Witch lab advice needed & complaint (HC)

(1) I`m playing a rather low-life summoner, focusing on my ES. About 2-3 chars died to normal-lab-traps (with 2-3k+ ES).
there are no flasks for ES, so what am I to do in a 30 second long trap sequence? be perfect?
I`m not having problems with Izaro, the ones that made it through the lab destroyed him. its the traps.

(2) I like challenges and I run HC chars to merc, but I truly don't understand what this super-meat-boy like thing is doing in a hack-and-slash. Especially when the fun thing about supermeatboy games (and I love them) is to play the level a 100 times to perfect it. not 1-time-oh-you-died-oh-well. Why isn't the lab like the arena for HC?

And its not like I can choose not to do them. These points are too important.
It's like saying to a student "you`ll get extra grade in this course if you can pole jump 5m". The student pole-jumpers will love it.. the rest?


Does anybody feel like me? is it just me? and any witch tips? (do witches run uberlabs anyway?).

In a 30s long trap sequence with no gaps to hide in to recharge at all, and no alternative route (usually there is an alternate route), then yes, you have to either be perfect, or just cheat and use movement skills and quicksilvers. TBH, in HC, if I saw a 30s endless trap sequence, and couldn't find another way around, and there were no safe spaces, then I'd probably just portal out, and wait until the layout changed.

Another option is to take your auras off and just use health pots on your health for the trap zones. It's not like those characters need the extra damage in normal labs. You can even wear non-ES gear for those sections if you are finding them really tough.

but there ARE sequences in which you have to run through, say, a long section with saws and spikes one after the other. and seeing as you don't see the end, mostly - you just run and hope for the best.
Its not like I can get "an overview" of the sequence ahead and plan. its literally a gamble.
Sometimes the saws and spike-poles aren't even synced. it gets really really hard for me to run through these things (b/c I need to react in real-time, due to the lack of "overview").

Today for example: 3 ground spikes -> a "resting place" which actually had a saw that hurt you every 3-4 seconds (I guess that I can max ES recharge rate here) -> followed by another set whose end I couldn't see. I quickly loggedout in the middle.

The trap gauntlets like that are re-used often, so you will get used to them. Once you do, you will often see there are ways to beat each on that you had missed first time around. Check, for eg, that you aren't standing on a pressure plate to activate the saws for eg.

I agree it would be nice if you could see the whole gauntlet the first time. I'm not sure I totally agree with you about them being compulsory, though. Even if there's no way around it in that map, maybe there is another way to get to the aspirant's trial through a different map. Or sometimes there is a secret passage somewhere.

PS: For saws and spike polls, I often feel like I need to avoid them at all costs, and end up running away from them into a worse situation. What I've found is that you can wait for them, and run through them as they come towards you, without taking very much damage. Often it's easier to do it this way.

I'm generally okay with labyrinth and its traps, but those gauntlets where you have to go in blind are annoying. In the dungeon-type areas the light radius is so small you can only see two spike traps ahead. And often enough the spikes are sequenced to rise up in a quick succession against your traveling direction. Just pray there's a safe spot somewhere after them.

For those of us who don't use a wide screen monitor you see even less.

Anyway, check into high regen. Unless you are going it at low level, you don't need to worry about dps. Swap things out. Regen/life from gear. Use stone golem, vitaility, and even regen totems. A lot of people use devouring totems, but I haven't tried that yet. Even if you don't normally have much regen, just swapping out a few things can make the traps much more survivable. I can stand in spike traps and go afk. Other more dangerous traps become less dangerous. You can still get killed but it's more forgiving of mistakes.

In the end, I think I have a solution for now:
I have a dead, similar build, high lvl char, which died. so I played the maze a lot of times with her today, and now I know the sequences. that's the "try a hundred times an then succeed" approach I`m used to in rouge-like things.
So if anyone is having problems like me in the maze: try killing a merc char to get better at the lab :P

thanks for all the advices, I`ll use them :-)