...but never before have I wanted to so badly.

Three times, Skolas has bested me. Waited me out. Not because I suck (ok we didn't clear him flawlessly the first time out - anyone? ok...), not because my teammates suck....no. The reason I've lost to Skolas three times now? My bedtime. I just can't keep at it for hours and hours and hours....and hours. I've beaten every other PvE "endgame" "Hard" activity - so why is it that this one feels so stupidly out of place? ESPECIALLY with Lightswitch and Small Arms. I mean, SERIOUSLY; Small Arms? That basically undoes all the "balancing" they claim to have done by removing the burns and lowering his health.

I did have more fun than the last two times, but only marginally so, and that was due to the company, not the game. So, thanks Disciple and Speedracer. Maybe next time....

Agreed. If you've done it before and worked out a strategy and everything goes right it still takes multiple hours. If things aren't going right it can easily stretch to several hours of frustration. And if you have to stop it's such a disappointment because you lose all your progress. Iconicbanana, ChaosSociety, and myself just finally beat it after roughly 5 hours and 30 minutes and i think all three of us vowed to not try it again until we're at least on level with the enemies.

And the thing is, the Vault of Glass took my group longer the first time. It took all day, failing at Atheon, calling it a night, and coming back later. I still love the Vault of Glass. I don't hate the Skolas encounter, but I'm not touching it again until at least September...

Tried for the first time last night.. My two buddies had already done it once. I didn't realize I was just going to work. Fun factor hovered at roughly zero. After a few hours I had to give up because I needed to go to bed. We three manned Crota hard mode just to relax before I left, what a world of difference. I can't devote 5+ hours to this game at a time, so what's the point? I would much rather do something I actually enjoy, like a raid, or trials, or even a 34 PoE.

I've never done Skolas either (I only dipped my toes into PoE for the first time last night).

Are these accounts "normal"? 5+ hours to take down Skolas? That seems insane. It's going to take me a while to get to 34 to attempt this, but I kind of don't want to if this is what I have to look forward to. Not to mention I'm in a similar boat as you--my playtime is very limited due to the whole kids thing, so I don't think I could ever set aside that much time.

Small Arms with Lightswitch is horrible. One hit kill from any melee in an arena with this much movement is very punishing, and Small Arms makes it that much harder to just shotgun anything that's too close to you and makes Skolas' health bar feel that much longer.

Normally my group can do the whole thing in maybe 1.5-2 hours total, with 30 mins of it being Skolas, but this was much worse. Took like 3 and a half hours - about 2 hours on Skolas!

I've never done Skolas either (I only dipped my toes into PoE for the first time last night).

Are these accounts "normal"? 5+ hours to take down Skolas? That seems insane. It's going to take me a while to get to 34 to attempt this, but I kind of don't want to if this is what I have to look forward to. Not to mention I'm in a similar boat as you--my playtime is very limited due to the whole kids thing, so I don't think I could ever set aside that much time.

My first time (and maybe only *shudders*) took ~ 5 hours with Hedge and my buddy Cleric. They had only completed it once or twice themselves, and I imagine it goes a lot smoother/quicker the more you do it. I'm just not sure I can stomach what it would take to get that good. LOL

- CC

I've never done Skolas either (I only dipped my toes into PoE for the first time last night).

Are these accounts "normal"? 5+ hours to take down Skolas? That seems insane. It's going to take me a while to get to 34 to attempt this, but I kind of don't want to if this is what I have to look forward to. Not to mention I'm in a similar boat as you--my playtime is very limited due to the whole kids thing, so I don't think I could ever set aside that much time.

i've done skolas hard several times, and the most it has taken was 2 hrs on skolas. The fastest was probably 45 mins at skolas (LFG group from reddit, everyone knew what to do).

There was only one time where i did not finish, and it was b/c it was getting late, and the party leader had to quit.

This week is probably bad due to the lightswitch modifier. The basic strategy is kill the servitor and hit skolas with everything you've got to break the bond. After that, you just go back and forth from the high ledge to the small ledge (whichever side skolas is NOT at). Ignore skolas and slowly pick off all the adds (they won't respawn until you do significant damage to skolas).

Once all the adds are gone, focus on skolas, as soon as adds show up, avoid skolas and focus on adds again.

When the mines spawn, whomever is "immune" stays on the ledge (whichever ledge you happen to be at when the mines start. The tainted person and one other person leave together for the far mine. The immune person can solo the ledge mine, then head to center. The other two ppl need to cap the far mine and trade the sickness off.

The mine spawn is random, I find it works best when the center one spawns last, as all 3 players can focus on it. When the center one spawns first, it kinda throws a wrench into things with swapping the sickness around.

If there is only 1 titan in the fireteam, then save their bubble for the middle mine. Hunters with invis are great, but in my opinion titans and warlocks are best for Skolas. Titans for their bubbles and warlocks for their self-res. If a warlock dies with the sickness, and self rezes, then there is a little bit of a pause before the sickness is applied to someone else. that really helps in a "last guardian standing" situation, or if players are spread out from each other during the mines.

and just a little over an hour last week. But Cody and I have done the 35 PoE 4 or 5 times together, so we have a pretty good feel for it. This week's takes a bit longer because the Primary Weapon buff makes your heavy weapons less effective, so it takes more time to wear down Skolas. Plus Light Switch is really punishing. So if you're not already really experienced with the fight, this week can be real rough.

I've never done Skolas either (I only dipped my toes into PoE for the first time last night).

Are these accounts "normal"? 5+ hours to take down Skolas? That seems insane. It's going to take me a while to get to 34 to attempt this, but I kind of don't want to if this is what I have to look forward to. Not to mention I'm in a similar boat as you--my playtime is very limited due to the whole kids thing, so I don't think I could ever set aside that much time.

i've done skolas hard several times, and the most it has taken was 2 hrs on skolas. The fastest was probably 45 mins at skolas (LFG group from reddit, everyone knew what to do).

There was only one time where i did not finish, and it was b/c it was getting late, and the party leader had to quit.

This week is probably bad due to the lightswitch modifier. The basic strategy is kill the servitor and hit skolas with everything you've got to break the bond. After that, you just go back and forth from the high ledge to the small ledge (whichever side skolas is NOT at). Ignore skolas and slowly pick off all the adds (they won't respawn until you do significant damage to skolas).

Once all the adds are gone, focus on skolas, as soon as adds show up, avoid skolas and focus on adds again.

When the mines spawn, whomever is "immune" stays on the ledge (whichever ledge you happen to be at when the mines start. The tainted person and one other person leave together for the far mine. The immune person can solo the ledge mine, then head to center. The other two ppl need to cap the far mine and trade the sickness off.

The mine spawn is random, I find it works best when the center one spawns last, as all 3 players can focus on it. When the center one spawns first, it kinda throws a wrench into things with swapping the sickness around.

If there is only 1 titan in the fireteam, then save their bubble for the middle mine. Hunters with invis are great, but in my opinion titans and warlocks are best for Skolas. Titans for their bubbles and warlocks for their self-res. If a warlock dies with the sickness, and self rezes, then there is a little bit of a pause before the sickness is applied to someone else. that really helps in a "last guardian standing" situation, or if players are spread out from each other during the mines.

Sounds very similar to the winning strategy to use against Valus Trau'ug. If you don't know to kill the adds and ignore the boss, it's a very difficult battle. (I'll confess to never being sure what adds meant until today.)

I posted this a few days ago, but here it is again for anyone who wants to see how to get through the battle:

My post from last week

In case you missed my post last week, hiding under the right safe area is very effective. Lightswitch makes it extra important to kill that captain asap. Use fatebringer for everything (plus an arc shotgun if you're having trouble). Gjallarhorn is still preferable for heavy just so you can fire and forget.

Practice makes perfect with PoE/Skolas, just like the other raids. I've beaten him 10-12 times (never with the fast burn down method) and it's getting easier every week. We are clocking in around an hour now start to finish.

Edit -- Nuking him at the end is slightly tougher because of small arms. You may need to synth or throw grenades as well.

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Cody and I have run it together several times now, so we've got a pretty good rhythm together, and we play with Vortech all the time so we all clicked easily enough. Beyond that, this fight is all about getting organized. I'm thinking about writing a mini-guide, actually.

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Cody and I have run it together several times now, so we've got a pretty good rhythm together, and we play with Vortech all the time so we all clicked easily enough. Beyond that, this fight is all about getting organized. I'm thinking about writing a mini-guide, actually.

If you want videos for the guide… let me know. I'll play with you and record on my end.

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