i’m finding the balance for the crucible to be… strange
i don’t really understand how, but i just got one-shot through 12.5k health at wave 130 by zantarin on the first difficulty. a literal one-shot, since my character had both blast shield and mark of divinity off cooldown, and neither proced, i just died instantly. i don’t even think i was in melee range of him, since i only noticed that it was zantarin after i died.
all resists were maxed except aether and bleed, and zantarin was the only enemy onscreen (based on the minimap after i died). mark of divinity proced once vs anasteria around wave 80 or so due to my super low aether resist, but nothing else really did any damage
is the crucible just supposed to be one of those ‘sometimes you die, better luck next time!’ experiences? i don’t see any reason to ever play it again as a hardcore player, but i also don’t like having to abstain from content, so i guess it’s time to switch to softcore.
everything else so far in grim dawn, while obviously created around the softcore experience, never felt unfair for hardcore players. this feels like a pretty terrible experience for hardcore players if even the first of 3 difficulties has random 1-shots. i could see the game mode being pretty compelling and exciting for softcore players, and this is the first time i’ve ever felt disappointed by my choice to play hardcore.
i’m curious about what other hc players have to say, have you guys had any similar experiences? did i just get extremely unlucky?
this isn’t a ‘crucible too hard please nerf’ post so much as a question regarding design philosophy. i remember a while ago reading a post by zantai saying that they wanted the survival mode to feel interesting for both softcore and hardcore players, and i guess i just don’t understand how the crucible could possibly be interesting for hardcore players given what i just experienced.
Its possible he could have spawned with a really cooky weapon. And you just got really unlucky. Ended up as a notch on his notched bone or something =). Similar to how Fabius can spawn with Razor of the Blind Assassin or Notched Bone. I heard when Fabius procs “add a notch” with the notched bone, he can hit for high 20k range. Oneshotting even the sturdiest of tanks. That’s just one reason I don’t play HC in games like this. Because I know that regardless of my build/gear/planning I’m gonna get killed at some point just because I got unlucky.
Lightning damage? He is pure vitality and he sure as hell don’t cast anything lightning esque
Hit vit shotgun hits super hard, but getting gibbed at a full 12.5k sounds crazy. If you weren’t that close to him it seems impossible almost =x Crucible modifier op? Hard to look at them all in game, but some of them looked pretty nasty.
Personal opinion and all that, but I think people whine about the rng too much. I switched to HC after playing a ton of SC and have played quite a bit, so far 100% of my deaths are from my own stupidity. It is not hard at all too just avoid fabius, maiden, or whoever you hate you can easily peace the fuck out of any fight and just run by them or avoid their spawn spots all together. Dying in hc sucks particularly if you lose sweet gear, but you also get to live on the edge. GD or really any game for me is more exciting when you have something to lose besides 2 minutes of exp gain
That’s not very “Hardcore” to avoid all the tough fights that could potentially beat you and just power up on trash mobs. I might not be the best player in the world but I could get through HC to level 85 if I just avoided all the nemesis mobs and played extra safe in the boss fights.
In Path of Exile, after they finished act 4, not sure if you played it or not, but a few of the bosses are pretty OP. Particular one that has a oneshot spinning laser beam attack, and the last boss in particular is known for instagibbing some particularly strong builds. You know what most players in HC did? They paid a higher level player to beat those fights for them so they could progress. So much for being “Hardcore”, huh? Now the “Hardcore” is complaining about the labs that has traps that do a lethal amount of % HP based damage. So I’m just a little cynical when it comes to “Hardcore” in these types of games and the players. They’re notorious for having alt+f4 triggers as well =). If things look like they might go south, alt+F4. Under 1/2 HP, alt+f4 just in case.
I don’t avoid the fights just saying it is an option, but I also don’t think dodging 1 or 2 monsters in the entire game makes you not hardcore If you play an AAR build or w/e in HC and don’t have iskandra set, iron maiden will probably shit on you 100% of the time etc. I share a distaste for alt f4, escape to menu etc spammers. Don’t care if people do it but it’s boring for me, what is the point of hc if you can cheat death unlimited times
I have nothing to say on topic, since all of the characters that could’ve done a crucible on HC are dead.
One-shots are never fun. It’s one thing when they are predictable and completely avoidable, it’s still harsh but at least adds to the thrill. And another is when you don’t know what’s even happened because it’s the back-end.
And please, let’s not discuss who’s more hardcore here and stuff. I don’t know how it came to this, but it’s completely irrelevant.
Bolvar is a good design of shotgun, he has a charge up time, animation is very clear, only punishes if you are careless
MadQueen is the exact opposite, shotguns in retaliation to some spells and finding them out is a nightmare for HC character, instant cast and fight becomes a gamble
Died at wave 150, first difficulty. Had a tough fight with 4 bosses at wave 149, killed them, new wave spawned, immediately blitzed the mobs in the middle at 1/2 HP, dropped dead. Can’t tell what and why killed me.
My little experience so far - as a concept, crucible doesn’t seem HC friendly at all. The area is small, creep density is high leaving no space to kite in oh shit moments, damage taken varies by a lot, which is an alarm for any HC player.
If you don’t play high damage mitigation builds, or char isn’t geared as fuck, or both, you gonna die. Strategical positioning is more likely an illusion, it’s a smash skulls until you die experience.
Crucible looks ok for SC, to push your char to the limit and see what he can. A no-go in HC.
I will wait till an updated trainer is out, and will revive chars who died there, basically will play it SC.
On a side note, 150 waves feel too much. Especially if your character is able to do all of them. If you start a session, you have to finish it. And it simply takes too long, to a point it becomes boring.
I suppose the waves are random? I tried it with a new character (not hardcore) and I was stuck in wave 19 against Surrlak(?) the Earthmover. I was level 3 with a shiv and lvl5 Devouring Swarm and couldn’t put a dent into him. He had this heal he was casting (red crosses like medic’s handguards or menhir’s will) and I couldn’t get him below 90% health. I just had to die and start over. Didn’t spawn second time around though, so I made 20 and had a break there.
I think witchhunters and bleed warders will have a slight advantage since they can go in and out of combat while maintaining huge damage. But I am not sure
The crucible can be a nasty place! I got ganked by Fabius around wave 130 something and then one shot by Iron Maiden on wave 150 the second time around.
I do have a question, did you build any towers? I tried to save my tribute points but they seem to come fairly fast and you can only keep 100…so might as well spend them.
I did build one fire tower just because (well, have a lot of - fire resist too). It seemed pretty good for helping kill. I wonder of the ice tower will help? It says it “freezes all nearby enemies” but not sure if the bosses are still immune… Same with lightning tower and it’s ability to stun… The stonewall tower is suppose to help with DA, although being a HC character I’m sure your DA is already pretty high. I would assume you still were critted though if you were one shotted. So maybe a little more DA would help? Just some thoughts… Again, haven’t used the towers much, but they might help with the issue.
Does get pretty crazy in there with things coming form all directions so can still be very hard to even know what is coming at you. The chance for death is still probably going to be pretty high… Plus with those mutators… Really wish I could read them all…
First impression though, is it is not very HC friendly at least trying to do all 150 waves… I’m a completionist so I would always want to do all 150, but some may decide to cash in sooner before those 1 shot mobs show up. You unlock the next difficulty after 100 waves and you can stop at any time every 10 waves… I would wager the loot would still be ok on the last level for the first 50 or 100 waves…obviously better after 150, but that is the gamble…
It would be nice to know what types of modifiers you had by the time you got one-shot… although you might no even remember them now. I’m almost 100% sure that the reason why you got one-shot was because of a combination of modifiers.
How do you combat the random modifiers? Seems like that goes to OP’s point of not HC friendly if the random modifiers will lead you to random one shots…
Will the blessing help that much to combat a bad mutator combo?
By adjusting the mutator that is potentially overtuned.
Blessings are a massive boost and make a very significant difference.
Don’t really know what to say. I’ve been testing the crucible for over a month now exclusively on hardcore and never died, let alone been oneshot even in gladiator. For it to happen in Aspirant of all places is incredibly bizarre.
Zantarin is a cancer and probably have the best shotgun in the game (can work on ranged too), if you are ranged its not that hard to dodge it till you dont being CC or slow, for melee character NEVER fight him if he has his shotgun up, always bait his shotgun running arround him, once he use it you should have ~10-15sec windows till he get his CD back.
I was close to finish it yestoday with an endgame gear blademaster (died at wave146 gladiator difficulty).
Tryed also with an Ultos conjurer, but the struggle was real at wave120-130
Dps wise its stronger than BM since the aoe is at another level, meanwhile monotarget is near the same, the issue was the toughness mainly because of hp recovery, huge lifesteal is really super strong for this ><.
demolistionist character should be able to finish it more easily since it provide some of the best defensive mechanics in the game, thinkin about jajaja’s Ultos
Elementalist or saboteur.
Zantarin does not cast his shotgun skill at close range. The only way to be hit by it in melee is if he is already in the middle of casting it and you run up to him during the cast.
