Anyone else agree that Merciless Malachai sucks?

Gotta say any evasion based character struggles through act 4 (usually die to Daresso, if not then Mal). I have struggled to get through on pure evasion since Beta.

That being said iv'e gotten to a point now where ive learnt the fight, its still pretty scary but definitely doable deathless in normal and cruel. Im not even gonna try it in HC merc tho till im like lvl 90.

Like others mentioned end game area levels are a bit confusing, while you try and stay on par with the area level through most of the game, when you get to the end the scale is different. I use a very loose rule of thumb +10 levels: 74 map area = around lvl 84 character.

Chris mentioned in a podcast that that was why they changed to tiers. Often people felt bad that they were running maps like 10 levels below their level and still having a hard time, when actually that level of map is about where they should be. Having said that tiers still dont make sense to me, adjusting is hard...

A4 cruel is ridiculously hard and A4 merciless does not even exist once you get the skill point quest.

A4 overall was not the best use of money for how much it cost GGG.

I always zerg A4 cruel. It just doesn't make sense to play it carefully when you know it will be smooth sailing once you get past.

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Nephalim wrote:

A4 overall was not the best use of money for how much it cost GGG.

Yep, the art is fantastic though. That about sums up all the positive things I can say about it. :)

a4 merciless Malachai was designed as an end-game alternative to 77+ maps and atziri.
It was mentioned by chris either on reddit or in one of the awakening videos.

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Pyrokar wrote:

a4 merciless Malachai was designed as an end-game alternative to 77+ maps and atziri.
It was mentioned by chris either on reddit or in one of the awakening videos.

I think he's more an alternative to 74+ maps (especially the scary ones), and/or a do-once challenge that makes you feel manly as hell if you can beat him a char below level 80ish.
if you can get past bastard Maligaro. chaos mines on Merciless ffs.

saying he is a bit too much though, would be a massive understatement.

and he's also why I think Energy Shield mechanics need to be reworked.
it must be literally a nightmare to go up against him as a CI or any other ES-based build. you simply do not re-charge any ES because stuff hits you constantly and there's not a single safe spot in the entire fight.
maybe ES Flasks should be introduced? that would be nice.

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johnKeys wrote:

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Pyrokar wrote:

a4 merciless Malachai was designed as an end-game alternative to 77+ maps and atziri.
It was mentioned by chris either on reddit or in one of the awakening videos.

I think he's more an alternative to 74+ maps (especially the scary ones), and/or a do-once challenge that makes you feel manly as hell if you can beat him a char below level 80ish.
if you can get past bastard Maligaro. chaos mines on Merciless ffs.

saying he is a bit too much though, would be a massive understatement.

and he's also why I think Energy Shield mechanics need to be reworked.
it must be literally a nightmare to go up against him as a CI or any other ES-based build. you simply do not re-charge any ES because stuff hits you constantly and there's not a single safe spot in the entire fight.
maybe ES Flasks should be introduced? that would be nice.

Totally agree, especially if you play a caster-non incinerate + Sybill's build. You should also try Olmec's Sanctum. It was really hard doing it with my Ci totem mfer a while back. Unless you portal out, it's hard to keep your es at max value. You can use a vaal discipline for a breather, but you need to burst the boss within that small time frame.

The funny thing is, it is way easier to regenerate es in the 74 lvl version of the weaver's chambers. Not that much ground stuff.

I never bother with Malachai on Merciless as there's no real reward for doing him. It's an example of a boss fight that wants to have cool mechanics in it, but fails hard because the arena space is too small, too many effects going on at once, and a poorly optimized game engine that can't handle those effects. I am with others that once I get the skill point in Merciless, I either farm Dried Lake or go into the low tier maps that rain down like candy from a candy store. Not worth my time or effort to try and fight a boss that's poorly designed and flawed due to the reasons above and others outlined by the OP.

my problem with act 4 is that its not finished and i could easily see them improving voll's, shavronne's, doedre's and maligaro's aswell as making the mines slightly shorter or give it more energy while making malachai fight have slightly more adventure to it in addition with removing all the lag act 4 gives me which btw is extra unusual for me, i do find malachai rather annoying with the 3 hearts shit and missleading life pool in addition with the fact he have 2 stages the first one doing nothing to your progression or with no rewards or add a third stage to combat dominus 2 stages and such