07-27-2003, 08:41 AM
A long time ago I had the pleasure of studying Necro Curse stacking. At the time it worked in interesting ways, despite actual denials by Blizzard staff. Since I noticed that v1.10 beta cleans some of this stuff up (again) I thought I'd play with Attract and Confuse again to get an educated opinion on whether they are suitable/effective for general use or still overly esoteric to use effectively.
Posting those opinions would take way too much time and I've had that kind of argument, er, ah, discussion, before.
However, as it turns out, if v1.10 beta doesn't change then Attract and Confuse items will find their way into general use simply because of an implementation detail involved in a change to a game misfeature that pissed players off, to wit...
from the patch log: "Mindblast and Conversion now remove any auras from their targets upon casting and also when they wear off. "
And, in fact, this is implemented such that Confuse and Attract also turn off the auras (which stay off until the monster returns to normal allegiance).
In other words, if you run into a particularly nasty aura enhancing monsters, you can turn the aura off (on regulars and minions, but not on the boss and, iirc, not on champs).
But unlike conversion (& MB) you can then still target and destroy the monsters in question.
Attract will enable you to take the aura down one monster at a time, but confuse is area effect and can, at higher levels affect large numbers of monsters at once.
The other amusing thing is that the stacking/overwriting stickiness is "opposite" with attract/confuse, even though attract is stated to not overwrite confuse. To wit, to remove auras but have the option of cursing the monster in some other way, use confuse, because other curses will overwrite it. Attract, OTOH, is a sticky curse, and you can't overwrite it with any other curse.
So, for example, if you were worried about using further curses, you could curse just the minions you were'nt planning on killing right away with attract, cast confuse to get the rest, then curse any of the confused ones as desired as you proceed to kill them. If the minions had been benefiting from might or fanaticism this could be rather helpful.
Naturally, if you aren't going to follow up with other AE curses then just one preliminary confuse on the whole pack does the job.
I don't think Inner Sight (or slow missiles) counts as a curse, for the purpose of figuring stacking. I suspect other "curses" for non-Necros, like Taunt, Howl, Cloak of Shadows, Blinds Target, Monster Flee, Grim Ward, etc. don't particularly stack with Confuse in v1.10 (I did notice some transient stacking due to lag in the AI changing it's behavior when an AI curse was "lifted"). In other words, fair warning, if you take down the confuse by non-stacking "curse" overwriting then the aura will soon reestablish itself (unless, of course, in the meantime you've nailed the boss, or gotten enough distance between him and his beneficiaries).
Since v1.10 seems to have more boss packs lying around, this might come in handy.
Posting those opinions would take way too much time and I've had that kind of argument, er, ah, discussion, before.
However, as it turns out, if v1.10 beta doesn't change then Attract and Confuse items will find their way into general use simply because of an implementation detail involved in a change to a game misfeature that pissed players off, to wit...
from the patch log: "Mindblast and Conversion now remove any auras from their targets upon casting and also when they wear off. "
And, in fact, this is implemented such that Confuse and Attract also turn off the auras (which stay off until the monster returns to normal allegiance).
In other words, if you run into a particularly nasty aura enhancing monsters, you can turn the aura off (on regulars and minions, but not on the boss and, iirc, not on champs).
But unlike conversion (& MB) you can then still target and destroy the monsters in question.
Attract will enable you to take the aura down one monster at a time, but confuse is area effect and can, at higher levels affect large numbers of monsters at once.
The other amusing thing is that the stacking/overwriting stickiness is "opposite" with attract/confuse, even though attract is stated to not overwrite confuse. To wit, to remove auras but have the option of cursing the monster in some other way, use confuse, because other curses will overwrite it. Attract, OTOH, is a sticky curse, and you can't overwrite it with any other curse.
So, for example, if you were worried about using further curses, you could curse just the minions you were'nt planning on killing right away with attract, cast confuse to get the rest, then curse any of the confused ones as desired as you proceed to kill them. If the minions had been benefiting from might or fanaticism this could be rather helpful.
Naturally, if you aren't going to follow up with other AE curses then just one preliminary confuse on the whole pack does the job.
I don't think Inner Sight (or slow missiles) counts as a curse, for the purpose of figuring stacking. I suspect other "curses" for non-Necros, like Taunt, Howl, Cloak of Shadows, Blinds Target, Monster Flee, Grim Ward, etc. don't particularly stack with Confuse in v1.10 (I did notice some transient stacking due to lag in the AI changing it's behavior when an AI curse was "lifted"). In other words, fair warning, if you take down the confuse by non-stacking "curse" overwriting then the aura will soon reestablish itself (unless, of course, in the meantime you've nailed the boss, or gotten enough distance between him and his beneficiaries).
Since v1.10 seems to have more boss packs lying around, this might come in handy.
"He's got demons? Cool!" -- Gonzo, Muppet Treasure Island
"Proto-matter... an unstable substance which every ethical scientist in the galaxy has denounced as dangerously unpredictable." -- Saavik, Star Trek III
"Mom! Dad! It's evil! Don't touch it!" -- Kevin, Time Bandits
"Proto-matter... an unstable substance which every ethical scientist in the galaxy has denounced as dangerously unpredictable." -- Saavik, Star Trek III
"Mom! Dad! It's evil! Don't touch it!" -- Kevin, Time Bandits
