Strayborough Deadwalk's first boss is janky.

[Myon88]

I feel like you’re conflating people’s irritation with the mechanic and their irritation with the difficulty itself. People don’t dislike the mechanics for this boss because it’s too hard or it might kill me! . They dislike the way in which those mechanics do those things and give misguiding feedback about how players can execute the mechanics (i.e weird ass hit boxes making you get grabbed by something you thought you dodged).

I think what makes it irritating to people also makes it difficult, so it's tough to separate them. The hearts in M2 are much slower and have clearly defined hitboxes, they're also a lot less threatening as a result. Some people don't like randomness, or invisible telegraphs, personally I think anything is fair game.

That said, I don't have any strong feelings on whether the punishment for getting grabbed is appropriate or not. They probably figured they were being kind compared to making it kill you directly, but in lieu of locking you out of skills, I could see a heavy or some kind of screen obscuring blindness effect being thematically appropriate.

The fact that I can and have been hit by it is enough for me. That an expert dungeon boss can put you in a situation that - for a few seconds at least - surpasses what you'd be presented with in savage or ultimate is so much fun. I hope this expansion is full of surprises like that.