What's the problem with Gloams?

[whereagles]

Last night my sorceress finished hell A5. Found gloams, black souls and burning souls and assorted monsters a bunch of times. The frozen river, worldstone, throne room, icy cellar and all that had those things. The sorcie was lev 78 and had like 800 life and 75% lightning resistance. Nothing more, except perhaps some 6 or 7 points of magic damage reduction.

I died to gloams exactly one time, and that was because of lagging. Each hit of the willowwisplightningbolt2 or whatever that is would drain around 200-300 life, so I could manoever through the shots easily, keeping enough distance not to be targetted by more than 1-2 gloams at the same time. I find massive succubi blood stars to be much scarier, and succubi don't even move much.

Honestly, I don't know what's the problem with those things. I agree they can be quite dangerous in hardcore, but in softcore they're simply a minor annoyance. Maxed lightning resistance seems all it takes to deal with them, together with some care moving your character.

Actually, the gloam is the kind of monster I enjoy. High damage, low hit points. All monsters should be like that :lol:

[Obi2Kenobi]

I had 60% lightning resist and 15 MDR, and I only had problems with the Gloams that one time I teleported into a deadly mod pack (I don't remember all of their mods, just that one was cold enchanted, and the other two were deadly as well), right next to another deadly mod Horadrim Ancient pack... :o

[JustAGuy]

You should see how easy they are when you have lightning absorb via Blackhorn's Face or Thundergod's Vigor. My characters that use those items, when at 75% lightning resist (or higher), tend to heal from Gloams. I put Blackhorns on my merc to help him survive the Gloams, but his lightning resist isn't high enough to tank them yet. My Holy Shock Paladin can handle them easily, with 85% lightning resist, 95% if I use Guardian Angel.

The only problem with Gloams are that they're Lightning immune and Physical immune too (I think), so my "Shocker" only does magic damage (from the lightsabre) to them. But that's not so bad since they're low hit point monsters, as you mentioned.

[Obi2Kenobi]

I thought that they were poison immune and physical immune... Of course, since my only Act 5 hell character since 1.10 was a cold/fire sorc... :)

[Guest]

I suspect the biggest problem with the Gloams is dorks running around on BattleNet without enough resists.
Also, the concept of dodging the attacks is alien to a lot of players.

[Archon_Wing]

Something that takes away 1/4 of your life per hit with max resists is something to care about. :D And yea, dying once is too much. :P

I don't know, maybe they are more of a pain to melee characters which can't always dodge all the attacks? Some monsters are harder to deal with diffrent builds.

I personally think those archer guys in act 5 to be pretty bad though.

[Assur]

The only problem with Gloams are that they're Lightning immune and Physical immune too (I think), so my "Shocker" only does magic damage (from the lightsabre) to them.

Hi

Vengeance should easily solve that, since you get +elemental damage to it from Salvation, which I personally max anyway to get +dam to Holy Shock. With Vengeance on, switch to Resist Lightning and your merc should be able to tank them naked

good hunting :P

[JustAGuy]

Vengeance should easily solve that, since you get +elemental damage to it from Salvation, which I personally max anyway to get +dam to Holy Shock. With Vengeance on, switch to Resist Lightning and your merc should be able to tank them naked

Good call. I used to use Resist Lightning all the time, but ever since I got 95% lightning resist and lightning absorb, it never occurred to me since to use it. But yeah, that would easily do the trick.

[Lady Vashj]

I've died to Gloams a couple times, each time while I was fighting Izual when I really wasn't prepared to.

[Nightwind]

Nothing more, except perhaps some 6 or 7 points of magic damage reduction.

from where i sit, the causal lurker, it seems to me that those points of MDR are actually becomming more and more important.
while max resists, or improved ablve max resist are popular answers, the people who seem to have maxium survivability are those with atleast a few points in MDR.

Is it jus tmy imagination, or does it aply more then once to certain atacks?

[Baajikiil]

I died to gloams exactly one time, and that was because of lagging.

As a hardcore realm player, I can tell you that that is exactly the problem. When a second or 2 of desync or lagg can kill you, hardcore players are certainly annoyed. Of course, to nearly any non BO/OAK enjoying character, that's a constant state of affairs in Hell diff.

As for gloams, I've never been killed by them, *yet*. With barbs, I taunt them, with necros I hug the walls, and minimize my exposure, with melee chars, I separate them and take em 1-2 at a time. The only real problem I've had with them is say, a stair trap on WSK lvl 3.

They provide a huge risk for "glass cannon" type builds, and for people who are playing in areas that are well above where they should be(*cough*rushers*cough*). I think that that is what causes the uproar about them in general, as well as the lack of real tactics in the general populace. Once in hell diff HC realms games, I see very few deaths to Gloams, most HC players who have gotten to hell act5 have learned to be careful.

[jahcs]

For me gloams are a "wake up and play with some tactics" monster not an "escape, save, and exit" monster, although a champion or boss pack definitely makes me triple check my life orb and belt status.

Archon_Wing Posted on Feb 2 2004, 01:24 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Something that takes away 1/4 of your life per hit with max resists is something to care about.  And yea, dying once is too much.

Last week in a hell 8 player AB game we were in the Durance of Hate level 2 and the non champion, non boss pack stygian dolls were exploding for about 2000 damage.

[Archon_Wing]

Last week in a hell 8 player AB game we were in the Durance of Hate level 2 and the non champion, non boss pack stygian dolls were exploding for about 2000 damage.

^_^ That's what I call "cheese" I always hated the concept of having to throw in "one hit kills" in order to make the game challenging. I've never died to stygian dolls before, but I've seen friends die and there's really little they can do, even if they are prepared.

It's the same reason I didn't even bother with Nilithak in 1.09. ;)

[Lady Vashj]

I've never had a problem with stygian dolls either. I play mostly bowzons, trapsins, and leap barbs. Bowzons and trapsins are generally nowhere near them when they die, and I let my leap barbs' hirelings (all rogues or Iron Wolves) strike the final blow while I'm in the air.

But Nithy - especially 1.09 Nithy...well, no monster has ever killed my level 80-odd Bowzon so many times except Duriel, and she was much weaker when she last faced "little d". At least Nithy let me retrieve my corpse between one-hit-kills.

[Obi2Kenobi]

I've never had any problems with Nihlathak... Probably because of my like of act 3 cold mercenaries named Jarulf. :) Or I have some sort of corpse removal spell. Don't leave home without one.™

[Archon_Wing]

Aren't the minions cold immune?

[whyBish]

Last week in a hell 8 player AB game we were in the Durance of Hate level 2 and the *non champion*, *non boss* pack stygian dolls were exploding for about 2000 damage.

Yup, lost my first hell lvl 1.10 javazon that way, helping someone do meph :/ Max block and high dodge doesn't work vs. a Murphy attack :(

[JustAGuy]

Last week in a hell 8 player AB game we were in the Durance of Hate level 2 and the non champion, non boss pack stygian dolls were exploding for about 2000 damage.

I used to have a problem with these as well. Blocking is key. In most cases, 75% blocking will save you.

I like to lead them away, 1 at a time. Sometimes I convert a couple and then pick on them one at a time while they are distracted. Sometimes, I get in behind the group and charge lock the buggers back toward a safely cleared spot. Sometimes I smite lock them one at a time, careful to drink pots after any of them explode. During all of this, high defense and blocking is key. I suppose sanctuary would be helpful, but I never really use it. The knockback feature doesn't kick in often enough for my liking (Pindleskin and his friends always seem to get the jump on me).

Now, if you're not a Paladin... well... Barb and Druid? Get lots of life, you'll need it. Sorceress, Trap Assassin and Necromancer? What are you doing getting that close to them?! Bow-Amazon -- stay far far away. Non-trap Assassin? Blocking. Spear-Amazon? Well, I'm not really sure about these ones. Pump the dodging skills?

2000 damage is hard to survive, yes, but 75% blocking at least gives you a 75% chance not to take 2000 points of damage... Stormshield helps a lot too (I put a diamond in mine. It's purdy). Shaftstop is nice for that too, but overall, it's just not a good enough armour to wear in Hell.

I just hope you weren't in an 8 player game with all Spear Amazons. If so, you're all screwed.

[Obi2Kenobi]

Not in normal/nightmare. By hell I try to make sure I have some other way of removing corpses. :) (Redemption, CE/Raise dead, Glacial Spike, find potion, etc.)

[Usufruct]

My first experience with Gloams was with my zealot paladin, my first 1.10 ladder character. I had 75% resist, but they killed me pretty quickly if I got caught in a group of them. I eventually devised a strategy where I'd run near them and run away and hide behind something. They tend to do their dissapearing act, and appear near me, so I could zeal them. Later I found a Guardian Angel and a Stormlash Scourge. With 90% Lightning resist, they don't hurt enough to bother me - and Stormlash absorbs 7 lightning damage so that takes a bit of the bite off. Unfortunately I only do 3800 zeal damage, and that doesn't cut it for killing them in an 8 player game, so I end up being a tank for the blizzard sorcs and the hammerdins.