Heiho,
regarding Thorns (and similar all damage reflection skills, and more so items with reflecting damage properties):
I still can't see any use of them since the global physical resistance/immunity was invented (and even when it is not 50% in Hell for all monster classes, the average resistance is still pretty high in Hell). Monsters have an absurdly high amount of HPs compared to the melee damage they deal out.
Only very patient party members would let, say, a Frenzytaur bash them multiple times till it dies by some thorny effect (and most probably they won't ally with the thorny caster one more time in future), so it is restricted to zookeepers of any kind.
Regarding the quartering of damage if one uses conversed or revived monsters it is nearly useless.
Regarding the effectiveness of Blessed Aim on the greatly improved Skeleton Warriors it would be a waste to give them a Thorns Aura or IM as 'support'.
Well, sorry, I got carried away, this doesn't contribute to the point ... I just should have written that I missed that report about a loophole along with Thorns and Meppl, could you give me a linked hint please?^^
<edit>
found it, should be this one
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/in...showtopic=37788
</edit>
---------------
Regarding LT with ranged weapons:
I have the reports of two fellow Necro players, one used my 'method' of testing things (id est taking an existing build, giving him some stuff and having a close look what's happening, differently from me he did it SP), the other did some modding.
Very strange results, the modder says there is no such a thing as a multiple heal with (any) ranged weapons, the other one confirmed with Throwing Knives what I confirmed with a Kuko, that there is indeed much more heal than there should be.
I can only guess that there is some odd thing happening like the MaeK bug in the beta, somehow the healing effect works maybe on both, vitality _and_ life, or on base life _and_ life via items or some reequipping oddity, or a mixup from all this.
-----------------------
regarding absorb:
no idea here
-----------------------
regarding BG:
AFAIK you further share your health with the BG, you get damaged when he is kicked, and he gets heal when you drink a potion, only the Thorns/IM->Leech trigger is removed. I have to recheck this.
-----------------------
regarding FG/IG:
last report from the modder Necro (same as above) is that FG does only splashdamage when dying, not while casted. Still 100phys+100fire, regardless of FG sLvl (but only tested in Norm)
I don't know anything about it healing from fire, are you sure that there was no lag effect or friendly Prayer or foeish conviction/lowering fire resistance involved (against players and pets lowering resistance items work even against resistancy>100).
IG has its own Thorns activated already at sLvl1 and does damage foeish melees, I don't know numbers by heart (I'm _bad_ with numbers, really...).
------------------------
other misc stuff
Being nearly complete with the IM effect on Players I still have to do some testing regarding Weaken and Decrepify both vs Monsters _and_ vs Players.
In 1.09d we had confirmation that vP both curses reduced only the weapon damage of the hostile Player, before the modifications via dex/str/Skills/equipED/....
I have to do the testing myself now, and because vP testing is really tedious work with two computers but only one monitor attached to both I wanted to ask here if someone has already some results here.
And I can't do reliable testings vM, so I don't have a clue if the cursing works only with the monster base damage before modifications in benefit for the monster, like some boss aura and/or modifiers like extra strong.
(A side question here: the monster damage listed in the files is a kind of base damage also when it comes to modifiers like certain skills some monsters use? Or do they only use the skill effects like Stun without the damage bonus a player with the same skill would benefit from?)
regarding Thorns (and similar all damage reflection skills, and more so items with reflecting damage properties):
I still can't see any use of them since the global physical resistance/immunity was invented (and even when it is not 50% in Hell for all monster classes, the average resistance is still pretty high in Hell). Monsters have an absurdly high amount of HPs compared to the melee damage they deal out.
Only very patient party members would let, say, a Frenzytaur bash them multiple times till it dies by some thorny effect (and most probably they won't ally with the thorny caster one more time in future), so it is restricted to zookeepers of any kind.
Regarding the quartering of damage if one uses conversed or revived monsters it is nearly useless.
Regarding the effectiveness of Blessed Aim on the greatly improved Skeleton Warriors it would be a waste to give them a Thorns Aura or IM as 'support'.
Well, sorry, I got carried away, this doesn't contribute to the point ... I just should have written that I missed that report about a loophole along with Thorns and Meppl, could you give me a linked hint please?^^
<edit>
found it, should be this one
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/in...showtopic=37788
</edit>
---------------
Regarding LT with ranged weapons:
I have the reports of two fellow Necro players, one used my 'method' of testing things (id est taking an existing build, giving him some stuff and having a close look what's happening, differently from me he did it SP), the other did some modding.
Very strange results, the modder says there is no such a thing as a multiple heal with (any) ranged weapons, the other one confirmed with Throwing Knives what I confirmed with a Kuko, that there is indeed much more heal than there should be.
I can only guess that there is some odd thing happening like the MaeK bug in the beta, somehow the healing effect works maybe on both, vitality _and_ life, or on base life _and_ life via items or some reequipping oddity, or a mixup from all this.
-----------------------
regarding absorb:
no idea here
-----------------------
regarding BG:
AFAIK you further share your health with the BG, you get damaged when he is kicked, and he gets heal when you drink a potion, only the Thorns/IM->Leech trigger is removed. I have to recheck this.
-----------------------
regarding FG/IG:
last report from the modder Necro (same as above) is that FG does only splashdamage when dying, not while casted. Still 100phys+100fire, regardless of FG sLvl (but only tested in Norm)
I don't know anything about it healing from fire, are you sure that there was no lag effect or friendly Prayer or foeish conviction/lowering fire resistance involved (against players and pets lowering resistance items work even against resistancy>100).
IG has its own Thorns activated already at sLvl1 and does damage foeish melees, I don't know numbers by heart (I'm _bad_ with numbers, really...).
------------------------
other misc stuff
Being nearly complete with the IM effect on Players I still have to do some testing regarding Weaken and Decrepify both vs Monsters _and_ vs Players.
In 1.09d we had confirmation that vP both curses reduced only the weapon damage of the hostile Player, before the modifications via dex/str/Skills/equipED/....
I have to do the testing myself now, and because vP testing is really tedious work with two computers but only one monitor attached to both I wanted to ask here if someone has already some results here.
And I can't do reliable testings vM, so I don't have a clue if the cursing works only with the monster base damage before modifications in benefit for the monster, like some boss aura and/or modifiers like extra strong.
(A side question here: the monster damage listed in the files is a kind of base damage also when it comes to modifiers like certain skills some monsters use? Or do they only use the skill effects like Stun without the damage bonus a player with the same skill would benefit from?)