How to beat Vaal Oversoul as a melee evasion character?

Hi, I lost another character to merciless Vaal, I must be doing something wrong. I never go there without maxed resists and decent life (2700 or more) but the rocks and the bomb attack squash me like a bug. I thought I could outmaneuver that as an agile character but if the rock stuns me in wrong place bad things start happening, be it lazer or the eariler mentioned bomb.

I play evasion characters for long time already and this physical damage is a killer. I do use granite flask when I see rocks falling on me and when my hp is not exactly 100% so I can partially deal with that but the bomb how can I avoid it? I can't really use the granite flask for the whole fight, the use is limited by charges... Is the only way being lucky and outmaneuver it? It shouldn't be hard but you know how the game is, little lag or click on a monster and you are stuck for half a second, which can be lethal.

I never had this problem before but since they added the physical damage to the bomb it can one shot a character with little to no physical damage reduction and around 2700 life (or almost, im not exactly sure what my life was before I died).

Of course higher level characters with over 3500 life can stand it easily but are we supposed to get 3500 life by level 60?

Also don't turn this into evasion vs armor or whatever kind of thread please. I'm big fan of evasion and I don't think it is weak in general. But physical spells seem to be the Nemesis for them. Thanks in advance.

Edit: as always

Edit2: I forgot to mention it - melee character. I'll correct the title too.

I went to kill Vaal as a lvl 56 full evasion(and shield) melee shadow with 1300 health. I killed him.

I was using Frenzy and Whirling Blades for offence and Enfeeble, Endurance Cry and 2 granite flasks for defence.

Imo all you need to do is dodge his attacks properly and never go too far away from him, since the rocks don't fall in some radius around him (I think).

Thanks for advice!
With an axe I can't really use whirling blades so I used leap slam with faster attack for movement which is working, just not as well as whirling blades.

About the rocks, when he raises his hand I simply have to go away to the falling rocks or I get hit by the bomb. Last time I died because I didn't jump far enough. Basically I clicked behind the boss but it made mu jump at him (I'm not really good at targeting in this game) and by the time I landed the hand landed on me as well.

What I forgot completely is enfeeble, next time I will definitely use that. It can be hard to get some gems in race but in regular leagues definitely way to go.

BTW I can't even imagine trying to do that with 1300 life, it is a matter of milisecond to lose that amount of life, isn't it?

Edit: Lol okay, I tried to get hit by the bomb while the boss was cursed with enfeeble. It killed me in one hit.

But to be fair, this time, with some more aggresive approach I actually got him to about 5% life and had to wait for the bomb without chopping. I guess some luck is involved too because the sequence of attacks and everything felt like 100% easier. Maybe because he didn't use the bomb until after it was clear I would get him ...

Either way it seems like it is 'outmaneuver or die' option. I was kinda hoping for something more fool&lag proof. Might be as well wise to spec in IR for this fight if possible.

Took me few hours but... would it be bad idea if they changed the bomb to an attack (so evasion would work)?. I guess I can keep dreaming;)

Wiggin,

Too bad nobody handed you this little gem. Find a level 1 enfeeble, equip whatever alternate gear you need to use it. And from this point never again fear vaal oversoul on any character.

Sniper constructs become a bigger problem than the boss, or even his rocks.

Cheers,

It's an end game boss fight and you may need specialized equipment for it, not your everyday gear. Rocks and Laser are spell, so evasion are not of great help here. Try to grab a stone of larzhwar (50% block to spell block) and equip a shield. Or grab phase acrobatics. Enfeeble is a good curse as well, 30% less damage and lower accuracy.

But most importantly, either very high amount of life or spell block/dodge.

Spend time farming up a bit doesnt hurt, if you cant make it at 60, try to farm up to 66. You wont hit much xp penalty until then

Hi thanks again guys,
I didn't really mean to whine or complain, I just didn't know what to do. The lazhwar I could try as well, never did before. I'm not a big fan of acrobatics though. I like to be a bit more free with my gear choices so I can use both armor and evasion although I usually end up with evasion mostly. But I like hybrid armour.

About the xp penalty, I was actually talking about hardcore league so this is not an issue. I just tested those things on my dead character to see what happens if I get hit by bomb and such.

About needing specialized gear, yeah it could work but by the time you are facing merciless vaal you cant really build a specialised set of gear for it. I mean, you can but can you imagine how expensive and hard to do would that be? All the sockets and such. Not to mention half your passives would be wasted (although all the evasion passives are anyway). I understand it is a lot easier to beat almost anything from range or with high armor, I just asked how to do that with evasion and in melee range.

It is really just this boss, every other boss or monster in game can be dealt with high life pool, evasion and resists.

Last thing, overeleveling: this is really bad. I mean as an advice thanks for that but as a way to deal with certain weakness of melee style I don't like it ;) The boss is level 60 so I should kill it as a level 60 IMO.

I get it I'm kinda bad at this game but I only feel this way at the pyramid's top exclusively.

"

wiggin wrote:

Last thing, overeleveling: this is really bad. I mean as an advice thanks for that but as a way to deal with certain weakness of melee style I don't like it ;) The boss is level 60 so I should kill it as a level 60 IMO.

Actually that's not a good mentality for this kind of game, you're not playing D3 where every stat is standardized so you can beat something at a specific level. Easiness of contents depends much on the builds you make, some build will blaze through vaal like no problem, some will have trouble. Gear are hard to come by with both proper slot and stats. Always expect to have below average gear of your level.

For you build, dont be ashamed to level up a bit, it is HC after all, more is never enough.

Hey, you are right, I am not playing D3 but I am not sure how are things there. Standardized stats... I just want to be able to take one hit when I go this path. The way to preven one-hit deaths for evasion characters is life. Apparently 2700 life is not enough even with enfeeble (which is not in any way related to evasion play style). I can't see a reasonable way to get much over 2700 life by level 60. It is actually not so easy even with all the Oak's rewards. Now consider after those penalties are implemented one will have to side with Kraityn few times.

Maybe I will get all frustrated and level up to 70 before trying to beat Vaal (yes, I did bring a character to level 70 by farming pyramid already, it is possible. But I beat the Vaal first.). That shouldn't be the way though. If the game wants me to do this when I choose certain (and not even extraordinary - ranger has this in her lore/description) play style I feel like something is not right.

Also consider the balance issue if this was (not directly, but still) required. All the IR/armor/ranged heroes are happily farming maps while you are still running pyramid just to make sure you can beat the Oversoul.
Although it's not going to be this way. When act 3 is out you would be stuck before even entering it. Which sounds even worse but then again, Vaal will be different level and the build will have different value of added life... Yes, I can't tell how's this going to be. For now I'll keep trying.

Edit: Hmm after reading this post I was considering deleting it. But since I started this thread I will let myself go off topic or whatever you call the blabs ;) I just wanted to explain why do I feel that way about overleveling the content and it ended up as some incoherent rant about various stuff. Yeah...

This is how I did it. Viper strike on right click, whiriling blades on W.

WWWWWWWWWW right click right click WWWWWW right click WWWWWW e for puncture WWWW right click, keep dot up, WWWWWWWW right click, repeat


Though in all seriousness, get some life and resists or something. I haven't played merciless yet.