Saturday, April 21, 2012

The dreaded witches

I have been doing a lot of torchhunting recently, with a 1 point smiter build pala. My gear is not exceptional (Guillames, Gore, Dracul, Duress, Zaka, Grief, Metalgrid, Ravens, Credendum), but I do kill everyone down there well, except one kind of pack. These are the witches in Matron's Den.

I mean, I can kill them easily, if I get in range. The problems are their projectiles. You charge a pack of these monsters, and your health globe is at 1/3, and you haven't even hit one of them.

I usually try to avoid their magic and cast Life tap from a wand, but when I run into a stronger e. g. Multiple shots boss and her pack, I get instakilled, no matter how many Full rejuvs I use. (BTW I have 1270 life, no Cta, no DR).

What should I do to get relatively harmlessly to Lilith?

Ps.: What kind of damage do their projectiles deal? I found this on AS, magic damage. DARN!|||Part magic, part physical to my knowledge (they seem to hurt more if amped). Could try to cast fade from a "Treachery" armor, that gives 15%DR and 60% res all for around four minutes. I had the same problems when I played on cattle.net, but I solved it by building a BO slave and self-MPing to cast lvl 45ish BO and shout.|||I'll go try Treachery, let's see if it makes a difference.|||Maybe something with dim vision or confuse charges. You get those on wands, right? Gloom's dim vision ctc could work but the way you describe your encounters makes me think you'll be dead by the time it procs.

You could also swap the HoZ for SS and credendum for strings to get 50% DR. Not ideal for a smiter, but SS should make the rest of the run easier as well.

Have you tried making them follow you around corners so you can handle them in smaller groups? And if they don't follow you, you could just run past them...|||Well, I usually try to lure them to attack me one at a time. That helps if I'm in a bigger room. The problem starts in places where you can't maneuver (small room or 2+ packs of them in a straight floor).

The problem is, that I get owned sometimes for 2-3 times with this setup and they piss the hell out of me. :P

Hmm, running might be an option, but they have the tendency to follow me, and I hate to face Lilith when I'm being sniped in the back.|||If you can afford it, I suggest to make keyruns with Enigma (and Wizzy + any Spirit roll in any kind of pala shield on the weapon switch). You don't need anything offered by Duress. 50% CB from Guillaumes+Goreriders are enough, res can be maxed with HoZ+pdiamond, Um in Guillaumes and charms. The last time I could afford Enigma, I did it like that all the time with my zealot (and did hell Baal runs with him as well). Even though these witches are still a problem, you can avoid most encounters if you teleport straight to Lilith. What's more dangerous is fighting her while you are amped, else she might kill your character with one hit.

When fighting the �bers in Tristram, you better exchange Enigma with Smoke (or CoH if you can afford it) and replace TP/identify tomes, cube and free space with allres GCs, for an excess amount of 125%.|||Hmm, changed my opinion. Treachery was good until I ran into a witch bosspack and got owned (with activated life tap ofc). Enigma is the goal then.

Ps.: Baalrunning with zealot? Have you found anything mentionable? And what did you do with PI-s?|||Quote:








Ps.: What kind of damage do their projectiles deal? I found this on AS, magic damage. DARN!




Succubus bolts fired by Succubi and Stygian Furies actually don't apply any magic damage, only the physical damage of their A1 attack and any damage added by Unique or Champion bonuses. Bolts from both the Hell Temptresses (Succubi) and Vile Witches (Stygian Furies) apply the following base physical damage in the Matron's Den in Hell:


Code:
MONSTER     BASE DAMAGE
-----------------------
Normal 94-169
Champion 96-172
Unique 98-176
Minion 98-176

Base damage increases by 1/16 or 6.25% with each additional player in Nightmare and Hell Ladder and single-player games.

Champions always receive +% Damage bonuses:


Code:
CHAMPION    +% DAMAGE      DAMAGE
----------------------------------
Berserker 198 286-513
Other 66 159-285

Damage is rounded to the nearest point; Ghostly Champions also apply 31-48 cold damage with a 6 second cold length. The only Unique bonus always applying +% Damage is Extra Strong:


Code:
MONSTER     +% DAMAGE    DAMAGE
--------------------------------
Unique 99 195-350
Minion 49 146-262

Aura Enchanted can result in a Unique supplying level 14 Might (+170% Damage) or level 10 Fanaticism (+101% Damage to all: the Unique does not receive the Paladin bonus). A critical hit will double damage 5% of the time, and Stygian Furies always cast Amplify Damage (Damage Resist -100%) in Nightmare and Hell when the target has >=80% maximum life.

So a critical hit from an Extra Strong Aura Enchanted Vile Witch with Might that had cursed you with AD in an eight-player game would apply approximately 1,033-1,867 damage with a bolt or melee attack in the absence of any damage reduction.

Fortunately, only 1/182 Unique Vile Witches will spawn ES and AE with Might (although 1/91 will spawn ES and AE with either Might or Fanaticism), while only 1/2,002 will spawn ES, AE with Might and Multiple Shots (which trebles the number of bolts fired by the Unique).

Weaken and Decrepify apply -% Damage (-33% and -50% respectively), but since % Life Stolen per hit doesn't apply to Smite damage you'd probably be better off with Life Tap. Integer damage reduction would obviously reduce damage, but since even minimum base damage is 94 it isn't as helpful as it is in other parts of the game. Damage Reduced by % is more useful.

Although the bolts don't require a hit check they can be blocked, so 75% chance of blocking will reduce the frequency of damage. Bear in mind that blocking is capped at 25% when running.|||Quote:








Fortunately, only 1/182 Unique Vile Witches will spawn ES and AE with Might (although 1/91 will spawn ES and AE with either Might or Fanaticism), while only 1/2,002 will spawn ES, AE with Might and Multiple Shots (which trebles the number of bolts fired by the Unique).




I laughed hard on this and my luck. I seem to find a boss with Might or Fana much-much more frequently

Thanks for the post, stacking up PDR with Treachery and other items might work then.|||1/91 Unique Vile Witches will spawn Extra Strong and Aura Enchanted with Might or Fanaticism: overall 6/91 will spawn AE with Might or Fanaticism, which is six times more common (approximately 6.59% of the time).

Hell Temptresses cannot spawn Multiple Shots so they're more likely to spawn ES and AE with Might or Fanaticism: 1/77 will do so, and overall 1/14 will spawn AE with either Might or Fanaticism (approximately 7.14% of the time).

Furthermore, the Unique Vile Witch or Hell Temptress herself doesn't need to be AE with Might or Fanaticism if she spawns within the radius of another Unique that is: 4-5 Champion or Unique packs spawn randomly in the Matron's Den and a Unique is selected 80% of the time.

In fact, since there's little difference in base damage, normal Vile Witches and Hell Temptresses within the radius of any AE Unique with Might or Fanaticism can be almost as dangerous as AE Unique Vile Witch or Hell Temptress packs (although other Unique bonuses may still make them more dangerous).

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