I've been coming here for accurate information about D2 for a while since this is the best source along with the Basin. Anyway this is my first post so be gentle.
I wanted to test out the interactions of telekinesis, energy shield and vulpine equipment for obvious reasons. In case no one has checked it out energy shield is now more efficient than in 1.09d. Previously hit 63% absorb at lvl 20 (according to arreat summit), this is now 75% absorb at lvl 20. Max possible is 95% but I have no idea what skill level this is. Anyway since telekinesis can now make the amount of mana lost a reasonable number, a sorceress can theoretically have about 80% resists to fire, ice, lightning, physical, and magic with just a couple vulpine items (nightsmoke and howltusk should be plenty). Granted this will eat up 36-40 skill points.
OK so what I did. I downloaded the LOD-sorc (I'm not getting to level 45 with only level one charged bolt, lightning and chain lightning) and put 20 straight into energy shield. In some instances I also used lvl 18 telekinesis (this level was based on an erroneous assumption about the skill interactions and vulpine equipment). I took this character to act one hell and found the nearest enemy, either devil kin or zombie, and got smacked around while recording life loss and mana loss. Later in the experiment I threw in some vulpine items in the form of either a lightplate socketed with 2 iths, or an artisan's kite shield of the ages socketed with 3 iths, or both. The iths were acquired from normal Countess runs, so not third party.
Background information:
The formula for telekinesis effects on energy shield is:
mana damage = (32-telekenesis lvl)/16 * damage absorbed
Damage absorbed is listed as 75% at skill level 20
Damage absorbed can thus be calculated as = lost life *4 * .75
Test 1:
OK so first I wanted to verify that I understood the telekinesis synergy and it was properly implemented. The first sets of data where simply lvl 20 energy shield with or without level 18 telekinesis.
Without telekinesis (lvl 1) I took on average (all reports used 20 observations) 13.9 life dmg with 80.7 mana loss. Which was on par with calculated loss.
mana loss = (32-1)/16 * [(13.9 * 4) * .75] = 80.79
*note that since life loss is 25 percent actual damage can be calculated as life loss * 4
The same was true for level 18 telekinesis. I took on average 15.6 life dmg with 39.3 mana loss.
mana loss = (32-18)/16 * [(15.6 * 4) * .75] = 40.95
OK so I know this is working now.
Then I threw in the vulpine and everything went to hell.
Test 2:
This time I used lvl 1 telekinesis, level 20 energy shield and 75% vulpine from equipment above. I took on average 21 dmg and lost 42.55 mana. This does not fit in with how I understand vulpine to work. In this case vulpine effects are calculated before energy shield so you will receive total dmg * .75 back as mana (21 * 4 * .75) So my theoretical mana loss should be:
mana loss = {(32-1)/16 * [(21 * 4) * .75]} - (21 * 4 * .75) = 122.0625 - 63 = 59
59 is not 42.55, I'm losing LESS mana than I'm supposed to.
So then I do this with lvl 18 telekinesis. I take on average 20.6 dmg and lose no mana.
mana loss = {(32-18)/16 * [(20.6 * 4 * .75)]} - (20.6 * 4 * .75) = 54.075 - 61.8 = -7.725
Ok so this makes sense.
Then I drop down to 45% vulpine. Take on average 24 dmg and again lose NO mana.
mana loss = {(32-18)/16 * [(24 * 4 * .750]} - (24 * 4 * .45) = 63 - 43.2 = 19.8
This is clearly a problem. I didn't check to see how much this is refilling my mana ball but I will do that later and report back.
Finally I drop to 30% vulpine. Take on average 21.333 dmg and lose 11.167 mana.
mana loss = {(32-18)/16 * [(21.333 * 4 * .75]} - (21.333 * 4 * .3) = 56 - 25.6 = 30.4
Ok so again this is terribly wrong.
Test 3:
I figured there might be something wrong with vulpine effects so I took off my mana shield and just got whacked with 75% vupline (5 iths). I took on average 78.2 dmg and regenerated 175 mana. That is crazily wrong.
mana regen = 78.2 * .75 = 58.65
So the vulpine is working 3 times what it is supposed to be. Thus I am recieving 225% dmg to mana. I'm aware of the Tir bug so there might be something similar with ith runes. I have started testing with the 30% and 45% separately but haven't had time to finish this yet. I did back calculate my results from the 30% vulpine with lvl 18 telekinesis and the factor I got from this was 75% dmg to mana instead of 30% or 2.5 time as effective as it should have been. My character hadn't died prior to these experiments which was a factor in some of the tir bug reports. I have yet to check this with "natural" vulpine equipment like nightsmoke or howltusk but will do so once I own them (just found a nightsmoke will add this on later).
However, the problem is even with this new vulpine value plugged into the equations above, I'm still not getting the correct expected values. So now that I've wasted 10 minutes of your life, does anyone have a guess as to what might be going on, or what I might be calculating wrong.
-Thanks in advance
EDIT: added in a sentence of results.
I wanted to test out the interactions of telekinesis, energy shield and vulpine equipment for obvious reasons. In case no one has checked it out energy shield is now more efficient than in 1.09d. Previously hit 63% absorb at lvl 20 (according to arreat summit), this is now 75% absorb at lvl 20. Max possible is 95% but I have no idea what skill level this is. Anyway since telekinesis can now make the amount of mana lost a reasonable number, a sorceress can theoretically have about 80% resists to fire, ice, lightning, physical, and magic with just a couple vulpine items (nightsmoke and howltusk should be plenty). Granted this will eat up 36-40 skill points.
OK so what I did. I downloaded the LOD-sorc (I'm not getting to level 45 with only level one charged bolt, lightning and chain lightning) and put 20 straight into energy shield. In some instances I also used lvl 18 telekinesis (this level was based on an erroneous assumption about the skill interactions and vulpine equipment). I took this character to act one hell and found the nearest enemy, either devil kin or zombie, and got smacked around while recording life loss and mana loss. Later in the experiment I threw in some vulpine items in the form of either a lightplate socketed with 2 iths, or an artisan's kite shield of the ages socketed with 3 iths, or both. The iths were acquired from normal Countess runs, so not third party.
Background information:
The formula for telekinesis effects on energy shield is:
mana damage = (32-telekenesis lvl)/16 * damage absorbed
Damage absorbed is listed as 75% at skill level 20
Damage absorbed can thus be calculated as = lost life *4 * .75
Test 1:
OK so first I wanted to verify that I understood the telekinesis synergy and it was properly implemented. The first sets of data where simply lvl 20 energy shield with or without level 18 telekinesis.
Without telekinesis (lvl 1) I took on average (all reports used 20 observations) 13.9 life dmg with 80.7 mana loss. Which was on par with calculated loss.
mana loss = (32-1)/16 * [(13.9 * 4) * .75] = 80.79
*note that since life loss is 25 percent actual damage can be calculated as life loss * 4
The same was true for level 18 telekinesis. I took on average 15.6 life dmg with 39.3 mana loss.
mana loss = (32-18)/16 * [(15.6 * 4) * .75] = 40.95
OK so I know this is working now.
Then I threw in the vulpine and everything went to hell.
Test 2:
This time I used lvl 1 telekinesis, level 20 energy shield and 75% vulpine from equipment above. I took on average 21 dmg and lost 42.55 mana. This does not fit in with how I understand vulpine to work. In this case vulpine effects are calculated before energy shield so you will receive total dmg * .75 back as mana (21 * 4 * .75) So my theoretical mana loss should be:
mana loss = {(32-1)/16 * [(21 * 4) * .75]} - (21 * 4 * .75) = 122.0625 - 63 = 59
59 is not 42.55, I'm losing LESS mana than I'm supposed to.
So then I do this with lvl 18 telekinesis. I take on average 20.6 dmg and lose no mana.
mana loss = {(32-18)/16 * [(20.6 * 4 * .75)]} - (20.6 * 4 * .75) = 54.075 - 61.8 = -7.725
Ok so this makes sense.
Then I drop down to 45% vulpine. Take on average 24 dmg and again lose NO mana.
mana loss = {(32-18)/16 * [(24 * 4 * .750]} - (24 * 4 * .45) = 63 - 43.2 = 19.8
This is clearly a problem. I didn't check to see how much this is refilling my mana ball but I will do that later and report back.
Finally I drop to 30% vulpine. Take on average 21.333 dmg and lose 11.167 mana.
mana loss = {(32-18)/16 * [(21.333 * 4 * .75]} - (21.333 * 4 * .3) = 56 - 25.6 = 30.4
Ok so again this is terribly wrong.
Test 3:
I figured there might be something wrong with vulpine effects so I took off my mana shield and just got whacked with 75% vupline (5 iths). I took on average 78.2 dmg and regenerated 175 mana. That is crazily wrong.
mana regen = 78.2 * .75 = 58.65
So the vulpine is working 3 times what it is supposed to be. Thus I am recieving 225% dmg to mana. I'm aware of the Tir bug so there might be something similar with ith runes. I have started testing with the 30% and 45% separately but haven't had time to finish this yet. I did back calculate my results from the 30% vulpine with lvl 18 telekinesis and the factor I got from this was 75% dmg to mana instead of 30% or 2.5 time as effective as it should have been. My character hadn't died prior to these experiments which was a factor in some of the tir bug reports. I have yet to check this with "natural" vulpine equipment like nightsmoke or howltusk but will do so once I own them (just found a nightsmoke will add this on later).
However, the problem is even with this new vulpine value plugged into the equations above, I'm still not getting the correct expected values. So now that I've wasted 10 minutes of your life, does anyone have a guess as to what might be going on, or what I might be calculating wrong.
-Thanks in advance
EDIT: added in a sentence of results.