How to avoid death? Impossible?

Level 77 Gladiator, 2k+ life, capped resists, max block/spell block, 20k+ Armor, enfeeble curse, fortify and life leech. Can't be stunned, can't miss. 300+ life regen.

Just finished Merciless Act 4 "deathless". I start up my first map, a level 68 Crypt. Blaze through the entire thing till I get to the boss. The bishop.

I throw an enfeeble down on the boss, then rush in to attack. He raises up his mace and BOOM, I get oneshot.

He got possessed by a ghost and received Cutthroat's Grip. The map mod had ZERO monster enhancing mods. It was just a simple blue map with increased rarity.

I've played other characters and done up to Tier 6 maps, so I was totally shocked when that happened. This was my tankiest melee character ever. He just got wrecked.

How do hardcore players avoid this? I know I may need more life, but I can't reach the life nodes unless I can level up. I can't get added life on my gear unless the game feels like giving it to me in the rolls.

It's pretty frustrating. How do self-found players survive hardcore as melee without going mad from boredom?

I run out of currency trying to get the mods that I desperately need. Life, etc.

Is death inevitable?

I know you acknowledge you need more life, but 2k? You should have more than that before the end of cruel. Most people are looking at 4k+ for mapping.

The crypt boss eats curses on him and casts a nova that each curse amplifies. You don't want to curse him.

From the wiki:

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Cursing him will result in him doing an AoE nova attack with extremely high elemental damage, consuming the curse. This includes curses delivered by auras, so it is important to remember to disable such auras and removed any curse on hit gems or items.

Yes you need life, resistances, and damage mitigation... but you also need to know the mechanics of the fight. I'm also a believer that the best damage mitigation is your mouse/movement skill (not being there when the damage happens).

Hope this helps.

+ extra damage from http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Tormented_Spirit

Looking for stuff here http://poe.trade/ unless playing SSF.

Your profile is set as private so I can´t check the char but 2k life? I guess you have made some mistakes in your passive tree.
There are common mistakes that lots of players are doing such as picking up all cluster nodes etc.

Decent HP is mandatory for all the builds. You cant bypass that with any mitigation/avoidance.

All the increased maximum life passives are there to make you survive, not to become immortal:)

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Juvante wrote:

I start up my first map, a level 68 Crypt. Blaze through the entire thing till I get to the boss. The bishop.

Crypt is no longer a normal Tier 1 / level 68 map. It may no longer be balanced for a level 77 character.

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And ghosted bosses are extra dangerous. You may have to bail in such a situation if you want to survive in HC. 1x ghosted is usually not too bad. But if too many tormenteds are stacked on the same boss monster then it can become too hard to beat for most player/build combinations.

Edit: And tormented spirit effects are not equal. Some are far more dangerous than others.

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Juvante wrote:

Is death inevitable?

Edit 2: You can look at the SSF HC ladder to form your own opinion.

Ok, so I'll take a look at what you wrote

capped resists - that's good, that's how it's supposed to be.
20k+ armour - not bad either, I usually have less.
max block/spell block - not a reliable defence system imo. It just gives you a dice roll, similar to evasion.
fortify - good. pretty much needed for melee.
life leech and 300 life regen - those are recovery mechanics instead of defence mechanics, only useful if you're able to survive a hit.
can't miss - I guess this means resolute technique. offensive mechanic, not defensive. helps for recovery with leech though (indirectly).
can't be stunned - If this came from unwavering stance, it's a double edged sword. you can't get stunned, sure, but you give up on another defence layer. also only helps if you can survive the hits.
2000 life - this is where shit hits the fan. I feel uneasy if I have under 4k life when entering a map.

sure, armour helps, but the slightest bit of elemental damage is pretty much a death sentence. the curse-triggered projectile nova of the crypt boss consists of cold damage by the way. easily over 2k cold damage, after resists. also his hammer smash or whatever you wanna call it is faster, smaller, but in damage even stronger than that of voll.
Basically what happened is that you lost a dice roll against either of his two oneshot mechanics that you aren't supposed to tank and as a result got, well, oneshotted. Cuttthroat's grip doesn't make that any better, it increases attack/cast speed and physical damage. on a boss that is bad news.

My suggestion:
During leveling, focus primarily on life and defences. Over time try to pick evenly, and in the end focus at damage. that way you won't stay a glass cannon until you hit a wall and shatter. sure, your damage will be lower at the beginning, but at least you should be able to survive more stuff.

Its a miracle you could even make it to merc act4 with 2k life. Hats off to you. Now get some life on gear.