Roll call for "hidden" bonuses/features

[adeyke]

oh by the way, there are quite a lot of monsters that spawn with weapons, so they might get the range of those.

AFAIK, the only monsters with equipment are Blood Raven, Flying Scimitars and the Ancients (some summonables also have equipment). This isn't quite a lot.

[Guest]

i was thinking of the RHv & LHv column in monstats2, that's the weapon(s) monsters use, but that could be just a graphic.

[Ruvanal]

i was thinking of the RHv & LHv column in monstats2, that's the weapon(s) monsters use, but that could be just a graphic.

Basically it is there for what graphic to display. It has no effect on the range or damage done.

[Crystalion]

In testing other things today I discovered something about a Barb hireling and was reminded of a couple of other things, all "hidden".

In v1.10s apparently Barb hirelings get two frame points at which they "hit" in an attack (I don't recall if the posters said this is only for normal attack, bash, stun, or some combo). This possibly brings them more in line with their act 2 competitor. Bash is going to have a better damage bonus than Jab, iirc. Certainly the PvP damage the Barb was doing against me (in the test) was more than double (in one bash/knockback hit seen) the maximum damage shown for the hireling (divided by 10 for PvP penalty).

The "discovery" (which is probably old news, but certainly "hidden") was that in removing the weapon (sword) from the Barb's hands he could barely hurt me (even though he listed ~150 damage). So I gave him a weenie scimitar and once again (listed damage ~170) he beat the cr*p out of me. My best guess is that the damage bonus shown on the hireling screen does *not* apply unless they have a weapon. This would be a hidden misfeature (or another case of the Lying Character Screen™).

[Freepaperclips]

double throw has some insane ias built into it, is it capped at 7 fps as others though?

Double Throw Speed cap is at 1.5 fpa but requires several hundred percent IAS.

[Ruvanal]

In testing other things today I discovered something about a Barb hireling and was reminded of a couple of other things, all "hidden".

In v1.10s apparently Barb hirelings get two frame points at which they "hit" in an attack (I don't recall if the posters said this is only for normal attack, bash, stun, or some combo). This possibly brings them more in line with their act 2 competitor. Bash is going to have a better damage bonus than Jab, iirc. Certainly the PvP damage the Barb was doing against me (in the test) was more than double (in one bash/knockback hit seen) the maximum damage shown for the hireling (divided by 10 for PvP penalty).

The "discovery" (which is probably old news, but certainly "hidden") was that in removing the weapon (sword) from the Barb's hands he could barely hurt me (even though he listed ~150 damage). So I gave him a weenie scimitar and once again (listed damage ~170) he beat the cr*p out of me. My best guess is that the damage bonus shown on the hireling screen does *not* apply unless they have a weapon. This would be a hidden misfeature (or another case of the Lying Character Screen™).

The discussion was here...
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/in...showtopic=31523
..and covered most of the points. You cleared up when the extra damage gets added in though.

For those not looking into the other thread, the act 5 hirelings are getting 2 attacks with their 'non-skilled' attack form. The skills that the a5 mercs use (Bash and Stun) are limited to delivering only one attack per skill action (the animation provides 2 points for when to do the damage, but only first will be used).

[Crystalion]

The discussion was here...
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/in...showtopic=31523
..and covered most of the points.  You cleared up when the extra damage gets added in though.

Ah, yes, thanks, that was indeed the (interesting) discussion from my recollection about two attacks for Barb mercs. I saw that thread around a week ago before the puzzlement over merc base bonus damage was brought up. I just happened to be testing with a studlier merc PvP so it was pretty obvious to see the diff between naked and weenie weapon damage.

In that thread Zath wrote:

I think there's something wrong with merc health regeneration as well. My Barbarian merc consistently takes 25-30 seconds to heal fully from half health, and that would be closer to DamageRegen=3 instead of 10. I know there may be delays in merc health updates, but surely it cannot be lagging this bad.

and I have to say this jibes with my experience, so I feel there may be a puzzle to be solved here as well.

Another "hidden" mystery would be that I saw evidence that in v1.10s the "fade" given to the Iron Golem isn't really happening (test in normal, by probing for 100% threshold of resist = immunity).

And while I'm throwing in the kitchen sink, I'm not happy not knowing what the FBR anti-block lock v1.10s actionus-interruptus situation *should* be... hmpf, hard to be patient sometimes for them to release the third beta.

[Crystalion]

Partly because of a lack of technical documentation and partly because of the "lying character screenS" ™ there are quite a few neat features/quirks of the game that aren't obvious at a glance that "inquiring minds want to know".

I've been neglecting this thread I'm afraid. I now know quite a few v1.10 hiddens that I've not posted here (or, perhaps, anywhere). Here's a fun one...

Trivia question: why would a sane/sensible person choose a diadem to put their runeword into (e.g. Delirium)?

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An assassin that uses warrior or master might. The reason is that (afaik) the master and warrior copy the base item type for their torso and head item. The ilvl of the item rolled (magic for warrior, magic or rare for master, depending on the master's slvl) will be fairly low, unless you have a really high level shadow.

But copying a diadem gives you a qlvl and magic_level that override that, for affix generation. That is, your shadow, however low level, gets headgear with potentially any available affix. Presumably she ignores the clvl req (e.g., iirc, at 64 you might equip a diadem, and the shadow might be getting +2 Assassin Skills, even though that is clvl req 67). Similarly, wearing a circlet, coronet or tiara when summoning probably helps.

Ironic, isn't it? I mean, after all that confusion that AS "started" by claiming that gambling could be improved if you were wearing a circlet type helm. :D

If I weren't so busy testing other things I'd make a high frequency proc affix with super high alvl and test this out for sure. Could be fun.

[AtomicKitKat]

Regarding the "range" of guided arrows, I believe this is the same feature that works with certain skills(notably, any multi-shot skill like multi-shot/teeth, possibly charged bolts, MAYBE firestorm. And any guided sklil, like bone spirit and guided arrow)

Basically, when you fire your multi-shot skill, it won't diverge UNTIL it reaches the range you specified(ie, if you click near yourself, you release an ENORMOUS arc of arrows/teeth(again, unsure about charged bolts), covering probably 210 degrees. Whereas, if you were to click near the edge of your screen, you'd shoot a focused multiple projectile(which would look like one, but is actually 2-24) that wouldn't arc until the range specified(ie, the edge of your screen)

Not sure if this works with fireball(ie, when it explodes), but for bone spirit/guided arrow, when you fire your shot, the range specified, is the range it will travel to, before "seeking" a target. This is useful in the Chaos Sanctuary, for instance, when you're either cheesing Diablo with either of these skills, or hiding around a corner so that you can hit OKs(simply point your mouse to a little beyond the edge of the wall you're hiding against, and click. The shot will then fly to the point at which you clicked before looking for targets)

Regarding Psychic Hammer, I believe they essentially doubled its damage(ie, instead of a flat 1-3 physical like it used to be, it is now 2-6, 50/50 phys/magic)

Edit: While "re-burning" a pre-1.10 jab-zon yesterday, I noticed that shift-clicking Jab causes her to do all 3 stabs(I seem to recall she would only stab once in previous versions when shift-clicking) This is semi-useful against running monsters like Fallen, since you could just sit in the middle of a swarm(assume all shaman have been killed), hold down shift and the attack button, and then watch TV or read or do something to pass the time(since they should all theoretically run back to you, unless your rogue merc kills them or something LOL)

[JustAGuy]

A few things I found, that were not mentioned in this thread:

Conversion:

After successfully converting a minion with a Paladin, after the conversion wears off (the monster reverts to evil), most monsters die with 1 hit. This is especially noticeable when you convert a number of them in succession. When they wear off, it's kind of nice having them die by the pulse of your Holy Shock... I'm not sure if it has to do with the amount of damage they take when tanking for you, or just being hit (or not), but in most cases, converting a monster leads to a 1 hit kill afterward.

Unidentified Set Items:

After killing Mephisto, he dropped two set items; amulet and mask. I picked both up and identified the mask. I had no items of that set in my inventory, save for the mask (Cathan's), yet it reported that I had two. Indeed, when identifying the amulet, it was Cathan's amulet. So, it appears, in this case at least, that set items will tell you if any other of their set pieces are in your inventory regardless if they've been identified.

Timer on % to cast items:

I've noticed this on many occassions: Thundergod's vigor's % to cast Fist of Heavens; when the Fist is cast, it momentarily cancels your ability to cast Blessed Hammer (in the case of the Hammerdin), when it really shouldn't. Hammer has no timer, so why does it get frozen when FoH casts? Not much of a "feature"...

That's all I have that hasn't been reported already.

[Crystalion]

After successfully converting a minion with a Paladin, after the conversion wears off (the monster reverts to evil), most monsters die with 1 hit.

This is an old bug that I thought they had fixed... what version you reporting it for?

it appears, in this case at least, that set items will tell you if any other of their set pieces are in your inventory regardless if they've been identified.

Neat. Obvious but I hadn't thought of it. A way to tell which set a piece that might be in diff sets is actually (and another reason not to trade for "unid'ed" goods).

Timer on % to cast items

Known misfeature of CTC items procing timered skills. Very annoying indeed. I don't actually know if CTC stuff ignores your state though (timered, hit recovery, etc.) so it may not go both ways (LEBs don't emit, e.g., when they are processing HR/knockback, iirc) depending on how the code works.

[JustAGuy]

QUOTE 
After successfully converting a minion with a Paladin, after the conversion wears off (the monster reverts to evil), most monsters die with 1 hit. 

This is an old bug that I thought they had fixed... what version you reporting it for?

Version is 1.10 on the realm. It consistently happens to me, with all of my conversion using Paladins. It's a boon in most situations, but could possibly be exploited, if you're willing to wait 16 seconds to kill an enemy...

Just to be clear, it's definitely not my shock aura that pulses and kills the monster with a good roll. This is in Hell against the big health and regen boys. 1-shot kills are common after converting. In one particular instance, I recall seeing a monster come out of the converted state with full health bar, then dying after the first shot with zeal; this is act 4 hell and the Paladin was using Fanaticism, no crushing blow or any special effects, 5 players, and only 1400 max damage (700ish to 1400ish).

I have a hunch that it has something to do with Blizzard's effort to make conversion users a bit safer from when then monsters return to the darkside but still have the Paladin aura effects on them. Like with the aforementioned Zealot, a Blunderbore-class fanaticized monster can do a lot of damage with just one hit while that aura is on. Not to mention those frenzy-taurs...

[LiquidDamage]

I have a hunch that it has something to do with Blizzard's effort to make conversion users a bit safer from when then monsters return to the darkside but still have the Paladin aura effects on them. Like with the aforementioned Zealot, a Blunderbore-class fanaticized monster can do a lot of damage with just one hit while that aura is on. Not to mention those frenzy-taurs...

This is another thing that was changed, they don't retain auras when switching anymore, I have witnessed it myself.

Is it possible that they only fixed them for conversion via mind blast? It was Mind Blast that people were using to exploit it when the 1 hp bug was discovered.

[whyBish]

..or could be the same issue as the ravives had in the beta (Raised at low life and needed to hit a shrine/healer to get decent survival)

[AtomicKitKat]

You can no longer "Christmas Tree" as effectively as before.

What I mean, is that rather than all MA charges running off the same timer(such that you could always maintain all 18 balls with a cheap skill like Tiger Strike until you ran into a boss), they now run off individual timers(each one running out after 20 seconds from the last time you used THAT specific skill)

You now have to do something along the lines of TS 1, 2, 3, CS 1, 2, 3, FF 1 2 3, BI 1, 2, 3, CT 1, 2, 3, Recharge each by 1 hit, Phoenix as many as you need, release. :unsure:

[Caaroid]

yet I failed to realize what was happening. If I would not keep hitting myself in the head to avoid another "why did they ruin the meleessins so much", I'd just say - as if they needed another nerf.