Am I the only one that has a problem with the Syndicate?

They are EXTREMELY powerful and absolutely won't let up if you fight them in a random area. Unless you are basically untouchable, you will struggle a lot fighting them. They are honestly stronger than most bosses in maps. From what I gathered, they are weaker by area. I was in a level 45 area with my at the time level 66 character. It honestly felt like I was fighting a tier 4-5 map guardian, not so much damage wise, but mostly health and defense wise.

I don't see the point in putting these guys in random teleports that pop on top of you and you have to try hard as hell to get away because most of the time, the random spawns are the harder ones. I went into a fort, had tons and tons of minions, spawning and respawning, and multiple syndicate in there. I had a bit of a struggle, but I managed. Right now, I am in the chamber of sins and have a random teleport syndicate coming in. I try to run, can't get away. Try to fight, chicken scratches to his health.

It's absolutely insane to fight the random ones, let alone the ones in their forts or taking their trolly around. I personally try to avoid fighting them at all.

It can help to create allies that show up to help you fight, but this mechanic seems pretty half-baked at the moment. I can't seem to keep people allied. Beware the more people you have in the intervention group--the more people that'll show up to kill you.

Certain builds seem to do better, but it's the same problem that high map tier bosses have that's not been addressed adequately. Too much hp, too much burst, and now they fall on your face or have glitchy fortress fights.

I setup mine so the intervention group has the fewest strong people in it so as not to interrupt farming. That's the best suggestion I can give, especially if those are the worst.

If you're having trouble you can automatically skip every encounter until you feel you're geared up enough. Especially when speed leveling at low levels with crap gear.

Just keep doing them until you get one of those underground research lab encounters and skip it. Afterwards Juno will only spawn that encounter until you enter it. So you will never see another syndicate member in the open world. Then you can just do the encounter when you want to start fighting them again.

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SaiyanZ wrote:

If you're having trouble you can automatically skip every encounter until you feel you're geared up enough. Especially when speed leveling at low levels with crap gear.

Just keep doing them until you get one of those underground research lab encounters and skip it. Afterwards Juno will only spawn that encounter until you enter it. So you will never see another syndicate member in the open world. Then you can just do the encounter when you want to start fighting them again.

That is what i thought to, but seams only the case for a certain time. I had the very situation with her offering the underground lab, it also went well for 2 levels or so, until i ran a low Map and stuff jumped on top of me again and a fort with quadrillion adds....that cost me a good junk of exp..again...

To me as a relatively new player, they feel absolutely overpowered and discouraging. I don't have the knowledge or insider info yet to get me insta-gear or the op-nothing-kills-me build.
If there is only some builds that can face those packs, why have a passive skill tree that size then?

At the moment i try and avoid them or face them shortly after a level-up, so the exp-hurt is not to big...

Ah ok. Maybe there is a time limit or something before it changes. Did lvl20 to lvl40 yesterday whilst leveling a new character and chose to skip them in those levels. Worked as expected with Juno only spawning the underground lab in each area from Act2 to Act6.

I concur. Syndicate members are way too overpowered than rest of the other encounters. Syndicate members oneshot me offscreen (that is 4K+ damage) in T1 maps. I can't even imagine the stupid damage in yellow or red maps.

Additionally, I know GGG tried to make them look good, but all the flashy skill particles and all the stuff make it really, really hard to see what is going on. So basically shoot and pray for the best.

It is really not fun to make monsters that are 10x times more powerful than map bosses, with stupid amoount of HP, and expect people to have fun.

I really feel sorry for the Hardcore players right now. Oneshots offscreen that are lethal are really not fun if you can't afford a death.

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SaiyanZ wrote:

If you're having trouble you can automatically skip every encounter until you feel you're geared up enough. Especially when speed leveling at low levels with crap gear.

Just keep doing them until you get one of those underground research lab encounters and skip it. Afterwards Juno will only spawn that encounter until you enter it. So you will never see another syndicate member in the open world. Then you can just do the encounter when you want to start fighting them again.

You can't skip an intervention. You either kill them, or they kill you, but running away doesn't help, because they keep teleporting after you, until it's settled. Alternatively, you can abandon the map if you don't want the guaranteed XP loss. I don't know if they follow you into the boss arena or not, though if you are on a map without one you are boned.

It's absolutely ridiculous how I could facetank a tier 5 boss, but It and Janus one-shotted me with barely (if at all) telegraphed attacks on tier 1 maps. Big fortress is another joke, as you are constantly under attack by 1.)the fortress 2.)the endless minions 3.the syndicate member(s).

Sure, now I invested around 1,5 exalts into my build (not much, but keep in mind that many players don't even trade; ever), a friend of mine gave me a decent armor, and I am constantly reading the replies and guidelines of the maker of the build. Now I can take them on tier 1 maps, haven't pushed my limit, since I'll only have more time in the afternoon.

In any case, if you are new to the game and not willing to spend hours to read a guide to a build which is tried and proved, then you are simply better off with skipping most if not all syndicate encounters, and trying to freeze intervention encounters by unlocking their fortification but never actually going there. The latter completely shuts out that syndicate event.

I love the idea behind this league, and at lower levels it was tons of fun, but the difficulty curve is beyond broken, and not fun, unless you melt everything to begin with. I'm having five times more fun doing Delves after 3 months of Delving, than being murdered by Janus or It by an intervention event on a Zana map where I can't die. Actually, everything is more fun than that.

They're just way too strong relative to the rest of the map. If you run maps that are generally challenging you will get annihilated by the syndicate guys. Especially red maps with one or two damage mods are awful. You basically have to scale the rest of the map down to a really boring level to have a shot against the syndicate which doesn't feel great.

That and the rewards suck in general, especially once you've maxed most veiled mods. I sort of want to disable the syndicate altogether in red maps, it's not worth it.

I wish this whole Betrayal could be turned off.

lol I ended up skipping the mechanic for most of Act IV because an escort mission kept showing up and the copse consume regen of the Syndicate guy was beyond my (not subpar) dps. And it kept being the same thing over and over!

I eventually caught up in dps and beat it.

Syndicate is rippy, but I am enjoying the mystery of it still. I have started to understand the whole interaction over time, yesterday I figured out that the ORDER you do interactions changes your options (that would have been good to know earlier) and I am currently working to maximize my next stronghold assault with a rank 3 master and some followers with interesting loot options.

Also, the first time I did a stronghold I almost walked out without checking the other rooms where all the loot was located. I dunno if I am dumb or that should have been communicated a bit better.