Acedian Aldric is WAY overtuned

My problem with Acedian is not that he’s strong (I welcome the challenge), but that he doesn’t fit the location.

Boris and Rekt deal Phys + Bleed with few graphical fireworks and it matches the pit fine. But Acedian casts shiny lightnings left and right like he was transplanted from different place.

You got shadow strike out of nowhere :joy:

He should be very strong in Ultimate… but not in Normal, at least without some sort of warning that this encounter is much, much harder than anything else before it.

I had never heard of (or paid any attention to) this enemy until three deaths in normal at level 23. It’s not my first playthrough so I had pretty good items for that level. But no amount of gear would have helped; deaths could only have been avoided by previously gained knowledge of the encounter.

By comparison, Boris (the former gear check for the area) was a complete pushover.

A lot of new players have just started due to the recent sales. Imagine how many of those will be put off by a dozen seemingly-instant deaths this early in the game.

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GD is not be so easy, but rather forgiving. Many stated about Gutworm/Slazar, my first char died about 30 times against them in SC Veteran. I was totally frustrated that time. Death is lessons, now with enough knowledge about this game I can run through MC all difficulty with Lokarr set only smoothly.

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And he is not that strong on normal tbh.

I know you’re just offering a different perspective and not intending to be disparaging, but that basically dismissed the opinions of everyone who complained that Acedian Aldric is overtuned.

Yes, once you know how to fight him and gear up for the encounter, Aldric isn’t that hard. Evading the area is also an option. But none of these options are available to a first-time player barely 10 hours into the game.

Unlike an act boss or a challenge area, there’s little indication that this is a special encounter. Coloured nameplate with skullls might give a clue if the player notices it before aggroing them, but this would hardly be the first fancy nameplate monster they’ve encountered.

The experience for a newish player is that having defeated Warden Krieg in an epic battle half an hour earlier, they are happily carving through hordes of cannon-fodder bandits when Acedian Aldric suddenly ambushes and they’re dead. Is the rest of the game is going to be like this? Are sudden death encounters going to keep popping up without warning like in that other ARPG?

Having read about how Acedian Aldric is based off a level 20 PvP champion, I certainly wouldn’t want him nerfed. Like others have mentioned though, a door to the arena, or moving him into a dangerous domain will at least warn the player what they are about to get themselves into and make the encounter truly optional.

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Simplest solution is probably just a door for the arena, indeed. I mean, you will encounter sudden deaths in higher difficulties if your character isn’t prepared, but it is true that it’s much later into the game.

Another potential solution would be to remove the pack of mobs near the arena to avoid linked aggro, but it kinda is bad for immersion, since I think these enemies are supposed to be the Pit’s audience.

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not one of these threads again… Zantai you better not nerf these two… if any the game needs more “overtuned” bosses! let the new players suffer, it will be their fault for playing this game. Should have kept playing diablo 3 insted

and who cares if they’d drop the game., once they reached the arena… Crate would have already spent their purchase money and no refund option can save them … :smiling_imp:

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Just run new bosses with different characters. Have to say they offer different challenges for different archtypes. But both aren’t that hard in ultimate.

Just leveling in normal with solo Nightblade (will become Saboteur) and my first arena take around level 25 was Boris+ @rektbyprotoss tag team. Have to say, it was easier then I expected, cause I take them down quickly facetanking. Aldric was little more difficult but wasn’t threatening at all. And I didn’t have much resistances at this point and health was low.

I think you can put them behind a door or a warning sign for new players but bosses shouldn’t be nerfed, they are fine.

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I actually like those bosses. Was wrecking everything and totally not dying with my pyromancer simply dumped all points into Sigil Of Consumption (3 of those stacked in same place deal moderately-good damage while giving some nice heal) and… died 13 times from some guy throwing stunjacks all the time :smiley:

Was forced to respec my build into something sensible - killed it without problems(with only thermite mines if you wonder, but grenado probably would do better). It is like killing Salazar but bit tankier and stunning.

If you like me in past worrying too much about not dying once in game then this may be for you:

  1. it probably will happen anyway as game tends to be very easy between those moments where you could be killed
  2. you probably will want to experiment with you build instead of sticking with something that just works, that is the point of game. This boss is just great reminder for it. And experiment can go wrong, otherwise why experiment if you already have the answer.
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The proposed door, or a door sign should say “Elitist jerks ahead. Enter at your own peril.”

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https://clips.twitch.tv/DarlingSullenScorpionWoofer

Yeah, yeah, it’s on Elite and not normal. Still funny though. :scorv:

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Acedian Aldric is EZPZ in endgame.
Though I was never able to kill him with a fresh character in normal. Always died.
So, there´s a way to beat him in this situation anyway? By gear swap and respeccing I assume? Dude, I never had to do this when levelling a character all to the end.
My opinion would be: If Aldric really is only killable by new characters via respeccing and gear swap (correct me if I´m wrong), then he indeed is way overtuned.

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Killed him on two fresh chars so far. Once on normal where I was able to facetank him+boris np and once on veteran, had to kite him a little but nowhere as scary as on elite. On ultimate with a decent endgame setup he’s pretty easy again. Need to try to kill him on elite again soon.

Makes me think TWICE before accepting the “Kill Boris” bounty at Devil’s Crossing!

I don’t want to get stuck with an uncompletable bounty due the fact that the selected character is unable to beat either of the two new pit champions as approaching Boris brings one of them in as well.

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I used to always kill Boris on every run because he’s usually only 2-3 levels over my own by the time I reach him and he’s a nice little bit of experience for leveling.
But now I’ve taken to just ignoring the two of them all together now, because to kill Boris I also have to deal with Acedian, who is just absolutely not worth the time it takes to kill him.

Acedian is on an entirely different level, he’s so powerful that I thought him spawning there was a bug.
Insane burst damage with huge stuns one after another and a debuff that continues to damage you as long as he’s in range, which is always if you’re trying to fight him because he’s a melee boss.

myhr2 near the top of this thread said “they’re designed to kill characters”, which is ironic because Acedian is so powerful that no one bothers to fight him, which means he won’t kill any characters beyond first-time or over-confident players.
“Champion of the Pit” seems like an understatement to me.

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I guess it highly depends on the build you are playing, some can facetank both Acedian and Boris without taking a dent while others might only survive by kiting around them and avoid getting hit at all.
I always enter the pit on every difficulty but I have yet to die by the hands of Acedian (or Rekt for that matter). To be fair, I’m always using well rolled gear from my stash for leveling.

I can see how players without a ton of gear and experience might have difficulties beating them and get frustrated. But I think Acedian should not be toned down too much if at all, tbh I think the game would benefit from even more challenging non-superboss enemies like Acedian, as long as they are optional (eg. Morgoneth, Mad Queen. Eff you, Father Kymon!). Imo getting rekt should not discourage you but encourage you to work on your build and piloting skills.

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Only one complaint - they should be called Masters of the Pit, not that weakling Boris :expressionless:.

I agreed, I sort of like having optional mini-bosses that rip you to shreds.

After fightning both Loxmere and Aldric on elite and ultimate on a SSF purifier, I think that Aldric is actually way harder than Loxmere on elite and ultimate difficulty.

Aldric > Loxmere > Rekt

That said all three bosses are optional.

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