Why do I sometimes take massive damage out of nowhere?

Getting very frustrated again. I probably did about 20 maps today, and lost all of the xp by dying 4 times. And everyone of those deaths was a sudden spike in incoming damage that killed me in under 2s that two pots and a 15% physical damage reduction flask couldnt do anything about.

I really dont understand why this is happening. Most of the time i can cruise through a map with ease. Sometimes I just take massive damage and die before i even know what is going on.

For example, I did race course earlier. I easily killed the lion boss, was on full hp and even had most of my shields left. The bull boss was frozen and almost dead then suddenly half my hp was gone and my character was doing the stunned animation (I use the soul of brine king pantheon). I potted, tried to run, and dropped dead before I could take more than one step.

As far as I could tell, the ranged boss killed me in 2-3 hits from off-screen where I couldnt even see him. I am honestly sick and tired of ranged mobs doing insane damage from off screen where you cant even see them.

The next time I died, I was in Primordial pool. I killed the magic mobs in the boss room, ran into sight of the boss, casted freezing pulse once, then got hit by...something...im not sure what because I could only see some kind of ground AOE appear. I was on full hp/shields and instantly took about 5k damage, dropping me down to about half hp. Potted, tried to run, died in the next hit before I could even take more than one step. The map didnt even any mods with extra damage or crit. I respawned, went back in, the boss hit me with some kind of ranged attack, and this time it only did about 1500 damage instead of the 5k+ the first time round. Then I just killed him like normal without breaking a sweat.

I dont run maps with insane mods, I dont even do corrupted maps anymore after getting the atlas bonuses. Im always on max resists and I never do maps with vulnerability or elemental weakness. At most, my maps only have one extra damage mod that give the monsters roughly 25% more damage (After resists).

I just dont know why i sometimes take massive damage from out of nowhere. I cant tell whats going on because everything happens near instantly and i cant do anything about it. Potting doesnt save me and I cant run before I die to the next hit. Is the boss just getting a few lucky crits in a row or what? Most of the time I have no trouble at all, then suddenly the boss does way more damage for some reason with the same or easier map mods and I die, losing hours of progress.

As far as i can tell its not lag because everything is smooth, there is no stuttering or teleporting at all to indicate lag.

Third time : I was doing an abyss, constantly keeping diamond + basalt flask up, got to the last part, everything was OK...the last rare mob popped out of the ground, got frozen, and then shaper appeared behind me to fire some energy balls. Tried to move out of the way, got hit by the abyss mobs since I stopped casting, tried to pot, died before I could run.

Fourth time : Was doing torture chamber, I used lightning warp to get near the boss, dropped orb of storms + frost bomb, and the first thing the boss does is channel the lightning beam, which still does damage even when the boss if frozen. I ran behind the nearest pillar, and then shaper appeared behind me to fire the energy balls again. I had to move from behind the pillar, and then suddenly five totems surrounded me and I couldn't move. I was instantly gibbed by five totems spamming shock nova.

And I just died on racecourse again, and I have no idea why. I killed the lion and ranged bosses with barely a scratch, and the bull boss was being perma frozen at the edge of the screen. I had more than 5k hp and suddenly dropped dead and the bull was at the edge of the screen, frozen. The map didnt even have any damage or crit mods and I just got one shotted by...something...I have no idea what because the last boss was perma frozen and couldn't even move. The only thing I saw was immortal call activating although it obviously didnt prevent me getting one shotted by whatever hit me. I didnt see anything that could hit me at all and the last boss was a melee one which was nowhere near me. I now have less xp than I started the day with.

Just what the hell is going on?

Bull has reflect aura that he occasionally casts with a significant delay
Malachai's traps do a lot of damage and should be avoided
Abyss rares are rippy since rare mob buff
So as torture chamber - totems teleporting on you all at once can one shot you if they shock/crit

try tanking shaper's balls next time, they barely do any dmg

Try to understand what each boss does and how you can progress in each fight.

You cannot just level up, get dps and a few thousand life or ES and thought that you can tank everything.

Thinks like reflect, shocked, freezed, stunned must take into consideration (...and by the way stuf like these killed you in the fights that you describe above).

Its not a bug, its not an one shot, its game mechanics (which starting showing there teeth in maps, because if you follow a build, leveling is just a tutorial, with a few boss fight exeptions).

You have to practice alot in white or easy (easy is a definition that varies) maps, or doing alot of search in internet for each fight that puzzles you.

What can I say, good luck.

yeah sounds like mostly boss mechanics you dont fully understand are getting you.

The bull casts a reflect aura as has been pointed out, ull kill yourself if you attack him while its up, you basically bait it out, wait till it goes down and then smash him.

Torture chamber, the lightning beam from the boss deactivated when you break line of sight with the boss, so go behind a pillar, but just keep walking around the pillar to the other side and then re engage the boss, dont stop and hide back there. The warp totems do a lot of damage but theyre slow to follow you, so basically standing still in there is a no no. You have to just keep moving out of the warp totems damage areas, and the beam forces you to walk around a pillar now and then, thats essentially how that fight goes.

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

yeah sounds like mostly boss mechanics you dont fully understand are getting you.

In fact it´s hard to understand the boss mechanics just by playing the game.

OP is right that damage spikes dealt by monsters is crazy sometimes.

We really need some death log, bestiary is cool an all but monster´s abilities are missing there etc.

Another tip, I notice you keep talking about getting stunned and frozen. That shouldn't happen. Do you have an anti freeze flask? Also from your gear I can't tell if you are life or ES? It almost looks like you are trying to balance both? If so that is a bad idea, and why you get stunned so easily.

Im not the one getting frozen...im the one freezing the boss. I use freezing pulse.

So I had the bull frozen at the edge of the screen, he was almost dead, then i just dropped dead. I didnt see anything happen.

From what people have been telling him unless you are some super tanky jugg/champion builds, you WILL get stunned no matter what you do. And in my experience, one stun at the wrong time = you die before you can run. I mean, if a boss is going to hit you for 5k in one hit...how are you NOT getting stunned? Nobody has a life pool large enough to get past a 5k hit's stun threshold.

Nothing about the bull fight indicates it casts some damage reflect thing. Infact, people specifically told me that reflect was removed entirely from the game unless you choose to do maps with reflect mods, and reflect was replaced with thorns that you can dodge. Apparently, this was not true.

Yes, if you mouse over a boss, you can read the list of mods it has. But you can die in 2s or less, who has time to slowly read those lines of small text when the boss is trying to kill you? I honestly dont get how this works. Its like trying to mouse over and read a debuff in the top left while you are taking massive damage. Who can do that? Try reading the corrupted blood debuff, you have maybe 1s or less to read it because if you dont use a bleed flask, you die. Thats not counting the horde of mobs trying to kill you at the same time.

Look at Rigwald based fights like in the lair and dark forest maps. He literally tells you to run when he turns into a wolf, so the fight is pretty easy to figure out. The bull says nothing. The wolf barrage doesnt one shot you either...you have at least 4 seconds to move out of the way.

Now imagine the Rigwald fights except the boss says nothing, just randomly turns into an invulnerable wolf and the wolf barrage instantly one shots you. Does this sound more or less fun?

In many cases, its a ranged boss doing something from off screen. For example, all I did was get into range of Malachai, cast once, then I got hit by 5k before I could even do anything. And when I did get hit for 5k...I was not given time to run at all. Uber Izaro hits you for 5k but you have time to run and heal (I know, because ive gotten hit for 5k many times and survived). He doesnt attack fast enough to kill you before you can get away. Maybe Malachai's 5k damage hit is meant to be telegraphed (i dont know because I didnt see anything)...but you cant see the telegraphing when he is off screen....

Seriously, why are enemies allowed to attack you from off-screen? Why are they not limited to the same range of vision that a player has? They should only attack you if you give your position away.

All my gear has +life on it. Im not aiming for +ES on gear at all. Some of the gear just happened to get +ES from random rolls.

Torture chamber : I broke LOS with the pillar, and the boss stayed on the other side of the pillar. Ive noticed that the boss is scripted to do this...he doesnt blindly turn the corner to walk into melee range, he stays at range. Then shaper appeared behind me, so I had to move to dodge the energy balls. Then I was one shot by five totems surrounding me and preventing me from moving. I tried to cast lightning warp to get out obviously, but even in a 4L setup, I couldnt do it fast enough before 5 shock novas insta-gibbed me. Ive done this fight many times...the totems have never surrounded me before. Its always 1-2 totems that teleport near me (but not next to me) and I can move out of the way. The boss didnt even hit me after the lightning beam, it was shaper/totems that killed me.

There's a lot of good tips in this thread already about your specific difficulties listed. It looks like you are quite new to PoE--it takes a long long time to figure some of this stuff out and to build up the game mechanics to deal with them (like physically moving out of the way of certain things). I would just recommend patience and the PoE wiki/youtube for any particular bosses/encounters you have difficulty with (and things like the racecourse bull boss' reflect aura can be hard to notice as a new player).

From a practical standpoint, you might drop your wand for a dagger or scepter and give shield charge a try instead of lightning warp. Linking that with fortify will also help your survivability when you do get hit.

You're probably better off with Templar if you want Freezing Pulse. He's more tanky so you can get in close for your max damage with it, combine it with Inevitable Judgement and you can freeze bosses better. The Witch works but I can see why you'd have trouble staying alive in the tier 12+ maps. Maybe just try the tier 10 maps for leveling. Watch the map mods close, if you're trying to get to a level 93 you just got to be real cautious. Avoid any maps that say twined boss, boss deals increased damage, extra crit chance, etc. You may have to re-roll about half your maps.

Your hybrid half life half energy shield build could be part of the problem too. Those hybrid builds only make sense in certain circumstances such as if you were a Templar Guardian with Radiant faith. Or you could do a Marauder with Geofri's Sanctuary, but I wouldn't recommend it with a Witch.

I have a level 92 Witch Occultist and I can clear out the tier 12 and 13 maps usually without any problem. But I have 14k energy shield and using Essence Drain so reflect isn't an issue. Essence Drain works good on those bosses that shoots the beam. I can regen enough energy shield to just sit there and tank the beam without having to run behind a pillar. But Freezing Pulse against those bosses I can imagine would be difficult, you have lousy range, you probably can't freeze him with the Witch, so you're kind of stuck. Maybe try a different skill?

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Question2 wrote:

Getting very frustrated again. I probably did about 20 maps today, and lost all of the xp by dying 4 times. And everyone of those deaths was a sudden spike in incoming damage that killed me in under 2s that two pots and a 15% physical damage reduction flask couldnt do anything about.

Just what the hell is going on?

Well, two things.

1. Bad things happen.
2. Your character has no defenses other than your hp.

You only got 5-7k hp with no forms of mitigation other than freezing. If you don't freeze. You got nothing. No regen. No dodge. No block. No evasion. No curses. No endurance charges. Not enough armor to be worth anything. I don't see why you expect to survive if something bad happens. The game just ran the occasional defense check and you failed.

There are plenty of other non-tanks that are out there with less hp then you have. That are doing just fine mapping and not dying.

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Question2 wrote:

And in my experience, one stun at the wrong time = you die before you can run. I mean, if a boss is going to hit you for 5k in one hit...how are you NOT getting stunned? Nobody has a life pool large enough to get past a 5k hit's stun threshold.

Stun isn't an issue. You got pantheons, ascendancies, items, and skill nodes. Its easier than ever to get anti-stun if and when you need it. And if you are getting stunned. You screwed up.

A lot of builds who don't have any anti-stun just don't get hit. So, if you are playing a skill-intensive build, requiring your attention. It goes without saying. If you don't have the skill. You'll fail and die.

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Question2 wrote:

I tried to cast lightning warp to get out obviously, but even in a 4L setup, I couldnt do it fast enough before 5 shock novas insta-gibbed me. Ive done this fight many times...the totems have never surrounded me before.

Well, bad things happen. The universe aligns itself in a way to instant-gib you and maybe you don't have any way out of it. But take a step back and imagine for a second you had some other forms of defense.

Enfeeble. Spell Dodge. Decoy totems. Spell Block. Fortify. Any one or two of these could of saved you. Sometimes, life isn't fair. But sometimes you just need some defense so you don't get f-up on bad luck. Not much to say. You roll dice with like no defense and every few runs you'll come up short and die. Seems normal to me.