Dear Dev Team,
I wanted to share my thoughts regarding the Zekvir encounter, as I believe there are some balance and mechanics issues that may need addressing.
From my experience, it feels as though the fight, particularly for Retribution and Protection Paladins, is significantly overtuned. It seems like the damage values for the boss’s abilities might have some incorrect percentages in the code, making it incredibly difficult to overcome. I’ve attempted the fight as both a solo Retribution Paladin and a solo Protection Paladin, utilizing Bran at level 24 for DPS and healing support. Additionally, I’ve joined groups of 2 and 5 players, but the sheer amount of damage that Zekvir inflicts with each ability feels excessive.
In my honest opinion, it seems like the lead developer wanted to create a challenging “Dark Souls-like” boss experience, but this difficulty is gating access to Delve vendors and gear, which is a significant part of the game for many players. Until I can successfully defeat Zekvir, I’m locked out of obtaining Delve gear for my alternate characters, hindering my overall enjoyment of the game.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the encounter is the overlapping abilities. For instance, there’s a magic debuff that slows Paladins, which is then quickly followed by an instant fear and a one-shot cone attack. While I understand that abilities like Hand of Freedom and Divine Shield can mitigate these effects, it often feels like the boss is reacting in a way that exploits cooldowns—almost as if it has some form of learning AI.
I hope you consider these points, as I believe that refining this encounter could enhance the experience for many players. Thank you for all the hard work you put into the game!
Best regards,
Vareyn
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I have experienced very similar scenarios. The fight is simply unfair the way it is currently.
I do not believe gear will help (currently 601) as I’ve record huge disparity in damage dealt per move, all of which have 1 shot capability.
Zekvir often lands hits way outside of the shown animation and even firing off his moves faster than he should. Everything about the fight is inconsistent: Aggro on bran, timing for skills, zekvir damage/web terror damage even the damage he takes is inconsistent.
Brann also is doing no damage, i’ve recorded extremely similar damage from him regardless of spec. Healing vs Damage spec are the same damage. His health/aggro and performance also should not mimic whatever the players is. This proves exceptional advantages for different classes. Brann simply behaves differently based on what class you are playing. Brann also appears to hold slightly more aggro as heal spec.
AI may be present here alongside a massive coding issue.
I’ve personally got him to 60% after the hotfix but not without what feels like incredible luck (Brann level 28)
Before the hotfix I was able to achieve 30% all on Shadow Priest with (Brann level 16)
yeah im 596 ret doing 800k dps over 5 minutes getting him to 50% than he always dose something rigged like casting Cone on top of the casting spider so i can’t kick it with my melee interrupt so i get web’d and insta dead! or Bugged Fear insta cast fear into a Cone and dead
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It is both frustrating and disheartening I’m right there with you.
I hope for the best and that detailed reporting to blizzard will fix it. It should 100% be completable in season 1 by those who practice and learn the mechanics.
Industry wide thats how challenge modes go and should go.
I solo’d him on Saturday as a ret paladin ilvl mid 590’s.
Took quite a few tries, but it felt good doing it. The challenge was the fun part, if they nerf him too badly it will just feel like another quest to go crush and be done with.
I had Brann as a healer (which everyone tells me is bad, but I like my little potions) and made sure to use the ability that gives you a buff of either big or small for the entire duration of combat. If you can’t fully break an egg, the spider will come out with less health based on egg health, and it is the only one you really need to interrupt.
The abilities are definitely on a rotation and can be tracked with DBM so you know when to steer the cone to the side of an egg as well. Honestly, being able to Freedom the DoT from Zekvir made me think paladins would have it easier than most on this fight.
On the harder tier (??) the egg spawns with full health regardless of how much damage you did. If you saw a web terror spawn with anything but full health you are talking about the wrong tier.
You did this on the first tier which is not what we are talking about. Also you may have done it before the hotfix…
Tier 1 (?) is doable
Tier 2 (??) is not
Please read the entire thread before responding with false information
At no point did anyone mention that this is talking about tier 2.
Please read the entire thread before responding with false information
Tier 1 is easy, no one is complaining about it.
Try Tier two and you’ll see it needs a nerf to some degree.