Do I just not understand what kind of game this is?

I just recently tried the Necropolis and Lair maps for the first time with my tankiest character, my Righteous Fire Chieftain with 7k life. I eventually managed to beat each boss dying enough to exhaust all of my portals with each one.

The Necropolis boss seemed to kill me with forces unseen. I mean that literally, I couldn't see what was killing me. My 7k life pool was drained in probably less than two seconds seemingly from just being in the same room as him.

The Lair bosses have this wolf spray ability (I really don't know how else to describe it) that basically takes up the whole screen and it seemed impossible to dodge (though it didn't help that Temporal Chains was one of the map mods). They also have a powerful melee attack that inflicts bleeding, meaning I can either stand still and let him kill me or try and run and bleed to death. Even if I had nothing but staunching flasks, I really don't see defeating them without dying.

It seems my large life pool doesn't count for much late game. It looks like a lot of things in high tier maps would hardly be any more difficult with Chaos Inoculation and Eldritch Battery. The reason I've been so hesitant to invest in life with my other characters is because I figured if my character with more life than my other characters could hope to have was having this kind of trouble, there really was no point in bothering. I'm not going to reach a life threshold that will help me no matter what. I honestly don't see the point in bothering to try high tier maps with my other characters - especially my ranger. Seriously, this is getting surreal.

So, be honest. Is the post game just a test of reflexes with gear and leveling largely being irrelevant? Are you just a glass cannon no matter what?

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

So, be honest. Is the post game just a test of reflexes with gear and leveling largely being irrelevant? Are you just a glass cannon no matter what?

It isn't irrelevant, you were just trying to tank what should be tanked.

The necropolis boss spawns bonespire patches, they inflict damage over time stacks on you that can't be dispelled by anything. They must run their course so the way to overcome it is not to let them accumulate, you need to move as much as possible and never stand in bonespires too long.

The 'wolf spray' that Lair boss uses is not meant to be tanked, it's well telegraphed as most such abilities are so you should just hide behind stone when you see he's about to use it and pounce on him when it's over. Don't do that map with temp chains, keeping your mobility is fairly important in there.

I appreciate your input and clarification on those bosses, but are telling I'm right or wrong? You're telling me my stats aren't irrelevant but at the same time the bosses that are giving me trouble absolutely must be dodged no matter what. I would have to play nearly flawlessly to not die at all for some of these bosses and with my less tanky builds it would have to be absolutely perfect. I can't imagine my ranger has any room for error at all. Are there just oodles of things that absolutely must be avoided no matter what late game or not?

As for your particular advice on those bosses, I don't recall seeing any bonespire patches at the Necropolis boss, though things were happening so fast I probably didn't notice them. As far as the wolf spray goes, I don't recall a part of the screen that wasn't covered in wolves in order to avoid them and, as far as him telegraphing it goes, he was casting it from off screen so I couldn't even see whatever tell he was supposed to have.

It's both, for most of the game your stats are very important but some attacks are designed to be avoided and for those they don't make much of a difference, the game is designed to require a minimum of player input even if you're running an AFK build. Well, unless it's off-the-charts-ridiculously-tanky, of course.

Bonespires are kinda hard to notice, they're gray and aren't popping too much in general so if the map was darker and you're running some flashy skill like Firestorm you won't notice it if you aren't paying close attention, a bit of a design fail there.

Whenever Rigwald respawns he will be next to a circle of rocks, those can shield you from wolves and you can even attack him while behind it if you got some attack that goes through obstacles, like ground slam or lacerate. When he shapeshifts into a wolf he hits pretty hard and inflicts heavy bleed, builds that are especially strong versus physical damage can tank him but for others it's better to avoid him and attack when you spot an opening.

There's no helping it, some bosses have to be studied more to spot the winning strategy.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

They also have a powerful melee attack that inflicts bleeding, meaning I can either stand still and let him kill me or try and run and bleed to death. Even if I had nothing but staunching flasks, I really don't see defeating them without dying.

Far as I remember the wolf form does the bleeding. If you cant sustain flasks you can also use "the boots":

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

It seems my large life pool doesn't count for much late game.

In late game context 7k is not a "large" pool.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

So, be honest. Is the post game just a test of reflexes with gear and leveling largely being irrelevant? Are you just a glass cannon no matter what?

T12/T13 can be outgeared if you dont run crazy map mods. But you still need the detailed game knowledge.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

but at the same time the bosses that are giving me trouble absolutely must be dodged no matter what.

Bonespire: Phys resist should help vs Bonespire. Dont know if you can build so that you can tank the full Bonespire. But Bonespire doesnt require fast reflexes. Its more a "know the enemy" kind of thing. The room is dark etc. If you "know the enemy" you can move preemptively or listen to the "bonespire sound" or look at your buff bar. PoE has lots of such special things that you "need" to know.

Lair: You can build so that you can facetank Lair boss. It is made so that "sponge" builds have a hard time. "sponge" == stack life (or ES) without much investment in other defenses

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

I would have to play nearly flawlessly to not die

Necropolis doesnt require "nearly flawless" play but Lair can be difficult for some builds.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

at all for some of these bosses and with my less tanky builds

Life doesnt equal tankiness. Boss fights in PoE are like mini games inside the game. Dont expect to be able to do all of them easily without learning the mechanics first. There are some builds which can facetank almost everything in the game though.

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Have looked at your gear: If you want to fight phys damage bosses you may want to use Basalt flask. You use cwdt-IC. I think this hurts you more than it helps you vs both of the mentioned bosses. Rather keep up Endurance charges.

Maybe my brain is made of Swiss cheese, but I could have sworn Necropolis boss always puts up a bone prison before Bonespiring and that's a fairly huge telegraph to me, you just have to leave the prison using Phasing or a relevant movement skill and then you won't ever get bonespired.

If you do manage to get tagged by too much Bonespire, you could attempt an ancient technique dating back to the days of Diablo 2: portal out. This will dispel all negative effects including Bonespire. It requires some reflexes and of course sucks to lose 1/6 portals, but it's better than dying.

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In late game context 7k is not a "large" pool.

Well, I really don't know what to do about that. If I reworked my tree I might be able to get another 15-20%, but something tells me that isn't going to make much difference. And investing in life with my ranger seems utterly pointless as I'm never going to reach anything that matters.

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Have looked at your gear: If you want to fight phys damage bosses you may want to use Basalt flask.

I don't know. A Basalt flask only provides 20% damage reduction and I feel like I would need like 80% to make a real difference. I really don't see a few seconds of damage mitigation being much better than another 2,700 life from a life flask.

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You use cwdt-IC. I think this hurts you more than it helps you vs both of the mentioned bosses. Rather keep up Endurance charges.

I've been thinking that for a while. I'm wondering what I should replace it with. Enfeeble? Temporal Chains? Phase Run? I was thinking I'd get a +1 curses amulet eventually and work Enfeeble into the mix. I was thinking: Cyclone + Curse on Hit + Elemental Weakness + Enfeeble + Fortify + Life Gain on Hit.

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Far as I remember the wolf form does the bleeding. If you cant sustain flasks you can also use "the boots"

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Life doesnt equal tankiness. Boss fights in PoE are like mini games inside the game. Dont expect to be able to do all of them easily without learning the mechanics first. There are some builds which can facetank almost everything in the game though.

I'm beginning to think late-game mapping just isn't for me. Having to use niche equipment for particular boss fights and running around like a maniac trying to dodge everything because everything can kill you in half a second just doesn't sound like my idea of a good time.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

"

In late game context 7k is not a "large" pool.

Well, I really don't know what to do about that. If I reworked my tree I might be able to get another 15-20%, but something tells me that isn't going to make much difference. And investing in life with my ranger seems utterly pointless as I'm never going to reach anything that matters.

I did not intend to tell you to get more life. I mentioned it just to point out that 7k doesnt make you tanky in endgame. Not all builds are or need to be tanky. I am not familiar with RF builds. My guess is that you should indeed strive for more life as RF build but better look up some guides or ask the right question in the right forum or sth.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

I don't know. A Basalt flask only provides 20% damage reduction and I feel like I would need like 80% to make a real difference.

Basalt stacks (in a good way) with Endurance charges and armour. There is also a "game damage balance" inherent in most of PoE which is hard to grasp just by looking at some numbers. Those "only 20%" matter a lot. I would recommend to try it.

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kjykjy1985 wrote:

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You use cwdt-IC. I think this hurts you more than it helps you vs both of the mentioned bosses. Rather keep up Endurance charges.

I've been thinking that for a while. I'm wondering what I should replace it with. Enfeeble? Temporal Chains? Phase Run?

Many players use some form of chill in cwdt. Frequent choices are Arctic Breath (+GMP) and Vortex. Enfeeble is very strong but in cwdt link it either doesnt trigger enough or you loose gem levels. I still use it in cwdt for one of my current chars though:

But if your main issue is with bosses then some other delivery form is probably better. DoTs (bonespire) dont even trigger cwdt.

You should stack as much life as possible. You will push your RF damage and life + life regen which is always good.

You also might be interested in this ring for extra regen but dno about your resists http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Kaom%27s_Way

You can also use some extra skill such as Scorching ray (won´t overwrite EE don´t worry) in 4 link to deal extra damage (with RF buff).

You need just practice how to deal with bosses.

I'm also saddened by the truth people have said; You have to know the boss fight mechanics ahead of time or you will die. They are usually not readily apparent and hints are rarely given. This sucks for HC only players. I'm forced to read about boss fights online ahead of time to understand what is going on. This just feels wrong and takes a bit away from the novelty of a new encounter.