Ok so I created this account just so I could post this with the hope that the developers see this. Let me preface this by saying that I love the game, it is wonderful.
My biggest gripe is with the bosses of Port Valbury: specifically the self-healing that they do at around 1/3 of their health. I have breezed through the rest of the challenge area without much of an issue in Elite, even with over-leveled mosters (which I love, more EX for me). I have fought those three bosses for half an hour and could not kill even one of them because of the self heal.
I feel that for many of the types of builds (like mine, which is more defense oriented) these bosses are unbeatable with the current mechanic.
If I may add some suggestions for how to fix this:
have the healing take a huge chunk of the monster’s stamina bar so that
it is unfeasible for the monster to continually heal itself
make only one boss capable of healing and make it so that they can only
heal the other two, not itself
nerf the amount of health regained from healing to a much smaller
amount
get rid of the healing altogether but give one of the bosses the ability to
resurrect the others at half health
I would say that any of these would be suitable fixes. I am sure that there may be others that have not come to mind. Again, I really love the game and I hope that the developers see this as constructive criticism rather than just whining.
Thank you.
it’s one of the hardest fight of the game (Hidden bosses excluded) if you don’t have a char with high DPS. my Pyro can kill the three Stooges in an handful of seconds, but i also have many chars who struggles a lot (wich generally means they can’t win, which is very frustrating).
imo the only change needed to make it “fair” is increase the cooldown of the sphere+heal, should be enough to give a chance to take down a monster before his life goes up again
Those bosses are an ultimate gear/dps/build check. If you are trying to tackle them on Elite my guess is that your build is a long way from complete and your gear is subpar. You have mentioned that some mobs exceed you in level, that means you are underleveled too. Outside of clones of John Bourbon this is the hardest boss fight in the game. You should only take it when you are fully prepared.
Pretty sure you can remove the shield with nullification or cleansing waters. The acid pool and aether patches can be game over if you stand still for too long
Low DPS or Retaliation builds really struggle since the bosses can heal themselves indefinitely. It can be a huge frustration since the fight can be unwinnable.
I think 1) is a pretty good idea, though you probably are referring to the bosses’s Energy bar rather than stamina.
You can’t Energy Burn these bosses, so you can’t prevent the heal to make it too easy.
If it cost around 30% of their Energy, they could heal 3 times before running out. I believe they regenerate Energy too, so take too long and they would heal again.
I tried the bosses Port Valbury with my Retaliation Champ on Hardcore Elite and sadly to say I also had no chance of killing them.
They were lev 73 (or so), myself lev 76…right before them I finished the other 2 rogue-like dungeons…and yeah they were possible. Ofc killing the ranged bosses took a fair amount of time (which is to be aspected from a build like mine) but it was still possible.
Ofc my build wasn´t finished but even with a finished build I don´t think I would have been able to defeat the bosses because of the heal. So yeah, it would be nice if they could be changed a bit. A fight of attrition would be a possibility (they loses a fair amount of energy whenever they heal) and give the retaliation build at least the chance of winning^^
Enough but my worries, otherwise a really nice damage
Hello again. Just as an update, after finishing everything in Elite and moving to Ultimate I have finished everything up to Port Vallbury. I entered the dungeon at level 85, all resists at max, and doing decent damage (around 55K to 65K). I breezed through all of the dungeon but I got stuck with the Three Stooges again.
I want to reiterate that I am not using a retribution build, just an almost straight up soldier build with Cadence and Blitz.
I am sorry but this is now beyond annoying. I can destroy just about almost everything in the game with no sweat, and I would these guys too if it wasn’t for that annoying f****** bosses. The healing mechanic between these three is the worst thing to be implemented in the game (and I love the game).
in the other hand the fight is a cakewalk for DPS build. my Pyro can melt them in seconds, same for my SB. both can hardly do the same with Shar’Zul.
the problem is that they still can beat him -Shar’Zul- eventually, where tanks just hit a wall in PV, which is very frustrating.
(not to mention than to try it, tou have to endure the opening zone -Valbury Outskirts ?- which is a real pain in itself - it’s a shame cause the dungeon is really great except the beginning and the end :undecided:)
The outskirts are the worst because it seems a developer thought “let’s put ALL THE AETHERFIRE in here”. This was not a good idea. And then they added insult to injury by adding those homing aether patches.
I just stumbled across this area in Normal for the first time (I’m a noob) and was like WHAT IS HAPPENING. I’m glad I’m not the only one who hates the area. I didn’t even bother opening the door. I have a feeling it won’t go well.
you’re far from being the only one who hates floor damage, there has been a lot of threads about it before 1.0.0.7
the weird thing is that it’s quite well balanced in the dungeon imo (there’s some portions with damage floor ofc but it’s always manageable). but the entering area is just awful
also the more i play the more i think that putting damage reflection on Aether Cluster was an horrible area, especially for melee char.
Ground damage is health damage, you know the kind that doesn’t work on bosses, but it does work on us. And you can’t resist it except with damage absorption.
It’s impossible to win that fight with a retalliation build
Out of curiosity, is this place harder than the other two dungeons, Steps of Torment and Bastion of Chaos? I only came back to play the game now and found it on Ultimate with my level 85 summoner - I was thinking of beating the whole Ultimate difficulty before trying these dungeons, but I am curious to check it. Apart from some Nemesis spawns my pets rip apart anything pretty fast, and while the homing aether was annoying in the lead-up, I am curious to check this place. The wiki has nothing on it yet, oddly.
It is absolutely more difficult. The other two have stationary floor traps which eventually disarm themselves, but this place has moving traps (aether tornados) and permanent ground damage. Also, reflect mobs and mobs that reduce resistances. Also, three bosses instead of one, and they have periods of invulnerability and healing which make them unbeatable for builds with only moderate single target damage. The only upside is some decent MI’s. Went there twice for the achievements and have no intention of going back.
generally SoT is the easiest rogue like dungeon of the game, and as Snazzblaster said PV is the hardest, i think there’s no discussion there.
that said PV (like all Aetherfire zones in the game) is particularly hard for melee builds, when you had to stand in the green zone to destroy a crystal which is currently reflecting your damage ::mad:
making you like kiting an immobile target is the worst the game has to offer to be honest
