Thanks for mentioning the Claw Vipers, Occhidiangela. I did not make the distinction between simple ranged attacks and skill/spell ranged attacks in my post above, so let me correct that now. My interpretation of the MPQ files is that there are now three types of monster ranged attacks (or more broadly, ranged actions) in game. Looking at the columns of "monstats.txt", they are...
1): MissA1 and MissA2 (i.e. missile A1, missile A2)
If a monster has an entry in its MissA1/MissA2 field, it will shoot a missile of the specified type when an A1/A2 attack would normally be executed by the AI. The damage of this missile will be equal to the damage of a normal A1/A2 attack modified by its respective El* fields.
The El*Pct field here determines how often an A1/A2 attack's damage (in general, not restricted to missiles) will also carry elemental damage of type El*Type (defaults to physical). The result of that calculation is then multiplied by the El*(MinD/MaxD) fields to find the base minimum and base maximum elemental damage dealt. Once that is done, we look up the actual missile in "missiles.txt" and check its SrcDamage to see if we need to further modify the base minimum and base maximum damage. From what I could see in "missiles.txt" however, all the missiles of relevance had SrcDamage=128 (full damage), so you can probably skip this last step on most occasions. A list of monsters that can release a missile with their normal A1/A2 attacks follows below(ignoring those that cannot be taunted):
Tainted (lightning balls)
Quill Rats (spikes)
Sand Maggot Queens (poison spit)
Unravellers (poison breath)
Corrupt Rogue Archers (arrows)
Skeletal Archers (arrows)
Frog Demons (spit)
Skeletal Mage (elemental bolts)
Regurgitators (spit)
Slingers (javelins and potions)
Fetish (blow darts)
Imps (fire bolts)
Claw Vipers #6-10 (bone spear, fire bolt, and poison javelins)
If a missile is released from an A1/A2 attack by this method, it cannot be interrupted with Taunt, although you can still force the affected monster to shoot at point blank range. This would explain why a taunted Claw Viper can still shoot Bone Spears in melee range (they can, right? :lol:) ; even though it looks like a special attack, it is in fact just a normal attack for the Claw Viper.
2): Skill1-8
If a monster has an entry in any of these fields, it will be able to use the specified skill when it invoked by the AI. Since these skills are not attached to normal A1/A2 attacks, they should be vulnerable to disruption by Taunt. Under this category we have the following (ignoring taunt-immune monsters):
Sand Raiders (special elemental rage attack)
Fallen Shaman (revive and fire ball)
Sand Maggot Queens (submerge, emerge, lay eggs)
Claw Vipers (charge)
Sand Leapers (leap)
Swarms (it just says "swarm move", most probably a decorative skill)
Scarabs (jab)
Unravellers (revive, heal, unholy bolt)
Mosquitos (life stealing bite, I think)
Gloams (chain lightning)
Spiders (lay web)
Tree Hulks (frenzy)
Vampires (fire wall, fire ball, meteor, and a "vampiremissile" which I think is just another decorative skill)
Blunderbores (smite)
Flying Scimitar (charge)
Cantors (heal, lightning, teleport, blizzard)
Fetish Shaman (revive, inferno)
Abyss Knights (elemental bolts, bone armor, bone spirit)
Council Members (hydra, heal)
Balrogs (inferno)
Reanimated Hordes (charge)
Siege Beasts (war stomp, charge)
Succubus (all curses, blood stars)
Overseer (attract, heal, frenzy whip, smite)
Imps (teleport)
Frozen Horrors (arctic blast)
Frenzytaurs (frenzy)
Death Mauler (tentacles)
3): MissS1, MissS2, MissS3, and MissS4 (i.e. missile skill 1, missile skill 2, etc. etc.)
If a monster has an entry in any of these fields, it will be able to release a missile of the specified type when the proper skill is invoked by its AI. As these skills are not attached to normal A1/A2 attacks, you should be able to interrupt them with Taunt. The only missiles that can actually deal damage through this method are some traps and lightning attacks from Council Member type monsters (can they shoot lightning bolts now? :blink:).
So there. Take a look at the two lists above and see if you can find anything out of place. I'm too lazy to actually test how every possible attack interacts with Taunt in game after all this now :lol:
Edit: Returned to my original interpretation of El*Pct after some testing.
1): MissA1 and MissA2 (i.e. missile A1, missile A2)
If a monster has an entry in its MissA1/MissA2 field, it will shoot a missile of the specified type when an A1/A2 attack would normally be executed by the AI. The damage of this missile will be equal to the damage of a normal A1/A2 attack modified by its respective El* fields.
The El*Pct field here determines how often an A1/A2 attack's damage (in general, not restricted to missiles) will also carry elemental damage of type El*Type (defaults to physical). The result of that calculation is then multiplied by the El*(MinD/MaxD) fields to find the base minimum and base maximum elemental damage dealt. Once that is done, we look up the actual missile in "missiles.txt" and check its SrcDamage to see if we need to further modify the base minimum and base maximum damage. From what I could see in "missiles.txt" however, all the missiles of relevance had SrcDamage=128 (full damage), so you can probably skip this last step on most occasions. A list of monsters that can release a missile with their normal A1/A2 attacks follows below(ignoring those that cannot be taunted):
Tainted (lightning balls)
Quill Rats (spikes)
Sand Maggot Queens (poison spit)
Unravellers (poison breath)
Corrupt Rogue Archers (arrows)
Skeletal Archers (arrows)
Frog Demons (spit)
Skeletal Mage (elemental bolts)
Regurgitators (spit)
Slingers (javelins and potions)
Fetish (blow darts)
Imps (fire bolts)
Claw Vipers #6-10 (bone spear, fire bolt, and poison javelins)
If a missile is released from an A1/A2 attack by this method, it cannot be interrupted with Taunt, although you can still force the affected monster to shoot at point blank range. This would explain why a taunted Claw Viper can still shoot Bone Spears in melee range (they can, right? :lol:) ; even though it looks like a special attack, it is in fact just a normal attack for the Claw Viper.
2): Skill1-8
If a monster has an entry in any of these fields, it will be able to use the specified skill when it invoked by the AI. Since these skills are not attached to normal A1/A2 attacks, they should be vulnerable to disruption by Taunt. Under this category we have the following (ignoring taunt-immune monsters):
Sand Raiders (special elemental rage attack)
Fallen Shaman (revive and fire ball)
Sand Maggot Queens (submerge, emerge, lay eggs)
Claw Vipers (charge)
Sand Leapers (leap)
Swarms (it just says "swarm move", most probably a decorative skill)
Scarabs (jab)
Unravellers (revive, heal, unholy bolt)
Mosquitos (life stealing bite, I think)
Gloams (chain lightning)
Spiders (lay web)
Tree Hulks (frenzy)
Vampires (fire wall, fire ball, meteor, and a "vampiremissile" which I think is just another decorative skill)
Blunderbores (smite)
Flying Scimitar (charge)
Cantors (heal, lightning, teleport, blizzard)
Fetish Shaman (revive, inferno)
Abyss Knights (elemental bolts, bone armor, bone spirit)
Council Members (hydra, heal)
Balrogs (inferno)
Reanimated Hordes (charge)
Siege Beasts (war stomp, charge)
Succubus (all curses, blood stars)
Overseer (attract, heal, frenzy whip, smite)
Imps (teleport)
Frozen Horrors (arctic blast)
Frenzytaurs (frenzy)
Death Mauler (tentacles)
3): MissS1, MissS2, MissS3, and MissS4 (i.e. missile skill 1, missile skill 2, etc. etc.)
If a monster has an entry in any of these fields, it will be able to release a missile of the specified type when the proper skill is invoked by its AI. As these skills are not attached to normal A1/A2 attacks, you should be able to interrupt them with Taunt. The only missiles that can actually deal damage through this method are some traps and lightning attacks from Council Member type monsters (can they shoot lightning bolts now? :blink:).
So there. Take a look at the two lists above and see if you can find anything out of place. I'm too lazy to actually test how every possible attack interacts with Taunt in game after all this now :lol:
Edit: Returned to my original interpretation of El*Pct after some testing.