Had a pretty nice session, 3½h and made it to act 3. Was fun.

 

I just got into act 2 myself. Level 14. I really like the gem vendors in each act. The gems are pretty cheap also.

 

Pretty good launch. Stayed up all night and day, tried a few characters, ended up going ice crash, finished act 4. Epic and really hard final battle. I wish I knew how to speedrun and powerlevel, I just slowly full cleared all areas ;D

 

You know, I used to think Dominus was a pretty annoying final boss. And then we got this. I must have died a dozen or more times getting through that, on Normal with a character who was halfway through Cruel before the expansion came out.

 

Pretty much. That guy is a monster. Heck, even some of the other bosses are absolutely brutal throughout the act.

 

I didn't have much trouble with anyone except the big bad. Died a couple of times during the act just because I was running blind and not really knowing what attacks to expect. But the final boss, omg.

It's a suitably epic battle, I'll give the developers that much. I can't even imagine trying to win it on some other build types. My summoner witch would get raped ten thousand ways to Sunday.

 

20 level Witch at Tempest league currently. Started playing without researching anything on the new bosses. I'm screwed with the new bosses ain't I?

 

Uh, cap your Fire and Ice resists for A4 for two specific bosses, annnd watch a good A4 final boss guide unless you wanna rip.

I died two times before reaching the final boss - once to a corrupted area exploding zombie spawner, just as he died too, and once to a A4 orange mob who killed me in two seconds. Then the final boss killed me about five times. His smash hits WAY harder than Vaal or Dominus ever did, it one-shots even tanky builds no questions asked, he has a billion hp, multiple phases, crazy aoe, regen mechanics... I heard about people dying to him over and over all night in chat. It's possible, but a few moments in the fight can kill you in a second if you're not prepared.

If I were to rank A4 bosses compared to Dominus, the final boss is 10x harder, two bosses are roughly on par, and a handful are almost as difficult. So be careful in A4

 

If you do not catch on to the mechanics of a one specific boss shortly before the final boss, that fight is way worse than Dominus. Stupid temp chains...

You need staunching flasks, btw. And Physical damage reduction. The most common damage type in the final few fights seems to be obscene physical hits.

 

Okey, first: Why do I have to fight some boss in an asshole?

Second: that was freakin' hard fight. I was like paper tissue to the guy. And I didn't have any problem till him. My 1k dps almost didn't even scratch him...

and that was just Normal.

 

Time to boot this shit up. Played a lot of the Awakening Beta, but I lost interest. New Leagues seem kind of fun. Warbands seems to have a lot of cool uniques. May make a new Flicker Strike character for it.

I'm probably going to try to make my Skeleton Summoner work in HC. The changes to Minion Speed mean I could conceivably get 120%+ increased Minion Speed with a Dual Midnight Bargain pseudo low life build, which should allow me to spend less time casting and more time looting while my skellies chase everything down.

The clears will never be top tier even with all of my spare time spent looting, but it's one of the safest builds possible.

 

Level 36, beginning of the Arc IV, still alive (yet).

 

Playing Tempest. Defeated all Malachai's guardians on normal, had to help my mother with something, came back to find that I needed to fight them all again.

Lovely.

Running ice crash marauder, though I've got myself heavy strike for this boss invested act.

 

Fortify is your friend.

 

I have fortify on leap slam, though I'm thinking of the merits of shield charge instead. Malachai defeated without any near death experiences, but I think I used more Portal scrolls than I ever have before.

That was crazy long fight.

Now I can relax for a bit until I get to act 4 again. Or get overconfident and die. I tend to do that a lot.

 

So screw slow melee after all, rolled a wander. Gah, altaholic reporting in. Anyways, that new unique, Twyzel, is pretty amazing for leveling.

 

Malachai is so bullshit, anyway found a twyzel earlier sold it for 5c and later used it to buy a 5l ev chest

 

Patch notes nerfed Malachai

Act 4 Boss Fight Changes:
While we're very happy with the difficulty of the final boss on the Merciless difficulty level, it was definitely too hard in Normal and slightly too hard in Cruel.

The final boss now has 33% less life on Normal, and 17% less life on Cruel.
The final boss now has fewer area effects on Normal and Cruel difficulties.
The damage of some skills performed by the final boss have been reduced slightly, especially against minions.
The final boss's mortar degeneration ground has been reduced in the last portion of the fight in Normal and Cruel difficulties.
The Corrupted Lightning Beam attack used by the boss in the penultimate area now does significantly less damage to minions.
Fixed a rare bug where a heart would fail to open in the final boss fight.

Also tempest buffs now give 10% IQ, which is nice for us HC players.

 

I'm very happy with this drop.

http://imgur.com/VcjICuW

 

Holy macaroni, I want two.

Anyway, if someone has a spare Enlighten I would take it happily.