Zalmarath, The Colossus Hitbox as Melee

+1 poor hitboxes on this boss. Similarly, but not as bad is the summoned giant skeleton boss in this act.

Did this fight today as melee warrior (1h mace + shield).

The fight was such a slog, my god, that hitbox is bad. really really bad. As of 19/12/2024 the fight is still a buggy mess. Multiple times I shield rushed my way outside the arena, teleported back to be on top of the boss's head, can't deal any damage.

Stink fight because of that, otherwise it would've been a memorable and pleasure to fight.

Very frustrating fight. Between the ridiculious hitbox being only on his hands and the constant struggle to hit these while being nudged (especially if you are playing Perfect Strike).

Most outrageous thing : when he lifts his head up to shoot a laser, making rock fall into the area, his hands are unreachable while his torso is fully exposed. Despite that, you can't deal him any damage.

Hitboxes on this boss being around his hands/arms needs a fix, urgently

The fight is incredibly bugged. Sometimes you'll get thrown out of the arena (thankfully you don't die), or end up on his shoulder, or get pushed right in the way of his deadly knife attack. It's an incredibly tedious bugged mess of a boss.

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LaiTash#6276 wrote:

The fight is incredibly bugged. Sometimes you'll get thrown out of the arena (thankfully you don't die), or end up on his shoulder, or get pushed right in the way of his deadly knife attack. It's an incredibly tedious bugged mess of a boss.

Agreed, and agreed with the others pointing out similar issues.

This feels like a boss that wasn't playtested at all or wasn't playtested very extensively.

Why is his hitbox on his arms? What prompted you to make that decision, GGG? Make it make sense!

I didn't even know if my curse/firestorm would hit him when I was fighting him, both normal and cruel as witch. I remember thinking, yeah, this hitbox and the constantly moving arms are definitely going to piss off melee players. [sigh]

I play exclusively melee in all Souls games but in poe2 avoid it because I value my time. Like if I were a dev at GGG, I'd learn what percentage of players play melee, and as long as it's not a very small minority (it isn't for sure), I'd make sure every difficult content, bosses or ascendancy trials, are properly tested using melee to make sure no important fight becomes intolerable garbage to melee players, because that's the easiest way to anger and frustrate some of them to want to stop playing the game.

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ReggShanks#0071 wrote:

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LaiTash#6276 wrote:

The fight is incredibly bugged. Sometimes you'll get thrown out of the arena (thankfully you don't die), or end up on his shoulder, or get pushed right in the way of his deadly knife attack. It's an incredibly tedious bugged mess of a boss.

Agreed, and agreed with the others pointing out similar issues.

This feels like a boss that wasn't playtested at all or wasn't playtested very extensively.

Why is his hitbox on his arms? What prompted you to make that decision, GGG? Make it make sense!

They obviously ran out of time and/or manpower to rush this beta before holiday season. Blood Mage clearly isn't playtested at all, it's broken at a basic, conceptual level. I've been steamrolling cruel and low-tier maps basically with no ascendancy. Once I hit higher tier maps I'll see. If I get off-screen one shot all the time then I'll probably quit the game. I value my time too much to be a lab rat for someone else.

Again confirming the hitbox is a mess, I'm on my third character playthrough right now and this boss legitimately makes me want to snap my headset in two.
The main problems I have is his inconsistent hitbox, the vril apparition adds having shitty hitboxes too, try shield charging them and you can never get the hit.
The arena has elevation distortion walking near the broken edges. Your character gets dragged above or below the arena randomly depending on positioning and you can even replicate that after the fight is done.
While I don't mind the occasional one-shot there should be better telegraphing on that sword lunge, either its always a second strike that does the one-shot or telegraph it clearer if its a separate attack.

It's not just melee.

Hitbox is abysmal. AoE ring on ground (Flammability) has a 20% chance to hit because the hitbox just doesn't work. Same with Bone Storm. Bones will just go into the void even when fully charged which is a massive playability issue.

He should also not just consistently oneshot minions, makes playing a minion build just not worth it.

As well as the edges buff, and his minions hitting more than himself.

My Monk and Warrior kept falling off the platform trying to hit him. lol