Grava'Thul, the Melee Nemesis

I think Grava is there OK. He keeps you out of the sleep mode. And you have to start trying hard. My hate goes to Mad Queen and Kuba for cold melee builds.

Most of complaints i’ve seen on the forum are referring to his null balls. It’s very irritating to turn the auras on but if you consider the balls as one-shots, like Zantarin has, it doesn’t seem imbalanced.

What makes the boss imbalanced is 52% fumble. The boss already has strong auras and abilities that reduce your dmg output significantly. When a melee build gets what’s left halved, it’s awful experience and makes you not wanna play melee in the endgame if your setup isn’t minmaxed.

Except in the Crucible his Fumble pools are half as effective…

Along with virtually every other fumble effect.

Do they stack chances in some way? When i stand in the pool, it definitely feels like i’m missing way more than 1/4 of hits.

They do not.

Probably how 95% chance to hit in D2 feels like you’re missing half the time. :wink:

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I don’t remember missing in D2 at all, maybe because i played so long ago :smile:

Anyway, something about Grava makes me feel like a natural punching bag. With all melee builds, even with aether based where deadly Reaper and Aleks are supposed to be the toughest enemies.

Grava in particular of all Nemesis bosses is so gimped in the Crucible, it’s pretty sad. His wings are clipped.

  • No Nullification
  • Reduced fumble
  • No % Health penalty on his aura (this is also the case in the Shattered Realm)

Only other Nemesis with nerfs that significant would be Kubacabra, since he can’t split and his healing pools are severely nerfed.

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Maybe it is cumulative effect of everything he does, how he lowers your abilities to fight other bosses despite the reduced effect. I’ve never had major problems with him in SR65-76, even when i had to fight him together with another boss (except Benn, perhaps).

The way Nemesis bosses synergize with other opponents is kind of the entire point of them. Valdaran by himself is not that tough, but when he starts teleporting you into the bad stuff other enemies are casting, he can be brutal.

I might add that Nemesis bosses being tougher against certain playstyle archetypes is also the desired result. How successful we were at that is up to debate, but that is very much the intent.

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Gotcha.

It’s just that i don’t think other playstyles, casters, pet builds or passive dmg, have the same personal nemesis.

I think all damage types have their personal Nemesis, Kuba is especially bad for cold, Reaper for chaos, etc. Enemies having 94% resistances forces you to invest heavily in damage in Crucible and RR.

But for playstyles, I can say melee is most susceptible one, since you are prone to take all possible hits, without being proper tank.

But pets for example are really exposed against Alex, you can’t make all of them avoid the meteor, it’s painful to lose pets. He’s really bad and Sentinel can ‘’‘steal’’ you pets, so he’s almost like personal Nemesis.

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Pierce struggles with Kaisan because of high as shit pierce res, tanking your leeching and allowing him to survive longer, giving him more opportunities to spawn crystals and kill you.

So here is my experience with fire BA and Grava (https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26LboeZ).
This build in my hands can pass the crucible in around 6-6:30 minutes. But when Grava spawns chanse to rip increases greatly. Also don’t forget that sanctified bone has been recently nerfed. So it seems to me that his Fire and Lightning resists need to be reduced or nerfed his pets (fumble and life duration).

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As a Dagallon (fire/lightning) DW Purifier, it’s pretty obvious why Grava is my personal horrorshow Nemesis. Given that I have to play almost exclusively in melee range to be able to shotgun Nems in SR, most times I’ve come up against him it’s just alt+F4 for me.

I’ve gradually adjusted to kite him and by using camera aggro I can isolate him better but do I enjoy this? No. At the very least, I’d like for his nullify to be temporary only, so that if you do get hit by it, you don’t have to scramble to bring up all your passives again. That being said, I’ve accepted that this is the way he is, Crate designed him this way and it’s probably not gonna change. Other nems don’t bother me, I can actually tank Alex’s meteor sometimes when I’m standing in my Seal, Kuba and Kai tickles occasionally, etc.

Grava is just an asshole, period.

Hugs and kisses to all… get rekt

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If you just turned on your buffs during streams, maybe your Nemesis counterpart wouldn’t have null as a skill. :scorv:

ROFL epic post. :rofl:

/thread

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I already have a loooong story like post about her, with some ideas and rants but I want to add one particular thing on this post too:

Nullification what you all call, I call it purging, clears consumables. Other than this, I find her somewhat managable, I’m okey with purging or disabling regular buffs, maybe combo breakers should be unpurgable. My main concern is she purging consumables.

All other rants I made about her purging things are more or less managable. But purging consumables is like: “yea, you farmed them on account of gain some upper hand, well… F you, and your consumables”

I still adress grava as female but I have to admit she reminds me an English comedian called Benny Hill a lot.

I’ve never seen players complain that much about how hard ubers are, or anything about end game; uber mephisto’s conviction aura etc.

Most powerful outcry was lord de seis’ steal thing. and Grava does the same with consumables. (I know mechanics are different, but outcomes are pretty much the same)

During Covid outbreak? God damn… like father like son…

Savage²

/10chars

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Didn’t even proc Resilience, clearly needs a buff.

And yes, this character did 150-170 naked no banners/beacons.

Just kite.