Currently it feels like there is not a lot of strategy involved with this nemesis (at least in main campaign on Ultimate, not sure if Valdaran wears its Shoulders MI in Shattered Realm or Crucible). It feels like if a build has some way to reliably apply damage reduction (Aura of Censure for example), has +max lightning (elemental) res or %damage reduction aura (Maiven for example), in other words if a build has reliable elemental damage mitigation, it can just mindlessly facetank all Valdaran mechanics, if it just has default 80% lightning resistance, feels like it is required to use a cluster on such builds, otherwise its a some random sequence of -get hit with lightning for 7000 damage -get teleported - get shotgunned (Really great if Valdaran wears Tempest of Thunder shoulders or something like that). It is possible to counter other Nemesis mechanics if a player has experience (Dodge Gravathul sunder and nullification, dodge Zantarin vitality Shotgun, dodge Kaisan sunder and destroy his life reduction crystals, dodge sunder vs Moosilauke, Reaper, Bennjahr, dodge Alexander meteor), but Valdaran feels like too much RNG.
Possible solutions:
nerf his elemental damage a bit (at least in campaign)
make his attacks more telegraphed/slowed a bit (Rashalga has sound cue when she activates her retaliation aura)
do something with his lightning strike attack (Fire a projectile from the sky attack), it hits like one of Avatar of Mogdrogen’s attacks and is impossible to dodge).
What do other players think? Should Valdaran be changed?
imo, no, atleast not in the proposed nerf way (imo he’s been nerfed too much already)
as for the cue, he does have one, he gets the same red aura warning that MadQueen does (which imo looks weird/disjointed from his elemental form - but it’s atleast very visually noticeable if nothing else)
as far as i’m aware Valde doesnt’ actually “wear” his shoulders unlike other humanoids (reanimator model restriction/limitation), so that shouldn’t attribute any variable?
as for changing his skill lineup, i don’t know/it’s been suggested before, but how you make him directly more engaging i don’t know without a complete redesign; and even then he probably just ends up facetankable, since most bosses end up “static” when you have/reach the proper setup for them, it’s largely the nature of GD
Here is a strange thing, maybe a bug. Valdaran’s lightning from the sky has a higher base damage in campaign than that in SR 30. For all other skills, and for all other Nemesis bosses, base damages in campaign are lower than those in SR 30.
But generally speaking, I don’t think Valdaran is too strong.
You say that Valdemar is either easy or unpredictable and your solution is to nerf him? If anything, buff him so that you’ll never feel safe. For example, make his stun longer and let him teleport player away to prevent facetanking.
I kinda get the memo that valdaran is a bit OP, however undead nemesis mossy is way more dangerous.
His crystals alone are on par with valdaran’s power and I think max he should spawn is like 3 or 5 not 10 or more which makes the whole fight unbeatable almost.
Was in shard 60 once with couple friends and everything was doable until mossy appeared. Valdaran was super favoruable there tho.
Uh, he does not equip his MI, it’s placed in “misc” category with other loot like brain/lotus.
At least it has big red glow fx now, used to be worse, literally just stormbox fx iirc I’ve seen people not even knowing about new fx because it’s still not exactly visible, especially if you’re playing fire or just any fx heavy build.
I do agree that buffing his shotgun by almost 3 times was a bit too much, especially when his shotgun retal aura procs the very same skill, these damage spikes can be lethal. My suggestion would be toning damage down a bit, but increasing shotgun retal aura proc chance (can put old 33% maybe) and giving it some small cd so you don’t get 3-4 procs in your face after couple attacks on ranged build.
that’s just gonna nerf him to the ground, and make him 300x facetankable
increasing proc chance at the cost of dmg and frequency is not a buff, it’s a double nerf…
I wouldn’t nerf or buff Valdaran.
He has two dangerous skills/move :
The first one being when he does his lightning aura, just stop attacking him and go away from him untill the aura disappear. Especially true in high SR.
His second dangerous move is when he teleports to you and then cast a shotgunning skill.
So the second he teleports to you you need to dodge or use a mobility skill.
I like Vanilla Nemeses being scary, they spent way too long being below expansion Nemeses. If anything, expansion Nemeses feel weak compared to like Valdaran, Fabius and Moosilauke.
So you’d prefer absolute rng dmg spikes when he can 100-0 you in a split second? I’m not saying “pls give him wet noodle shotgun back”, but 2k+ flat on skill that shoots 5 projectiles in your face is a bit too much when it can proc 3-4 times within half a second before you even notice that fx (which of course appears later than aura actually takes effect).
it’s highly telegraphed
it’s entirely countered by moving away and or stop attacking
i don’t want the supposed hardest aetherial boss in the game to be put down to cronley state
i think it’s fine as is
of you merely wished to lower the dmg and up the proc chance it might be fine/“equal”, but additionally putting a CD on it just turns it into a massive nerf, and as i stated in my first post, i don’t want him nerfed
in fact, i dont’ wish any Nemesis nerfed, and honestly am tired of the continued suggestions to do so because the game is getting easier and easier, even if we ignore player buffs/“powercreep”, additionally nerfing what’s supposed to be the hardest bosses is just not ok with me on top.
It’s even ironic when part of the complaint is he’s too facetankable/has nothing special, and then wish to neuter his sole 1 gimmick/special thing that’s the singular part that makes him slightly not facetankable
Nemesis are supposed to be hard, scary, the strongest boss in the game outside celestials, their attacks and gimmicks should be respected and played in to/paid attention to, not reduced to pity state so they are nothing but a larger HP bar.
There’s difference between “hard” and “full RNG bs”. At this rate could just buff retal shotgun to 10k flat per projectile and lower chance to 1%.
Mad queen’s aura is telegraphed properly, valdaran’s is not (generic cast animation, no special effect on cast or anything). Mad queen’s shotgun is predictable because you know it’s 100%, valdaran’s is “pray it doesn’t proc 3 times before you can notice aura fx because you don’t know when boss casts it”.
I don’t have any problems with kuba/moosi/benn/kaisan being stat check (especially rough at 90+ when undergeared) or grava/aleks being gimmick check, but valdaran just feels unfair because RNG as hell (high damage variance on shotgun doesn’t help either). Is this so hard to grasp?
treat it as it’s MQ’s that’s what i do, i dont’ “gamble” and keep attacking or any nonsense like that
It has a massive red FX, if you die, it’s not RNG, it’s because you didn’t respect the boss you’re fighting and its special move and decided to keep attacking when you shouldn’t…
He’s one of the easiest Nemesis in current game, i don’t even die to him in Campaign using a warrant despite not having my char online by that time, contra other nemesis that do hurt early or even with the char in decent place
He has no sunder, does purely magick dmg type/non phys, he has 1 hard hitting/special attack you entirely avoid unless facetanking him while closing your eyes to the red aura…
*and yes i’m fully away some stuff still counts as “projectiles” triggering the aura despite not being ex a gunner, the above fully applies even to such considerations like item proc debuffs
Try fighting him on generic fire show demo and tell me how “visible” his red aura is when there’s multiple other red fx on him and stuff like bwc. And then I have to repeat again about “split second” delay between aura cast and fx which might be enough if stars align. Then repeat about people not even knowing about new red fx because of how “visible” it is on some builds, especially those with own red fx.
I’m dreaded to think what new nems FoA will bring if such “luck check” design is considered okay and defended so much.
i have, and am fighting him on every build imaginable…
it was rough noticing his aura before, it’s darn impossible to not notice it now…
and, considering he uses the exact same aura as MQ this complaint should then be equally applicable there, but somehow isn’t
(and sound cue difference doesn’t fly since people literally missed that before still )
i’m not trying to be a dick, but this is one of them where it’s on the player(imo) - and i see the players refuse to play with/into the mechanics and just want less dmg instead of paying attention to the mechanic
I’m not advocating to changing his aura FX to blue despite it looking ugly af on a lightning boss, because i recognize how massively helpful it is. But claiming it doesn’t do its purpose, or doesn’t work/work well enough, and the attack needs to be neutered is just ludicrous to me, when a scrub pilot like me have basically a 100% survival rate now and quit using clusters
And even if i didn’t think the notion was misplaced, i’d still not want Valde dmg nerfed in current state of the game.
all i can hope is Z doesn’t take Nem nerf considerations into effect, Nemesis deserve to be just somewhat a little hard and or scary
(something they’ve gradually begun to lose over time)
Yes, too properly even. I don’t know if that’s good. After I learnt what signal to wait for, the fight stopped being exciting. I just repeat the pattern, feeling completely safe while she’s powerless.
I normally did pretty good vs Valdaran with melee characters and was struggling on a Lightning Aegis Paladin versus him because I didn’t know the aura meant ranged attacks triggered the shotgun and was attempting to fight within Aura of Censure range. Had to go to GrimTools to figure out that there was a retaliation mechanic, at which point the fight made more sense. I didn’t know the aura was a glowy red thing until this thread because of devotion/Inquisitor autoattack light shows. The retaliation (15% on ranged hit) might be worse on Inquisitor builds because of the high attack speed and multiple projectiles in the default attack replacers.
It’s easier now since the build turned into a Conduit Elemental Aegis Paladin since the other elemental resists aren’t the 89% the lightning is. Staying at midrange and poking is easier overall now and is a little rougher on a life leech build compared to a regen build and manageable.
Interesting that this thread came about, as I recently came up with a few builds that got absolutely demolished by Valdaran, and have no idea how to go about it.
The fact that the aura is supposedly on ranged attack only is inconsequential; any equipment proc, any devotion projectile like Blizzard is going to set this thing off. What happens is that I try to go for an opening after all the Lightning bolts and such (since I need to leech to gain health), I attack for a second, my health instantly drops to 0, and the big red aura is plainly visible… after I’m already dead. Zantarin’s has a wind up, Mad Queen has her aura up after the 3rd cry.
What’s Valdaran’s telegraph? Is it after it teleports to you? After it does the Lightning Bolt attack? I was assuming Valdaran was one of those “easy when fighting solo, but a menace when fighting in groups because it teleports you right underneath the giant meteor” nemeses, but the new change cranks it up to the point where I have no idea where its opening is.
And LOL at the idea that proper telegraphs make a fight “boring” and having your character get instantly OHKO’d by an attack because the RNG decided to is “exciting.” SR 32 Mad Queen is a good balance of this mechanic; she has dangerous melee attacks on top of the aura, so even with her openings, there’s the danger of dying. I can’t find any safe openings for Valdaran.
- but it’s atleast very visually noticeable if nothing else)
I’ve seen people not even knowing about new fx because it’s still not exactly visible, especially if you’re playing fire or just any fx heavy build.
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