So.. shard 65

The boss/s? Mooseluke + Grava Thul + Zantarin + Aleksander + a couple boss mobs, and a bunch of champs.

Really bad modifiers too. Regen, buffed crits on mobs, -resists on me, and several others.

Even my retaliation warlord got insta-ripped if I get frozen for even 0.5s. And even if I didn’t get frozen, 1-2 seconds is the longest amount of time I could stand still. The build is here:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23qBl4Z

I copied this build from the forums, it’s not mine. It’s identical, because I used GD stash to make it…

I don’t think any build beats this combo + modifiers, if one does, then post the build? I can tell you 100% that Retaliation Warlord absolutely does not, under any circumstances, regardless of piloting skills. I went back in 3 times, and I was dead in under 5 secs on 2 of the attempts, on the last one, I lasted a couple minutes, but I was constantly scrambling, and couldn’t deal any real damage to the mobs while I was moving around, so nothing’s HP bar moved even a little bit off full in 2 minutes, even though I saw some 400k+ numbers flying around from retaliation damage, it didn’t amount to :heart::heart::heart::heart:.

I’d argue any combo that includes Grava Thul and Moose with a regen mod on mobs, you tab out of the game, and not waste a second of your time.

At least in crucible, you can get buffs to where this is doable.

If I’m dead wrong, and there is a build that can clear these really BS combos, then post it. Maybe something that can do extreme damage while constantly moving? Even if it’s not as tanky as warlord? I got a pet conjurer, and to be perfectly honest, the retaliation warlord was stronger. I’ve had pets ripped constantly against combos that weren’t even quite that bad, and winnign was me running in circles constantly resummoning pets, because they were dying almost faster than the cooldowns came back to resummon them. Against the above combo? Not a chance.

This build doesn’t win, either (Pet Conjurer):

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/M2g7dgB2

Copied it, piece for piece. Pets get ripped in seconds. Resummon them? If I’m constantly resummoning pets so often, that they sometimes get ripped before the CD comes back, then they aren’t doing much damage now are they? Because I’m constantly resummoning pets and nothing is dying because pets are getting gibbed before they can even start getting some decent attacks off. 3-5 secs they’re all dead.

I just need one build that can beat these BS combos, with all options on the table, even if I gotta GD Defiler and GD stash the build. Just post one build that actually wins this. The retaliation warlord I used had BiS gear, which I used GD stash to make. There are literally no gear improvements to be had, not even minor. I even hand picked the best seeds for the equipment to ensure high rolls on every piece, higher rolls that the build authors had.

When people say they got to “insert shard here” I’m assuming that doesn’t mean they win every single boss combo along the way, and like me run into combos that simply aren’t winnable at all. But, maybe I’m wrong.

Any mage builds that do million+ damage with something like doom bolt, or devastation? I’m looking for something that wins, when the above 2 builds don’t. I feel like I’m almost better off running a glass cannon build for these high shard bad combo bosses. Because tanky builds can’t be tanky enough, and any pets that aren’t Empyrion guardians get ripped faster than their cooldowns recover.

So I need a build that fits within this set of guidelines:

  • Does extreme damage while constantly on the move, never has to stop for more than a fraction of a second to get their damage off.
  • Not a pet build, because pets die too fast.
  • Strong enough to survive while moving, taking the odd hit or 2 while moving, no problem, even if it can’t face tank nemesis tier mobs.

If you died in 65 shard with this warlord build then it was for sure some piloting mistake. I guess you were debuffed by Grava’thul and then hit by Alex’s meteor and managed your cooldowns wrong. I was testing this build for spanky in high shard and pushed it to 98 shard (with cosmetic changes for my gameplay) and then passed 100 with another change strictly for sr. 65 shouldn’t be a problem, no matter what boss combo for build like that and agroabuse doesn’t matter - this setup can kill 1vs4 all bosses up to 80 without trouble if you don’t do some crucial mistake.

If you want some builds able to handle all possible boss combos without agroabuse in range 65-75 then:

Retaliation warlord, I could facetank all bosses in sr100 (glitchless) and even 119 (with some glitch spot but still even 1 boss were hitting harder there than whole worst possible existing combo in 75).

Dark one ritualist/conjurer specialized in meele side in half. They are harder to play vs bosses like Moosilauke because of poor freeze resistances but if played corectly you shouldnt die too.


Primal spirit/Bysmiel conjurer - this version has so high CC resistances that you can fight whole boss room in 65-75 farming range too.

Some low-one target but good aoe lightning sorcerer - I’ve passed sr 96 with Kaisan and no agroabuse with it, in 65 you will not die even nullified by Grava, health regen is too high.

Forcewave warlord, must be played carefuly sometimes but shouldn’t die too.

Battlemage, sometimes must be played carefully vs worst combos but Mirror will save you if timed good

Sorcerer using Lokarr set as bonus, you can see video with sr 80 where I’ve passed it deathless vs Grava’thul, Madqueen and Valdaraan.

Some of these builds could need some update (I don’t play much currently so maybe in future) but still works good, in comments there are some improvment versions.
There are just few builds specialized directly for sr, forum got a lot of great ones too made by other authors with videos.
If you want glasscannon specs then sometimes you will not handle all bosses at once and agroabuse may be needed.

I figured out what I did wrong, and it wasn’t piloting error. I was not using the camera/aggro gimmick. I wasn’t even aware that was a thing until just now. I recently started playing again a couple weeks ago. That’s the only mistake I made. I watched some videos of gameplay, and EVERYONE is using that on high shards against bullshit boss combos.

I guess I’ll have to pat myself on the back that I made it as far as shard 75 without abusing any aggro or camera gimmicks, I just couldn’t beat every single boss combo. Because I don’t think too many other players did that.

Camera/aggro thing is not needed with tankier spec until you really go for some extremal deeps or until you play glasscannon.

This warlord you mentioned above has incredible survivality, if you died with him in 65 shard then it was some mistake probably - grava nullify and misplay with cooldowns ( it happened to me too before I took little practice with that build).

I was trying to fight the whole pack at once and pick them off, and was successful at doing this against the majority of boss combos, it’s just not possible to do this against all the potential combos you could run into, and correct me if I’m wrong here, but you’re claiming it is?

Most of the videos I’ve seen people running, they had gravy boss combos, runs which I could easily replicate on my end. It’s obvious they hand picked their best results from several runs of the same floors. But I get it, everyone who posts videos does that, including me.

Dat Pet Conjurer you posted should have tackled it fine unless in the small arena and you pulled all the bosses at once.

That said, the GT you linked is outdated. I have updated it for 1.1.6.0 :stuck_out_tongue:

Can you provide a link for that build? not sure which of yours it is

U want Aether Pet…

Dis one: The Fluffy Squishy - Pet Conjurer

Hm?

Bysmiel Set + Diviner Set / Aether & Vitality / 2 Familiars & 5 Reap Spirit.
Oh… forgot Bysmiel mark have 60% vit - elemental

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About this particular warlord build from your gt - I am pretty confident about it because I’ve spend some hours testing it in lower and higher shards and superbosses. In 65 for sure you can beat every combo. Especially Moosi/Alex/Grava/Zantarin - it’s not so bad for retals. Moosilauke and Zantarin are meme bosses until high shards and they are slow so you can easy melt Grava’thul first just doding his nullify and going from wall to wall to make a distance from rest bosses, Just dodge Alex meteor during - watch his moves, before he cast meteor he has unique animation, like throwing very fast straight punch. I’ve noticed that he may somehow tracks your cursor before deciding where to throw meteor, if you move your mouse fast and rapidly clicking it often miss even if you don’t move. If you were frozen then it’s mean you didn’t reset your cooldowns in time.

Sure, some deaths may always happen but being unable to pass 65 with tanky character is not really rng.