Crucible feels unfare and definitely not fun

Wicked Feedback
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The rest of the game had weird balance, sometimes easy, sometimes just right, some new challenges sounded great.

Some of us already mentioned that fighting multiple enemies at once is just not fun and maybe even harder than it should be because all of them attack constantly and mostly at the same time.

Now in the crucible we have only elite type enemies which is great but 2 to 6 at the same time, some of them are the fire throwing witches so good luck running away to wait for a window to attack, crucible is not hard, it’s stupid hard and no fun at all.
I am not afraid of challenging games, I want a challenging game, I played all soulsbornekiroring games, I did FRC dungeons in Bloodborne, in Bloodborne I did bl4 runs, FRC chalices those are the ones that cut you life in half, they were 10 times easier than the crucible.

In crucible I even got into a area with a huge cage in the middle and little arena around the cage, it gave me several witches on the sides and 6+ other enemies, hard to say how many enemies were in total as I was cursing and running for my life.
Souls games are fun because they are challenging but fare, how for the love of God can this be called fare…or even fun.

I am level 18, 30 points in health for a total HP of 160, weapon upgraded to lvl 2. I had bombs, oils, potions, 30+ cooked meals per run.

Question for those who did crucible, does it become manageable if you have a higher level? I can’t imagine it being fun when you have 2 witcher and 2 shielded brutes at the same time…but I have to ask.

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Actually, this is exactly when I have the most fun. Mike Tyson’s quote fits here very well:

Everyone has a plan until I punch them in the face until you fight more than one enemy

It makes you think and react faster. I love it.

Now in the crucible we have only elite type enemies which is great but 2 to 6 at the same time

You can use consumables to pull them one by one or 2 at the time. If you can’t, you really don’t use the game’s systems and it’s your own fault.

In crucible I even got into a area with a huge cage in the middle and little arena around the cage,

Yeah, you got overwhelmed. Tough luck. Same happened to me the first time. You know how I got past this? I killed them faster on the next time I went there.

I am level 18

Crucible is a 21+ area. Even at 23 where I am, it’s still hard.

30 points in health for a total HP of 160

That means you have no points in other damage attributes. With so much invested in HP, you need to stay alive for yeaaaaarrrrssss.

Question for those who did crucible, does it become manageable if you have a higher level?

Yes, 100%. I also increased my level to equip better gear/weapons.

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Everyone has a plan until I punch them in the face until you fight more than one enemy

Sure but the numbers I saw here were stupid given the fact that the game combat kind of breaks when you have many enemies attacking at the same time

You can use consumables to pull them one by one or 2 at the time. If you can’t, you really don’t use the game’s systems and it’s your own fault.

Honestly feels cheasy and boring as I am chease intolerant

30 points in health for a total HP of 160

Initially I had like 25 but it felt like I was getting killed really fast

Yeah, you got overwhelmed. Tough luck. Same happened to me the first time. You know how I got past this? I killed them faster on the next time I went there.

I don’t really enjoy being in a damage race

I will play it some more but I can’t imagine becoming fun to cheese enemies away, and do damage races

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Sure but the numbers I saw here were stupid

Because you went there underleveled.

Honestly feels cheasy and boring as I am chease intolerant

Using the consumables the game has been giving you since the beginning, is “cheasy”? That is literally the game telling you to use its systems. No amount of change or balancing will change that for you them.

Initially I had like 25 but it felt like I was getting killed really fast

Then don’t take the hits. Really, no sarcasm. You either have a built that you can take hits and regain that health so you sustain yourself, or you ignore HP and kill the enemy faster. It feels like you failed both requirements in this instance.

I don’t really enjoy being in a damage race

You don’t enjoy multiple enemies at once which is RARELY the case in any game, unless you want a nova explosion skill like D3-4 where the whole screen disappears, which I hope never becomes the case here.

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I’ve run the crucible many times and can get to the boss easily as every level is pretty much the same each time with some variations, i initially was 25 the first time, nothing was upgraded, i got my ass kicked and was the only time i had to go out and farm for gear and upgrades.

The crucible is the only place where you can actually take wtv build you came up with and test it and min max your build, the boss is waaaay harder than all the other bosses, and i don’t think it should be nerfed.

Going at 18 that’s insane, not in a bad way, but it’s no surprise you ain’t having a good time, specially in the ring, the frozen map and the forest, those are pretty tough, whit the types of enemies there.

The crucible is definitely the endgame of the current build and after that there isn’t anything to do, and that is why i hope it doesn’t get nerfed, as more people get to the boss there will be a lot of ppl asking for it to be nerfed to the ground, i’ve only managed to kill it twice after prob 15 attempts, that was the best time for me in the game because it was hard and i took the time to learn the maps, enemies and the boss, and actually made me come up with strats and builds to beat it, the rewards on the other hand not very happy about

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In the first run, i approached the crucible at level 18/19 too, and i found it pretty unfair idk how many times i died before having a chance, for the same reasons you explain in the post, but, after some level up and gear upgrade it become a lot easier, gearing up and learn the possible enemy spawn helps a lot, it worked way too much for me, after the gear up, i literally almost oneshot or stunlock every elite (i was playing the dex faith 2hand hammer) but yeah, its either too hard or too easy, for the shielded guys you mention, try to bait the charge and go for a backstab, idk if you can oneshot them (depends on your stats) but it helps a lot (backstab helps a lot in general with the invulnerability frames). Im not saying it’s not fun, but the gameplay loop can be frustrating at the start especially the first 2/3 times you face the boss and die because you do not know what to do against him, and you have to restart all over again. I still do not think the crucible needs a nerf, maybe just a little rework

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I’m just wondering how people reached the crucible by lvl18. I got there at lvl13 and I hadn’t allocated stats for about 4 levels.

So I naturally get there at lvl13, but now have to level to roughly 21 to even stand a chance… my damage is practically zero here, literally less per hit on a normal enemy than a hit against Darak or the Twins

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I actually reached it at lvl 15.
And yeah it’s true what was said above that once you level up it becomes manageable.
But in my opinion the problem when you fight multiple enemies at once remains, all of them attack at once. I don’t have a problem to have multiple enemies at once, it just seems that here their AI could be changed a bit to give some time to attack back.

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The crucible is currently supposed to be the hardest content and it’s not even that hard. Level to at least 21, put together a good build, and use food. All the rooms while random never actually change. Once you learn each rooms monster locations and type they aren’t hard.

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For completeness: I’m not complaining/negative on the difficulty. I think the difficulty leap from completing the story to the crucible is too large.

Extra content such as Act 2 might solve this organically. I’m just bringing the current problem to the attention :+1:

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I’m level 25 and I still find it WAY too hard. I can clear the mobs just fine, but i get to the boss and I just get overwhemled. I get hit once, i get stunned and just wiped out. Every time. I’ve talked to people about crucible and a lot of them say its easy and even speed run it. BUT, these same people use stun and freeze locks to breeze the content. I havent talked to anyone yet who has seemingly done the content without this. People claim it is easy and then cheese it with stuns. What if I dont have stuns or freezes yet or dont want to use them? I believe as soon as they nerf these builds, people will start having different stories of success.

Also, dont get me wrong! I’m fine with it being hard. I dont mind it taking multiple attempts to complete a boss. But, being reset back to square one every time? Just to work my way back up to the boss to get destroyed again? Thats so much time investment with very little payout and its not fun. I played the whole game and loved every second of it and all my fun and excitment has drained away because of the difficulty and death filled grind i am finding in the crucible content.

I know respec is coming and thats great. I feel like I may have built my character wrong and thats why I may be struggling a bit. I still have some levels to turn it around. If ive done this, I assume there are others that may have done so too. You also get people being like “You’re dying all the time? Did you put this many points into HP? Did you put this many into Focus? Did you put this many into damage?”. If the points need to be so straight forward to make clearing the content easier, I think they need to be lenient with the future respec costs. As, people may be having to respec often to see what works. And, it will be really unfun having to grind currency just to afford respecs because you broke your build in this game and respeccing is expensive.

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The complaints on the crucible almost matches exactly to the complaints for God of War Ascension trials… Incredible to see it here.

I love it, and I hope they don’t change a single thing about it.

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Instead of putting points in health, I now figured out it is more important to put points in equip load, it will allow you to wear better armor. When you have 700+ armor, you will find crucible being overly easy.

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you don’t need to cheese the boss tho, im playing with fire daggers, when i reached like 800+ armor with good infusions on them (more armor, less stamina usage, more hp, etc.) the boss became a piece of cake, i have like 110 hp and deal like 30 dmg every hit (i like to use the hp and dmg foods before the fight just to speed up it a bit, but there is no need at all), if i play really aggressive i can stun him (im playing the crow ring so i can play a bit more aggressive cause i can heal myself while attacking), but there is no need to do it, you just need to match a good build with a good knowledge of the fight, i understand it can be frustrating, because you can’t learn the boss without doing the crucible from the start every time, but i think it’s balanced, my first attempts were terrible, and i felt like it was unfair too, but when you learn the moveset and reach a good build, you will say sorry to the boss for going too hard on him

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I think my main feelings and complaints is because of the lack of respec and the possibility of it being overly expensive. I think if I change from pure int/focus and put some into health and armor, I might see a difference. But, for me, pure damage worked the whole way through, so i just kept stacking. Then I hit this wall that I was not expecting with no way back and I think that stacked onto my frustrations.
I will say though, I feel like a complete reset is unnecessary. It works in rougelites because you gain something from your attempts and work your way through it. In my opinion, the way its set in this game, its just an unrewarding slog until you eventually beat it. the real reward only lies on boss drops. I would like to see possibility for nice rewards before the boss, or, maybe an option to spend embers to go back to where you had died.