Volatiles + Red Maps + Melee... what is the survival strategy?

I just don't get it. I've built crazy tanky characters with high armour, perma fortify, overcapped resistances, lightning coil, acro/phase acro, block and still Volatiles come along and it doesn't seem like there is anything you can do about it. Are you supposed to just run past them?

Even if you're playing carefully and know they're there, you're melee so what difference does knowing even make?

They aren't like bosses with telegraphed moves that you can dodge. If you're melee, you need to be in melee range, and if you're in melee range, depending on the mob type you're just dead.

At least with bearers you have a bit of time to get out of the way, Volatiles just feel so cheap to me. Is there a trick that I'm not seeing? Do I have to keep three Elemental flasks and a Basalt on me at all times for when I deal the killing blow to this one Nemesis mod? Is it that, Kaom's or bust?

It seems so obvious that a better mechanic would be to pop up short-delay ground effect at the feet of the player who killed them which ranged and melee would need to dodge to survive, but perhaps there's something I'm missing.

Volatile damage is based on the monster's main hand damage (not verified, but that's the common consensus and it's a good indicator of potential damage if nothing else). If you're really afraid of volatile blood rares, don't run maps with any sort of added damage. Also don't run maps with -max resists. You probably also want to skip maps with the nemesis mod, since that means extra chances for volatile one shots.

Now that you're only running super easy maps, all you have to do is stack as much life as possible, have permanent fortify, get your resists as high as possible, and cross your fingers that everything you did was good enough.

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Deadpeng wrote:

Melee was never intended as an option in this game to me lol.

The most powerful builds in the game are melee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWARpUTydyQ

High DPS high leech OP.

Also, a melee totem will help if you spot it in time and can fit one in your setup.

You aren't missing anything, it is simply bad design. If you really want to kill them, Culling Strike on a long range spell is a workaround.

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Deadpeng wrote:

Melee was never intended as an option in this game to me lol.

If you have nothing to contribute, consider not posting at all.

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Aim_Deep wrote:

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Deadpeng wrote:

Melee was never intended as an option in this game to me lol.

The most powerful builds in the game are melee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWARpUTydyQ

High DPS high leech OP.

Reave is not melee...

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Aim_Deep wrote:

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Deadpeng wrote:

Melee was never intended as an option in this game to me lol.

The most powerful builds in the game are melee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWARpUTydyQ

High DPS high leech OP.

1. Says most powerful builds in the game are melee
2. Links a uber run with a person wearing 6 mirrored items
3. GG

Anything trivializes the game with 6 mirrored items and the most rare unique item in the game.

Meanwhile Deadeye LA kills uber with a ~30 ex budget.

I guess Ancestral Protector/Warchief in a 4L is the best workaround that is available at the moment. That sucks if you're wearing Kaom's and feeling the socket pressure, and sucks if you get a powerful crit in before you let the totem finish them off but it's not totally impossible I guess.

I agree that this feels like bad game design.

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Mannoth wrote:

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Aim_Deep wrote:

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Deadpeng wrote:

Melee was never intended as an option in this game to me lol.

The most powerful builds in the game are melee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWARpUTydyQ

High DPS high leech OP.

1. Says most powerful builds in the game are melee
2. Links a uber run with a person wearing 6 mirrored items
3. GG

Anything trivializes the game with 6 mirrored items and the most rare unique item in the game.

Meanwhile Deadeye LA kills uber with a ~30 ex budget.

A guy leveled from ninety-something to 100 in PHC doing only Uber runs with a CI triple blasphemy bladefall mine build. His entire inventory was worth around one third of this guy's dagger.

@Crocodarrel: the only solution I can think of is having overcapped resists + permaflasks, something like a coc cyclone discharge with saffell's and purities or a pathfinder. Volatile is a nonsensical mode, I don't know why it's in the game. The last omfg moment I can think of is when I received 8-9k damage from a mob in a Plateau with just one damage mod. That's absurd.