Is Cruel Piety a bit of a difficulty spike?

First of all, I don't mean to whine or anything, I just wonder if other people have had the same experience I'm having.

I just started playing the game, and I'm making a Crit Cold Witch as my first character. Normal was all about grasping the mechanics and learning the game, just Normal stuff. Then I started Cruel and it's been all fun and games, I just pretty much freeze everything to death. But that was until I came down to Piety...

Seriously, I'm getting my ass handed to me Brazil vs Germany style. It might be the biggest difficulty spike I've faced in a game, from a walk in the park to being so humiliated I cried myself to sleep last night. The Lightening form is not so scary, but she seems to be aware of that, as she never goes Lightning against me. The Ice form is scary as Jack Nicholson in The Shining, but at least you have some pillars to hide from the arrows. But then there is the Fire form... Really dude, that thing runs in the speed of sound, I can't seem to outspeed it even with Quicksilver Flask (although I might just be messing up), and neither can I tank it. When she goes Fire form, I literally just give up, as I can't even reach the town portal before she goes Spanish Inquisition on my witchy ass.

And before you ask, yes, I've made the rookie mistake of going DPS instead of life in the beginning. But that doesn't really dismiss the "difficulty spike" argument.

So, have you other people also experienced it? Are there some characters that can have an easy time against her? Which?

Oh, and before I forget, can the Fire and Ice forms be frozen? I had an easy time against Vaal Oversoul, but it didn't seem like he was freezable, and neither do Piety elemental forms. Is there such a thing as unfreezabe enemies?

Fire form is pretty easily outrunnable, actually. Obviously not while she's moving, but as long as you have some sort of movespeed bonus (boots are enough), and DON'T STOP, the delay in her attack animation should mean that you get out of range of her attack in between her stopping and swinging.

Other than that, how are your resists? Shoring those up will help a ton if you're still getting whooped.

Re: freezing, almost nothing is unfreezable. However, freeze is based on waht % of the mob's life you're dealing in cold damage per hit, so it can be hard to freeze mobs with a LOT of life.

Oh, thanks for the tip. I think I just freak out too much when she is coming to spank me. I'll try this overrun stuff. As for resistances, I think just Cold resist is enough, unless the Fire form deals fire damage along with the physical damage. My cold resist is capped.

Fire form is half fire half phys, or something like that.

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Monsieur_Madeline wrote:

Oh, thanks for the tip. I think I just freak out too much when she is coming to spank me. I'll try this overrun stuff. As for resistances, I think just Cold resist is enough, unless the Fire form deals fire damage along with the physical damage. My cold resist is capped.

You should be capped on all 3 resists.
Run when you can, stay out of the cold shot (hide behind the pillars/body piles to avoid)
I face tank her when I can and dodge the rest, I alos like to come in with Vaal Skeletons or a Totem for help.

not sure why no one mentioned lightning resists.

piety does a lot of lit damage....

I find Cruel Dominus can be bit of a difficulty spike. Piety, not so much. A typical build will mostly shut down at least one of her special forms (Ondar's Guile beats ice form, armour build can tank the fire form), and the lightning isn't too dangerous if you cap your resists. If you have high DPS, you might like to pre-emptively destroy her fire/ice circles.

One thing to bear in mind when making a Witch: A build focusing on Energy Shield is a solid enough choice in Merciless, but if you try to wear full ES gear at low levels or when your gear is not that great, you'll end up in the worst of both worlds due to mediocre HP and no mitigation (because you're not wearing armour/evasion gear).

The good news is that Act 1 Merciless is generally easier than the closing stages of Act 3 Cruel, so you get a bit of a rest afterwards. Generally speaking it's plain sailing until you get to Brutus, and you can farm the Ledge for a while to level up before pressing on.

Having played Crit Cold Witch as my first char, I understand your trouble. Nothing can be done about it, since most builds got trouble with one or two boss anyway unless you invest a bit currency.

In this case, as suggested above, try to cap res, more life, surgeon's flask always on, etc. against her (do you know that surgeon granite flask (with iron skin, if possible) is crit caster's best friend? Grab 1-2 against heavy hitter like her fire form!). You can just literally throw yourself against her anyway, she can't regen!

In my experience, summoners are pretty good against her since the minions will easily destroy her portals with a bit pre-casting (or simply rushing if you got high lv gems and 5-6 links at that time).

Respect 3 points into 3 lifes nodes that are immediately nearby. If not, nevermind. (You should gain about 15% extra health, which is very useful in cruel).

Then stack health amulets, rings and belts. If you don't have some decent ones, try masters crafting but don't burn too much currency.

You can beat piety with negative ice resists, since her ice form isn't worth tanking in most cases. Stacking health and quicksilver flask (get movement speed affix if you're not confident) will withstand the fire form if your fire resists is decent (above 33% is okay, not ideal but will do). Maximum lightning resist is mandatory.

Piety fire form is very scary if you cannot tank it, but if you constantly quicksilver flasks you will withstand her glancing blows. Use your moderate health pool to heal up as much as possible until her fire form ends. Teleport out once you run out of quicksilvers or health pots. From experience, running piety with no armour/evasion and 25% fire resist, you only need 1.5k health to survive one fire phase (about 3 hits).

When running away from fire form, run away in a straight line when she strikes, or you might take more hits than necessary.


Oh and, if you have dps troubles, just overlevel a bit. Spellcasters gain a lot of damage from levels. and much less from equipment.

Thank very much you all. I didn't have a clue we can actually break the portals, haha.