Please fix Nihlathak.

[Max-Violence]

OK so in Hell difficulty, the big N casted his Corpse Explosion on an enemy that wasn't even on screen (running @ 800x600) and my sorc, with 1200 life, 1100 mana and a 46% Energy Shield, died.

Please fix that.

Killing Nih is almost completely pointless, especially for us sorcs. The afterburn on my Hammers of God killed him while I was dead, so I didn't even get any EXP (I'm sure I didn't get any EXP because I died like 74 times beforehand, so my EXP bar was comletely empty.).

I know this should've gone in an existing "suggestions for 2.2" thread, but I wanted to make SURE you (JB) saw this plea for help

If Nihlathak was this fun, I'm thinkin' the Ancients (Larry, Curly, and Moe) are gonna be a blast...

[jbouley]

Maybe I boosted the level of his CE attack too much. I'll look into that to see if I raised it and if so....lower it back down a bit.

Oh, and give my regards to the "Three Stooges" when you get to them.

[Caimbuel]

Hello, first post here.. but anyway Nihlathak was about 4 hours of work for my 62 barbarian and his 2 swords.

I had to turn all the bodies to potions and still died 20 some times as the old boy was physically immune As far as the 3 stooges they died so fast I was supprised.. Guess they were not immune to my swords My barbarian uses 2 nightmare great swords with Silence and Honor.

If anything Hell diffaculty is way to easy or way to hard. I can hit some named mobs 100 to 300 times before they die when physically immune, and 3 hit max if not immune. Thats are real differance.

[jbouley]

I'm guessing that you're still playing 2.1

Hopefully, some folks who are testing the beta of 2.2 can let me know if I got the resists better balanced this time around....hopefully before I finalize 2.2 this week or next week.

Physical immunity in Hell will not be so common in 2.2...100% PI for so many monsters was a mistake and not something I intended

[Caimbuel]

Jeff, I love the mod, dont get me wrong. It adds alot of new and interesting things to the game that got me back into D2. I was just commenting party so Max-Violence would know he was not the only one to have a hard time with the bugger.

As far as 2.2 it sounds great but I want to hold off downloading it so I can get a fresh look and be suprised at what the sets do Keep up the great work it is appreciated.

[jbouley]

Oh, don't worry, I didn't misunderstand you. I just wanted to assure people I am on top of at least some of the issues so that they don't wonder.

Also gently prodding my beta testers to let me know if I got the Hell resists OK before I go public.

[DreamBreaker]

hello tere! happy new year etc..
About Nihlathak, i don't think reducing his corpse explosion lvl will change anything, as far as its damages are a % of the corpse hp instead of a fixed value.
the problem is the amount of hp of monsters....
isn't it possible to exchange this spell whith the poison explosion or another?

[jbouley]

Changes his spells would be beyond my personal knowledge level...and would be tricky even if I knew how to edit a .dll file.

However, I might be able to reduce the chances of him casting it (I think), and possibly change the monsters that spawn around him in...maybe by reducing the hit points in hell somewhat.

[Max-Violence]

Naw, don't lower the HP of the baddies. That'd make the rest of the act too easy (personally, I thought it was a little on the easy side to begin with, as a sorc). Swapping CE with PE would be a good idea, as would lowering Nih's chance to cast CE if you can't change the skill.

And as luck would have it, the Ancients weren't too bad after all. I got lucky and none of 'em were Lightning Enchanted

[jbouley]

Another possibility would be to increase the resists of the monsters that spawn around him...that would artificially increase their HPs to compensate if I lower them to tame the CE.

Again, I really don't think I'll be able to change his skill, though if I have time I'll try. I think decreasing his chances of casting it will be better, assuming that's handled in his AI params.

[Max-Violence]

Another possibility would be to increase the resists of the monsters that spawn around him...that would artificially increase their HPs to compensate if I lower them to tame the CE.

Again, wouldn't that effect those same mosters elsewhere in the act? I suppose you could create "clone" versions of the monsters that spawn in that area, and make sure they ONLY spawn in THAT area (the three levels of Nih's temple)

Again, I really don't think I'll be able to change his skill, though if I have time I'll try.

That'd be the best solution, IMO.

I think decreasing his chances of casting it will be better, assuming that's handled in his AI params.

I suppose that would be the "if all else fails" solution, eh?

By lowering the level of the spell, it would be up to the player to "dodge" the corpses of the dead to avoid the wrath of CE, which would be kinda cool.

EDIT: BTW, JB, any ETA on the non-beta of 2.2? No rush, just curious.

[Caimbuel]

Ok, I have been thinking about Nihlathak and honestly I am not sure to many changes are needed. He is a bugger but for some classes he is the only person besides the Big Bhall that I cant run upto and just swing away till dead. Nihlathak and the FREEKING Oblivion Knights are the only things that really scare my barbarian.

That brings me to my second question. With the current barbarian set up did you intend for a barbarian to litterally have with items 90% resists in all areas?? Even if I take off 1 of my swords that gives me 75% to all resists they are still capped. I made you seasonal rune word and it looks pretty, However I dont think I will ever use it unless it's lvl gets WAY lower. I am 65 in act 5 hell dif and things are rough but I will figure out a way to survive

[jbouley]

For some reason, I'm not quite understanding your barbarian question. Not sure if words are missing or pieces of my own brain.

Release of 2.2 tentatively scheduled for end of this coming week. I'm hoping to get files updated over the weekend. Release a quick updated beta for testers to assess the altered set items, and then hopefully make the last changes by no later than Friday. I hope.

[Max-Violence]

I think Caimbuel is saying that, with the Barb's Natural Resistance and some items, it's easy to get 90 resist all in Hell difficulty.

Not sure, tho. My brain is a lil'

[jbouley]

Well, if that's the case, I guess I won't worry much. The poor barb does have to wade through all those monsters in hand-to-hand, and since Whirlwind is interruptible in my mod, resists probably come in handy.

[DreamBreaker]

By the way, what sort off damages does the corpse explosion infflict?
Magical of physiqual?

[jbouley]

Physical or fire, I suspect. I've never really looked at it, and I'm pretty sure I never changed it...it should be whatever it always was in normal D2. I don't think it's magical damage, though.

[SanSahanSan]

It's neither fire nor physical nor magic... Thus speaks an assassin playing with a necromancer - Corpse Explosion affects EVERYTHING no matter what their immunities are. That's what makes Nihlathak so dangerous to almost all classes.

Nihlathak in hell is supposed to be able to do these things like hit for more than 1200 with a CE -offscreen... I really don't think there should be much of a change. Even an assassin on speed only has a 50/50 chance of hitting him before he hits a CE.

A sorc has range greater than his (Hydra on the edge of the screen for example) and a necro can CE the corpses himself. He's supposed to be extremely dangerous - just be glad he doesn't have very many hitpoints

[BJ]

I think the corpse explosion supposed to be half fire, half physical... read it somewhere in the lurker guides

We can actually test it out, if you need to. Etherseek vampire gaze and fill up 4 tomb charms with 'perf. rubies' and the runes.

[DreamBreaker]

half fire half physical...humm...I hope you're right....'cause my sorc is already immune-and-absorb fire
For the physiqual, maybe i should continu collecting "reducing%of damages" item (i'm only at 20% reduction).
the cocoon will finish the job...
arf arf arf

[BJ]

If you haven't already, get the iron jang bong staff as a switch. Immunity to lightning as well. beats all th lightning enchanted monsters.

[Logan]

Corpse explosion is indeed 50% Fire/50% Physical. You need BOTH types of resistances to shrug off the hit. Make note of the fact that Fire Absorb won't help as much as it should if you have full health. The "absorb" computation is finished up prior to the damage being dealt, so if you're at full health, absorb is worth little more than resistance. If you're injured, though, absorb is worth twice its weight in straight-up resistance. Keep that in mind when you're designing your defenses, and also remember that physical resistance is vastly more important for this particular situation (Nihlathak).

[Caimbuel]

Sorry for the delay in posting Jeff. My point was that with thee nice gear and the ability to socket anything you want it si so easy for my barbarian to just flat out get surrounded by 50+ mobs and swing away. With my life drain and insaine damage they all die so quick. Only time this does not happen is when they are physically immune. So if you remove the PI from the mass number of mobs in hell diff what is to keep it challenging for a barb that can deal out 2K in damage in each hand with a 40% life drain and +25 mana after each kill

[jbouley]

I'll have to see what I can work out on that front.

I still have some high physical resistances...and I can make a few more monsters immune to lifesteal...but as always, the balancing act will be difficult. I'll try to keep it challenging for the barb if at all possible.

[Max-Violence]

So JB, what'd you do to Nihlathak in 2.2?