Last edit, TLDR: Gruldir occasionally, randomly does obscene damage (more than Voldrak/Steward with a double phys rolled weapon, more than The Dread’s attacks on ascendant mode) for a reason I can’t figure out.
It’s not his MI weapon rolls, most of the time I facetank him with full chaos rolls, and when he does the crazy damage the rolls weren’t anything special. It’s not random RR reduction rolls, I’m overcapped and he’s never dropped an “abyss” affix weapon for me with the %total RR. But once in a while his damage is just 10x what it normally is and his auto attacks do as much or more damage as Callagadra does. There’s just some thing sporadically bugged about his damage. I don’t think he needs another nerf, he’s not a threat when he’s not bugged, and easily facetankable. But rarely and randomly he turns into a celestial for some reason.
edit- Just hit 100, went into ascedant mode. Same exact build, did a bunch of bosses, 2 nemesis, tempest totems with 2 bosses - no deaths, facetanked most of it. Definitely not my imagination with Gruldir.
4k+ hour player, ultimate hardcore done many times, all celestials, etc etc.
Even after supposed nerfs, Gruldir on ultimate in particular is noticably overtuned compared to everything else in the game. I face tanked everything on this run, including sunders, not even remotely coming close to dying on every other enemy in the campaign (except ult Voldrak) with this char I am currently leveling. Over about 6 attempts, I couldn’t stand still for 2 seconds without getting instantly deleted through:
Level 97, 2800 OA, 2400 DA, 14k health + 4100 from menhirus potion mod, 2.3k armor 84% applied, 10 phys res + 25% less damage from maven’s sphere, 10% damage reduction on enemies, 83% chaos res 25% overcapped, all other overcapped res’s, impaired aim, Giants blood, turtle devo, crab devo, chariot devo, max levels, big weapon damage lifesteal and 2k health regen, and he still one shots through all of that. 9981 max hit I took from him, and he dual wields, swings very fast, double leaps, and has two immortal adds that carpet bomb the area. It’s not the shotgun nuke, his basic auto attacks chunked ~5-7k per swing. He doesn’t even have a DA/RR shred. I don’t think you reasonably expect an average player’s leveling character (or even 50% endgame geared) to have more defensive layers than this, and it feels like overkill against everything but him. He did have two double chaos rolled weapons and a chaos helm, but that’s going to be a pretty standard loadout in difficulties above normal mode.
I’m all for the tuned up challenges in ascendant mode that you elect and can be geared for. Also fine with telegraphed physical attacks like the big troll swings or steward’s attacks doing massive damage. But Gruldir’s auto attacks and leap are almost unavoidable as he leg humps you and hits very nearly as hard as the obvious telegraphed “this will one shot you” attacks, which I still facetanked every single other one through ultimate (testing the defensive layers) except Voldrak who had a triple rare with two phys rolls.
All that to say, Gruldir is a single, huge outlier in damage and feels very broken relative to everything else in the campaign. Also has a massive hp bar so -103% RR, 100% hit 15% crit and 250k sheet dps isn’t remotely close to being able to nuke him down, so that isn’t a counter. Recommend a tuning pass on him, a 30-50% damage nerf and he would still hit hard.
Edit to be clear: it isn’t about being able to facetank him. With {campaign relative} very good defences, his damage inconsistently, dramatically out scales any reasonable expectation of defence for a random boss in campaign.
