Gunter, the Barbarian Mage

[Tommi]

A great, immersing story! Even at this length I read it from the beginning to the end without skipping a paragraph. :) One small technical point caught my eye, though:

In addition, Battle Cry is additive and I figured at least one of the three Ancients would be amp cursed.  A lvl 23 Battle Cry normally reduces damage by 47%, but if you're amped, that means that damage is increased by +100%-47%=+53%.  So, in effect, if you're amped, Battle Cry only reduces the damage by about a quarter.  That's nice, but I preferred keeping my merc alive with Life Tap.

AFAIK, it is not simple as this, at least in 1.09d. Battle Cry adds a (negative) percentage bonus to monsters' total damage, which is similar to those of might, fanaticism, masteries, strength bonuses, etc. Therefore, if a monster has a damage increasing aura, mastery bonuses, skill bonuses (e.g. whirlwind, leap attack), or strength bonuses, the reduction in damage is far less than with normal monsters. Note that effects that change base damage or weapon damage are calculated before total damage, and therefore they have no effect here. I don't know what is the case exactly with the Ancients, but I believe that they gain pretty hefty percentage bonuses to total damage.

Secondly, I don't follow how you concluded that Amp Dmg + BC => "+100%-47%=+53%." Amplify damage reduces your physical resistance by 100%, and therefore its relative effect depends on your original physical resistance. For example, if it is 50%, it is reduced to -50%, which effectively triples all physical damage you receive. Battle Cry is calculated when the attack damage is determined, i.e. before any damage modification mechanics are applied. For example, if BC had a normal -47% effect (i.e. no total damage bonuses on the monster) and you had 0% physical resistance, BC would first reduce damage to 53% of the original and then amplify damage would double it to 106% of the original damage.

Further info about these mechanics (based on 1.09d) is available at:
http://www.hut.fi/~tgustafs/damagereduction.html
http://www.hut.fi/~tgustafs/weapondamage.html

Cheers,

Tommi

[Occhidiangela]

How does this char deal with Physical imunes. Is he allowed a non Sacrifice attack, or is he expected to get as much elemental damage or magic damage for his second weapon to make up for his inability to do damage.

Is Sanctuary allowed against undead.

[Dant]

How does this char deal with Physical imunes. Is he allowed a non Sacrifice attack, or is he expected to get as much elemental damage or magic damage for his second weapon to make up for his inability to do damage.

I'm not really sure, I hadn't really thought the character up into Hell level:( My mistake, anyways I suppose there's a few solutions:
One: Get either "holy fire", "holy freeze" or "holy shock" to use on the physical immunes.
Two: As you said, get elemental or magical damage on a weapon but thats not to fun and you'd probably have to twink him.
Three: Get "vengance" and use it against the Physical immunes.
None of these are really good solutions but.....

Is Sanctuary allowed against undead.

Not to sure on this either, I've never used sanctuary and have always regarded it as somewhat useless(Because it can only be used on undead) but then again I'm not exactly an expert. Personally I'd say no sanctuary but it very well might be nessesary.

[MongoJerry]

A great, immersing story! Even at this length I read it from the beginning to the end without skipping a paragraph.

Thanks!

One small technical point caught my eye, though:

Everything you said makes a lot of sense. I was going off what someone else said, but your explanation makes a lot more sense. So, Battle Cry is quite useful even when you're amped. Good to know. I still liked using Life Tap against the Ancients, though. It sure helped my merc.