So... what happens if you fight Vaal Hazak without Miasma Decos?

[chefcook90]

Vaal has always kinda felt like a joke to me, but then again I already had 5 miasma decos piled up in my box even back when I first unlocked his fight.

Does the effluvial buildup make his fight significantly harder, or is he still a joke fight?

As an aside, does he always fire his breath attack from left to right, (right-to-left from Vaal's PoV) or does he mix it up on higher difficulties?

[Mud]

I never used any miasma decos the few times i killed him.So I guess it's still a joke fight? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Suzaku]

The fight can be quite tough. If he focused on keeping the effluvia up throughout the fight, it can result in your needing to nulberry and mega potion like every 20 seconds, even if you're fighting flawlessly.

He also has the two versions where he fires it straight down, either as a wide aoe around him, or just the beam as a surprise wakeup attack after being knocked down.

[Divinity]

it only matters in AT Val afaik, cause the miasma is literally cancer

[♋Phenex]

You don't get your max hp reduced but that can be fixed with a nullberry anyway so it's not needed. I could swear that the death breath is always left to right.

Against AT Vaal miasma decos are needed although maybe not as a ranged user with torch pods.

[Tregrenos]

When I see someone posting the assigned Vaal quest I assume they don't have access to the effluvium resistance and join in with my Hunting Horn to "Negate Abnormal Status", which also includes being stunned by Vaal.

[chefcook90]

Thanks for the quick responses :)

Less time sucking down potions = more time hitting the monster, so I think I'll keep the decos on for now.

I still think it's weird that his attacks are so weak given how slowly he moves, though.

- Xeno and KT?
Move slowly and are easy to hit, but hit stupidly hard with one-shot attacks that basically cover the entire arena.

- Nergi and Teo?
Move fast, hit hard, have tricky armored hitzones, can combo attacks together, and boast a heavy insta-cart attack that you need to watch out for.

- Daora?
Constantly knocks you on your butt and creates mini tornadoes everywhere that screw with your mobility.

- Behemoth?
A combination of all of the above.

- Kirin?
Doesn't hit all that hard, but moves insanely fast and has small hitzones.

- Vaal?
Moves slowly, is easier to read than a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Radobaan, hits about as hard as a Pukei-Pukei, procs Weakness Exploit off nearly every part of his body (which is large enough easily land attacks on, but not so massive that his attacks are hard to avoid), and is for some reason vulnerable to flash bombs despite living in the deepest depths of the Rotten Vale.

I'm just sayin', one of these monsters should probably have their Elder Dragon certification stripped from them and given to Jho instead :B

[Tregrenos]

Originally posted by chefcook90:

Thanks for the quick responses :)

Less time sucking down potions = more time hitting the monster, so I think I'll keep the decos on for now.

I still think it's weird that his attacks are so weak given how slowly he moves, though.

- Xeno and KT?
Move slowly and are easy to hit, but hit stupidly hard with one-shot attacks that basically cover the entire arena.

- Nergi and Teo?
Move fast, hit hard, have tricky armored hitzones, can combo attacks together, and boast a heavy insta-cart attack that you need to watch out for.

- Daora?
Constantly knocks you on your butt and creates mini tornadoes everywhere that screw with your mobility.

- Behemoth?
A combination of all of the above.

- Kirin?
Doesn't hit all that hard, but moves insanely fast and has small hitzones.

- Vaal?
Moves slowly, is easier to read than a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Radobaan, hits about as hard as a Pukei-Pukei, procs Weakness Exploit off nearly every part of his body (which is large enough easily land attacks on, but not so massive that his attacks are hard to avoid), and is for some reason vulnerable to flash bombs despite living in the deepest depths of the Rotten Vale.

I'm just sayin', one of these monsters should probably have their Elder Dragon certification stripped from them and given to Jho instead :B

This is where the AT system shines. While some AT are simply stronger versions of their normal Tempered forms Vaal, Teostra and Xeno have all been tweaked in noticeable ways.

Vaal has lost the "windup" to his beam attack and the beam is much larger. The effluvium, even with resistance, will cause major chip damage and Vaal always spawns in an area with natural effluvium (which has also been beefed in damage) as well as crosses paths with Odogoron. As a final FU to the player Vaal even has a unique sleeping location where instead of his big bone pile he goes to an acid pit, fires a beam at the wall and breaks it, allowing more acid to pour into the area he's sleeping in. Of all the AT he's had the most tweaking and it's a wonderful thing.

Teostra has had a very simple change in that he's been given several close range attacks that are aimed directly at players who are used to fighting normal Teostra, essentially altering his "safe zones" to be all but nill.

Xeno basically starts the fight in the same state it ended with your quest fight, by actually knowing how to control its massive power. You won't see AT Xeno stumbling over it's own feet and it has several devastating new moves. Its ground slam sends out a massive ring around it's body, its learned to sweep its laser instead of just firing in a single direction and it's become much more precise with it's divebomb attack. Hell, the first thing it does when it lands in the area is it roars and destroys all the crystals players were able to run up and get mounts from.

[tag545]

normal vaal isnt really an issue even with the debuff, especially later on with end game armor and health augments you can pretty easily tank through most of his attacks without worry.

he gets to be a little more problematic when tempered. depending on how he roles his damage stat like many tempered monsters he can get pretty close to one shotting you if you dont have health decos slotted in. add in that debuff and you are easily within one shot range for a strong vaal.

at vaal is where its no longer a joke. bad timing at any point can get you killed by the chip damage alone.

for the fight itself i would say that he is an alternative take on luna's the floor is lava game but made easy to be your introduction to the gimmicks to be expected of elder dragons.

to me vaal's most dangerous attack is his general movement. cant say how many times he has killed me when hopping around by having his wings clip me. the one thing i can say about vaal vs the other tempered dragons though is that based from my experience online a vast majority of the player base refuses to fight him without miasma decos at tempered and above unlike the other monsters. you would be surprised at how many people ive seen fight the other tempered monsters while not properly prepared (no windproof, proper resistance or mantle ect) but not vaal, they come ready for vaal and will change their meta build to do it.

[chefcook90]

Alright, that sounds like ACTUAL cancer.

The other AT fights are harder because the monster you're fighting becomes stronger and / or has a better moveset.

It sounds like AT Vaal is harder because the entire Rotten Vale itself is trying to kill you ;/

AT Vaal: "oh by the way, I upgraded my Raphinos pets to a Odogoron LOL"

[Tregrenos]

Originally posted by tag545:

they come ready for vaal and will change their meta build to do it.

Vaal, Kushla and Xeno are the only AT I really changed my setup for. AT or not, I ain't running Vaal without some way to resist that debuff. For Kushla, I used it's normal armor set bonus and built my setup around that so I could stay as close as I want and just Gunlance Shell it to death. Xeno required the Heat Guard charm, limiting my skills to armor only. Might be a bit easier to gear for with the AT Kulve legs having the Heat Guard skill on them.

As for even the Normal Vaal, that unexpected tail swipe hits me half of the time.

[Sifer2]

Like mentioned you pretty much need it on AT Vaal. Especially if you don't have health regen on your weapon. You wont even be able to survive just standing in the first room without constant chugging. On regular or even tempered it's plenty doable without.

[Mr.Hmm]

If you are fighting normal Vaal then you dont need miasma decos, but if you are fighting AT Vaal then yes its mandatory to have miasma decos.

[CourtesyFlush09]

Be prepared to taste the ground... a lot.

[Tregrenos]

Originally posted by CourtesyFlush90:

Be prepared to taste the ground... a lot.

It tastes like death... Figuratively and literally.

[~KeNnEtH~]

If you are talking about regular and tempered Vaal Hazak, you really just need an immunity mantle. I do run Divine Blessing on my general build and it goes off like a spoilt buzzer so that may have help quite a bit too.

If you are talking about Arch Tempered Vaal Hazak then fighting without the 3 levels of Effuvial Resistance is like fighting in quick sand and likely gonna lead to a quick death too since it deals damage like crazy even just by standing there