Crystal Project: VS Spirit Cage (Hard Mode)

Another demonstration with Valkyrie/Beatsmith tank.
Rhythm Break is especially effective against Spirit Cage. It typically has a cycle of Rally Call - Painful Leer - Attack - Attack - Attack. The last two are weakened considerably by Rhythm Break's effect, which is why I concentrate on blinding the first one whenever I can.
My tank was using the following gear:
- Partisan
- Insignia Helm
- Plate of Whale
- Crit Fang
- Crit Fang (should have probably replaced this with a Scope Lens)
My tank was also using the HP Boost, Counter, Pocket Sand, and Threatening passives, while my Summoner/Nomad was using gear that lowered threat generation.
The gear's not very optimized, I'm fairly sure you can find better armor at this point in the game, I kinda just ran up here to test the Beatsmith build against what many consider to be the hardest boss in the game. I haven't even defeated some of the Depths bosses in this hard mode run yet, as you all can probably tell from my party not being max level.

[@kyoopihd]

Would love to know your gear and passives setup!

[@Alilatias]

The gear and passives for my tank are in the video description. Using Construct Mail is likely far better than using the Plate of Whale due to the 50% crit resist effect (which would effectively cut the power of enemy critical hits by 25%), but at the time I had no idea where the Construct Mail is obtained from. I later discovered it in the Lost and Found, which means... I still don't know where it's actually from. :D I don't think the gear and passives for everyone else really matters much, aside from my healer running fast cast passive and using whatever threat reduction and healing boost gear I had at the time, and my assassin running both venom coat and blood spiller to contribute significant chip damage through DoTs. My Warlock/Hunter is the same as ever, Equip Bows, Perfect Vision, Smokescreen, and Venom Coat (the last one is only there because I can't think of a better 2 PP passive for him to use).

[@kyoopihd]

@@Alilatias I think what I've discovered is that I just kinda suck at the game. I had a three-wizard Quick+Flare build to carry me through most of the Hard end game content, but Spirit Cage naturally stopped me in my tracks. I just need to actually get good by understanding the game more.

[@renowned_lurker3898]

@@kyoopihd Getting up to this Boss, fighting it AND the treasure he's guarding was NOT worth nor fun whatsoever imo. Endgame stuff for this game needs to be balanced even on normal. Otherwise 80% of us just "suck" at this game. Lol

[@tigars7756]

This boss seriously needs some rebalancing on hard mode. Hell the whole tree was just not fun. Thank you for the video, I was losing my patience.

[@diumer777]

Lol curious, i made the mistake of playing first time in hard mode, i just killed this boss today, hard mode seems balanced around 🧀 it depends on how much you cheese

[@janwesleyalipio8464]

I'm sorry but it is hard mode for a reason what's the point in playing hard mode if it isn't challenging?