How to tank those Shaper balls on the Uber Elder fight?

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Bjorn_Angannon wrote:

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ShadyC wrote:

Just because everything technically has a counter doesn't mean it's good game design. I'm going to assume you don't pack Frost Bomb on every build you play.

Do I pack it on every build? No. Do I plan for this contingency, especially when I'm not playing a high dps build? YES

You stated you beat on that metamorph for 7 minutes before you got one-shot. During those 7 minutes you could have ported back to your stash, do a quick swap, then do a 30-45 second beat down.

Yes, I know. And you're right.

But keep going down this road. Just how many things are you okay with having to swap gems for? Life regen now, but what if there were 20 other things too?




It's not good.

I draw my line at one swap. You draw your line at a number that isn't mine, but you certainly draw it somewhere. What makes your line better than mine?

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ShadyC wrote:

Just because everything technically has a counter doesn't mean it's good game design. I'm going to assume you don't pack Frost Bomb on every build you play.

I do, on any character that is in melee range for sure.

I keep niche stuff like frost bomb handy in my stash. Can portal out and swap it in if needed.

Just the same.
Lately I've been playing exclusively tank builds and I know that in some situations, most of them Maven-related, I will lack damage to kill bosses without Frost Bomb, so I keep it in my inventory and swap when needed. Same when fighting Elder, except I slot Frost Wall to protect Shaper.

While I feel that in general, too much content is DPS-gated bc of timers everywhere while a zEHP dps-crazy can theoretically do anything, I do appreciate when GGG gives tank characters some ways to negate what look like dps checks.

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Rakiii wrote:

I could add Sapphire flask (eventually with increased flask effect) for an extra mitigation but players are not supposed to tank them but rather avoid them.

Good point, Flagellant's sapphire flask is great for Uber Elder.
As for your second point, I respectfully disagree. Because most players favor high damage over defence doesn't mean we all are *supposed* to do so. On the contrary, GGG provides us with a variety of defence layers that absolutely allow to tank Uber Elder. On the other hand, whoever wants to achieve this is supposed to massively invest in defence, and not only pick some life nodes and run Determination. True tankiness is achievable even on a budget, it's just non-meta.