Luminous Arena is totally imbalanced

[Tenit]

in luminous area, if you stay in the level for a few minutes after you finish it...

you can unlock a secret room by pulling a lever

just stay near the portal after you finish (DONT walk on the portal) and a lever should magically appear near it

youll get a really nice unique gem

Edit: i fuckin love this game

And in the area immediately after once you kill the three champs (manticore was the last for me on NG+ not sure if it changes) walk around the platform another 2 ledges will come up with chests on them if you go to the right side.

[ogboot]

Glass Cannon mage here. It's difficult but a good challenge, took a few tries. Don't change a thing.

[Tenit]

The only part that really gave me trouble in the Luminous arena was the section with all the slicing blades. 500-800 damage per hit ignoring shields, with only a tiny gap in between to walk through leaving pretty much no margin for error. I can't imagine getting through there if there were enemies attacking as well.

Weave

The blades come down one side then the other go to the side without the blades, run, see blades coming, weave to other side repeat.

[Baysin]

gaaaaaaah just hit this with my elite shootylander akimbo build. Totally totally devastating me. I'm going to keep trying it until I finally finish it, but... it is almost enough to put me off the game. I've got this whole build centered around keeping my distance, kiting, and picking guys off a few at a time, and now I have no choice but to be swamped by baddies right up in my junk. Frustrating as crap. In between failed attempts, I'm going back to finished dungeons to farm poison armor gear to try to help. Or else leveling up another character. Can only take so much humiliation before I need a break.
I DO love the concept of the dungeon, but it's perfectly obvious to me that certain builds, such as mine, are going to be driven mad by this. If I don't hit the right buttons at exactly the right time, I'm dead. If I stand still for even a moment, I'm dead. If I click on a spot to run to, but it thinks I'm telling it to shoot at somebody instead, I'm dead. If I don't refresh repulsion hex before it wears off, I'm dead. Etc, etc, etc.
Then I go pick up my cannoneer, and he's just plowing through stuff almost thoughtlessly.
Beh.
Anyway, just wanted to vent, and I'm glad I'm not the only one having their build decisions rubbed in their face by this.

[BrettTurner]

My veteran embermage, who was a bit glass-cannonish but had had no problems before, died several times in this place. The difficulty level is a spike above what comes before *or even after,* and I think it should be toned down a bit.

Key for me was actually staying OUTSIDE the light. With reasonable health regen the damage ticks aren't bad. The damage outside the light was actually a lot worse than the damage from all of the monsters inside the light! Plus with frost phase I could port back into the light as soon as it was clear again.

For me, the circle of light was death. Leaving it was life.

[Nauzhror]

I quite like luminous arena, so long as it's not a hardcore game. Managed to off my highest level elite hc char to date in luminous arena yesterday. I was not a happy camper.

[Glaivra]

interesting thing i discovered with this place. if you die, the light continues moving while you are in the death screen. wait around 1 minute, then pay to be revived there. It spawns you at the light, not the entrance, hopefully skipping the blades and just putting you up against trash.

funny fact. did luminous on veteran NG+++ when the encounter was level 115 or something, super hard right? I had 1.3 million gold, so I was dreading the fact of losing 10% of it to use this trick. SOMEHOW one shotted it, couldn't believe it.

[Koolich]

I personally think they made The Luminous Arena and The Arena of Slaughter for groups to play through or for characters with really cheap abilities (Berserker's dash that heals him for a percent of his HP) or the Engineer spamming Shield Bash and changing between using Force Field and an AoE-dmg-charge-based ability. I don't see how the Embermage and the Outlander can survive thing in an almost risk free manner. I was able to get through both events on Elite with 1 death.

[Henroid]

You receive large amounts of damage applied every 0.5 seconds. Damage reduction MIGHT let you survive outside the light... but yeah. You go ahead and test that for me.

I'm glad this thread got bumped so I can respond:

I ended up testing this out against my will; I was on my NG+ embermage, accidentally clicked an enemy to staff-swing at it, and ohgodithurts.

[Lactoso]

Even my girlfriend got through that with only one death on veteran...

[tsuelue]

gaaaaaaah just hit this with my elite shootylander akimbo build. Totally totally devastating me. I'm going to keep trying it until I finally finish it, but... it is almost enough to put me off the game. I've got this whole build centered around keeping my distance, kiting, and picking guys off a few at a time, and now I have no choice but to be swamped by baddies right up in my junk. Frustrating as crap. In between failed attempts, I'm going back to finished dungeons to farm poison armor gear to try to help. Or else leveling up another character. Can only take so much humiliation before I need a break.
I DO love the concept of the dungeon, but it's perfectly obvious to me that certain builds, such as mine, are going to be driven mad by this. If I don't hit the right buttons at exactly the right time, I'm dead. If I stand still for even a moment, I'm dead. If I click on a spot to run to, but it thinks I'm telling it to shoot at somebody instead, I'm dead. If I don't refresh repulsion hex before it wears off, I'm dead. Etc, etc, etc.
Then I go pick up my cannoneer, and he's just plowing through stuff almost thoughtlessly.
Beh.
Anyway, just wanted to vent, and I'm glad I'm not the only one having their build decisions rubbed in their face by this.

So ...let me summarize this: Akimbo Outlander has the best defensive skills. Good to know.

Seriously though, I had a pretty hard time on Veteran with this build, can´t imagine how much fun it must be on Elite.
Stone Pact (1st Tier) pretty much negates the damage outside the light, that is a huge plus, but otherwise it´s pretty much not so much fun, especially when my Engineer(s) indeed shrug and just "plow through" as you put it.

[Arlian]

Save a light, ride a forcefield.

[Glaivra]

i'm guessing everyone missed my comment about how to skip this dungeon right? should i repeat it? inb4 thats the lame way to do it, but seriously its an annoying challenge made infinitely easier by spending some gold. also please remember when doing this same dungeon @ 115, any blades or daggers are pretty much insta gib, no mercy. Trust me, I tried 10 times (start to blade death) before figuring it out.

[Scortyl]

the concept is good but the traps do too much damage and in mapworks too (if you don't pay attention you get instadead)

[Chthon]

Learned something interesting yesterday with my engineer:
If you knockback the monsters out of the light, THEY take the same damage you do.

[tsuelue]

i'm guessing everyone missed my comment about how to skip this dungeon right? should i repeat it? inb4 thats the lame way to do it, but seriously its an annoying challenge made infinitely easier by spending some gold. also please remember when doing this same dungeon @ 115, any blades or daggers are pretty much insta gib, no mercy. Trust me, I tried 10 times (start to blade death) before figuring it out.

No, we didn´t miss it. But I like to farm the Arena, that doesn´t work if I die. Feel free to to do it your way.
Plus, it´s a lame way to do it.

Sorry, couldn´t resist.

[VladVoivode]

I LOVE the Luminous Arena because it heightens the intensity of the game just when you least expect it. Remember in Diablo I that you could possibly face King Leoric when you were only at Level 5? Yeah, you got killed but you got motivated and subsequently went medieval on his bony ass!

One of the reasons I love TL2 is because it WANTS to kill me; it hates me; it's a sadistic SOB of a game that tests the sadist in me. People talk about Dark Souls being so nasty. TL2 might be "cuter" but it has as much loathing as Dark Souls

Bring it on Runic!!!

[Ragnar119]

the concept is good but the traps do too much damage and in mapworks too (if you don't pay attention you get instadead)

Lol, that is the point, to pay attention, and that's why I love this dungeon, totally different than other dungeons.

[BDSMGirl]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. The dungeon itself was designed to make you stop playing in an identical fashion that you're used to by this point. You're supposed to entertain the Djinni, not yourself. Beyond that the level is actually very easy. The first time you see it, even on Elite, is easy. You don't even have to kill anything if you don't want to, just survive. If you built glass canon without taking at least one defensive ability (Like Frost Phase or Shadow Burst) shame on you for being some sort of not very functional turret.

It was a nice break from the humdrum of just using the abilities you like to AoE everything down. Levels with different ideas to them should be used more often, along with puzzles and even more randomization.

[feyith]

Are there any more dungeons like this in the game? If not, I has a sad.