Dunes map boss, the Blacksmith

I really have to wonder if this is how GGG intends to keep long-term players. Merciless has been an uphill battle to solo, so I just said "screw it" and did the quests by zerging in a group.

Now I try a map by myself, all is smooth with the normal mobs, and then... two-shot desync leapslam mechanic with the boss inexplicably back under 100% health, leaving me going like WTF. It's really a bunch of bullshit. It's not fun or challenging to be two-shotted over and over when there's very little I can do as en evasion-based character. I already saw someone stop playing the game due to frustration with the map boss mechanics, and I'm sure there's countless more.

To be honest, I regret having spent money on this game. The normal playthrough was deceptive advertising, it made the game seem relatively balanced and like something I'd enjoy in the long term. Instead, I've spent the past three days on Merciless getting mad at the game due to crap like this or capped resists still resulting in me getting killed in a few hits.

I don't know, I just don't see long-term viability for this game with these types of cheap mechanics.

If GGG want's such kind of bosses, they have to fix desync first, then they can include insane fast moving mobs again. or remove insane fast mobs if they can't manage de-sync but keeping both is a no-go imho. Every leap slam desyncs my entire game, that's the problem (I also play a melee marauder with leap slam, I know what I talking ablut). The Dunes boss is really fast and he even can hit you if you are far away. I had the "pleasure" to meet even two of him with my Summoner yesterday. Only fast movement of me and my brave minions saved me from trouble (they were only after me, ignoring the gazillion minions around them, wtf?). And yes, enfeeble is also a good choice there.

Enfeeble and granite flasks made him a walk in the park for my melee character, but I can understand the frustration of a player who's used to kiting bosses.

Yes, in Poe you should have enough life+protection even as ranged fighter. My Summoner Witch has at least ~3K Life and Arctic Armor, max resists, uses a decent shield and various curses and I always have a granite flask armed.
You could think that especialy a summoner would never need this...but I can say that even a summoner surrounded with many minions is not save at all in PoE. :D

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Lord_Kamster wrote:

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Main requirement is that you know what you're doing.

"boss inexplicably back under 100% health" hillock heals when he draws his sword, every version of him does that

Like everything else in the game its either something that either you built for and thus its a walk in the park or that he's built to counter you and thus he is insanely difficult.

You should see what my fast casting damage reflecting skeleton totem(s) do to him (makes you pity him as he kills himself fast), and with standing close to him so he doesn't do him leap slam nearly as much with temporal chains to make him move around slower so that people can avoid him safely. A basic pushover for my skeleton army.....

Throw map piety or dominus at me though and the results are quite different and painful for me, lol


edit - being that my favorite summoner build has been a ancestral bond one.... it doesn't matter how fast he kills my skeletons when I have two totems summoning to swarm him with and with damage reflection he takes more damage trying to cut through them then he makes headway through my infinite skeleton army.

Interesting, never had built around reflect damage. I thought it is more or less useless against Mobs. I use Arc Mage Spectres but actualy more for their Arc, not so much for their Lightning Thornes.
As a pure Summoner I also have a Skelly Totem of course but how can I train my Skellies to do decent reflect dmg? AFAIK there is no support gem that can do this. Only Tempest Shield maybe but thats an active skill. Hm, do you use Necromantic Aegis passive or something like that?

Yep... necromantic aegis with a rare supreme spiked shield, minion instability and punishment curse. Anything that deals physical or melee gets reflected damage from one, and anything that deals physical melee gets hit back with both then the skeleton explodes on top of that. If I can get a 3rd curse (or replace temporal chains) with vulnerability and then stack shock it amps up the damage reflect to pretty insane levels on physical melee mobs like the blacksmith. Stack up a essentially infinite amount of damage reflecting skeletons around a melee/physical mob and its a matter of waiting til it dies pretty much.


But its just one of the builds I've run, and its basically made to counter heavy melee/physical mobs. The problem is that it has a heavy weakness to mass AoE elemental damage mobs (even with overcapped resists, resist auras and minion resist support gems) which is why I used the zombies as permastunners for those, but even then stuff like piety's lightning ball can screw me over royally as it clears my minions in a few shots.


edit - and ya, the battlefield lightning mages are a decent spectre for it as they can help with both shock stacking and lightning thorns to add on even more reflect damage.

This boss is ok. Use enfeeble, totems, or offscreen him with ease. Orchard/Museum bosses much more dangerous.

The problem here is the strange difficulty curve.

Crypt, Dried Lake, Tropical Island and Grotto are all really easy. Overgrown Ruins and Dungeon are reasonable for 66. But Orchard and Dunes seems a bit overtuned for lvl66 maps.