I just got up and still haven’t had my coffee, oooooookaaaay?!?!
3 Likes
btw - if you have plenty of adcth he’s a push over. Even the lacklustre Vit Blade Arc Warder I’m mucking around with can facetank him due to obscene lifesteal, even if it’s slow.
The main issue with the attack is the shotgunning. I barely even notice the aura on ranged kite builds since I’m usually stutterstepping and most of the projs miss. On melee builds its instadeath since all projectiles will shotgun for a ridiculous amount of damage and running away means you continue to tick from his electrocute and get hit by ranged attacks(99.9% of melee builds have some projectile proc which will trigger the ‘on ranged hit’).
IMO they should change it to a single projectile, adjust its damage and give it more damage at range(like the way they nerfed blades of wrath).
Hmm. This aura he casts, he uses it a few seconds into combat, but after it wears off you have 10+ seconds to kill him. So it can be avoided.
However I get that the damage looks too extreme with the shotgun potential, and a projectile based chance is not a good design decision imo. Projectiles are not just limited to ranged characters given the wide array of devotion and gear effects in the game.
I’d agree to change it, shotguns don’t feel good, and characters that can deal with them will rely on specific defences like flat damage absorb, max res%+ etc.
the aura didn’t change tho, it’s been this way for years…
The problem of monsters shotgunning players at close range has been discussed before: [1.0.0.8] WTF is going on?
The solution was thus: Grim Dawn Version v1.0.0.9:
But, I don’t know if this change was applied to Valdaran’s aura.
With respect to this aura, the major change between 1.1.9.8 and 1.2 was that the RR was removed but the lightning damage from the projectiles was increased by over twice as much. This can be verified in GrimTools because you can switch between 1.1.9.8 stats and 1.2 stats at the top left.
TL;DR: Valdaran’s shotgun attack “Projectile burst (33% Chance when Hit by Ranged Attacks)” really needs a cooldown… Hell, every single shotgun attack in the game should have a cooldown!
More details:
Yeah, sorry but I have to agree with the OP; 1.2 changes are great and many of the bosses feel fun to fight. But Valdaran just feels like BS right now. And in my case it was with a ranged character, kiting and evading. I was not facetanking.
Here’s what happened:
- I was in SR 88 where most bosses are difficult but manageable
- I was attacking Valdaran at 10m distance, mid-fight, with all of my procs debuffing him.
- He casts his aura but I’m at a safe range so nothing happens
- Then he teleports to me, but just before he does, his 5-projectile burst shotgun attack (33% Chance when Hit by Ranged Attacks) triggers, leaving a barrage of lightning bolts mid-air flying against me.
- Immediately after he teleports to me, the same proc TRIGGERS AGAIN, and shotguns me at melee range and leaving me at very low health
- A split second after that, both his aura damage triggers AND the previous shotgun barrage reaches me and kills me.
- He was debuffed with 200 OA shred and - 27% damage reduction
- I had 83% elemental and aether resistances, and 100 flat damage absorption
- I had 23k health, all of which just evaporated. I had no time to react.
How is this not enough to survive Valdaran? What exactly did I do wrong as a player?
Just to be clear, there were no other enemies around and I had zero debuffs active on me.
Valdaran’s shotgun attack “Projectile burst (33% Chance when Hit by Ranged Attacks)” really needs a cooldown… Hell, every single shotgun attack in the game should have a cooldown!
It’s not the first time I’ve died to a “WTF moment” of Valdaran since 1.2. Fighting Valdaran feels extremely unfun at the moment.
1 Like
didn’t evade/rune away when he teleported to you ? 
I always evade when he teleports to me.
But as I explained in the previous post, the on hit trigger happened immediately after he teleported to me. I had no time to react.
If you want specifics: I died exactly 21 frames (out of a 60fps video) after his teleport.
I had less than 0.35 seconds to react before getting double-shotgunned and killed from 23k HP.
Is that fair to blame on the player?
if you ask me, then yes
the mechanic of his shotgun hasn’t changed
what has changed is Valde no longer debuffs or even sunders, he basically has nothing going for him except his aura gimmick, so just like MQ; yes it should be nasty (imo),
whether or not the new/extra dmg scaling is slightly too high i can’t really say; i’ve not had any issues with him so “seems fine” to me
*and you’re climbing SR 80 so already in "extra scaling"territory and for what i consider "scaling should be high"territory
Can confirm, he’s still bullshit.
Running my melee Stormserpent Trickster through SR85-86 for maximum frustration and most of my deaths have been to Val as his fucking shotgun nukes my health no matter how much DA I have. And this is with a resist pot too. So frankly his damage scaling most definitely needs a nerf and the shotgun needs a rebalance to make it less frustrating to deal with.
Fortunately he’s less garbage than the Harbingers of Hunger, which are a fucking nightmare to deal with unless you invest in high adctch or regen.
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what is that squish thing even doing as high as in SR 85 ? 
why would DA matter (much/more) there? 
- you either don’t benefit much from DA against the attack because usual amount of avoidance and dmg, or you stack so much DA you actually get a dmg reduct bonus and avoidance bonus, anything/amounts in between is gonna be RNG at best and minimal effect at worst “that’s how DA works”
Still feel extremely sad that Valdi’s avenging aura triggers only by ranged attacks and not by any attack
Just imagine how fun it will be
5 Likes
1 Like
It’s not that squishy lawl:
Needs more armour of course, but when piloted properly it cleaves through everything bar the Manifestations of Hunger.
The trick to dealing with Valdy is to break off when circuit breakers are on cooldown and then go back in. But with my particular set of problems that’s not always easy and he can do big random damage spikes, plus it doesn’t help I all to oft fumble hitting Blade Barrier…
breakpoint OCD triggered
His trigger attack is somehow like Zantarin shotgun but random, one burst you can die even with 16-17k hp easily.
neither triggers are random
Zantarin’s shotgun trigger is distance based
Valde’s is cooldown aura/buff based with an effect triggering from ranged attacks/projectiles
(keep in mind certain effects counts as projectiles even if not seemingly obvious so)
That’s why it random, Val may cast at distance and not all of them hit you, but if he teleports to you when it triggers, 5 projects kill you at full hp instantly. And some devotion procs cast projects too.
that’s still not random tho? that’s literally just how shotguns function over distances; the closer you are the less spread out they are so more hit you
^this is why you evade or rune immediately on teleport to expand that distance gap again - if you’re melee you stop attacking to reduce potential “disguised/pseudo projectiles”