PoE 2 Act One Boss: Glitch?

I primarily am using Contagion and Essence Drain which has carried me quite well through to this boss. I also use the Grave Upheaval spell that makes the bone minions that can transfer Contagion.

On the map I haven't really had any issue. I Contagion an Ad, Essence Drain it and then Upheaval spam and get an army of bone minions decimating the mob.

Bosses were sometimes challenging as if I didn't have minions already or they expired when the fight started then I had to rely on my spells alone. I still managed to crawl through to Act One Boss.

Let me say that I'm aware there's plenty I can do to get past this point. Even make it easier. However, for one I don't think I should have to; and secondly it's a bit wasteful. I purposely am not taking minion skills or spec'ing into them because I want to get the Demon form and use that primarily. I don't need wasted points and resources into minions I don't want to use. Im trying to be intentional with my build and its been fine so far. Secondly, I could just go farm and craft a bunch and try to get to level 20+ as levels and upgrades would certainly make the boss easier. I regularly can get him to half life or less in his 2nd form. So extra DPS definitely could close that gap.


Here's the issue.

Alot of bosses don't have ad's that make it difficult for corpse summoners if you aren't using spirit, and thats fair enough. However, some bosses do have a round of ad spawn to supply corpse summoners with some fuel. The Count however does some weird ish that im not sure if its intentional or not.

For one, the Count summons werewolves and in both stages but primarily the fog stage the wolves suddenly will freeze over. I am aware that frozen ad's that are killed don't leave corpses. So this seems odd and unnecessary because if you don't want there to be corpses...just don't spawn ads.

I don't rely on ad's though, they just severely increase my DPS. My real issue with this boss is that in the Fog stage he summons a mass of werewolves. I will Contagion one, and then I'll Essence Drain it if I can (sometimes I can't because its almost like the AI bodyguards Contagion inflicted ads). Once that is done I get mixed outcomes.

1- It works as intended and that ad will die infecting the mob and I'll just see a sea of purple afflicted ad's popping to death repeatedly. I'll do well and can dodge roll the Counts dumb dash attacks.

2- It does not work as intended and either that ad dies and nothing happens to the rest or im guessing it loses the conditions and is no longer afflicted and just keeps chasing? It is not because the duration is running out w/o doing enough damage, I can tell you thats not whats happening. If they are losing the condition its because of something weird going on. I've notice that sometimes the wolves shatter because of something the Count does. This makes me wonder if the afflicted wolves freeze over or shatter and then fail to spread the condition.

I don't know whats going on in scenario 2 but its really annoying and has been the primary cause of my death during the fog stage which is the part I typically die on. Trying to cast Contagion after the first and/or Essence Drain while also trying to dodge roll and use flasks, I tend to get swarmed by werewolves. Which normally wouldn't matter because my DPS is good that I use two ED's on the lead ad with Contagion and I obliterate all the rest. That would be fine. But being that if I stop moving The Count can just one shot me out of nowhere or the mob swarms me and pushes you into the fog so you cant see and make it nearly impossible to Dodge roll...well death comes angrily.

Not sure if this is bugged or if it is intentionally this frustrating to have no corpse fuel and had contagion snuffed out by freeze status. Its bad enough The Count has far too much HP, a bunch of one shots and honestly far too many attack(s)/patterns. For an intro boss this really is unnecessary and frustrating.

I got off for today, im too annoyed. However, I'll hop back on later and farm (like i shouldn't have to) and get past that stage and continue to enjoy the game. I just had made it to the boss after slogging through the Manor. I really didn't feel like leaving to level up or anything. Now imma have to fight my way back to him. Honestly, at this point I wont even feel good about defeating him because I got his mechanics down and I outplay him well enough. Its merely a damage check and I fail at it. Whats worse is that I feel like its the viability of my build to this point which I didn't have alot of options anyways. I'm sure had I went Sorc or spec'd into elemental skills, or bone skills, or actually invested into minions I'd be fine. Also a different class I'd be fine I guess. Kind of annoying that I won't really overcome a challenge but just pile on damage to bypass an overtuned Boss *shrug*