Review Of Bosses From Act 1-10 From SSFHC Perspective
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So ever since the massive update from acts 1-10 I've been mostly playing SC and wouldnt give a crap how many times I died.
But ever so recently I switched to SSFHC for a race and I've really started to notice massive balancing issues with the bosses in the game Im sure that none ever tested these bosses because I wouldnt believe some of these things made it past any sort of real "q&a team" or "experienced players" that gave decent feedback. So I will review all bosses from Act 1-10 (no side unique mini bosses) Act 1
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Boss 1- Brutus
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Difficulty - 2/5
Brutus hits really hard for the level most players reach him at. He has 3 main mechanics Ground slam that travels across the arena, a hook, and his stomp that causes spikes/falling skeletons He is not annoying to fight but he isnt something most players can close their eyes on. If you casually ignore trying to evade his attacks or run out of flasks its easy to rip on brutus I believe he is a balanced boss Boss 2- Mervil
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Difficulty - 1/5
Mervil is very easy compared to brutus and her attacks are much slower and easier to evade She has 2 Main mechanics on her first phase - spawning animated weapons and ice spear She also has 2 Main mechanics on her 2nd phase - Giant swirling water tornados, her screech She has a passive defense where she is able to teleport aronud. She is ridiculously easy if you know that before the fight she does cold dmg, you can cap your cold resists and take little to nothing from her. I believe she is balanced but is on the weak side. Act 2
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Boss 1- Weaver
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Difficulty 1/5
Weaver used to be something all players dreaded doing in act 2. She dealt a large amount of physical/chaos dmg which is did quite a bit. She has an annoying mechanic that allows her to run away from the fight and return. She is a balanced boss and used to be unbalanced. Clearly GGG saw that nerfing her was appropriate and I agree that weaver is fine Boss 2- Oversoul
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Difficulty 1/5
Oversoul is one of the few bosses I believe to be absolutely perfect. He is able to dish out massive damage, he has many different mechanics, you can avoid his 1 shot slam, he isnt very difficult or too easy. Great boss all around I really enjoyed his design even when I first started playing. Act 3
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Boss 1 - Piety
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Difficulty 1/5 Very fun boss fight, balanced mechanics You can run away and hide from her ice arrow, you can also run away from her melee form. You can disable her transformations by destroying the blue/red portals She is very balanced and a great overall boss in poe Boss 2 - Dominus
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Difficulty 2/5 Dominus has a couple mechanics and pre mini bosses that can make it challenging for an undergeared character. When you finally spawn him he has the ability to teleport on you, shock you and deal a ranged flurry of damage or a massive 1 shot slam ability. His slam aoe was buffed and its very noticeable You cannot tank a shocked slam from dominus and getting hit by a flurry of his projectiles while shocked will kill you quickly Dominus is a fun fight, his phase 2 is much weaker then his phase 1 but overall very balanced imo I do think his "slam" radius could be nerfed back to its older size. Act 4
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Boss 1- Kaom
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Difficulty 1/5 Kaom used to be really annoying to take down in merciless difficulty, but ever since they changed it to 10 acts. Hes really been kind of a joke. Its very easy to deal with repetitive mechanics and hes a really easy boss to take down. I think hes fairly balanced atm and doesnt really need any buffs to his dmg. His attack speed could be increased though Boss 2- Daresso
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Difficulty 2/5 Daresso is a much stronger fight compared to Kaom. He spawns damaging swords and has the ability to supercharge himself and dish hefty damage. His attacks can easily be avoided though and using a decoy totem can make him quite easy to take down. I believe he could be nerfed slighty to be more in line with kaom and have less aoe sword dmg spawn around his arena while he supercharges himself. Boss 3- Malachi & Friends
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Difficulty 2/5 When Malachi first came out he was so over tuned and unfair it was a joke really. Similar to some of the other act bosses currently in the game... After receiving about 4 patches of nerfs hes finally really fun to fight and balanced. His damage is large but fairly easy to avoid. The mechanics of his 3 followers is not too difficult I would rate shavronne as the easiest and doedre as the most difficult. Act 5
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Boss 1- Innocence/Avarius
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Difficulty 5/5 Avarius has a couple mechanics and skills that make it quite annoying to take him down. His abilities seem to melt through your resistance and he can deal a quick strike of hefty large damage. But when he transforms into Innocence you get a true taste of an unbalanced shitty boss fight He has a scorching ray that cannot possibly be tanked, and it is very large and covers to the edge of the screen. You cannot outrun the beam without a quicksilver flask unless you are standing very close to him. However he also summons a gigantic minion that can easily slap you for over 1,000 dmg. Innocence also has 2 bullet hell phases, once is spark the other is fireballs. The fireballs deal massive damage through fire capped res. You cannot possibly try to "tank" this damage. You simply have to hide behind the statue of the gigantic minion or run and try to dodge it. This is the essence of a broken unbalanced boss fight. Being res capped is only easy for people who have gear and leveling items ready. Playing SSFHC really shows you the true nature of taking this boss on with only what you have found. It is insanely difficult and many rips almost occur every single time I fight this boss fight Massive nerfs are needed on this boss to be in line with the other bosses. Boss 2- Kitava
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Difficulty 5/5 Kitava has some really stupid abilities that dont make sense and are unbalanced. When you first put down the staff of purity sometimes he instantly punches you in the face and deals over 1400 damage easily. Res doesnt seem to affect his damage but If he is doing elemental damage it is a joke. Being res capped doesnt matter too much on this fight, if you get twice back to back you always die. He does way too much damage and his punch is unpredictable and almost unavoidable if you are melee. He has an ability where he reaches towards his mouth and 4 markers start moving together which eventually explode. I got hit by only 1 of the small traveling markers and it did over 1000 damage to my character. Very unbalanced fight that is hard for most builds to prepare for. Certain mechanics like culling dont do much here. Heavy Nerfs Needed IMO Act 6
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Boss 1- Brutus/Shav
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Difficulty 2/5 Much more balanced boss then the bullshit in act 5 Fairly easy to dodge abilities, decent damage. Nothing here feels overtuned or unfair Balanced boss congrats Boss 2- Brine King
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Difficulty 2.5/5 This boss is usually alot more difficult for people who dont know what he and nessa do/cast. Once you've done this boss multiple times its very easy to take down. The damage is fair, things are easy to dodge and evade. Balanced boss! Act 7
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Boss 1- Gruthkul
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Difficulty 3/5 This boss has some weird mechanics that I still dont really understand Its charge seems to lock onto your player It can quickly cast a large slam that does massive damage It also applies debuff stacks that make you take large damage. I believe it could use some nerfs and then be right on its way to a balanced boss fight that is logical and fair to fight. Boss 2- Arakali
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Difficulty 1/5 Arakali is an easy boss with simple mechanics It will punish players who ignore its abilities, but everything seems very balanced here and experienced players should easily be able to tackle this boss even on ssfhc balanced boss hurray! Act 8
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Boss 1- Deodre
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Difficulty 4/5 A really stupid fight Small Arena Teleporting deodre, she casts abilities and during the fight her arena is filled with damaging abilities. You HAVE TO click on the valve and refresh the arena or die trying to deal with all her bull shit. Her curses stack and it seems that it doesnt really matter which phase shes on its annoying and overtuned. nerf this asap please Boss 2- Sun/Moon Guardians
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Difficulty 1/5 Easy fight for experienced players, dodging is fairly simple Nothing feels overtuned here Balanced! Boss 3- Lunaris/Solaris
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Difficulty 2/5 For certain melee builds this boss fight can be annoying and stressful They pack a punch when it comes to damage but its fairly easy to avoid their abilities Balanced boss imo Avt 9
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Boss 1- Scorpion
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Difficulty 3/5 Annoying? Very much Super annoying obnoxious boss that requires you to chase after him and deal with his quick sand bull shit. Annoying fight that should be changed to be a bit more simple and less overbearing. He also has a mechanic where you must chase after his tail and he tries to attack you until you reach the tail. Then he moves back. All the while spam spawning scorpions that can get you stuck and quickly killed. Unbalanced and a series of annoying mechanics Boss 2- Sandstorm Girl
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Difficulty 2/5 Balanced fight Simple mechanics Nothing too crazy here or complicated to explain. Boss 3- Maligaro/Deodre/Shav + Abomination
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Difficulty 2/5 The abomination is very easy to take down, however fighting each of these demons 1 by 1 is very annoying. Especially deodre. Her scream and her arena in general are really cancerous to go through Could use some changes/nerfs to be a much simpler and fun fight to go through. Balanced but I hate doing it. Act 10
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Boss 1- Avarius/red version
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Difficulty 2/5 This is how act 5 should be... very balanced easy boss fight for experienced players who are res capped and have more life then generally required. Balanced boss fight! Boss 2- Kitava
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Difficulty 6/5 Kitava is a very difficult boss that must be beat in order to move on to maps His mechanics and abilities make fighting him very stressful and unfun. He spams abilities that all deal massive damage His fire breath covers almost the entire arena His tracking X marks the spot converging bullshit ability is still overtuned Very unbalanced and unfun fight that is very difficult with abilities seemingly melting through most players defenses. Being res capped isnt even considering an accomplish on this fight. You must be res capped when you get past act 4 or get killed by the unbalanced new bosses Kitava is worse in act 10 then in act 5 Kitava act 10 needs massive nerfs and slower cycling inbetween spells to be balanced as he covers most of the screen and his ads spawn constantly and deal massive damage All of these opinions are coming from a SSFHC perspective of trying not to rip once. Ive been playing since ambush league and I have plenty of experience. These are my opinions of the act bosses* This is feedback for GGG Last edited by Bloomania#2606 on Jan 3, 2018, 6:39:25 PM Last bumped on Jan 4, 2018, 1:17:11 AM
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Innocence:
Hands down my favorite fight in the game. I play sc, but Im not the kind of guy who zergs down bosses, and I rarely die on him, mostly because most of his damage really is avoidable. As you've said, you can run close to him for the beam, you can also hide behind the statues, but I never found the need to do so. His minions are the slowest thing ever. Honestly, I cant think of a single instance of his damage being unavoidable, maybe if you have very bad reaction time with his sparks and get stunned, but thats about it. Its really bizarre that you have so much trouble with him. Kitava a5: The punch really is stupid, but I dont find the x attack hard to avoid (unless you get increased aoe on a map and forget about it,but thats in maps) Brutus a6: Dont know how you found that balanced, since his grab to the wall attack is often a guaranteed chunk of damage. Not saying its op, but you seem to point out far lesser problems. Doedre a8: If anything, she appears to live longer than she should, but while the boss is on the harder side, she has no guaranteed high damage unless you get overwhelmed, which does not happen if you turn the valve. Kitava a10: After getting a bit more experience, I really like the fight, his damage turns out to be mostly avoidable. The big breath is more annoying than threatening if you know its coming, but annoying it sure is. Also, its weird you see no problems with how strong his heart adds are compared to how they look. Its like ursas all over again. Last edited by kroIya#4836 on Jan 2, 2018, 8:40:57 AM
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Deodre is bad in all her incarnations. Deodre is the only boss in PoE that I want to skip.
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I agree completely about Act V. Something is really wrong when the two hardest encounters before end game are at the end of normal difficulty.
I skipped last league almost completely because of this bullshit and after ripping to Avarius with my Molten Strike I'm tempted to skip this one too. I'm OK with dying on maps due to my mistakes but the idea that re-rolling a new toon is actually far more rippy than my usual casual mapping to lvl 90 or so is just stupid. With the Atlas the game progression has become something like this: Acts I - IV: easy like Normal should be Act V: hardest part of the story (Avarius and Kitava) Acts VI - IX: still pretty easy like Cruel should be Act X: slightly harder but fine except Kitava (still easier than Act V Kitava though) Mapping: in SSF really easy up to lvl 90 or so cause you're forced to run low level maps for the Atlas completion So from casual SSF perspective Act V (Normal difficulty) is the hardest part of the game followed by Act X (Cruel) end boss. Mapping itself is easy compared to getting there. |
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it is odd that you consider every fight that you assigned difficulty 2 or less balanced and every fight with more than 3 not balanced. I think it is the other way around - the bosses you assigned 3 or more are more or less balanced and the other ones are too weak and should be balanced to be stronger.
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Yea, they don't balance poe for hc players anymore. If the recent boss designs tell us anything, it's that they are trying to keep the boss fights interesting to sc players with billions of dps that one shot everything, hence all the immune phases.
Also, investing in dps makes all the bosses so much easier as they one or two shot you anyway if they hit you, your best bet is to invest in damage, so that the boss encounter doesn't last as long and you have less room for mistakes. Oh and the lab. Fuck the lab. Another thing that shows they design this game for sc players only atm. I'm a forum warrior, i was born to post, raised to defend my league. Now my post has been removed, chained and exiled by mods who Ban. Ban is my brother; i do not fear it. I see it in the eyes of men and beasts that i troll. It will take me to play the actual game when i am ready and i am not ready.
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I have 1000 ping. If not for that I would be able to beat these bosses in HC if I wanted to. I find that melee totem + charged strike are very good vs just about any boss. Lay down totem at boss' feetses and then charge up while aiming at them, when something tries to hit you release the charge, hit a few times, lay down totem, get somewhere safe, start charging up again. repeat
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" Pretty much this^ HC and SSF are afterthoughts I dont see any any key!
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Any reason for excluding Piety in Act IV from the list of bosses? I found her more difficult to deal with that Kaom or Daresso.
At the level at which she is found, she is a halting point, because she is on the main quest line, until the player can both level up and find the right skills. Any comments about this? |
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" well to be fair she is a 100% mechanical fight as in all of her attacks are telegraphed and easily dodge-able I dont see any any key!
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