Please do not nerf any of the regular BIG Mobs - this is one of the peak points of the Exp for me - fighting Hordes of Huge enemies - my ultra favourites are the new Chtonic mobs like Oppresors <3 amazing design and detail - big hats down to the designers and artists.
Do it before someone spoils the super quest.
These would certainly help but really the problem is damage, not tankiness. I’m fine with them taking lots of punishment but if a build as optimized for durability as it can possibly get is getting vaporized in 2 seconds, nothing else really matters.
Is that really what’s happening, though?
I built my dual-wield Battlemage to be tank-first and it doesn’t struggle with all too much of anything. Facetanks most of the new content (including the secret quest, final boss, new nemeses (other than kuba/grava), etc.) with ease. Rylocks and Titans take some time to kill but they never come close to endangering me.
I confess I have no real idea what’s going on, but like I said my resists are all capped (one or two might be at 75%), I’m using a shield, I have ~25% dodge chance and 21% physical resist, and my DA is high enough that I rarely, if ever get critically hit, and yet that boss I mentiond earlier is hitting me for a good 6k damage.
Mathematically I can’t see any reason for the trouble I’m having, but I am.
Not feeling it yet but I’m just starting 
You have more than 2.5k-2.7k DA?
Not sure how many people on here are doing a fresh start (delete all characters, items & recipes like i did) but there’s a huge jump in difficulty from killing log to start of act 5 imo. i’m not saying it should be nerfed as i actually have enjoyed the difficulty but i think they need to bring act 4 up closer to act 5 difficulty so it doesn’t seem so much blatantly harder.
some of it might just be not knowing what the hell the new bosses do, but definitely had much more issues in act 5 normal and act 5 elite then I did in act 4 elite & act 4 utimate.
I had a few problems in the start for sure, and I’m playing a tanky Warborn WB, with plenty of lifesteal and tools to keep me alive, but even in that case while there are enemies where I have to do nothing but hit the boss without touching a single cd or pot and they will die, there are bosses where I have to use everything on cooldown AND kite just to survive, and these are bosses where 80% of the fight is moving from stuff they put on the ground.
Take for ex one of the Wendigo purple bosses, Yavalloth or something, motherfucker has a fire tornado that follows you, puts fire patches, and for some reason hits you with some kind of attack that easily does around 7-8k damage, and has some other fire dot attack. I’ve died to him the most and I almost always end up kiting him quite a bit and killing everything around him first before dealing with him.
And then there’s the poison throwing mobs in Ugdenbog, 80% resist tells me they should be no big deal, but somehow it’s the impact that does more of the damage than the dot, and it’s not like I have space to move around with 5 big ugdenbog monstrosities around me, the same happens where I have to kill them first and then focus the rest, which is a bit amusing and annoying at the same time because the voracious growth can spawn a boss.
The amount of unavoidable poison damage <PLASTERED> across the entire screen from the giant Audrey II plants is a bit much and needs to be toned way, way down, but other than that the difficulty isn’t that bad. My biggest gripe is the sheer number of enemies that will run right past the goddamn LEGION of pets I have and focus solely on me. What’s the point of having a pet build if they stay on you the entire time?
Having lots of armor is good but do you also have armor absorbtion?
Having maxed poison/bleed resistance is good but do you have a good amount of life regen?
Having high OA/DA is good but do you have a massive HP pool?
Probably not.
I sure hope there are no nerfs! I started a total new fresh game no saved characters and I’m taking my time enjoying the content and new stuff, last I played was before game even went to version 1.0, the build where act 4 was released was last I played lol. So much much has changed and whatnot. I want to experience act 5 the way it is when I get to it
Sounds like there’s a good reason to farm new equipment which is nice!
I’ve only played partway through Ultimate AoM with a Soulrend SS Spellbreaker but the expansion is seems brutal so far. My first impression is that it feels as if it is tuned for giving a real challenge to characters that could easily handle Challenger Crucible. It might have overdone it on the single-hit and physical/life reduction damage of some monsters but I’m still not 100% about that.
I just fought Kucacabra on Elite with my Pierce Cadence Shield Tactician and this battle is just exhausting. As soon there’s a bunch of blood pools, he starts healing too fast.
Either have him be healed by the blood pools or have them reduce your damage. Can’t have both because it makes the battle drag.
At least he drops kickass pants.
Enough people have asked about my defensive stats that I’m gonna link my character here so you can see for yourselves - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23XnB7V
I really don’t want this thread to turn into 20 Questions about my build though so limit your criticisms to his defenses.
BTW I just took this character to that Chthonic boss I mentioned earlier. I went from full to zero in about a second and a half.
I think you meant this as advice to the OP for his soldier build, but part of this rubs me the wrong way.
Could you tell me how all these point are achievable for all mastery combinations?
For example how can a spellbreaker/witch hunter get a massive HP pool when their base HP is only around 5K even with most points in physique and they have no passive skill to boost their health?
How can a warlock get a high DA without godly items + wholly defensive devotion setup considering they have no skills from their masteries that boost DA?
It is nice that you talk about armor absorption but the only mastery that has a easy time maxing that is the soldier. Other masteries must sacrifice valuable resit to max them, witch makes it very impractical to do, considering how much resist reduction is used in the expansion you need to have around 20-30 over-caped resistances just to be safe. This hard enough for many builds to even reach even without sacrificing valuable slots to max armor absorption.
Frankly I think the expansion is balanced too much around high defense builds
if even soldier shield builds have a hard time surviving.
No Menhrir’s Will is odd and you should put points in it. Use a fire resist potion and a chaos resist potion because he deals both those damage types (i assume he deals chaos too). It will keep your resists capped even when he reduces your resist.
I havent died yet. Playing on HC (went from 50 to 72, and two others chars from 85 to 96)
Avoided new Nemesis for now.
Yes, its a bit harder. But minmaxing in this game should be enjoyable. You can always revive the trading scene too.
I kind of accept the over tuned damage as the game telling me to get better gear, which is like yeah, cool, I’m gonna do that anyway so. I mean, I beat the expansion with a pretty squishy guy. It wasn’t always pleasant but I don’t think it’s hugely out of control in terms of difficulty, because you can make it easier with the items that drop, which drop often.
I mean, I got a set amulet from a rock. lol
Though I think Nems being face melting is maybe a problem since they’re not always optional. I mean, people farm them as an activity, or used to, but now I see it as something I am striving toward, but I think once I get to the point where I could farm them, I’d be done with the character.
If you have feedback on game difficulty, it helps to mention your level, class and game mode (ie. vet/elite/ult).