Dungeon Brutus [yes, now it is a rant]

today was a good day. I proved to myself I can beat Palace Dominus with Main Ranger (not two of them though. that'll have to wait), and there were plenty of low-end uniques dropping from a subsequent low-maps Magic-Find run with the Cyclone Marauder, to fill up Guild Stash.
even gained some Vorici and Haku exp while I was at it.

so switched to my trusty old-fashioned Blender Duelist, and put a Dungeon Map into the map device.
blazed through all of it without any problems. leveled to 70 and picked up a nice life leech node.
time to meet Brutus. he can't be THAT bad, can he?
............
SERIOUSLY?

tiny area. I swear it got even smaller than last time. giant spike traps doing way too much damage and having way too much AoE. blue mobs making it even more "interesting".
got him to about 1/2 life nonetheless, but then it began:
fucking skellies. endless. more of them on screen than in a Coward's Trial.
nowhere to move. damned spike traps and splashes hitting through the crowd. FPS fluctuating between single-digit and absolute zero. Brutus somehow sneaks-in punches to add insult to injury.
dead.
dead.
dead.
dead.
....
no more portals.

does this seem fair? and on a 66 map? I fkn beat Double Merveil in Necropolis, and it wasn't this ridiculous. SERIOUSLY?

I think most problems you have with Brutus is due to low fps and thus losing control over the fight. Shit is dramatically harder when you get situation updates 10-20x less than a steady 60fps would give. Brutus is really slow every attack he does is easily avoided even by melee chars, his skellies just basically give free flask charges.

And GGG does know about performance issues and they're looking to improve them.

"

You got rekt by a tough 66 map boss when you were level 70 with what I'm going to assume is less than optimal gear and you are making a rant about it now?

Lel.

yes, the Duelist's gear is "less than optimal" (guess why), but the exact same character had - in the past - very little trouble with both Orchard Worm, and Fidelitas in Overgrown Ruin.
Brutus is the hardest of the 66 bosses right now, but there is no reason for him to be THIS ridiculous. no reason at all. hence the rant.

EDIT: no. I beat Double Merveil in Necropolis with the Main Ranger, and the same goes for Palace Dominus and - a few months ago - Jungle Valley Weaver.

"

Grughal wrote:

I think most problems you have with Brutus is due to low fps and thus losing control over the fight.

probably, yes.
but you know, with so much crap on the screen all at once, I seriously doubt *anyone* can get 60 FPS in that fight once Brutus "gets serious".

"

And GGG does know about performance issues and they're looking to improve them.

made me laugh, but soon the laughter would turn into crying.
do you seriously believe they are?
do you believe they ever did, besides that one time when they hired a Graphics Engine genius and threw all their code at him, hoping he'll magically fix it all?

Another quality johnKeys thread.

"

johnKeys wrote:

probably, yes.
but you know, with so much crap on the screen all at once, I seriously doubt *anyone* can get 60 FPS in that fight once Brutus "gets serious".

Except anyone with a modern computer that's more or less built for gaming in the past 2 years timeframe or so.

"

johnKeys wrote:

made me laugh, but soon the laughter would turn into crying.
do you seriously believe they are?

Yes, of course they are trying to improve the performance as much as they can. Why would they not? Just to be evil?

You ever tried making your own game with a ready game engine? Ain't so simple, and GGG even did their own engine. Mad respect for that even if it isn't on par with the engines made by these multibillion companies.

And when the performance improvements are implemented, you should not expect to get a smooth experience with a toaster. :/

I'm just letting off steam, Grughal.
I never made a game myself (well, not one that actually uses a graphical engine), but I've been part of the software industry long enough, to appreciate effort.

yes, GGG put lots of effort, in the past.
especially on the core/preliminary versions where "GGG" meant something like 4-5 people in total.
but currently I do believe optimizing the game isn't their first priority, or even the second or third.
if it was, the game would be in a far better state from a technical standpoint, by now.
they are capable of it, but the question is - do they care any more?

Just beat him with lvl 64 melee 2-hand ranger.



and a maul with 146-280 and some light dps. (i think 5200 dps or so)

All of this is self-found in the last 3 days btw, test-running a char for 1 month so not using stash/gear.

He was not that bad, got me down to 20%2x but never really in danger because of my potions.

Peace,

-Boem-

☐ Not Rekt, ☑ Rekt ™

"

Boem wrote:

Just beat him with lvl 64 melee 2-hand ranger.

and a maul with 146-280 and some light dps. (i think 5200 dps or so)

All of this is self-found in the last 3 days btw, test-running a char for 1 month so not using stash/gear.

He was not that bad, got me down to 20%2x but never really in danger because of my potions.

Peace,

-Boem-

I wanted to test this so I just tried with a level 65 two handed sword duelist with 2655 life and 10000 DPS with static strike. My experience was almost exactly like yours, down to low life about two times. I drank this and this , then it was over. The blue pack was a pack of void bearers which also took some life off me.

The question is though, is Brutus too difficult as a level 66 boss? Personally, I don't think so. He is definitely one of the most powerful map bosses but so are weaver and Rime frost (torture chamber) but I always do these bosses when I am over leveled, especially in hard core, and I really like the optional challenge these bosses provide.

Is Brutus unmanageable? Evidently not, so there must be other things to consider here other than his high damage and masses of minions as a boss.

My gear (completely self found)