Help against Izaro Merciless

Hey,

Only recently have I started to put more time on PoE so I'm still pretty unknown about the several mechanics of this game.

I recently hitted a wall on my Level 82 Multishot Evasion Ranger. Izaro os merciless hits pretty hard and every hit I fail to miss is almost an instant dead. This gets more complicate on phase 3 where the space to kite is much smaller.

Is there any good tips what can improve my toughness in this fight? I think I've a decent defense already so I'm not sure if that is the problem. Other than Izaro, the lab is a piece of cake.

Thanks in advance.

The fight is harder for evasion based characters because any error usually results in death.

You can carry Basalt flasks to help reduce damage(or granite since you get 2 uses).

One trick I used was to self cast Immortal Call. If you also use Enduring cry to get 1-3 charges, this gives you a window of time where you can attack. Instead of being used defensively, you use it offensively by casting it and then attacking, knowing that you're safe for that brief period.

Also I recommend going in on a day where he has the 2handed mace, it's significantly easier to do than dual swords.

Use Arctic Armor if you don't already have it.

My Berserker can deal with Izaro no problem. The 100% leech and a pool of at least 5k life is sufficient.

I got two rangers through on Iron Reflexes and a granite flask of Iron Skin. My current, evasion based ranger (level 75 ice shot) got stomped twice by merc Izaro. The second time I got halfway through phase three before one hit took me out. Granted, he had charges the past two days and I missed killing the ice golem so my damage was pitiful. I generally have been fairly lucky while my



has been available. I'm going to try again tonight and see if the helper mechanics are easier to deal with. I'm thinking about spec-ing into IR for the lab and them back into acro/phase acro afterwards.


One thing that helped with my other two rangers was having a siege ballista to keep doing damage while I am running. This is my particular setup.


I'll be curious to hear how you do and how you did it.


Hit me up in game if you want to try to tag team him.


wolf

What is your HP? If it is 3k or less that is why you are dying in one hit.

If it is 4k+, then you can survive 1 hit pretty easily and pot back up.

If it's between those two then it is possible but pretty difficult.

You should take him on today. He's not bad. I just killed the shit out of him with 3.8K life and 49% evade chance.

Conduits on the first fight.
Gargoyles on the second.

Spikes and darts on the third.


Good luck!



wolf

"

You should take him on today. He's not bad. I just killed the shit out of him with 3.8K life and 49% evade chance.

Conduits on the first fight.
Gargoyles on the second.

Spikes and darts on the third.


Good luck!



wolf

WHAT
THE
FUCK
conduits 4th day in a row??!
GGG WTF DO YOU SMOKE BITCHES

"

Norseman wrote:

Hey,

Only recently have I started to put more time on PoE so I'm still pretty unknown about the several mechanics of this game.

I recently hitted a wall on my Level 82 Multishot Evasion Ranger. Izaro os merciless hits pretty hard and every hit I fail to miss is almost an instant dead. This gets more complicate on phase 3 where the space to kite is much smaller.

Is there any good tips what can improve my toughness in this fight? I think I've a decent defense already so I'm not sure if that is the problem. Other than Izaro, the lab is a piece of cake.

Thanks in advance.

Hello there!

I assume your character is the Bow Raider. Here are some thing I've noticed, that should help you:

- You need more life rolls on your eq.

In most cases, you should sacrifice any damage/DPS from armor pieces, and focus on life (if you are life build). In general, the most desirable mods are: highest possible life rolls/chaos res (since you can only get max of 30/35% on each piece).

- Using too many uniques can be bad for your character

At this point, you should consider changing your belt. At bases damage level of your bow, adding additional 5-15 psych damage won't help much. Same goes to % life - end-game character tend to have at least 190% max life from tree. With that high amount, flat life roll on your belt (and belts can have even 100+ life) will help much more than 10%. Not to mention you are missing a lot of resistances from it.

- You should always cap your resistances.

I'm not sure if it is the case, or not (because I'm too lazy to add it up :P) you should always have your resistances at 75%... in maps, this includes chaos res (caping is not required, but safer. You should be at at least 50%, tho). A note here: having 50% resistance, instead of 75% is double damage taken, since you are not taking 25% of the damage, but 50%. When possible, you should consider overcapping you resistances, so you are not affected by Curses which decrease elemental resistances.

- You should have at least ~190% max life, as life character

You can get away with having less, in some cases, but in most you want to have at least that. You are currently at 163%, which ain't too bad, but still a little low.

As bonus notes to your passive skill tree:

Take Phase Acrobatics. There is no reason not to - it is additional free defenses (not to mention evasion characters are quite vulnerable to spells). :P
About your skill setup:
You have only one functional skill in your setup: Split arrow (which could use some improvement too :P).
I'd recommend 5-linking your bow, using Jeweller's Touch (unless you can afford better one), and using Trap setup for bosses. It goes like this: Puncture - Trap - More Trap and Mine Damage - Point Blank - Psy Proj Damage
You throw the trap, boss gets hit by Puncture for one massive hit, and then bleeds out as you DPS. It is great for bosses who move a lot (Izaro is one of them).

About your Split Arrow setup - using Faster Attacks is usually not a great idea. All Increased bonuses are additive. You currently have 77% Increased attack speed from the tree, meaning additional 44% doesn't do as much. Taking Faster Attacks is most beneficial if you don't have much Increased Attack speed from the tree/charges/eq/whatever. If you do, it is usually better idea to take something else. (not to mention you are increasing your mana usage, since you are attacking more frequently).

Also: Chain has a Less multiplier. It means that it takes away 35% of your DPS, and isn't very useful for single target. I'd recommend using Pierce instead (which has More multiplier, and deals with packs just as well).

You could always also use Blast Rain setup as your 5L for single target - but you need a way better setup for that. :P

Critical strike note:

If you are going for Critical Strike, it is usually a good idea to have Increased Critical Damage in your setup - Multiplier does wonders, DPS wise, if you have high crit chance. :P

Sooo... that is stuff from top of my head. Maybe I'll add more, if I come up with something useful.

Good luck!

Hey guys,

Thanks for the amazing feedback. Specially @Perq who wrote an amazing detailed analysis. I appreciate the time took to help a follow exile.

Since I'm new I've been following LiftingNerdBro guide for Ranger.

My unbuffed stats:

Life: 3548hp
Evasion: 7726
Armour: 518

Fire Res: 103%
Cold Res: 55%
Ligh Res: 84%
Chaos Res: -45%

DPS: 5969.22
Crit Chance: 30%
Crit Mult: 287%

"

Perq wrote:

I assume your character is the Bow Raider.

Correct.

"

Perq wrote:

- You need more life rolls on your eq.

In most cases, you should sacrifice any damage/DPS from armor pieces, and focus on life (if you are life build). In general, the most desirable mods are: highest possible life rolls/chaos res (since you can only get max of 30/35% on each piece).

Alright. This seems to be a very consensus problem. I thought chaos was not that important. Guess I was wrong. Will this resistance significantly help me on Izaro ?

"

Perq wrote:

- Using too many uniques can be bad for your character

At this point, you should consider changing your belt. At bases damage level of your bow, adding additional 5-15 psych damage won't help much. Same goes to % life - end-game character tend to have at least 190% max life from tree. With that high amount, flat life roll on your belt (and belts can have even 100+ life) will help much more than 10%. Not to mention you are missing a lot of resistances from it.

I have that belt since very early in the game. I've been wanting to replace it for a long time but I have to reduce the strength requirements on my gems to be able to replace it. Will make this a priority.

"

Perq wrote:

- You should always can your resistances.

I'm not sure if it is the case, or not (because I'm too lazy to add it up :P) you should always have your resistances at 75%... in maps, this includes chaos res (caping is not required, but safer. You should be at at least 50%, tho). A note here: having 50% resistance, instead of 75% is double damage taken, since you are not taking 25% of the damage, but 50%. When possible, you should consider overcapping you resistances, so you are not affected by Curses which decrease elemental resistances.

Yeah, I've always tried to keep my resistances high, I noticed very quickly their importance. Just thought chaos was not that important.

"

Perq wrote:

- You should have at least ~190% max life, as life character

You can get away with having less, in some cases, but in most you want to have at least that. You are currently at 163%, which ain't too bad, but still a little low.

Life increase. Will do.

"

Perq wrote:

As bonus notes to your passive skill tree:

Take Phase Acrobatics. There is no reason not to - it is additional free defenses (not to mention evasion characters are quite vulnerable to spells). :P

The build i'm following didn't pick it so I thought it wasn't really worth it.

"

Perq wrote:

About your skill setup:
You have only one functional skill in your setup: Split arrow (which could use some improvement too :P).

I've been thinking on increasing the quality of some of my gems. Should I do it ?

"

Perq wrote:

I'd recommend 5-linking your bow, using Jeweller's Touch (unless you can afford better one)

I don't think I can since it is corrupted it.

"

Perq wrote:

, and using Trap setup for bosses. It goes like this: Puncture - Trap - More Trap and Mine Damage - Point Blank - Psy Proj Damage
You throw the trap, boss gets hit by Puncture for one massive hit, and then bleeds out as you DPS. It is great for bosses who move a lot (Izaro is one of them).

I'll try that.

"

Perq wrote:

About your Split Arrow setup - using Faster Attacks is usually not a great idea. All Increased bonuses are additive. You currently have 77% Increased attack speed from the tree, meaning additional 44% doesn't do as much. Taking Faster Attacks is most beneficial if you don't have much Increased Attack speed from the tree/charges/eq/whatever. If you do, it is usually better idea to take something else. (not to mention you are increasing your mana usage, since you are attacking more frequently).

Also: Chain has a Less multiplier. It means that it takes away 35% of your DPS, and isn't very useful for single target. I'd recommend using Pierce instead (which has More multiplier, and deals with packs just as well).

Again, I was basically following a build blind. I might try some different variants and see what works better.

"

Perq wrote:

You could always also use Blast Rain setup as your 5L for single target - but you need a way better setup for that. :P

Blast Rain is suppose to be my single target go-to skill but it is kind of slow and it doesn't work very well against very quick bosses.

"

Perq wrote:

Critical strike note:If you are going for Critical Strike, it is usually a good idea to have Increased Critical Damage in your setup - Multiplier does wonders, DPS wise, if you have high crit chance. :P

That is the goal but, well, perfect gear is hard to find. :)

"

Perq wrote:

Sooo... that is stuff from top of my head. Maybe I'll add more, if I come up with something useful.

Good luck!

Thanks mate. I really appreciate it.

"

Namcap wrote:

The fight is harder for evasion based characters because any error usually results in death.

You can carry Basalt flasks to help reduce damage(or granite since you get 2 uses).

One trick I used was to self cast Immortal Call. If you also use Enduring cry to get 1-3 charges, this gives you a window of time where you can attack. Instead of being used defensively, you use it offensively by casting it and then attacking, knowing that you're safe for that brief period.

Also I recommend going in on a day where he has the 2handed mace, it's significantly easier to do than dual swords.

A good evasion charachter has enough life to take one big hit and then heals up to full before the next big hit. That's the basic foundation of any evasion build.

The guy sitting atop izaro shoots green fire balls so the fight is not all physical.