VAAL Fight OP for Solo Evasion

You don't need any resists other than lightning for the beam, and chaos for the constructs if you're going melee tanky build, so max all resists is pretty useless for that fight. I'd be willing to guess you probably wasted a lot of gear potential on just stacking resists, even.

It's borderline impossible to get hit by that slam. I don't know how you're managing to die to it. Granted, I never had that problem because my ranger is ranged. :D

Perhaps you should invest in some range abilities to take out the constructs, as I have solo'd Vaal with my ranger on both normal AND cruel, and had very few problems - even with the adds. Maybe you could keep a spell or two on hand, just in case.

If it hasn't been mentioned by now : Don't run from vaal, circle him. Temporal chains can help with the dodging, and enfeeble with everything else (not needed, but it does help a ton). If you want to go extra sure, only attack when he is summoning mobs, rocks or is spraying ice.

Oh...and never try to flickerstrike away, 1 millimeter out of range from your intendet target and you might port directly under the hammer instead.

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KenshiD wrote:

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Emphasy wrote:

Well the projectiles from the constructs are attacks and a character with Arrow-Dodging is literally never hit by them. I'm not sure why they changed them from Attack to Spell back to Attack.

Not true, I have Arrow Dodging and they are not projectiles but Spells.
They can only be evaded with Phasedodging.

I was almost sure they were changed to attacks in open beta. I just tested this with my Arrow Dodging build by running normal pyramid. Apparently the projectiles used by Constructs faced in Vaal Ruins and the Pyramid are attacks. Their projectiles almost never hit me and went right through my character. However, the ones Vaal summons appear to use spells, at least they never missed my character (who should have 95% evasion vs. ranged mobs of that level). Apparently I have never noticed the difference before because I always kill the minions summoned by Vaal as soon as they appear.

Wonder if it is intended this way, as it seems very inconsistent. Seems like they have planned for all of them to use attacks but forgot to change the ones in Vaal battle.

-Ropetus

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Ropetus wrote:

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KenshiD wrote:

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Emphasy wrote:

Well the projectiles from the constructs are attacks and a character with Arrow-Dodging is literally never hit by them. I'm not sure why they changed them from Attack to Spell back to Attack.

Not true, I have Arrow Dodging and they are not projectiles but Spells.
They can only be evaded with Phasedodging.

I was almost sure they were changed to attacks in open beta. I just tested this with my Arrow Dodging build by running normal pyramid. Apparently the projectiles used by Constructs faced in Vaal Ruins and the Pyramid are attacks. Their projectiles almost never hit me and went right through my character. However, the ones Vaal summons appear to use spells, at least they never missed my character (who should have 95% evasion vs. ranged mobs of that level). Apparently I have never noticed the difference before because I always kill the minions summoned by Vaal as soon as they appear.

Wonder if it is intended this way, as it seems very inconsistent. Seems like they have planned for all of them to use attacks but forgot to change the ones in Vaal battle.

-Ropetus

Thank you for taking the time to verify this. If the constructs projectiles were attacks instead of spells it would prevent some of the instant death situations that occur when coming back from a portal to find all of them grouped around Vaal firing volleys and You die before you can even approach.

Doesn't matters anyway with the extreme lag. You're screwed if you don't have a tanky build.

Considering that all of the Pyramid is the same instance it might be a better idea to create the portal outside the boss-room anyway. Since you don't change the instance you can reenter the room very fast instead of reentering from town, which takes longer at least for me.

The fun thing is that the minions Vaal summons are only there to make the fight easier, since they refill your flasks upon killing, but somehow they seem to be the only thing that makes the fight tricky, since his attacks are fairly predictable.

Basically it is

Beam = Run
Smash = Stay away
Rocks = Stay close
Ice = Attack
Summon Minions = Attack

I think during my first Vaal-Approach I died like 17 times or even more often. I simply had no clue how he worked. After I figured that out I managed a flawless-victory in Cruel and Merciless, I haven't fought him with a melee-char in the last difficulty in CB, but not getting hit propably was the best tactic there too.

It is a bit sad they seemed to have already reduced the damage from the smash and the lightning, since the second lightning was a save death in CB and the Smash was almost unsurvivable even in normal. But both attacks were fairly predictable and not very dangerous.

I beat him so far with a Ground-Slam Marauder (I guess everyone had at least one of them in CB :P), with a Viper/Lightning-Strike-Shadow, Cleave-Duellist, Wand and Ice-Witch, Ele-Ranger and Bow-Shadow and he never was really difficult. He was entertaining and I had to concentrate on his attacks, but whenever I managed to die I instantly noticed that it was clearly my fault.

In HC if you are unsure if you can manage to dodge the attack just either attack during Ice, Rocks or Summoning or switch to a Ranged Attack like Ground-Slam or Lightning-Strike. Whirling Blades works very well too, although it is not really ranged.

You just need to ensure to kill the constructs very fast, since they are propably the most annoying part of the fight and slow down everything because you have to dodge their projectiles.

And well at least for me this fight is one of the most unbuggy of all. No desyncs because nothing that moves really fast (Vaal literally only stands there waving his arms, he can't really desync). My Desync-Issues are normally related to very fast moving mobs (Charge, or Fire-Piety etc.) or clearly on my side and if there really is an issue it would be an idea to just not fight at this moment.

I don't know if it's been said or not, but you had 450 hp at lvl 31. How on earth (wraeclast?) were you planning on tanking blows with a pure evasion build if you didnt have a health buffer to tank any hits in the first place?

To put it another way, if you have 100hp and a mob hits for 150 damage, but you have 75% evasion, you're gonna dodge 3 out of 4 attacks. This works if you kill him within those 3, but what if he rolls the 4 before you do? This is vaal. Not to mention it's the most telegraphed ability ever. I've never had an issue and I play on 200 ping. Play safer.

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boxgap wrote:

I don't know if it's been said or not, but you had 450 hp at lvl 31. How on earth (wraeclast?) were you planning on tanking blows with a pure evasion build if you didnt have a health buffer to tank any hits in the first place?

To put it another way, if you have 100hp and a mob hits for 150 damage, but you have 75% evasion, you're gonna dodge 3 out of 4 attacks. This works if you kill him within those 3, but what if he rolls the 4 before you do? This is vaal. Not to mention it's the most telegraphed ability ever. I've never had an issue and I play on 200 ping. Play safer.

Indeed, Solo Evasion characters all die in the end, unless they also have a good backup, like shield block or a good life pool.

Evasion is nice to be able to tank for a few hits, but you MUST also be prepared for when your evasion fails, even if it is at 95%.

If a level 1 character can kill Vaal with probably no evasion at all, so could you with the stats you had.

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xchokeholdx wrote:

Indeed, Solo Evasion characters all die in the end, unless they also have a good backup, like shield block or a good life pool.

Evasion is nice to be able to tank for a few hits, but you MUST also be prepared for when your evasion fails, even if it is at 95%.

If a level 1 character can kill Vaal with probably no evasion at all, so could you with the stats you had.

I have, beaten him. My complaint is that whether or not I beat him has more to do with luck than anything else. In fact, right after that death I took the same character, rushed through the pyramid, and fought Vaal again, same equipment, same gear, and beat him without dying. Then I went back to do it again and died 7 times. The fight completely disregards evasion/resistance defenses. I may as well have been a level 1 character for all the good my passive skill points do in that fight.

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CyberDweller wrote:

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xchokeholdx wrote:

Indeed, Solo Evasion characters all die in the end, unless they also have a good backup, like shield block or a good life pool.

Evasion is nice to be able to tank for a few hits, but you MUST also be prepared for when your evasion fails, even if it is at 95%.

If a level 1 character can kill Vaal with probably no evasion at all, so could you with the stats you had.

I have, beaten him. My complaint is that whether or not I beat him has more to do with luck than anything else. In fact, right after that death I took the same character, rushed through the pyramid, and fought Vaal again, same equipment, same gear, and beat him without dying. Then I went back to do it again and died 7 times. The fight completely disregards evasion/resistance defenses. I may as well have been a level 1 character for all the good my passive skill points do in that fight.

ive beaten him many times, it doesn't have much to do with luck at all. It's a mechanics fight. You dodge the laser, move in for the rocks, move away from the slam and its not hard to dodge the energy balls/ice spray.