Ghosts - bugged in 1.10 beta?

[pjnow]

My Zon is still kicking around in Act 1 Hell, learning how to survive. Far too many cold immune fast attackers, I'm spending a lot of time stringing groups of these out so my merc won't be swarmed.

FA makes all non-cold immune packs manageable, knockback helps - but is limited in effectiveness by the level difference between my Char ( 75 ) and the monsters ( 85 ).

However, the largest PIA in the Act are Ghosts.

In Hell, Act 1 Tower and Catacombs Ghosts are plentiful ( too plentiful AFAIK ). They are immune to physical -however they also seem to be immune to all forms of cold.

Freezing arrow does damage them, but does not freeze or slow them, the merc's Holy Freeze aura does not chill them.

It there a hidden immunity?

It takes forever to kill these things and when a boss pack is EF/LE it is simply not worth the effort ( and cost of multiple revives of the merc ).

Even with a Merc with > 100% crushing blow takes awhile to whittle a Ghost boss down. ( Merc has elemental damage in Hone Sundan ).

I'm doing mutiple Countess runs in the seemingly forlorn hope that I'll find a Pul ( or enough other stuff to upgrade to a pul ) so that I can upgrade one of the three exceptional unique bows I've found so far ( Kuko, Skystrike, Witchwild String ). Multiple Ghost boss packs make countess runs something of an endurance test ( you can't always run past everything on the level ).

The amp damage on the Witchy helps with the Ghosts, the Kuko might be useful if Ghosts could be frrozen or if the Immo timer were eliminated.

BTW - for BowZons a merc with >50% crushing blow is pretty much a prerequisite for survival in Hell 1.10, he'll make relatively quick work of most boss packs if you can keep him alive.

[Raziel]

Perhaps they simply have the mod "Cannot Be Frozen", and it's hidden?

[adeyke]

Confirmed.

There are columns in monstats.txt for coldeffect (one per difficulty). All wraith type monsters have 0 in hell, meaning they're unaffected. Gloam type monsters also have 0 in hell, as do Anadariel, undead dolls, sarcophagi, flying scimitars, and quite a few others. Many of the monsters that have a 0 or a blank field there are disabled or NPCs, so it's hard to list all of them accurately.

[pjnow]

Sigh, why are there hidden immunities, what purpose does it serve?

Hmm, sounds like a Bow only Zon will be more frustrating than its worth to play in hell.

Let's face it, with the Immo timer the fire tree is pretty much useless and there is no lightning tree for Bow only Zons and trying to whittle away the massive HP total for Hell Cold Immune critters with a Skystrike is simply an exercise in frustration.

So LF,FA hybrids will be the way to go. So much for discouraging cookie cutters.

I've been playing in 1.10 Act one hell for a week now and I'm even more convinced that Blizz has pooched this one. The risk - reward balance in Hell is way out of whack.

They've ramped the aggresiveness, damage and life of the critters through the roof but have not increased the rewards for killing them.

They've decreased the experience above lvl 70 and have not really done much about drops.

If I spend 15 minutes and 150k ( merc revives ) killing a boss pack I expect some king of decent reward - not normal blues. Hell level monsters should drop hell level gear - if I see one more white longbow drop....

If you're going to make hell that much harder fine, but if you don't increase the payoff it's simply not worth the extra effort.

[adeyke]

I guess I didn't specify what the column is used for. It's by how much they're slowed when chilled, without regard to damage. In 1.09, the frenzytaurs in the WSK had a zero in that column, so they wouldn't be chilled even though they took cold damage. The same now applies to a lot more monsters.

These are not immunities, just the monsters' equivalent of cannot be frozen.

There really isn't that much information shown about monsters in-game. Resistance to damage, resistance/immunity to chilling and resistance/immunity to leech can all only be found outside of the game, or through experience.

[channel1]

My Bowazon is doing fine in Hell, up to Act2, just finished Quest3. CLevel is 72, and the merc is Act2NM (Might) at about the same CLevel.

I have given her a serious Runeword twinking. Armor hasn't had to be changed for a while, Delirium hats for her and the Merc, Enigma armor for her (Teleport is a great Merc saver), Chains of Honor for the Merc.
The big thing I find is that no one weapon seems to do it all. She normally has a Silence Ballista equipped, with a Breath of the Dying Ballista for when big damage and preventing monster life regeneration is more important that resists. Merc uses a Breath of the Dying, with a Crescent Moon for those bosses that are begging for Static Field (Andarial, Radament, and I expect Duriel too :).

I would like to get rid of the xxxx crossbows, but it seems that the CLevel requirement for Hydra bows has been bumped up to CLevel 76. I haven't even seen a Hydra bow drop, the only one I saw was my former main bow when I did the Exceptional to Elite upgrade on it :S.

I guess that the Runes, and appropriate items to stick them in, will be the big collect/trade items when the update goes on the Realms. At least it's not a total crap shoot, getting specific runes. With enough persistence, you could eventually get anything.

By the way, pjnow, what level is your 'Zon? I figure that by the time you hit Hell, you should have both Cold and Fire attacks at usable levels. Also, Magic Arrow is something you shouldn't forget about. Some of the Bosses seem to have zip for Magic resistance, and Magic Arrow converts some of your Physical damage to Magical. When I hit something that doesn't seem to be getting hurt much by Cold/Fire/Physical, Magic arrow usually puts the hurting to him.

-rcv-

[kandrathe]

Not really a confidence booster, there channel1. Most of us will probably never see some of those runes, let alone all of them in one place (Vex, Zod, Mal, 4xIst, 2xJah, 4xBer). I hope there is more hope for Hell than that.

[channel1]

The runes maybe the easy part. By the time that a fresh Realm Ladder character hits Hell, they should have had lots of opportunity to see lots of runes drop, as well as lots of items that could be traded for runes. A nice thing is that you don't need to repeatedly farm one area for Zod, you can make your own with lower-level runes that you acquire on the way.

This character might be having an easier time in Hell than would be expected. However, it is a sort of nutty build, having been the very first character that I made when D2 came out. I wish that I could have that point that's languishing in Jab! Also, there is very little extra twinking equipment on her. She started 1.10 with no Charms at all, and is using just what she found.

Finally, I'm sure that a party would help her a lot. I didn't want to inflict my playing style on anyone. I usually play while doing other things, and have been known to hang out in town for long periods while dealing with customers. I have my priorities all screwed up... :)

-rcv-

[Brista]

The runes maybe the easy part.

That doesn't match my experience of the 1.10 Beta in the slightest

Best I've found is an UM (from the Hellforge), 2 SHAELs running NM Countess for runes and other than that a SOL, playing extensively in Normal and Nightmare and a fair bit in Hell

I think that most of the new runewords will be actually quite hard to make and Zods almost impossible to find

They were impossible to find before, probability has tripled. As you say though, several thousand Ums could be cubed up to one, that might be a more workable alternative for the truly dedicated ;)

[kandrathe]

So far my test Necro is level 56, and in Act III NM. My experience is more like Brista's. Past the plethora of El-Ort, I've found 1 Thul, 2 Dols, 3 Hel's (which I cubed into an Io -- waiting now for a + bone skills 2 socket wand), 2 Shaels, & 1 Amn. I feel pretty fortunate in finding these, and the rune drops do seem better than v1.09.

How many Dol's to a Zod?