Merciless Lab literally impossible.

Actually the Decoy totem only hits Izaro, it does not hit the Goddess with its taunt, so the Fireball Volley will always fire at a target mostly random. Although it seems to favor firing at the player. But it doesn't actually do too much damage, with capped fireres the Merc version deals about 1-2k if you take the full barrage, which rarely happens even if you stand still since the projectiles are quite scattered.

And if Izaro is an issue due to performance issues you should propably upgrade your PC or not play the game, because Izaro actually is a very performance friendly encounter, if he creates issues you can propably not even open an Abyss without your PC melting down.

Because Izaro and many bosses later rely on the player dodging most of his attacks. Basically all of his attacks are insanely powerful, you can't hope to defeat him if you take every single hit, unless you made a character specifically designed to take heavy physical damage (and the bit of Fire from the Goddess).

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Emphasy wrote:

Actually the Decoy totem only hits Izaro, it does not hit the Goddess with its taunt, so the Fireball Volley will always fire at a target mostly random. Although it seems to favor firing at the player. But it doesn't actually do too much damage, with capped fireres the Merc version deals about 1-2k if you take the full barrage, which rarely happens even if you stand still since the projectiles are quite scattered.

And if Izaro is an issue due to performance issues you should propably upgrade your PC or not play the game, because Izaro actually is a very performance friendly encounter, if he creates issues you can propably not even open an Abyss without your PC melting down.

Because Izaro and many bosses later rely on the player dodging most of his attacks. Basically all of his attacks are insanely powerful, you can't hope to defeat him if you take every single hit, unless you made a character specifically designed to take heavy physical damage (and the bit of Fire from the Goddess).

Yes that was my main issue. None of his other attacks either gave me issue, or even dealt nearly as much monstrous, insane damage as the Goddess volley. So unless that deals Chaos dmg, I can confirm, the volley will deal in excess of 3k in a single blast. If you suffer the brunt of it, IE, lag, or get caught by anything more than a single small blast from it. As for my PC, it can run the game fine 99% of the time. However every now and then, such as say, when a boss fight just begins, or when I lay down a large field of Desecrate @ my HQ base while I'm getting ready for missions, there will be lag. I have dealt with PC lag pretty much my entire life, so I'm used to it.

Ya actually my Berserker tank did alright against the first 2 Izaro bosses, way better than my Necro has. I dunno if it was that Berserker spec > Necromancer (Necromancer buffs, pls) but he was able to tank it way, way easier. Comparitively, I still spent the same amount of nodes on defense (roughly 1/4 to 1/2, depending on where I'm at in the game.)

Also I do have good news: I was able to beat him, after pretty much trying all day, dying, tinkering, trying different builds, etc. The one way that finally worked, was using a spell totem'd, spell echo'd Raging Skull. Along with also getting a perm speed boost shrine, which I think was super integral to winning the final battle. Even still though, it was very narrow, and extremely (way too) difficult. It makes me so upset that the final room, with all of the traps is exactly how you do -proper- addition of game difficulty, instead of just "moar dmg!"

The main problem here is that labyrinth is loathsome content that is not fun for many players. Yet they took this horrible loathsome content and decided, "Hey, let's make 'em fight the boss 3 times and if they die, they have to do the whole loathsome crap all over again!" (key evil demented laugh)

If you agree that labyrinth is loathsome content then do NOT enter said loathsome content except on days where Izaro is wielding a dual handed mace. You find out what Izaro is wielding at http://www.poelab.com/. I know it is stupid to have to do this but it makes said loathsome content much less likely to have to be repeated. YUCH!

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DurianMcgregor wrote:

You're not getting hit for 3k for a single attack in merciless lab with an unbuffed Izaro. I'm pretty sure none of his attacks do this much.

They do. Don't forget - summoners have no armor. And don't forget that it is difficult to stay on full health in the arena full of things attacking you when you can only heal by using (rather limited) flasks or staying out of harm long enough to regenerate. You can't heal just by hitting something with the summoner. And you still have to remain stationary to deal damage, since summons are doing almost nothing if you are not standing and casting something in target's direction.

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TheLiberation wrote:

Although I am a little surprised you say he deals over 3k damage - I think you need to facetank one of the slower skills up front for that to happen, as my characters below lvl80 are around 3k HP each, and I could survive most things (though it's often a close call, admittedly).

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Emphasy wrote:

Because Izaro and many bosses later rely on the player dodging most of his attacks. Basically all of his attacks are insanely powerful, you can't hope to defeat him if you take every single hit, unless you made a character specifically designed to take heavy physical damage (and the bit of Fire from the Goddess).

Problem with summoner - when you have summons, he (and many other bosses) just unpredictably attacks in random directions all the times. And you'll probably get at least one of that attacks during a fight.

As a summoner, I can say that labyrinth is one of the worst (in all meanings) things in this game.

Thanks for the feedback, and backing me up, guys.

Yes I had noticed from doing lower level Labs, Izaro seems much easier when he is wielding his 2 handed mace/hammer, than any other setup. I actually don't mind the idea of the Lab being one of the harder game elements, however across the board, bosses in PoE just generally deal -too- much damage. For comparison, my tanky Zerker, while fighting Shavronne, had to sit for no joke, about fifteen mins fighting her, in the race, w/ one other player, another tank. The other actually died, even though I still sat there drawing aggro, tanking. Though I was essentially locked...if I did anything, even try to run, I knew for sure she'd drop me if I stopped spamming my attacks & skills. This is just ZeroFunTM content. Bosses should be balanced more towards wehether or not they will 1 shot obliterate casters, etc. Also: not every build is going to, or can have max resists to work. I've invested nearly half of my 90+ talent skill points as my Necro, into passive energy shields, energy shield + life nodes, etc etc. Not counting however many I've had to dump into going all over the board just to get all of my minion nodes. I simply can't afford to build pure tank if I want to have strong minions.

You'll get better, or you'll whimper off like Wounded Dog and cry about Cruel Mistreatment (merciless mistreatment? :D)

I beat his lousy ass on multiple non-vaal pact characters with 4k life. Even with my necromancer. Hell it's easier with my necro.

First thing you need to do is get used to his attack patterns and react accordingly. After that you should only really be hit by his basic attack which will not kill you.

Next thing is know what arena layout it will be for that day. Some are just @#$%ing absurd and make him insane to deal with.



If your ass is always lagging constantly then yeah, you're pretty screwed. Either you're going to need to seek a solution to your crap latency or just build your char up to facetank him and cheese him out.

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Ghoulz666 wrote:

Next thing is know what arena layout it will be for that day. Some are just @#$%ing absurd and make him insane to deal with.

For me, this is the sad part of labyrinth. If Izaro was in a regular area, like anywhere else in the game, It would be great fun to learn the Izaro boss fight. There really is so much there to learn! But the labyrinth (except Izaro) is loathsome horrible not fun content that insults and besmirches GGG's good name. It's definitely not worth learning Izaro when he's surrounded by this loathsome content that has to be replayed in full if you die. So for me Izaro gets lumped into the loathsome content as the main gating factor that must be overcome to escape the loathsome not fun mess. I mean I play arpg's to kill monsters and collect loot not to play mediocre trap game play.

Hey, veteran summoner here. I can't see your character, so I'll speak generally. The problem most summoners run into is minions insolate them from many dangerous mechanics. As a result, they don't properly learn what to avoid, how to stagger, kite, strafe, and other life-saving tactics. They don't realize just how important life and defenses are, how to build their character to survive when minions inevitably fail. When shit finally hits the fan and they die again and again, it can be very frustrating because it seemingly came out of nowhere.

Merciless Izaro deals 2575 base attack damage. His Leap Slam ability deals 160% of that. If you have ~3k life, you need way more.

The green stuff is not from Izaro. It is a Spirit Mortar from the Goddess of Justice. She floats above Izaro and can attack independently of Izaro's actions.

Your best defense is to move. At the start of the fight, keep all your minions in front while Izaro's platform rises. Once it clicks into place, Izaro will attack. You want to know which direction he will attack, so keep it predictable by not surrounding him with targets. Right when he goes to attack/leap/mortar, you move. Circle-strafe him, cast once and keep moving. So long as you cast once every so often your minions will continue to attack. You don't need to stand still, you just need to cast while aiming at or in your target's direction. Just focus on moving and dodging; it's fine if your minions break their attack if you stay alive. Skeletons and Raging Spirits are great supplemental damage sources because they will always keep attacking.

You also need a movement skill. Whirling Blades or Shield Charge will make dodging far easier. They also count as attacks, whose use will direct and keep your minions fighting.

I like to support my Stone Golem with Culling Strike if I have the room, as one punch will kill Izaro when he's below 10% life in the final fight.

Check out my character Speaker_for_the_Dead for an example of a modestly tanky summoner. She stacks life regen and caps block/spell block (75/75) with Bone Offering and Rathpith Globe. Four Ice Sentinels deal most of the damage (make sure your Desecrate is leveled), and I threw in a few Skeletal Mages as supplemental damage that benefits from Elemental Equilibrium and Projectile Weakness. The Bloodgrip amulet doubles life recovery from flasks, so it's a great life-saver. Its bleed protection is fantastic for the Labyrinth as well. Uber Lab is still on your horizon, after all. She has roughly 5k life and 1.5k MoM mana for an effective health pool of 6.5k (+ 1.2k ES brings it up to 7.7k, but I don't rely on ES being full). I'd like to have more, but it's adequate so long as I play intelligently.

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For me, this is the sad part of labyrinth. If Izaro was in a regular area, like anywhere else in the game, It would be great fun to learn the Izaro boss fight.

Actually... not really. The mechanics are something players have to deal with. But if you just want the points you disable them. And besides that he is a boss like many others in the game that has some heavy hitting attacks, that are really slow.

The big thing is... never lose sight of him. If you have minions you never know in which direction he attacks. So unless you keep him in sight you are in danger of getting a surprise barrage from the goddess or a swing from across the screen.

Also if you are a Summoner, a lvl1 Stone Golem will taunt him for nearly all of the fight and propably never die due to his insane amount of HP. So he will usually attack in the direction of the golem.

The Barrage also doesn't deal too much damage if you have capped fire res. And since the travel time of the balls is fixed they are as easy to avoid if you are close as they are if you are further away. It is also a good idea to consider Bodyswap or Shieldcharge, since there are hardly any other movement skills that are quick enough avaible for a summoner, they make the fight a lot easier.