edit: I’m seen that some can beat this using Rend skill but my build is Frenzy and Whirlwind. I don’t know, still think this is a problem for newbies or younger players as they will be worse and stuck to this level with weirder builds/skills.
I’m a veteran Diablo player and I’m already playing the easiest mode and now at level 18. I played the last last Beta with range classes with no memory of this boss. Leveling up doesn’t help as monsters just match your level.
It appears that the Barb absorbs all the energy balls once on close combat which is huge damage. I think this a bug that that a character should only receive limited damage at close range to match range classes.
Its difficult but i just beat it on my first rend / iron skin / ground stomp / lunging strike build on veteran difficulty
thanks! going to try that shortly
tried that build on veteran speed running to the main quest did it without too much hassle on veteran with crappy gear gray chest piece and no helmet.
Never attribute to balancing what comes of ineptitude.
Also that build works pretty nice early on, high fury generation and whirlwind. I like this barb, no enemy or elites on the way were a hassle.
just done it… frenzy and whirlwind too weak. done without trying or planning or practice on these skills, first try. also lunge and rend also stronger in adventure or weakest monsters.
whirlwind is definitely suboptimal for bossfights, but in that one there’s quite a bit of ads being spawned, and boss is multiple entities… so it’s not the worst case for whirlwind.
I played mostly with rend last time around, and it will clearly be better especially that this boss runs away from you, bleed does a lot when you have to chase all the time and can’t dish out constant damage.
still, blizzard got to fix this. huge imbalance vs the range classes and newbies being frustrated stuck to this part of the Campaign
yeah barbar is too weak when it comes to multiple enemies etc or certain bosses …
second i would say is druid …
basing this on how easy it was when i played with other classes without any items …
barbar has no chance to solo butcher …
druid was second worst for me …
rogue, sorc, necro … not a problem, easy picking
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agreed. I tested the Druid last Beta weekend, play style is boring and damage capability also slow and weak.
I will test a Barb and probably the Druid with a range build shortly, it is possible that melee is broken
I don’t find anything broken about melee, perfectly capable to dispatch enemies. Ranged gets benefits of easier evasion that is normal. Druid melee takes a lot of skillpoints to get going, judging book by it’s cover man.
Also looking past big shiny major skill unlocks and digging into passive traits in skill trees goes far.
It still is. Most of the combat innovation in D4 hurts melee more, like normal monsters with a stun knockback move. This likely more fair if this move is long range and shows a warning animation.
Monster spells with crowd control and/or damage also unfair to melee as it can’t be dodged, mostly short range, and range classes can see it coming from far away. If they add something like 30% duration reduction to control and damage to melee characters, likely make it more balanced.
THANK YOU! So, it’s not just me. We have the same build. I thought I just needed to “git gud”. I mean I guess I still do, but, on the last 2 betas, I believe I was able to take this boss out with my Barbarian both times. Hopefully, this is something that will be adjusted. Even on WT1, I died tons of times, and I finally just gave up.
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Glad with your reply. (On Veteran mode with Lunge and Rend skills - I tried kiting or just running to avoid damage in Vhenard but no, spells are everywhere and one massive melee monster runs faster. Barb will continuously run out of life but once you do a melee attack, the Barb simply gets massive damaging energy balls. (appears that Barb character has a larger hit box than range classes, not sure)
The next bosses are trivial after Vhenard just with patience due to massive HPs and the need to dodge avoid heavy hitting attacks.
D4 now feels like it is made like D3 with time crunch and less than enough working people, only that D4 avoids major mistakes of early D3 like progress and itemization, avoiding paying for power (Auction house), there’s wide public beta and load server testing, and taking a lot of ideas/learnings from Diablo Immortal. There is Battle Pass but we don’t know much about it and I’m fine being just a bit behind players willing to pay.
Crap that I need to change my whole build to defeat her, also running whirlwind, going to have allot of pissed off Barb players in 3 days.
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Ironskin is the way to go for any whirlwind barbs until you get a barrier or bubble.
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is there a mercy setting for this fight? about 30 tries, various builds, no luck. Not too many problems with other fights, just this one
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This fight is insanely easy as long as you don’t mongo it. He has a very clear spell casting animation and telegraph when he casts the triple balls shotgun which is the only thing that can realistically kill you.
Move behind him when that happens. I can’t believe this forum post is a thing.
Easiest strategy is to just run Shouts + Call of the Ancients. Run around in circles at range until he casts the 3 balls, then run in on him and blow your load. Once your buffs/abilities are done, run away again until they’re refreshed, and wait for the 3 balls again before engaging again.
It’s dumb easy.
Seems like a pretty big flaw in the mechanics if a melee character is so insanely underpowered to defeat a boss character in the first act.
I have a lv 18 barb and keep getting nailed each time.
Even with 2-3 skills maxed out.
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After grinding last night and failing, i re-speced with rend, iron, skin and ground stomp and it was significantly easier.
Defeated second attempt on wanderer difficulty.
Just sucks that in order to achieve you need to respec and max out very specific skills.
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Struggling with this as well. Look at this video. Level 11 with only Frenzy and Rend. It was pre nerf but still. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NORwvziPYU
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