Bolvar - Damage types?

[Alizarin Crimson]

I just met Bolvar, the Bloodbinder (in the Blood Grove) - we had fun. Not really; he died. The fight was rather difficult, took quite a while and I feel that I only managed it without dying because I was lucky, not because of skill. Also, my Briarthorn did most of the work.
I assume he deals chaos damage. But which damage type is the attack that freezes me for about 3 seconds (not freeze as in cold, it's more of a "turning into stone" kind of thing), sometimes twice in a row? I assume it doesn't count as stun? I didn't see a debuff symbol either. He also has a spell that he casts on you, it's sort of a yellow/orange skull symbol, unfortunately I didn't manage to read the debuff description before it disappeared, I think it said something about strength. Any way to protect against that?

I know there's a Bolvar bounty and I'd like to be prepared for the next time I meet him. My character could handle the chaos damage, the main danger was the freezing because that left me open to attacks from everyone - not just Bolvar, but his many minions too.

Thanks!

[Fendelphi]

Some would claim that luck is a skill as well. ;)
It derives most of it's potency on habits and nature of the person in question. "you have to earn your luck".


Not sure what damage types he is using though. Anyway, damage absorbtion abilities and abilities that completely stops damage(I know of 2) are the best to counter such attacks.
I just wish that the really dangerous attacks like that were telegraphed slightly longer(0.1) so that you feel like you can actually react to it a bit better.

[Alizarin Crimson]

Thanks for your answer!

You have a point about luck being a skill. It even is in some games (Fallout 3 and NV for example). :)

Damage absorption: I'm playing as a shaman, the skill Primal Bond does have damage absorption. However, so far I only have one point invested, but I'm planning on spending some more points on that ability which will give me more damage absorption and hopefully make some of the encounters easier.

I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between chaos damage and vitality damage - any advice? I just killed Zaria, the Caver - I'm not exactly sure whether he dealt vitality damage or chaos damage or both.

[Zarkrash]

It's likely both. That said, bolvar freezing you is probably a result of him having spawned with an item that either gives him freeze retaliation or freeze on hit.

[DeadByDefault]

Well, I haven't been able to touch, let alone kill Bolvar with my shaman so far. He literally kills me with one hit before I can even attack him. Thing is, I can kill everything else with one to two hits, I have insane health regeneration and an insane amount of armor, but apparently that doesn't really bother him at all: he shoots, I'm dead.

Any advice?

[DeMasked]

Bolvar I believe deals mostly chaos and vitality damage so having resistance to those damage types is quite useful.

He might use a curse as well though I'm not entirely sure, however he will have an ability that has him charge up to unleash a projectile that spawns other projectiles - if you get hit with this you can then get hit by the other projectiles that come out which will deal a lot of damage.

Plus he can summon stuff as well.