This topic is to help Crate to balance some of nemesis monsters. This is not a rant topic where you can argue about someone being right or wrong.
Introduction:
Many people have been complaining about some nemesis monster being imbalanced. Some are too weak, because you can facetank them with any build, even with an unoptimized one, some might be way too strong for anyone. In this thread I’ll be talking about them in general, picking one after another and describing them, saying what they do well and/or bad.
As I mentioned; this topic is made to help Crate to balance their powerful monsters so they are not just a normal boss or hero or like a Ravager or Mogdrogen.
I’ll be talking only about Nemesis I met, I’ll also mention those who I only heard about and look at them statistic-wise, so not really a “review” of them, but I will also use opinions of other players that faced them in Main Campaign (this will be put as last and stated if I faced them).
Everything I talk will be taken on Ultimate difficulty, in Main Campaign.
Grava’Thul:
Description:
Grava is a nemesis that deals chaos and physical damage, but also has a touch of fire damage. His uniqueness lies in reducing the health or his enemies and dispelling them. He also spawns pets that don’t move, deal chaos damage and reduce target’s health by a small percentage, their victims may have impired aim or fumble after being hit. Grava likes to deal damage in general, but also loves to debuff his enemies. His strongest side is dispelling his enemies and launching a powerful attack right after. The strongest attack he has is a small projectile, that deals lower damage in melee range but higher in range - this skill also drains health and mana.
Strong side:
- Dispelling - removes all buffs your character has, even elixirs and other stuff.
- Burst damage - ability that can shred over 5000 of your HP at once. It is easy to dodge if you’re ranged and deals lower damage when in melee.
Weak side:
- Very high cooldown on his strongest skill - 15 seconds.
- Fairly slow (or fast) - at low health, it’s not that hard to run away from him.
- His other skills don’t deal as much damage - you can even facetank him sometimes with ranged builds (not constantly sitting on him)
Counter-play:
- Remember to kite him if your build is weak in defense. His charge skill doesn’t deal enough damage to oneshot you.
- He doesn’t reduce Defensive Ability, so stacking it up to 3k may make him weak.
- Despite being a Chaos Nemesis - he’s weak to Cold, Acid, Bleed, Aether and Chaos damage, his Vitality and Pierce resistances are mediocre - 25% and 38% respectively, 69% fire and lightning resistance.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
His damage is high enough to even shred a tanky character (not really kill him, but it is possible). Grava doesn’t need to lose any damage. The dispell skill is annoying, but doesn’t occur all the time. You can get dispelled 2 - 5 times in one fight, so increasing the cooldown on that skill by a little bit helpful. Right now it is 15 seconds reuse time (according to grimtools), increasing it by at max 5 seconds would make him less annoying. Other option would be to drop his chances of debuffing the target by 10 - 20% (so 80 - 90% chances of debuffing the target).
Aleksander:
Description:
Aleksander is a mage that likes Aether and Elemental damage with a touch of Physical damage. He doesn’t mind to reduce your Defensive Ability and resistances. His uniqueness is teleportation to his target (walking is overrated) and casting a huge and slow meteor, that deals massive damage, reduces resistances, and may freeze the target. His meteor is hard to predict, but is slow enough to run off its range. Also, spawns shards that lower your damage and damage you as well.
Strong side:
- Aleksander’s meteor is one of those skills that should be avoided. Versus a fairly tanky character (overcapped Aether resistance, 35% physical resistance and around 2650 amor with 88% absorption) it may take up to 14 000 HP.
- His “pets” (shards) reduce your damage by nearly 50%.
- Only way to run away from him is to use a rift, otherwise he’ll teleport to you.
Weak side:
- His meteor is very slow, it drops like after 3 seconds. If you don’t see where it wants to drop, simply run away as much as possible and go on him again after it lands.
- After destroying his shards, his damage drops and your increases (they use a skill that may miss if you’re positioned well and also reduce your damage).
- Has 97% Aether and Acid resist, so shredding his other resistances might be a good idea to increase your damage (if your damage type matches the particular reduction)
Counter-play:
- Overcap your Aether and Elemental (fire mostly) resistances.
- Avoid his meteor. Or facetank it if you have at least 3.5k DA.
- His meteor doesn’t hit you if you stay in door or under something that ends on top of your head.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
Aleksander doesn’t need anything. His only strong ability is his meteor, but he may lacerate you with his other skills too. The only thing that might be good to change is his DA reduction - it is there but hard to feel it.
Kubacabra:
Description:
Kuba is a healing tank. He might deal damage, but he rather heals. Kuba likes blood, that is his uniqueness, so he punches you till you bleed so can regain his health by staying in a blood pool. Bleed and Physical resistance are his love, but he likes to touch you with some Vitality and Pierce.
Strong side:
- Average attack speed, or high.
- Healing percentage of his HP.
- Splits into two every time you kill him, but only twice (1 -> 2 -> 4 [assuming you killed both at the same time])
- Found out a way to protect himself against Cold and Vitality very well.
Weak side:
- Kuba doesn’t deal much damage.
- Has very low health compared to other nemesis (like 40% of their health).
- Despite loving blood, he doesn’t like bleeding (18% bleeding resistance).
Counter-play:
- Avoid his blood pools
- If you have a skill that reduces healing, press the button the skill is on.
- It’s possible to split him and make only one follow you. Simply teleport with your rift or stuck both of them somewhere and come back, luring only one of them.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
Kuba needs friends. He looks sad all the time. Give him friends. He doesn’t need anything aside that. EDIT: Not talking about summoning. Add some random beasts that spawn along with him.
Valdaran:
Description:
Valdaran is a lightning nemesis that likes to teleport to his target or plays with them by teleporting them to him. He deals Lightning damage with a touch of Elemental damage and Aether. He also likes to stun his target or reduce their resistances.
Strong side:
- High basic attack damage.
- Hard to kite due to his teleportations.
- Scary to facetank due to his projectile burst that happen on basic attacks.
Weak side:
- Overcapping Lightning resistance annihilates him, but he might kill you with his basic attacks.
- Slow. After he casts both teleports, you can kite him freely.
- Lightning and Aether resistances are the only resistances he does like (97% resistance).
Counter-play:
- Overcap Lightning resistance. Elemental and Aether resist will make him useless.
- Either get high DA or physical resistance (or armor) if your resists are capped and he manages to slap you to death.
- Lifesteal (attack damage converted to health) will help you a bit. Remember you only heal 15% of your lifestealed damage due to his resistance.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
He needs some damage. Either give him % HP damage to his lightning strike or physical damage. Talking about physical damage, none of his skills could fit it in, because they’re lightning, but you can always add another skill that causes some kind of annihilation. Let him deal 30% of HP with the thunder strike that comes from sky, and maybe a small touch of Lightning retaliation (like around 200 - 900).
Moosilauke:
Description:
The cold, undead giant. He likes to summon friends and distract his enemies with his abilities. Deals Cold damage with a touch of Lightning, Pierce and Physical damage. His uniqueness is his double life.
Strong side:
- Solid basic attacks.
Weak side:
- Easy to facetank due to him being a tank, dealing no damage.
- Slow, therefore you don’t need to use pots if you have life steal.
- Basically everything he does right now is his weak side.
Counter-play:
- Get some life steal so you can survive the 10 hits you do to you during the fight.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
Moosilauke needs damage. His skills are too random to do anything. Physical + Cold retaliation would make him stronger. Add a skill that deals solid physical damage in a cone or a wave that shatters the ground around him. High physical damage with a support of cold damage would help him. Remove his ice rain or make it actually hit the target. Make his Flash Freeze reduce DA by 20% for X seconds (even if the freeze ends). Lower his basic attack damage by 5 - 15%, increase attack speed by 20 - 35%.
Benn’Jahr:
Description:
Another Chaos Nemesis. He likes Chaos damage. Has a touch of Physical, Bleeding, Pierce and Fire damage.
Strong side:
- None.
Weak side:
- Slow.
- Has no damaging skills that would make you worried about dying.
- Very short range, very easy to kite.
Counter-play:
- If you can’t facetank, kite.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
Needs damage.
- Without reducing his damage, add physical damage to his abilities (maybe even all) or make them reduce the HP by a greater amount. He has one skill that reduces HP by 30% and two that reduce by 7%. Basically the 7% should be at least 20% if you don’t want to touch his damage types.
or:
- Give him 40% damage reflection and 5% HP retaliation as a buff, or built-in 20% damage reflection.
Additionally, make his Obsidian Clusters reduce the maximum health by 1 - 1.5% each cluster - they are literally useless. Keep them untargetable.
Here start Nemesis monsters I only heard about. I’ll describe them ONLY by checking their numbers. I will also not add any opinion on what should be changed, but I might say what does look too weak. Basically, only look at that if someone agrees with me. Also, I’ll add a little of my Gladiator Crucible experience to that. I am not completely clueless about them.
Fabius:
Description:
Fabius looks like a nemesis that loves Physical and Pierce damage, but likes to make his enemies feel Cold sometimes. He prefers to debuff Offensive and Defensive Ability, along with Total Speed of his enemy. He might be very deadly if he rolls a good weapon.
Strong side:
- May pick up a powerful weapon that will annihilate you.
- Has powerful on-attack skills.
- Has powerful helpers - Blade Spirits.
Weak side:
- Reaching 159 (135 + 24 over maximum) movement speed will prevent him from slowing your movement speed by his aura. This way you can kite him somewhat easily.
- His “teleportation” can be dodged by moving away, same as with all other charge abilities (or blocked by dodge), therefore the 30% slow isn’t that deadly.
- Aside of his Blade Spirits, he can’t touch you after wasting his charge skill.
Counter-play:
- If ranged, avoid his passive that fires projectiles on bein hit.
- His Blade Barrier immobilizes him, allowing you to run away safely (if you need to).
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
Can’t say if he needs something. Maybe a little bit increased proc chances on his skills (by 2%, 6 -> 8%). I’ve never really seen him use them frequently or much.
Reaper of the Lost:
Description:
Reaper is a powerful duelist, that likes to deal Physical and Vitality damage, with a touch of Pierce and Bleeding damage. He won’t say “no” to debuffing your defense and offense. Regularly summons Wraiths, that will also reduce your offense and defense.
Strong side:
- Poweful skills.
- Fast.
- Solid debuffs.
- Solid heal that occurs every 22 seconds that also buffs him.
Weak side:
- His skills are mostly basic attack modifiers.
- He’s only well prepared vs. Aether and Chaos damage.
Counter-play:
- Leave AoE skills on when he summons his supporting minions.
- Get high Armor and Armor Absorption (Physical Resistance is a good choice too).
- Don’t forget about Defensive Ability. If you use a shield, “The Untouchable” is a good choice vs. him.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
His summoning is too powerful sometimes. Increase the cooldown to 25 seconds or make it have 50% chance on summoning a second Wraith.
Zantarin:
Description:
Zantarin is a warlock that deals Vitality and Acid damage. His attack heal him. Debuffing his enemies’ resistances and summoning servants is also his thing.
Strong side:
- Strong debuff that reduces your resistances and speed.
- Solid healing
- Powerful shield at the start of the fight that ignores Pierce, Elemental and Vitality damage.
Weak side:
- Slow in general. His skills are slow, movement speed.
- Summons minions that you can lifesteal off, he himself completely reduces healing from life steal.
Counter-play:
- Kiting makes him very weak.
- It’s possible to see when he wants to use a skill, basically, every time he moves (sometimes does it rarely), run away and wait till his skills land.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
In my opinion, he’s very hard to balance. He’s a warlock, summoner and he can’t really deal massive damage no matter what due to his Curse. Make the Curse reduce Vitality Resistance by a greater amount (add 20% reduced vitality resistance). Or give him a buff that reduces his enemies’ vitality resistance by 20%.
The Iron Maiden:
Description:
Maiden likes to deal Physical Damage and support it with Bleeding. She also has a touch of Pierce Damage. She likes to penetrate her enemies’ Armor and Defensive Ability. Maiden is also not afraid of fights, being pretty tanky.
Strong side:
- Armor reduction.
- Defensive ability reduction.
- High damage (due to reduced armor).
- Has a solid amount of stuns (3).
- Has a solid healing after reaching low HP.
- May pick up a powerful melee weapon.
Weak side:
- Weak against kiting, her only “reach” is her Blitz.
- Characters that don’t deal Fire, Lightning and Pierce damage are very good against her.
- Has fairly low basic attack damage (like half of the value other nemesis have).
Counter-play:
- High Defensive Ability is glorious against her. The more she misses, the less damage she deals (she has no powerful skill that would one-shot you).
- Shield characters may reduce her damage by 90% every block.
What does he need or what makes him too strong?
The Iron Maiden is a fine tank that deals massive damage vs. squishy characters. She probably doesn’t need anything.
) is indeed not that bad, but his obsidian prison coupled with his wave attacks can be deadly for melee characters. Otherwise, you just need to position yourself to not step on his chaos mines, and have a large chaos resistance. For my Blademaster he was not that tough, despite how all Obsidian Ravagers are all but immune to bleed damage, as the poison damage still worked on him/it.