The new Brutus and Merveil fights - What do you think?

So since several of us have by now either seen or played them ourselves, what do you think about them?

I got to say, it felt as I desynched less vs Brutus, but my god the fight is otherwise so much harder, specially when he starts spawning skeletons.

As for Merveil: if it was doable before with just 1 cold resist ring, it is not doable now that way or at the very least you'll die if you let yourself be hit by the water-stream. I am glad that the ice spears are gone. I think both phases are much better and more dangerous than they were before.

So yeah, thumbs up for GGG in both cases, despite the difficulty increase.

Looks insane I might actually farm ledge for gg gear before progressing.

I agree your actually going to need cold resist rings possibly two to make it out of mervil fight alive.

Maps with mervil are going to be much harder.

They are both still ridiculously easy without farming on Normal at least for a ranged build.

I did merveil with no cold rings and one coral ring, only one portal with a Shadow caster - all the damage is largely avoidable.

Ngl, I was quite surprised when Merveil spawned two uniques - Molten Striker and Sparker. Still, nothing unavoidable.

Re-doing them is fine... adds to the game. Power creep is not fine. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm skeptical (as usual) as to whether they're going to be good for the game. GGG has a history of adding stuff that's over the top. Stuff like Atziri. That's fine, because it's out of the quest line. It's optional. Brutus and Merveil aren't optional encounters. Making them progress stoppers isn't going to be a good addition.

@Chundra: You used your experience with play. Imagine someone playing for the first time. They encounter something overpowered before they get an attachment to the game and they quit. Not a good game. IF they designed these encounters based on the premise that everyone has your skill with the game, the new players wont pass them and will never develop the skills needed to pass them.

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Chundadragon wrote:

They are both still ridiculously easy without farming on Normal at least for a ranged build.

I did merveil with no cold rings and one coral ring, only one portal with a Shadow caster - all the damage is largely avoidable.

I did with melee cleaver, yes you are right that most damage is avoidable. Had to alt+f4 when I entered and took full water cannon to the face as I faced remade merveil for the first time, thinking that it wouldn't damage me so much.

Luckily that water cannon is more avoidable than Dominus' one.

If you're playing on Beyond, it may be possible to summon demon portals during some boss fights.

I don't know if it has been confirmed yet - if this is possible - but if you kill enough of the smaller summons from the Merveil fountain or mobs which spawn during the Dom fight, you may accidentally create portals...bringing in demons and possible 'arch-demons' (unique boss demons).

Wouldn't that make the new league a bit more spicy? ;)

I'll lay out my experience playing today as a witch. Using only things I found (1 blue 1 yellow, rest whites) and quest rewards, I was able to do both Brutus and Merveil with with 0 life nodes and using 0 TPs with 0 deaths. Pure DPS nodes down the left side witch and some mana regen on the right.

For Brutus, pick up evasion gear, and just kite around with Ice spear/Fireball/Spark. All work fine. You can even face tank for some damage as long as you move from the ground slams. Use AOE to clear skeletons though, dont let them add up. You have to be more active moving around in the fight than before, it is fun.

Merveil was tougher, but even again with no life nodes, 1 white coral and cold ring at level 13, I did the fight without much danger of dying. It requires better mechanics in terms of kiting, casting, and moving around while making sure she doesn't regen her ES. If you take flameblast from Brutus reward, it makes the fight much easier.

Overall I love the changes. It makes it more challenging. It feels more so like boss encounter rather than just a "chore." I only went through normal so far but I can envision Cruel or Merc versions being very dangerous if not geared correctly as there is some damage that's nearly unavoidable. I'm looking forward to the challenge, though to be honest, both fights are still pretty easy if you do it in parties.

TL'DR: Great changes. Both fights require you to be more active, but they are still both relatively easy fights for ranged characters.