(Cruel) Izaro basically ruined the game for me...What can I even do?

I wanted to play a melee Marauder. Stupid I know, because the only good thing in this game is energy shield, spells and totems. (Unless you have 100 ex to spend, at least.)

My build so far

Level 58, my gear isn't too bad (Can you view my gear? Don't remember how these forums work, or how/if I need to link it.) considering I don't have masses of currency to spend.

Normal / Cruel were easy, Normal lab wasn't hard, but Izaro sure is tanky...

Now I'm in Merciless I actually forgot about Cruel Lab, so I went back to do it...

Normal enemies? No problem. Everything = no problem. Except for Izaro.

He has waaaay too much HP and hits like a truck regardless of distance, including teleporting me repeatedly onto spikes.

What can I even do?

Resign myself to playing a stupid Meta-ES build because they're so overpowered?

How the hell would a player using purely self-found items even stand a hope in hell of beating Izaro on Cruel?

Getting someone else to kill him defeats the point of playing the game, but I can see why people just go to Merciless and pay someone to do Lab. for them. It's just not fun to get kicked out because of Izaro's BS.

I can't face tank him. I can't dodge his attacks because he just spams them over and over. If I try and recover a little? Nope, teleported onto spikes where he begins to spam me with his ranged-slash.

Feel utterly disheartened at the difficulty spike of this boss, like: what's the point in continuing if I can't beat Cruel Izaro? My character is basically fatally flawed since he certainly won't ever be able to beat Meciless Izaro let alone uber Lab.

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I'd recommend to get familiar with the izaro encounter before attempting him. If he is powered up by the buffs he get's alot stronger.

After all it's also a skill based fight. Manually dodging his attacks and the traps is the key to success. You can also ask a friend or for help in the global chat.

You should be fine on cruel Izaro with a left side melee if you got some 2500 life, fortify, a bit of armor and 4-5 endurance charges. If you can cap only one res it will have to be fire because of goddess' mortar attack. Unfortunately, you're missing charges and that's quite a large survivability hit, contrary to the popular opinion you should think of armor as a boost to charges, not the opposite, they are the bread and butter of the left side.

Of course, all this assuming you don't mess up the first two fights because you will need to be very strong at that level to kill him in last battle, which usually isn't the case when playing self found. It's a rule you imposed on yourself so you should know what you're up to, everything takes much longer when playing self found and that goes for Izaro too, you will typically tackle him much later in your char progress, just go back when you're feeling ready, there's no rush.

Make your character tab visible for your account, or click on your character portrait and click on items found in the thing it leads you to. Note that it will place links in the chat where the cursor is prior to clicking the character portrait.

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Izaro is someone I would consider a gear/stat check. If you are inadequate, then he will be a huge problem. However, if you are going to pass, then he is nothing than a waste of time since he will be so easy.

Here's what I mean.

Izaro uses skills that can be seen coming for a while before they land. Characters with limited mobility, be it because of slow movement speed (lacking a mobility skill), a slow mobility skill (low attack speed or cast speed, generally), or lacking player skill will get hit by these all the time. This forces the player to have more mitigation and/or recovery.

However, if you have proper player control and either sufficient movement speed and/or mobility capability, then you require less mitigation and/or recovery because that damage doesn't connect with you.

Basically, Izaro has two types. Himself and the Goddess. The Goddess is fairly useful, not really hurting you. The barrage of balls does hurt, but it deals at least some fire damage and that is mitigated sufficiently by fire resistance. Her other two skills consist of the skeleton summons, which are purely helpful, and the teleport. The teleport is that green aura around Izaro that teleports you. Again, if the teleport is an issue, then proper player control and movement/mobility will counter this. Lacking that, you will need mitigation/recovery to counter traps. However, the spike traps (holes in the ground) can be avoided if you have sufficient movement/mobility to get out before they hit (though they do prevent enemies from hurting you further, usually, given that they block things).

Izaro himself will do a special attack based on his hand slot combinations. The most notable is his Hammer slam and Sword slash. Both of these "wind up" so it is easier to avoid. Again, barring avoidance you need mitigation/recovery.

The best options to increase mitigation, especially for melee, would be Fortify. All hits, which is mostly what you'll take around Izaro, deal 20% reduced damage. Basically one fifth of all enemy damage (non-traps) is mitigated. Next would be endurance charges, as these grant 4% flat physical damage mitigation regardless of damage amount. You inherently get three, so that's a free 12% mitigation right there. All you need to do is generate them.

...and...of course, there is the Enfeeble curse. This does work on Izaro, and it helps immensely. No other curse is half as valuable as Enfeeble, unless your character already has considerable defenses.

I hear you.
These wise people before me have given good advice. I will add my humble thoughts:

I don't go back to Cruel lab till much later. I don't think 58 is viable unless you have really decent stuff (can'T check your char now). You may want to play in Merciless a while and come back in the low 60s and with preparations that those here already suggested. You may want to switch things around for that lab run, and switch back later. One thing, though: Your skill tree seems dominated by offense in maces, and seems exceptionally light on life. You *can't* be boss-tanky enough. Your priority seems to be in obtaining more accuracy (you look like you are now going for "Eagle Eye"). Most people probably would find this odd. Speccing out of damage, waiting a bit before going up to Amplify, investing in life, Resolute Technique, and Unwavering Stance (you are *right next to it* and haven't taken it) might be better choices for preparing for Big Guys such as Izaro.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. I think a big issue is the lack of Endurance Charges as you pointed out. I spent ages forgetting that I'd actually removed Warlord's Mark as my curse which was my generator for Endurance Charges for a long time. I'm not really sure what to use now, I think I was looking at Enduring Call (warcry)?

As for my build, I won't and haven't taken any accuracy passives (intentionally). I skipped straight by Eagle Eye to get access to the nodes in the Duelist area that I wanted. I will be taking Resolute Technique and Unwavering Stance "soon"(tm). There will also be some health nodes in the line up soon as well.

I guess I'll have to go back later or if I'm fed up by the end of Merciless just buy a Merc. lab run for the Ascendency points. As you may have guessed from my OP, I find the fact that I may be forced to do this really dissapointing because it's not like the Ascendency points are optional. They're essential and locking them away behind such an overpowered boss is ... stupid. To put it nicely.

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Akimb0 wrote:

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. I think a big issue is the lack of Endurance Charges as you pointed out. I spent ages forgetting that I'd actually removed Warlord's Mark as my curse which was my generator for Endurance Charges for a long time. I'm not really sure what to use now, I think I was looking at Enduring Call (warcry)?

As for my build, I won't and haven't taken any accuracy passives (intentionally). I skipped straight by Eagle Eye to get access to the nodes in the Duelist area that I wanted. I will be taking Resolute Technique and Unwavering Stance "soon"(tm). There will also be some health nodes in the line up soon as well.

I guess I'll have to go back later or if I'm fed up by the end of Merciless just buy a Merc. lab run for the Ascendency points. As you may have guessed from my OP, I find the fact that I may be forced to do this really dissapointing because it's not like the Ascendency points are optional. They're essential and locking them away behind such an overpowered boss is ... stupid. To put it nicely.

If you want my honest opinion, open the spoiler. However, I will warn you: I'm blunt, honest, and I don't give two shits what someone will think, say, or do because of it.

Warlord's mark wouldn't work anyway, the cheapest way to maintain charges in boss fights is enduring cry, but you kinda have to keep a close eye on it because it may take a while to build them up again on only one target if you miss the timing, you'll need some practice first I suppose.

We're kinda forced to do this, yeah, but on the bright side I've never seen a decent build that can't do all labs once the player gets the hang of it, some can do it earlier but all can pull it off eventually.

"

Akimb0 wrote:

How the hell would a player using purely self-found items even stand a hope in hell of beating Izaro on Cruel?

Unless you've been insanely lucky with drops, you can't. Not at that level. If you trade for a mid-level unique you can easily DPS him, but playing self-found means your DPS is probably nowhere near strong enough for Lab.

Izaro is one of those bosses that his monster level is not indicative of his difficulty. You can breeze through almost all of the level 55 content, but Izaro (and more or less Malachai) is a different story.

"

Akimb0 wrote:

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. I think a big issue is the lack of Endurance Charges as you pointed out. I spent ages forgetting that I'd actually removed Warlord's Mark as my curse which was my generator for Endurance Charges for a long time. I'm not really sure what to use now, I think I was looking at Enduring Call (warcry)?

As for my build, I won't and haven't taken any accuracy passives (intentionally). I skipped straight by Eagle Eye to get access to the nodes in the Duelist area that I wanted. I will be taking Resolute Technique and Unwavering Stance "soon"(tm). There will also be some health nodes in the line up soon as well.

I guess I'll have to go back later or if I'm fed up by the end of Merciless just buy a Merc. lab run for the Ascendency points. As you may have guessed from my OP, I find the fact that I may be forced to do this really dissapointing because it's not like the Ascendency points are optional. They're essential and locking them away behind such an overpowered boss is ... stupid. To put it nicely.

You just need to build your character power. As others have said, don't concern yourself over what level you are vs the zone and consider it a failure. Many people won't attempt Merc Lab until well into the 70s (mLvl 68). I've read people that waited til the 90s before attempting uber Lab.

Either way, the fact is that you don't need Ascendancy points to complete the story content. I'd focus on building your character's power, both through gear and leveling, and revisit the lab later on. You can probably knock both Cruel and Merc out at the same time once you're ready.

Im afraid its not possible to beat Cruel Izaro as melee unless you have 100ex+ worth of gear already