Newish player. My biggest struggle with the game

General
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I started about 2 weeks after 1.0 launch. My highest character is level 84. I’m currently on the level 85 (dragons?) monolith. I’ve been here since level 78. I have maxed stability (900+) on this long ago. I can easily do all the monos in here, except the boss.

The bosses you have to defeat to open up the next level are so much harder than the rest of the content. I’ve fought Emperor of Corpses more than 30 times now, without dropping him once.

I have my basic defences maxed out, plus some other stuff. So you could say I need to increase my numbers, and I probably do, but how? Continuing to run the same level 85 monos over and over until I get just the right drops? Most of my gear is decent at least.

And I’m not saying the boss is too hard, per se, but it’s too hard compared to everything else at this level. There’s not much fun left to be had running these same level 85 monos.

I’d like to see them tone down these bosses a little bit, to make them more in line with other content at their level. Otherwise, it’s just a big wall to me. I know the fight, I know the mechanics of it. I go in and out of that circle 10+ times and the fight is still going. It just takes too long.

Anyway, I’m still having fun levelling alts, but once I hit 70-80, those tier bosses are just too tough for me to enjoy. I never feel joy at defeating them, only relief that it’s over.

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Hi there!
Compared to echo monsters, monolith bosses are supposed to be a wall - kind of.

Personally I think the bosses are in a good spot, as they are already kinda easy, but different people have different comfort zone.

From this here, it sounds like you have the experience to beat him, but your character probably has low DPS.

We can fix it by having a look at your build, switching a few things around, and perhaps buying some gear from vendors, then adding some crafting to them.

Got a link to your build? The lastepochtools planner has an import function which can load your current character and create a link to it.

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Some dumb tricks

  1. Watch for the bubble. Get outside of it when it goes up, then back inside when it goes down.

  2. Avoid her front

  3. Repeat step 1

  4. Repeat step 2

  5. Stay out of the bubbles/visual effects

It’s a lot easier on classes like falconer where the pet does most of the hard work. You just need to focus on moving around.

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There’s also an issue with EoC specifically that the aoe markers for its spam move (It looks like it shoots bones at you?) aren’t clearing correctly which makes the fight more confusing and stressful.

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This is the build I am using. It’s not one I created. Necromancer, level 100 (Release / 1.0.5) - Last Epoch Build Planner

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You can show us your build exactly as it stands so far by going into the planner and clicking import, putting in your account and character name, then clicking save/share for the link.

I feel like some of the tougher bosses are too tough and should be toned down a bit, personally. But most of the time if you say that people here just say to “git gud.”

For Emperor of Corpses in particular I think his bubble bomb is a bit hard to see or notice sometimes. The RNG of his ground poisoning effect can screw you at times, too.

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Except Husk with the triple beam, bosses are super easy. Just don’t try to face tank, watch the mechanics. The only problem is how imbalanced the game is. Some skills take out a 1000 corruption boss in seconds. For some, it takes minutes to do a 100 corruption boss.

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People say that about people who use their inability to clear bosses to trash the game. Others, like the OP, will usually just receive help.

I don’t play minion builds, but that build the OP linked looks sus. Like others have said, you’re going to need to increase your dps. The longer the fight goes, the more chances of you dying.

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That’s not your current character. That’s the final version you’re going for.

When I said “Got a link to your build?”, I wanted to see your current character. To fix the character you’re using today, we need to to see the character you’re using today, not the ideal future version of it :slight_smile:

The planner is from ActionRPG’s minion build, fire variant.

It’s a total glass cannon, there’s exactly zero damage reduction, just stacking HP and trading it for lowlife Ward generation.

The final variant’s gear in the planner should be reaching above 10000 Ward, and the video he posted is above 7000 Ward, which is comfortable for the 200-300 Corruption range he’s aiming for.

  • But I suspect OP is nowhere near those Ward numbers, so contrary to the video statement you can’t “be lazy” when fighting bosses :wink: at least not until you reach at least the gear in his video.
    PS:
  • Guess I should explain the defense too. All of it comes from the unique Body armor + unique Boots + Experimental Gloves that give you % Ward for missing Health. This requires you to have high max HP, and also to NOT drink potions, regen HP or have any kind of damage leech for the player (it’s fine for minions).
    To get the Ward this high, you also need +Health and +% Health affixes on ALL gear and on the tall 1x3 idols.

As for damage, obviously it’s from minions. The important parts are:

  • Staff with 33% Minion Fire Penetration
  • gear with Minion damage, mainly the Turquoise Rings, there’s a lot of minion damage on those
  • relic with Minion Fire damage
  • applying 100+ Armor Shred stacks on the boss (from vomiting zombies and Aegisfall mastery passive)
  • 2x2 idol that gives your minions a Chance to to apply Marked for Death

If you’re missing any of those parts, or if you are using different ring or relic bases, you’re losing DPS.

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Unless you are really used to this sort of game, you may need to watch vids etc to get boss mechanics down. In this game, bosses have mechanics which you NEED to learn.

-I’m glad you had a few folks reply with helpful feedback instead of just the usual “get gud” and “it’s all easy” from the kiddos.

-I also found some of the bosses beyond my scope of enjoyment. I like the game enough that I decided that I would deal with it and go youtube some videos etc. Not the sort of thing I usually like to do but I get that they are catering to players who like to get sweatier than I typically enjoy. I like the game enough to do it but yeah… you HAVE to learn boss mechanics to succeed.

-You have to know what danger your build can stand in and what it needs to GET OUT OF.

-This boss: never let it face you directly.
-Be ready to get distant from it when the danger zone is all around it.
-Be ready to dive back in when the danger zone is distant from it.

-Be ready to look things up with each monolith boss if they are troubling you. This game is wedging itself between too easy and way too hard, so you need to be ready to look up help when needed.

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Emperor is my most hated boss in the game. I’ve died to it more than any other boss by a country mile.

Anyway, let’s check a few things… what is actually killing you?

  1. His breath attack
  2. His big AoE where you need to get waaay out of it then back in quick as it flips to damage the outer area.
  3. The blood pools he drops everywhere

Solutions for each:

  1. This is l2p sadly. Never be in front of his mouth.

  2. This is l2p too, but with the caveat that it is too darn hard to see when that attack begins. Depending on positioning, you really cannot tell when it starts until it is too late. Focus hard on spotting it. Also, this is 100% easier if you have a non-targeted movement skill at your disposal (i.e. not Lunge).

  3. This one is a DPS check. The longer the fight, the more he fills the screen with these pools. If you are dying to these then you need more damage to down him before the pools get out of hand.

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No, I don’t have the gear he does in the video yet, not even close.

The heart of my issue is that the boss is SO much harder than everything else in that tier. I was mowing through the echoes at level 78, but six levels later, I still can’t beat the boss.
Six freaking levels on just one tier should provide the gear I need to beat that boss.

So now what? Continue to keep grinding at that tier?

Also, I’m restricted to using certain builds because of my physical limitations. I’m old, and my reflexes ain’t what they used to be. My ability to aim is poor. My response time isn’t great. These skills will NOT get better. I want/need a one-button build that lets me run around while the minions or auras or one-button effects are enough.

Lastly, I’ll repeat that I don’t think the boss is too hard, exactly, just overtuned for that tier.

People talk about running empowered monoliths and after many weeks, I’ve not been able to create a single character strong enough to even get to tier 100. Whatever the reason, that’s disheartening and doesn’t encourage me to keep playing.

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Well, it’s going to get worse in Empowered Monoliths :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, the build you picked doesn’t work like that, at least not until you’ve assembled a lot of the required gear.

I’m not too familiar with one button builds, but I’m pretty sure Divine Bolt Paladin would work like that straight away.
All you need to make it is the same gloves recommended for your current Necromancer - or more specifically, ANY magic/rare/exalted gloves with the experimental affix. Then you stack Increased Healing Effectiveness everywhere you can and that’s it.

Gameplay wise:

  • Holy Aura is passive, you don’t press it at all.
  • Sigils of Hope is 25 seconds buff, and it refreshes itself with kills
  • Healing Hands is your one button. It continuously heals you + generates Ward + automatically targets enemies with divine bolts.
  • Lunge is a charge skill, optional.
  • Volatile Reversal is mainly for more damage on bosses, also optional.

Here:

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I’m also using that build. I was making a similar one and adjusted it when I saw his video, since his spec is more efficient that what I was going for.
And I recently also did the EoC fight, though I didn’t die. It’s an annoying fight when your build isn’t fully online yet, but I’ll give you a few tips based on my recent experience with it:
-Don’t bother fully summoning your zombies at the start. Just send one every now and then.
-Your minions will die a lot, so you need to keep resummoning. Which is why we don’t bother with zombies too much until he’s close to kill threshold (16%).
-Your golem will attract most of the aggro, so you can stay kinda distant to the emperor and not worry too much with the breath attack, since that will mostly target your golem.
-Keep moving all the time. Especially because when you resummon your mage you will teleport and there’s a high chance your golem will be on top of you, so move away.
-If you keep moving near the edge of where his big AoE hits, you can easily move outside and press A to bring your minions outside as well. Then quickly go back in.

That’s it, mostly. I’m also playing this because I like lazy builds, but in this fight you can’t be too lazy. You have to keep track of your minions and have to keep resummoning them, so you’ll need to hit all skills. The main thing is to keep moving close to the border of his AoE circle so you have time to move out and back in.

As for gear, you can keep farming that mono or you can go clear the monos from the bottom path (they don’t give great blessings, though), though I would just advise you to keep farming that same one and trying the Emperor every now and then.
You don’t lose stability on death in the boss fight anymore, so you can just try him again and again, but that’s frustrating. Do a few monos, try the boss, do a few more, try him again, etc. If you get some decent gear to upgrade, all the better.

At this point, your gear will give you more than passives. If you’re CoF try to target prophecies that will help your gear. Lock them so you only spawn prophecies in monos.
If you’re MG, try to get the baseline DPS gear from the bazaar. Just a few yellows in the right spot with minion damage should help a lot. You can very often get a cheap yellow with just 1 or 2 decent affixes that you can craft a little more on.

Something that might help as well is “dubious replacements”. Basically, until I get the gear I need, I’m using Sinatha’s set, which gives some minion bonuses and +2 to all minion skills (which are all of them) and I’m using the acolyte relic for another +1 skill to all.

For this last one, I’m actually farming them a lot (buying them in bulk and trying to get good rolls). Though it’s not easy. After about 12, I’ve yet to roll even decentish affixes for this build. Still, in theory, this relic can be BiS and I like the WW mechanic, so I might keep on it.

EDIT: One thing that might help as well is to ignore low life at first. Just go for full health, since that lets you pick up useful affixes for chest/boots as well. Once your build is rolling, you can try to work on low life.

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