Arbiter of Ash Feedback

300+ hours, finally found and finished all 3 citadels. Died 6 times to Arbiter and lost 60% xp, no biggie since I'm already done w/ build @ 93.

So there are two abilities that I think all the problems revolve around.

1) Orbs/circles you stand in to avoid one-shot outside the circle. This has 2 issues.
1a) First, he can attack you with other abilities while this goes on *forever*. Really it is far too long. Most of his attacks can be avoided but there was a large beam(not the one he starts with) that filled the whole area of the circle and it one-shot.
1b) Second, the next orb/circle can be offscreen. This is very frustrating, especially when you are 5 or 6 orbs in and you think its over. Nope, there was one setting up offscreen. This shouldn't be possible. And I have an ultrawide. Both deaths caused by this were a top/bottom issue where I was towards the top and the next orb was offscreen bottom. And even if they fix this it needs to be wholly on screen because if you are suppose to catch a fraction of the circle forming while also watching him that seems incredibly unfair.

2) The firestorm with safe "lanes". This ability happens too fast. Players need more time to see the lanes. There also needs to be a CLEAR DISTINCTION as to when you are actually standing in it. Make me glow bright red if I'm not in a safe area.


6 portals did help as my first death was definitely a learning experience and I avoided that the rest of the attempts. But the 2 abilities above were responsible for 5 deaths and I don't think I could have avoided it without some kind of one-shot build. And I DPS fast(I think) with a 50k dps spark.

I am over 400 hours into the game and I have yet to see a single ability of Arbiter of Ash, bosses need a major buff across the whole board, currently 2 divine builds oneshot every boss, and this needs to be fixed.

One-shotting bosses shouldn't fixed until bosses are fixed, imo. Game is already a chore as it is.

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GODOFWARSANCHEZ#4574 wrote:

I am over 400 hours into the game and I have yet to see a single ability of Arbiter of Ash, bosses need a major buff across the whole board, currently 2 divine builds oneshot every boss, and this needs to be fixed.

I think this speaks to certain builds being overtuned more than anything else. Plenty of mid-tier builds see both phases, as evidenced by the OP actually describing the abilities themselves. I dunno, it's just funny to me how we can have two completely different experiences in one thread (critique of boss attacks, critique of bosses dying in one hit).

That said, Arbiter isn't a particularly difficult boss - if you have good movespeed. He has a few gotcha attacks that take a death or two to learn their timing, like the fire waves, the fire bomb donuts, and the combo he does in Phase 2 where you have to bait his fire beam outside of the donut before dodging into it. The first two attacks are not a big deal with 40% movespeed or so, but complaints I've seen from players with slower builds leads me to believe that the fight is pretty miserable without good movespeed.

I have 30% movement speed on my boots. I didn't feel like lack of movement speed was the issue with either of these abilities. I literally died on fire waves because it looked like I was in the safe corridor. Or I died to it because I had .25s to recognize the safe spot and move to it.

Also, aren't these really just duplicate abilities with different visuals? Walk to this spot or die.

Anyways, this ended my quest to see the end game content. Haven't done Ritual but I almost never see omens let alone an Audience. Don't know what the cost on Alva is but at this point I don't care. I could spend a hundred hours farming to get enough divs to buy a flask or something, but I think I'll just play something else and wait for a real patch that actually changes the game at this point.

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FruitLord#0833 wrote:

I have 30% movement speed on my boots. I didn't feel like lack of movement speed was the issue with either of these abilities. I literally died on fire waves because it looked like I was in the safe corridor. Or I died to it because I had .25s to recognize the safe spot and move to it.

Also, aren't these really just duplicate abilities with different visuals? Walk to this spot or die.

Anyways, this ended my quest to see the end game content. Haven't done Ritual but I almost never see omens let alone an Audience. Don't know what the cost on Alva is but at this point I don't care. I could spend a hundred hours farming to get enough divs to buy a flask or something, but I think I'll just play something else and wait for a real patch that actually changes the game at this point.

You get barely any time to scope out the next safespot even with lots of movespeed, yeah. It's pretty cheeks the first few times you fight the Arbiter. I was more referring to instances where the donut bombs will sometimes spawn very far away from each other, giving you very little time to cross from one end of the arena to the other. The Zarokh fight has a similar issue when the hourglasses spawn far apart from one another; Even with 55% movespeed, the timing still feels tight sometimes.

I feel your pain.. I had the exact same experience as well today, I knew what to expect, saw some boss YT vids, but doing it yourself was a totally different story, and to think they actually "buffed" Arbiter to reduce the one shot builds (tbh I dont think it made much difference to them, but for me it was a chore).

I get it he is MEANT to be a challenge and I was ready for it.. My lvl 91 LA Archer did incredible dmg on him in Phase 1 and my move speed with Wind Dancer is over 40%. So, I neither lacked the dmg or speed, but like you said the indicator, especially around the donuts was somewhat lacking.. by the time I registered where the last circle was I had next to no time to get there as it was much further away and obscured.

I think increasing the timing of the circle mechanics might solve some of the problem and make it a bit more fair. it's a small change that would make a huge difference.

I have no problem with the difficulty and jetting around the arena, even if he had 10 phases, but make the phases somewhat more balanced.

One-shotting a boss is "great", but it doesn't show skill, or does it? being able to dodge, dive and duck in a long and challenging fight is lots of fun, but you don't learn anything about the boss, or do you?

I find the overall mechanics of Arbiter somewhat lacking, I had more fun doing Zarohk on my 4th Ascendancy then this abomination.. his attacks are pretty simple. but come on GGG, add a bit more spice and variety here, not this .. run here.. run there and see if you can avoid being one shotted - it's lazy boss design

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Gwonam#5505 wrote:

You get barely any time to scope out the next safespot even with lots of movespeed, yeah. It's pretty cheeks the first few times you fight the Arbiter. I was more referring to instances where the donut bombs will sometimes spawn very far away from each other, giving you very little time to cross from one end of the arena to the other. The Zarokh fight has a similar issue when the hourglasses spawn far apart from one another; Even with 55% movespeed, the timing still feels tight sometimes.

yeah this is true... I did have really good MS and if you lucky to get the 40% MS boon, I did have a relic equipped that reduced slowing effect debuff, so it might have aided me in the fight, but I just found the variety and mechanics far more interesting then Arbiter

I get the feeling, GGG wants to "avoid" broken builds, yet they create a boss that is basically saying, come at me one-shot builds... make it make sense

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wyldfyre#5310 wrote:

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Gwonam#5505 wrote:

You get barely any time to scope out the next safespot even with lots of movespeed, yeah. It's pretty cheeks the first few times you fight the Arbiter. I was more referring to instances where the donut bombs will sometimes spawn very far away from each other, giving you very little time to cross from one end of the arena to the other. The Zarokh fight has a similar issue when the hourglasses spawn far apart from one another; Even with 55% movespeed, the timing still feels tight sometimes.

yeah this is true... I did have really good MS and if you lucky to get the 40% MS boon, I did have a relic equipped that reduced slowing effect debuff, so it might have aided me in the fight, but I just found the variety and mechanics far more interesting then Arbiter

I get the feeling, GGG wants to "avoid" broken builds, yet they create a boss that is basically saying, come at me one-shot builds... make it make sense

I do find Zarokh's actual mechanics more interesting than the Arbiter's, even if Zarokh himself is tuned very oddly (tons of health, hardly any damage).

My issue with Zarokh is not him at all. I thought he was fun to face. But lost due to honor. Projectiles were everywhere and I couldn't always avoid them. Took 5 or 6 hits but eventually I had no honor left even though I never got close to dying. Take out the honor and it would be a fun and fair fight.

Trialmaster is probably my favorite "endgame" fight. Takes me some time to whittle him down but there is plenty of back and forth and if he has one-shots they are telegraphed well enough that I avoid them. Zarokh feels similar but honor kills it for me.

Also, I'm mid-40s so maybe my reactions kinda suck. But does that mean I should never be able to complete some content? I hope not.