The Biggest Problem With ‘Last Epoch’ Is Its One-Shot Bosses

I have gone deep, deep down the rabbit hole of Last Epoch, the new ARPG that is scratching itches that Diablo 4 did not. Essentially every moment of my free time has been sunk into the game in the past few days and I have a level 78 Void Knight to show for it.

The game suffered massive server/login issues for a while, and there is still some of that going on, but if we’re talking about actual gameplay, among everything I love about the game, there is one thing that keeps bothering me as I encounter it.

For whatever reason, the game’s larger bosses almost all have a number of moves that simply one-shot your character. Yes, yes, you are about to critique my build, but even knowing what’s coming and being able to adjust things like maxing elemental resistances accordingly, if possible, so many of these moves still one-shot you regardless.

This does not make for very fun fights. It involves dodging these one-shot moves dozens and dozens of times per fight, with the goal to simply get your DPS up high enough to make these fights shorter so there’s less dodging to do.

For things like Monolith or campaign bosses, this can be rather un-fun, but at least you’ll have time to learn their patterns and adapt over a few attempts. But the real problem lies in dungeon bosses, where especially the first few times you encounter them they will bust out these one-shot moves before you even know what’s happening or how to avoid them. In dungeons, however, unlike the story and Monoliths, you are instantly taken out of the dungeon when you die, losing a valuable unlock key in the process. As a newer player this has been immensely frustrating and it’s been a lot of looking things up on YouTube to even begin to understand the moves you will need to immediately avoid instant death to not waste a 20 minute run and an entire key.

This reminds me of one of the most hated fights in Diablo 4, Uber Lilith, which is a fight simply full of one-shot moves that have annoyed many players since launch. But loads of fights are like this in Last Epoch, counter to the entire rest of the game where yes, you dodge things, but you also can build up defenses to counter high level dangerous enemies. Here, 80% of the big bosses have things you simply cannot tank, often even when they’re under you’re level. Learning the dodges is doable in some fights, if not still unfun, but the insta-death dungeons are deeply frustrating.

Maybe I’m a casual or maybe I’m missing something, but in a game I otherwise love, this has been bothering me a great deal.

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