Can't Get past Act II Bosses

[TheTick]

I know I suck, I am a dad gamer casual, but for some reason I am having way more issues with this game than any other. I am currently running a level 24 sorc. I have played through lots of hard games, including the darksouls games, bloodborne, elden ring, been playing since the 80's, FPS, MMORPGs all the Diablo AARPG'S etc. I dunno why this is the one game I can't beat a boss. I am just rawdogging a spark mage with firewall and orbs, but I have seen other peeps doing pretty well with this build. I am not worried about endgame. It took me like 8 or 10 attempts to kill Rudja, and it must have taken me 10 minutes to do it, when I finally succeeded. Same for a few others. Currently stuck on balboa and rathbraker, can't get anywhere. I can fight them and survive until my life flask is empty and then they eventually one or two shot me. Flame away if you must, but can anyone suggest any big thing I am missing? I have the best equipment I can find, all rares, it's a bit chaotic mess of armor, energy shield, evasion and movement speed, a little bit of resistance, I used some currency orbs to upgrade the rares etc., have all my passives allocated, with a lot of int (maybe not enough str, but it is sorc - that could be a problem though, low life). I dunno, but I am outta ideas.

Here are my stats:
str 24
dex 26
int 62

life 462
energy shield 23
mana 347
spirit 30

armor 30%
evasion 6%
block 25%

resists:
fire 25%
cold 22%
lighting -10% (I know, but not dying to lightning)
chaos - 0%


HELP!

[Millertyme]

HP is a little low but we talking like 100 difference here. Your stats really dont matter here: Str,Dex,Int. Armour Evasion and block is fine for where you are story wise.
Act 2 boss is Fire/Lightning and you have 25% Fire and -10% lightning. Address this get Fire to 60+ and Lightning 60+ and boss will be a joke to you. He doesn't use cold so you could temp replace whatever item has your cold with fire or lightning and then swap back after you kill the boss. Try getting a Fire and Lightning resist rings, maybe a neck. Even if it looks weaker then what you have you can swap back after the fight but you desperately need to address the resistances

EDIT: IM AN IDIOT. I ASSUMED YOU WERE ON LAST BOSS. I NEED TO READ MORE.
Still fix those resistances, everything else seems fine for start of act 2

[Drey]

Use the trading site.
Get some okish gear for some regals (focus on res / max hp)

Once you reached a specific amount of max mana & lvl you´ll have 1 max hp anyway.
but all dmg gets taken from mana first

[ATCbazzer]

I'm going through on Sorc. For act 2 and beyond I went full freeze. Prob need to respec, try to get to the the bunch of cold skills right at the top of the tree. Freeze everything, and then freeze it some more. I use a staff with the frost shotgun skill to freeze bosses super fast then unload all my dps into them.

I use frost bomb, the frost shotgun, hypothermia, firewall, lightning orb and sparks.

Try to get as much cast speed as possible, even if it means downgrading from rare rings to just regular blue etc, it'll pay off.

[Death_Adder]

First off, I got to say, I love your gamertag, The Tick. I loved the animated show and the live action shows. Mostly why I ended up getting Prime because the streaming service got the Tick for a few seasons. So, SPOON, to you Tick.

As for your Sorc problem, I main a Sorc and you definitely need to over level her before you take on any major bosses. I believe I was level 24 before I even beat the Act 1 boss.

I started as a Frost Mage but quickly changed to run all elements using the Frost Bomb, Solar Orb, and Storm Orb close together. After those spells, I use Fire Wall in a circle around the Orbs and stand in the circle blasting away with Sparks and Frost Orbs. Against bosses, I usually set the orbs with the Fire Wall, and run using my Glacial Staff to shoot and run as well.

I really like playing the Sorc but she does die quickly. I just got creamed by Mr. Big Bad Silverfist Quadape. He one shots me every time and its quite annoying. I know I need to level up some more and tackle it later. Doesn't make it any less frustrating though.

[HunApo]

Sounds more like a dps issue.
Those stats are also kinda insane, how can you have 30% armor while having no STR and also 6% evasion with no DEX?
Spark alone should be more than enough to handle the boss, unless you have no weapon and no support gems (or completely wrong support gems)

[TheTick]

Thanks, these are some good ideas.

Originally posted by ATCbazzer:

I'm going through on Sorc. For act 2 and beyond I went full freeze. Prob need to respec, try to get to the the bunch of cold skills right at the top of the tree. Freeze everything, and then freeze it some more. I use a staff with the frost shotgun skill to freeze bosses super fast then unload all my dps into them.

I use frost bomb, the frost shotgun, hypothermia, firewall, lightning orb and sparks.

Try to get as much cast speed as possible, even if it means downgrading from rare rings to just regular blue etc, it'll pay off.

I actually started leveling up a cold sorc for just this reason, and it was way easier to play up until the final boss in act I Count Geonor - which was a real pain for my spark mage too. So now that one is stuck as well, lol.

Originally posted by Death_Adder:

First off, I got to say, I love your gamertag, The Tick. I loved the animated show and the live action shows. Mostly why I ended up getting Prime because the streaming service got the Tick for a few seasons. So, SPOON, to you Tick.

As for your Sorc problem, I main a Sorc and you definitely need to over level her before you take on any major bosses. I believe I was level 24 before I even beat the Act 1 boss.

I started as a Frost Mage but quickly changed to run all elements using the Frost Bomb, Solar Orb, and Storm Orb close together. After those spells, I use Fire Wall in a circle around the Orbs and stand in the circle blasting away with Sparks and Frost Orbs. Against bosses, I usually set the orbs with the Fire Wall, and run using my Glacial Staff to shoot and run as well.

I really like playing the Sorc but she does die quickly. I just got creamed by Mr. Big Bad Silverfist Quadape. He one shots me every time and its quite annoying. I know I need to level up some more and tackle it later. Doesn't make it any less frustrating though.

I think your idea of over leveling is good, but my problem is, once I get to a boss, I can't get to a higher level area to level without beating the boss, and repeating the latest instance gets to be really slow for leveling. That is how I got past the act I and the early act II bosses though, so maybe I will do that some more.

And yah, the TIck was great! Was bummed when that one ended.

[Darkrayne]

Originally posted by HunApo:

Sounds more like a dps issue.
Those stats are also kinda insane, how can you have 30% armor while having no STR and also 6% evasion with no DEX?
Spark alone should be more than enough to handle the boss, unless you have no weapon and no support gems (or completely wrong support gems)

STR and DEX do not give Armour and Evasion Rating... they give Life Points and Accuracy Points.

Probably just has some evasion and armour on gear.

[Mister Wiggles]

All the act 2 bosses are anti-range. In fact alot of the bosses in this game are anti range.

Get close, throw off a couple of attacks then dodge. Sorc is super squishy end game so Act 2 will be rough.

Are you in standard trade league? I can probably give you a couple of uniques that might help you. I do have a spare amulet that is bis for sorc if you want it. Im pretty much done with Sorc at this point so I wouldn't miss it.

[HunApo]

Originally posted by Darkrayne:

Originally posted by HunApo:

Sounds more like a dps issue.
Those stats are also kinda insane, how can you have 30% armor while having no STR and also 6% evasion with no DEX?
Spark alone should be more than enough to handle the boss, unless you have no weapon and no support gems (or completely wrong support gems)

STR and DEX do not give Armour and Evasion Rating... they give Life Points and Accuracy Points.

Probably just has some evasion and armour on gear.

You need STR/DEX to equip armor pieces that gives armour/evasion.
Only rings can roll flat evasion and only belts can give you flat armour value, but at level 24 your jewelry slots can give maybe that 6% evasion, but for sure not the 30% armor unless you gloves/helmet/boots/body armor also gives, in which case you cant equip them because those will need STR/DEX

[Darkrayne]

Originally posted by HunApo:

Originally posted by Darkrayne:

STR and DEX do not give Armour and Evasion Rating... they give Life Points and Accuracy Points.

Probably just has some evasion and armour on gear.

You need STR/DEX to equip armor pieces that gives armour/evasion.
Only rings can roll evasion and only belts can give you flat armour value, but at level 24 your gear can give maybe that 6% evasion, but for sure not the 30% armor

Lvl 16 Armour/Evasion gear only needs 20 STR and DEX or less, depending on which slot. Might have some stuff with reduced attribute requirements too.

[HunApo]

Originally posted by Darkrayne:

Originally posted by HunApo:

You need STR/DEX to equip armor pieces that gives armour/evasion.
Only rings can roll evasion and only belts can give you flat armour value, but at level 24 your gear can give maybe that 6% evasion, but for sure not the 30% armor

Lvl 16 Armour/Evasion gear only needs 20 STR and DEX or less, depending on which slot.

True, but why would you put on armour/evasion gear on a mage when you have no nodes to boost evasion/armour?
By lvl 24, you can have 100+% ES increase from passive tree nodes easily and if you have any extra ES rolled on your gear, that would easily push that ES number above the 460 life.

[Mister Wiggles]

Originally posted by HunApo:

Originally posted by Darkrayne:

Lvl 16 Armour/Evasion gear only needs 20 STR and DEX or less, depending on which slot.

True, but why would you put on armour/evasion gear on a mage when you have no nodes to boost evasion/armour?
By lvl 24, you can have 100% ES increase from passive tree nodes easily and if you have any extra ES rolled on your gear, that would easily push that ES number above the 460 life.

Yeah, Sorc is stupidly easy to scale ES early on. I honestly don't know why you'd force armour or evasion. OP could probably pick up a ghostwrithe real cheap and he'll be super comfy. Hell I got a spare if he needs one.

[Darkrayne]

Originally posted by HunApo:

Originally posted by Darkrayne:

Lvl 16 Armour/Evasion gear only needs 20 STR and DEX or less, depending on which slot.

True, but why would you put on armour/evasion gear on a mage when you have no nodes to boost evasion/armour?
By lvl 24, you can have 100+% ES increase from passive tree nodes easily and if you have any extra ES rolled on your gear, that would easily push that ES number above the 460 life.

Probably just an inexperienced player (with PoE). Tbh they should have an energy shield as big as their life pool by now and have it start recharging earlier and at a faster rate, like you say. OP, look into that.

[Mister Wiggles]

Originally posted by Darkrayne:

Originally posted by HunApo:

True, but why would you put on armour/evasion gear on a mage when you have no nodes to boost evasion/armour?
By lvl 24, you can have 100+% ES increase from passive tree nodes easily and if you have any extra ES rolled on your gear, that would easily push that ES number above the 460 life.

Probably just an inexperienced player. Tbh they should have an energy shield as big as their life pool by now and have it start recharging earlier and at a faster rate, like you say. OP, look into that.

Yeah, my bad for not really thinking about their experience level. The game even in this simpler state is still quite complex.

Again though, I don't mind giving him some basic gear to get him going in the right direction. A ghostwrithe and a couple decent rings will probably make the world of difference and I have my old sorc leveling gear still on hand so he is in luck if he wants to take me up on it.

[Johnny_Hotbody]

Originally posted by Mister Wiggles:

All the act 2 bosses are anti-range. In fact alot of the bosses in this game are anti range.

Get close, throw off a couple of attacks then dodge. Sorc is super squishy end game so Act 2 will be rough.

Are you in standard trade league? I can probably give you a couple of uniques that might help you. I do have a spare amulet that is bis for sorc if you want it. Im pretty much done with Sorc at this point so I wouldn't miss it.

This x10. I early on i remember struggling with the act 2 bosses. Tried to keep my distance to better telegraph the attacks, but once I realized you could basically stand on their toes and wail on them it was a cake walk.