Feedback: Jamanra is just a bad fight

I know a lot of classes have a very easy time with this boss, but from the perspective of a Witch with a Chaos DoT + Curse build, it's just a very annoying, bad fight. So first off, the fight isn't even for everyone; it's incredibly easy for some, and incredibly difficult for others, depending on their class and ascendency.

I started off attempting the fight as a lvl 37 Blood Mage - the map is lvl 32, so I'm 5 levels above the recommended level - and never got more than 1/5 of his HP down, because I was running thru health flasks for the curses + damage I was taking.

That's point #1 - the fight is impossible as a Blood Mage who isn't abusing an OP minion build revolving around SSR. Once I spent 7,000 gold to redo my Ascendency tree - take OFF the Sangui node, I got the boss down to 20% HP on the first try. It was night and day between the fight because I wasn't doing self-damage for zero upside. Blood Mage is seriously BAD in boss fights, to the point it's an actual handicap unless you're abusing some OP mechanic

Point #2 - the fight is TEDIOUS. He's got too much HP, and I don't mean that in a "He's too hard" way, I mean that in "This shit is taking too long, I'm getting bored" kind of way. It just goes on and on and on. Unless you're running a meta OP build, it's not a DPS check, it's a check on how long you can actually care about a boring fight. The phases themselves are pretty fun and colorful, but they just last way too long. This isn't an "epic" boss fight, it's an active chore.

Point #3 - stop with the constant attacks. This was an issue in the Geneor fight as well, using mob adds in what *should* be a lull in the combat. It's OK to have a break, a breather, and chance to channel a skill or back off a fight and reset. Elden Ring, Armored Core, etc, all allow a quick backoff of a boss, a chance to heal, to reset if your roll timing is off and you can't get in the groove.
But the Phase 1 Jamanra right doesn't. He attacks constantly at EVERY range - there's no way to just back off and take a breath - and during what should be a chance to get some free damage, his sand storm attack, mob adds just swarm you - which is actually harder to deal with than when he's alone for a lot of classes in such a tight space.

---This isn't Elden Ring, because Elden Ring is fair---

What the devs don't get about Elden Ring when they try to emulate it is, it's FAIR. Every boss attack, every pattern, every death, is carefully weighed to be the player's fault. You can dodge everything, and you can beat any boss at any level.
But a lot of boss fights in PoE 2 are just an exercise in "How much do you really care about this vs just picking up another game". They aren't challenges, they don't promote learning patterns. Boss fights are basically bullet-hell mini-games where a single attack with almost no windup (like his sword attack) can wipe out 90% of your HP.

Elden Ring would telegraph the hell outta that kind of thing, but Jamanra just does it and proceeds into summoning more tornadoes. If an attack is that fast in Elden Ring, it doesn't do a lot of damage; if it does a lot of damage, it's telegraphed, and only the timing of the actual strike - a half second pause here, maybe right after the animation there - is how difficulty is added.
There is no such thing in the Jamanra fight, and it doesn't feel "fair" in the least; you die to it and your reaction isn't "Yeah, I saw it coming and my timing was off" like it is in Elden Ring, the reaction is, "WTF just happened? I was at 80% HP and then I was dead the next second. Seriously, how did I die?!"

TLDR: The Jamanra boss fight is like 80% OK; 20% needs tweaking. Namely, too much HP, mob adds, telegraphs, and attack density

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Point #2 - the fight is TEDIOUS. He's got too much HP, and I don't mean that in a "He's too hard" way, I mean that in "This shit is taking too long, I'm getting bored" kind of way.

Came here specifically to post this. I'm at this fight now and boy is it tedious. HTe first half of the fight isn't even hard, it's just simply avoid his lighting pole things which is actually very easy, but it feels like it takes 10 minutes to whittle him down and get to the actually difficult phase 2 in the sand.

I died there and the thought of doing the easy but tedious phase 1 again every single time is just ugh.

Another word about how STUPID his attacks are - his "Take our hate" attack is audio only if he's at the top of the screen and obscured by his own health bar. You CAN'T SEE IT, and insta-die if he's in a blind spot caused by the UI.

This fight is just DUMB. His HP needs to be cut in half, and his insta-kill attack telegraphed, VISUALLY, in an on-screen way that can be seen from any area in the arena. I shouldn't die out of nowhere just because I'm a ranged character trying to keep my distance and didn't hear one particular line amidst a chorus of junk, especially since he NEVER SHUTS UP

Jamanra: ArgleBargleargleTakeOurHatearglebarglearglebargle

Me: Wait, WTF. I didn't get any kind of clue that he was about to insta-gib me

And I wanted to reiterate - this isn't any kind of "epic" boss fight. It's a 10 minute bullet-hell style minigame

+11111111111111111

From what I've heared (not played it myself) the blood mage ascendency isn't well implemented currently. So this might be an issue.
I would also think that the current gameplay basically forces you to go hybrid (minions + chaos spells) or add spells from other classes.
The entire chaos-magic line seems to be a little scarce in number of available skills to focus purely on that. It also seems to be more AoE-focused than single target focused, which should make it worse against bosses.

The boss itself seems fine to me. I enjoyed the more tricky telegraphs like delayed explosions and how the lightning-poles dance around. Maybe the fights could have some more strategic things added to it, like the tornados killing you more or less guranteed, if you do not regularly move around to another "zone" when the heat currents aren't there.

First djinn is also unfair, using constant unavoidable attacks which take off most of your health and then you have to hit pot and hope she doesn't use another unavoidable attack while you are still healing.

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Sophianna#0164 wrote:

From what I've heared (not played it myself) the blood mage ascendency isn't well implemented currently. So this might be an issue.
I would also think that the current gameplay basically forces you to go hybrid (minions + chaos spells) or add spells from other classes.
The entire chaos-magic line seems to be a little scarce in number of available skills to focus purely on that. It also seems to be more AoE-focused than single target focused, which should make it worse against bosses.

The boss itself seems fine to me. I enjoyed the more tricky telegraphs like delayed explosions and how the lightning-poles dance around. Maybe the fights could have some more strategic things added to it, like the tornados killing you more or less guranteed, if you do not regularly move around to another "zone" when the heat currents aren't there.

Some classes find the boss incredibly easy, TBH. I think that's another balance issue that needs to be addressed. Crit Monk, as I understand it, basically melts bosses. If you felt the boss was easy, or needed to be harder, then that's a balance issue - either your class/build needs to be nerfed, or like you said, other classes/builds need a large buff. It's the kind of thing to be expected in early access, things aren't polished yet, and there are imbalances in the gameplay

Bosses shouldn't be pushovers, and they shouldn't be easy, which seems to be the case for some classes; but they shouldn't be this hard for some builds either. A player shouldn't need to play a particular class or build to get by. While a bad build should fail, any build that had thought put into it should be able to work, so long as a build is decent enough, the player should be able to get by without having to consult a guide or follow someone else's build

I killed him as a bloodmage. The issue you have is more related to chaos dot imho. I played chaos dot throughout act 1, but in act 2 I switched to different spells. Try something that hits instead of chaos dot. It'll be massively easier.

Chaos dot is just not worth it in its current state (or at that level).

Oh please...

So literally every single person playing every single build which doesn't struggle with bosses = OP? How do you ever expect to get better with that mentality?

All of Jamanra's attacks are well telegraphed and easily dodgeable, so I have no idea what about this fight seems unfair to you but if you can't figure them out here are some basic tips:

Step 1 - Get lightning res on your gear
Step 2 - See step 1

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H3avyM3tal#0791 wrote:

I killed him as a bloodmage. The issue you have is more related to chaos dot imho. I played chaos dot throughout act 1, but in act 2 I switched to different spells. Try something that hits instead of chaos dot. It'll be massively easier.

Chaos dot is just not worth it in its current state (or at that level).

Good point, and you're right, it just doesn't work on bosses. But a chaos DoT build that shreds every map *should* be viable against bosses in the released game. It's bad game design to encourage a build that works very well in 95% of the game, but fails at the last 5%. I think this is part of early access being unpolished, and wanted to leave feedback about it

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ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate#2605 wrote:

Oh please...

So literally every single person playing every single build which doesn't struggle with bosses = OP? How do you ever expect to get better with that mentality?

All of Jamanra's attacks are well telegraphed and easily dodgeable, so I have no idea what about this fight seems unfair to you but if you can't figure them out here are some basic tips:

Step 1 - Get lightning res on your gear
Step 2 - See step 1

"No idea what seems unfair". The only thing more pathetic than a troll who can't even read is a poor troll who couldn't afford to spend more than the bare minimum on a game. Be gone.