob?

I've had characters be instagibbed by Ellena twice now. Ever since the first time I can't help but feel paranoid. I took a hardcore character there last night and lost it after about 60% of the way through the fight. I was surprised to be killed so quickly again, but confused this time because I had most of my resists at 80%, with low resists around 60%. Her damage types are physical, cold, and frostburn and I had 80% cold resist, as well as level 14 Maiven's Sphere of Protection (24% dmg reduction) and level 12 Aura of Censure (reduce mob dmg by 15%). I was about level 42 or so with around 5800 health. I still felt squishy here and there to be honest, but to be what appeared 1 shot by a boss? Again? I feel like one of her attacks might be buggy.

Is there something about this boss that I don't understand? Currently, I'd rather just avoid the quest if that's how it's gonna be.

Probably it's DA too low or you need some life steal or health regen. I just went in there with a lvl 38 Druid on Veteran and face-tanked her as usual. I don't even have a merit with this character so no skill pts advantage from the merit.

Here are some numbers for you to compare. My relevant defensive stats are DA = 1200, Armor rating 395 at 90%, gear is all level 24 dross except for a pair of Solael pants. It has 260 health regen (Shaman mastery) and Ghoul devo for life steal. 80% cold res and 0% phys res. 3pts in Maiven's and 2 in Mirror. Health isn't an issue; it never dropped below 70% even after 3 or 4 sunders. 1200 DA is probably overkill, but it's nice to have extra for Veteran difficulty.

She's usually only a problem if you stand in the wrong spot and get clipped by the spouts on top of whatever else she does. Dodging is ok as long as you don't dodge into the bad stuff. Running around in her room is usually not good.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Scroll down to your post where it shows 70%

https://steamcommunity.com/app/219990/discussions/0/5774239504129218154/

NOTE: I'm not arguing. I just believed what was posted previous.
It is a relief to see Sunder does not sunder that high.

2 things
1, that post is old; sunder goes higher now
2, did you read the part, in the post you're replying to; where i wrote "it depends on the boss"??
Elena has 30% sunder, "that doesn't mean all bosses has it", some has more - i'm unsure if there is a couple that has less, but several has more
and, sunder has changed since that post, so some sunder values got dialed up/down, scales with difficulty ie has higher sunder on ultimate now
Ravager and some nemesis might have had 70% sunder during 1.2*playtest*; that doesn't mean those are still the values they have in 1.2.1 live (spoiler, it's higher, ravager now has 105 sunder on Ult and calla has 95%)

[Duck]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Having several hundred hours, I'm familiar with the game and the fight. I don't know if all of you understood that from my perspective, I went from full health to dead, and that with the amount of effort I put into adding physique and boosting my defensive stats meant I was surprised. I completed Veteran Normal on hardcore recently as a fresh start, so no loot or vast collection of recipes, and I ran the one that died self-found as well. Sunder is still relatively new to me, but as noted, this wasn't the first time Ellena killed me that way. Maybe it is nothing.

I'm alright with the idea that sunder got me when combined with a lower DA and AR. I had been eyeing pieces to replace but hadn't felt too pressured yet to make the changes, and then my character died in a split second. I was afraid that'd be how it happened. My goal has been to learn a more hardcore perspective, since I've played mostly softcore on this game. I also wanted to re-familiarize myself with the game and dive into the expansion next year, hardcore!