And the Most Powerful Enemy in the Game Is...

I’ve always kind of liked how environmental damage functions in this game. I always have a force-move button for my characters ever since my first aetherfire rip. After adding a force-move button to my play style I can’t remember the last time I accidentally rip’d to environmental damage, be it aether or poison.

Although I’ve noticed that sometimes (maybe 1 in 10 ticks) it looks like I take different amounts of damage as if I’m being crit on. Could I be receiving a critical hit from the environment or am I just not seeing the damage correctly?

Oh yes, you need to be so damn good to able to avoid aetherfire, because it’s so ridiculously hard to avoid. But what a way to go to not make me not take anything you say seriously with that post, but i’m still gonna clarify why.

Because i actually have to pay attention to where my character is going? Because god forbid i actually have to pay attention to what i’m doing and not just run around aimlessly, without any consequences.

Aetherfire is no different to me when enemies throw aether grenades, those riftspawns smear the floor with acid when they die or when voidfiend throws those chaos fireballs, all i have to do is try my best to avoid it. You don’t have to fight anything in the game while being on aetherfire, you can easily lure enemies to you because they are so aggressive.

If they make it so Aether resist works against it, then it stops being an actual hazard. It might as well not be there.

The only actual issue with Aetherfire is that some patches remove 20% of your health and right next to it there’s a patch that removes a third of your health. It’s inconsistent and that’s the only moment where i find it annoying.

Aether tornadoes are far worse than aetherfire. They can pop up at anytime, even with capped Aether resist two tornadoes in ultimate can rack up rather large amounts of damage in a short period of time and they tend to pop up at the worst times. So why are some people complain about a thing you can avoid for the most part and not something that actively follows you?

These are just my two cents about this subject because no matter what i say, the people who don’t like aetherfire will keep repeating the same arguments over and over, with no conclusion in sight. This and i doubt Crate will ever do anything about the current state of aetherfire because people have been complaining for years about it and Crate has done nothing about it, leading me to believe that Crate wants Aetherfire to be the way it is now.

Funny, I always feel like those who DO like it always avoid the key question: What does if ADD?

People are always quick to stress that avoiding Aetherfire is easy, and they don’t mind doing it… But they don’t seem to have any idea how it benefits the game for Aetherfire to exist in its current state.

Such reasoning can be made for almost every game mechanic … There is always a room for improvement.

Personally I don’t “like” it but it’s in the game and I live with that

Besides, it adds some challenge and makes the game less monotonous

“Oh in this dungeon I have to avoid some part of the floor instead of simply killing everything with ease” said most of my chars after dying burned by aetherfire or dissolved by acid/poison floor

I could agree with that if there wasn’t a host of comments saying how easy it is to avoid. Clearly there’s no challenge to avoiding it, or fighting around it, for all those commenters.

It’s easy to avoid, you can fight around it or even on it … But since some people complain about it and haven’t figured yet how to do it, it might be challenging :rolleyes: (at least for them)

We might as well remove any hazard then because apparently they don’t add anything. Those ice mines in SoT, those chaos crystals in BoC, poison water in Hargate’s lab and apparently aetherfire add nothing to game.

It’s not like hazards have been in gaming since the beginning and are obstacles that the player has to take into consideration when going through an area.

It’s not like aetherfire actually makes me think where i need to position my character and where to strategically lure enemies so i can kill them safely instead of just mindlessly running without thinking about any consequence on where i position my character. Let’s just make the game extremely monotonous where i can walk around with a blindfold and still be fine.

Yes, it’s rather easy to avoid, but it’s something i always have to take into consideration when going through some areas. If they make so Aether resist works against it, it might as well not be there because i could just run all over it and take next to no damage.

But nope, they don’t add anything to the game. Thank god some people aren’t game developers, because if Grim Dawn was being developed by some people here i would have stopped playing ages ago.

You assert that you aren’t stupid, then imply that in areas without Aetherfire, you act stupidly. You should ALWAYS be positioning your character well and luring enemies when needed, Aetherfire doesn’t ADD that to the game. That’s just smart gameplay, in ANY game where the enemies aren’t totally unthreatening. Not every game has Aetherfire or an equivalent, so it should be pretty clear that that’s caused by the enemies being able to kill you, NOT Aetherfire.

But you know… It’s not like this is what, the fourth thread on this I’ve commented in over my time here? Nobody seems to be able to claim it ADDS anything. The few times people TRY, they end up associating it with things it does not at all cause… Usually a “challenge”, right after they assert that they deal with it easily, or like the above, claiming it somehow forces tactics… That you should already be using, even when no Aetherfire is around. I’ve yet to see a third option crop up, so I’ve yet to actually have any reason to revise my position on the essential uselessness of not only Aetherfire but all ground damage effects of its type.

I think it adds difficulty and substance to an area that would otherwise be just like every other, kind of like a water map on mario or the lava zone in dark souls 1. You can no longer kite and position in the same fashion like you would, for example, the Rotting Croplands, so it kinda takes you out of your comfort zone by adding this precarious dimension where you have to submit to the environment instead of it submitting to you - via resistances.

Finally a third option! It only took… Jeez, IDEK how long it took.

To some extent I can agree, the LOOK is visually appealing and thematically sensible. I’m not sure anything that can be reasonably compared to Dark Souls has a place here, though, outside of aesthetics. This isn’t a HC, suffer for suffering’s sake, hyper challenge kind of game. Especially since you’re expected to do everything three times on every character, and the game is set up to encourage making MANY characters.

The first time through, Aetherfire is much as you describe. Even the second and third, as you finish your first character. Make five characters, however, and Aetherfire and things like it are suddenly awful.

IF it was either less damaging, or resisted, I’d have less issue tolerating it. As it stands, it’s what, 20% of your health? So if I look away for five seconds or take five seconds to fight a few heroes, I’m dead, not because a monster struck me, but because the ground was upset with me. Your character is supposed to be a monster killing terror… That gets killed by ground sneezes? Come on, that makes no sense when you can fight off Valdaran and be fine. The GROUND is more damaging than a NEMESIS? That just doesn’t jive.

It’s not damaging me 20% it’s just you. You lack health regen find something that can increase your health regen 5% damage to me then it goes back to full my weakest character a pyromancer who’s ather resist is -5%

you are really reading what you want to read, it makes the game less monotonous ie. it adds diversity in the game (pretty much what Twan said)

Pretty much the contrary, I found it awful with my first chars and I’m used to it now and appreciate it as a touch of diversity in the game (since it’s not a challenge anymore)

Each Nemesis can do far more damage than 20% of your hp (even with capped resists) and some can even one-shot you (Zantarin and his shotgun, Fabius and Notched Axe of Thousands Deaths …)
Besides that 20% doesn’t take into account your hp regen and your damage absorption (which permit to some builds to fight on the aetherfire without much danger) and the damage dealt by the hero you are fighting

Ah, I only play hc so the dark souls analogy felt most fitting lol. I understand your point though, I remember getting peeved over it a while back but I’ve grown to like it. For me its about mindset, if Im going to an aetherfire zone then I get myself in-the-zone, no pun intended, just like I would fighting Log or Moosi and my mind is wrapped around my surroundings and my enemies.

We should also consider the fact that aetherfire only presents itself for optional content with the exception of smugglers pass, unless I’m having a brainlapse (definitely possible). Tbh I’ll sometimes skip conflagration, or what have you, until im ready to nemesis farm.

At the end of the day, I see aetherfire as basically lava, childrens games aside, and even a monster killing terror cant walk through that.

20% is still 20% though. You’re comparing HP and “Effective” HP at that point

Aether resist has no influence on the % health reduction dealt by aetherfire floors

The least frustrating encounter around an aether floor occurs in Necropolis with Valdaran. Everytime you try to step on aether floor he goes “No don’t go there”

He’s a friggin gentleman in the necropolis

CAN? Technically yes. DOES? No, almost never.

Counting an occasional item spawn doesn’t seem very reasonable.

HP Regen doesn’t affect the damage you take, just how you deal with the damage you’ve taken.

I can understand that. I can’t say as I agree.

Also, although Aetherfire is the biggest example, generally what’s said about Aetherfire also applies to the OTHER ground effects of the game.

I still just can’t see it ADDING to the game to have that much damage, though. There’s not a functional difference between that damage and just making it impassable, outside of a few awful stretches where you HAVE to run over it, and those could be removed.

I appreciate a polite, thought out response on the issue, though. It’s rare, but nice to see.

Are we fighting the same nemeses ?

Every one of them have at least one attack that can remove half of your hp (and i speak about builds with 2,2k+ DA, capped resists, 1k+ armor and 10k+ resists), besides the one i quoted you have also Moosie heavy strike, enraged Benn’Jahr or just Iron Maiden

I’m not sure what type of character you’re playig but my Warlock takes way more damage from valdaran than aetherfire lol he would be dead if I stood still in front of valdaran during his burst before standing in aetherfire.

I prefer the added challenge either way. We can say it’s no problem and easy, but, the bottom line is it is still there and you can’t neglect its existence. I wouldn’t like this game as much if the entire game could be completed with a mindless face-roll approach (which at that point would become a reality).

I say keep it as it is and even continue adding these kinds of hurdles instead of taking this game in the opposite direction. That’s just my opinion.