Brutus, Normal Mode.

Hi folks!

I was wondering, what is the 'normal' level on a first play through for taking down Brutus? I did it at 13 (Shadow), but it was damn hard, and required me to use 3 TP scrolls to run back and forth. I'm getting the feeling that maybe my gear sucks, or something, because all of the special monsters in the Prison are kicking my butt.

The rest of the Prison is a breeze- it's just the named monsters and the boss. Should I be upping my resistances, maybe?

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Misguidance wrote:

Hi folks!

I was wondering, what is the 'normal' level on a first play through for taking down Brutus? I did it at 13 (Shadow), but it was damn hard, and required me to use 3 TP scrolls to run back and forth. I'm getting the feeling that maybe my gear sucks, or something, because all of the special monsters in the Prison are kicking my butt.

The rest of the Prison is a breeze- it's just the named monsters and the boss. Should I be upping my resistances, maybe?

Brutus doesn't use any elemental damage, so resistance won't help you.

Shadow is fairly squishy, so its not surprising you are having issues. Are you going Evasion/ES as your armor as well?

Around lvl 10-11 is normal i thinkS.Was easy as shit on my marauder but i guess with Shadow it can be tricky because he has not a lot of HP in the beginning.

Yeah, Evasion looked like a good idea, but I have only just started heading that way, so I could still undo it if it's not the right move. >_>;

Push tab. What does the map level say on the top right?

That's what level you do Brutus at.

Evasion can be good, Evasion it the only defence that can evade chaos damage attacks.

Hmm, can't really be of a lot of help as I haven't spent a lot of time with the Shadow, but one thing I can definitely advise is that when you see him winding up for his ground slam type attack, dodge out of the way and then continue attacking. It's that ground slam that Brutus usually gets me with.

If you are unable to tank Brutus, perhaps you can try using Viper Strike to minimize the amount of tanking you have to do while dealing damage.

Press Tab, it will make the map fullscreen and show in the corner the area level, which is the level of all normal monster in that area, blue will be +1 and yellow +2. Usually the area level is the "right" level to be there at.

Brutus isn't easy when you aren't ready for it, he does hit like a truck (wait till you meet him in maps, 80% dmg reduction and still almost one shot 2.5k life out of me).

What you describe (using 3 tp, and kitting) sounds like a thrilling battle.

From my experience, normal is actually harder then cruel till act 3.

As a Shadow I just threw firetraps on him, double slashed till low and whirling'd away.

Worked fine.