VAAL Fight OP for Solo Evasion

Do me a favor. Create a new character, play it however you choose, and then at level 23 go back and Fight Merveil a second time. Then come back here and tell me how difficult that fight is when you have over-leveled by 6-8 levels and purchased gear to go with that level. That is what I did going into Vaal. The highest Area Map is level 26. I was Level 31, with level 30 + gear, and the boss one hit me.

I play this game cautiously on HC, the trade off for that is slow leveling in exchange for easier game play. It also tells me when something is beyond over-powered. The slight margin for error I have at level 31, (maybe 10 HP after a hammer, or a few seconds to kill the construct adds) would be completely non-existent had I hit Vaal at level 26 the way you do if you speed through the game and use gear available from vendors.

I went back on Default, same level, same gear, and rushed to the Vaal fight. I was able to beat him, just barely. I hit low-life 5 times, had to portal to town to refill my potions 3 times, and got to witness a double hammer smash, so you're assertation that this is a "rarely used attack" is bunk. It's RNG like the rest of the game. Someone needs to dial this fight down from 11 to 9.

Or there is another solution. Rework the level progression on the maps in Act 2. Most people I know are way beyond the map level by the time they get to Vaal anyway. Maybe when you release the darkness, you bump the level areas by 2 levels each to reflect the added danger, thus allowing more cautious players, as myself to add more of a level buffer before facing Vaal.

-Removed-

You would have a valid argument if you complained about the falling rocks, which are unavoidable and for which evasion does nothing. The laser and the fire blast, however, are stupidly easy to avoid (use whirling blades to escape faster if it makes you feel safer). I can't believe you lost 6 characters to this boss...

Also, evasion characters HAVE to get arrow dodging. It'll make you safer from the constructs (which you should always kill; they're there so you can refill your flasks).

I mentioned same thing few months (?) ago when they changed the bomb to physical/fire damage, and I agree with OP. What I do is I equip a bow and poison arrow and take some time to get past this boring fight.

As for arrow dodging being necessity for evasion chars... If it's true then evasion as some real issue. Anyway the constructs cast spells afaik which makes AD useless in that fight.

I do have Arrow Dodging, if I didn't check it on the linked build, that was a mistake on my part. However, Arrow Dodging only protects against projectiles, not spells, and to date I have yet to see one of those construct attacks miss, where arrows and snake attacks fly by left and right, so they have to be spells.

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return33 wrote:

Problem:
He lifts his arm....
slowly
slowly
slowly
you stay where you are
BAM
Dead

Solution:
He lifts his arm....
slowly
slowly
slowly
You run 5 meters around him
BAM
He hits nothing

Their is absolutly no need to get hit by the hammer or laser ... both are easy to avoid (on normal, on cruel, on merciless). Only that falling down things from the ceeling are hard to avoid and the adds. But in fact you can do that fight without taking any damage at all from Vaal himself.

Move, run - you are not supposed to face-tank him!

I like this boss:
- no gear check
- pure skill check (not getting hit by anything)
Basicly its playing D3 pre nerf inferno DH ... if you get hit you are dead. And you can avoid everything in most ARPGs.

In contrast:
Pietys first "encounter" on a3
BAD DESIGN!
- gear check !
You can not avoid that storm from above thats :(
Its okay to get killed by that slowly moving orb - you can avoid it (in fact that thing should onehit everyone even with 95% res and 6k Hp to make it a skill check)

Yeah Vaal is best boss in game, you pay attention, you own him even without goog gear.
Piety lighting ball can be hard to evade if you dont have good movement speed boost, since it also shoot from range by itself, but you can counter that with single flask that give MS boost.

I think that all bosses shouldnt have any auto-aim skills that are unevadable and unpredictable, actuly no monster in game should have it. Gear-check games are outdated, almost every game now is gear-check where players put nothing from their own skill in them.

return33 has it exactly right. There is no valid defense against Vaal. HP, Armor, Evasion - doesn't matter, you GTFO the way.

You also say you have a problem with the Construct adds, just treat them the same as Vaal. Circle at a small distance, then as soon as they shoot you close in and strike. Just be careful not to get shot by 2 Vaal lasers in a row while you do it.

If I might make one more suggestion, I would recommend trying out a (appropriate leveled) Viper Strike on this fight. Although it isn't necessary, I've found that it is simple to keep it stacked up for large segments of the fight, doing pretty high damage while you keep moving. I don't know if this will scale into Cruel/Merciless yet, but it works very well in Normal. That's what I do with my Shadows, usually take Vaal around level 28-29.

When it comes to Vaal, I only ever lay into him with Dual Stike while is laying down ice, or adds. The rest of the time I just dodge.

Never engage Vaal if he doing anything other then that and you'll be perfectly safe. Flicker strike to get up to him quickly when he starts laying down ice.