Diablo... new skill?

[dahak_i]

Greetings all around...

I was playing in Nightmare difficulty, after diablo, and thought it would be funny to finish him off with a mid-level immolation arrow. Sidestepping his usual creeping fire and LBOD (not that it mattered with max resists and 30+ mdr), I began to launch my immols...

and this is when Diablo pulled a trick out of his bag that I'd never seen.

He raised his arms in his casting motion of bone prison, and a small firewall appeared under my feet. It was quite small, and a "low flame" (if anyone can visualize that). That is, it was about half the height of my immol, or a normal firewall, and it was only about twice as long as the character is high.

He did this several times in quick succession, and by the time I realized what he was doing, I had missed the chance for a screenshot.


After situating my character to assure her safety, I placed my finger over the print screen button and waited for him to repeat his spell... which he apparently sensed, 'cause it took him another several minutes to do it again.

I got the screenshot, and submitted it to STSI. (I could probably get the pic online somewhere and link to it... but I'm lazy :blink: . You'll have to bug Bolty if you really want to see it :P )

Has anyone seen this before, or is it a new skill for Diablo?

As a sidenote, in the past week or so I've felt like the realms are a slightly different place. Perhaps server-side patching, although I don't want to jump to any conclusions.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Kevin]

Yep, I've noticed that one a few times. He likes to do it on ranged attackers that stand still.

[gekko]

Correct -- he's had that firewall for as long as I can remember, he just doesn't use it as frequently as his LBoD or the flame river attack.

As for all the jumpiness, I'm willing to give you odds that when the patch comes in, you'll know. They won't sneak small server-side patches in on us -- they want to cover up all the junk they didn't fix with all the junk they added on top (anyone see the calvin and hobbes cartoon where he throws garbage under the bed to keep the monsters quiet?).

Most of the time, when you're noticing extra lag, it's not server side anyways. Unless something odd happens, it's almost always on your end. And if you're constantly thinking that more lag = possible patch release, you're going to notice every little bit of lag.

gekko

[NiteFox]

Yep, I've noticed that one a few times.  He likes to do it on ranged attackers that stand still.

He also likes to unload it on badly hurt melee characters trying to run away. Nailed me once with my werewolf, and stunned him long enough to get LBoD on my Druid's furry tail.

It was about as far from a pretty situation as you can get.

[dahak_i]

oh, I wasn't refering to lag when I meant things seemed different...

I meant I was noticing things that I previously hadn't seen... mainly different map seed configurations than what I'm used to. And those I do pay attention to, as I use the overlaid map almost exclusively to find my way around.

As for the firewall, my play style against Diablo just doesn't lend itself to him casting it, so it doesn't suprise me that it's been around forever. For the other side, though, small, server-side patches aren't exactly uncommon in any online game. The client just doesn't need to have everything.

If you thought I meant a 1.10 patch was imminent, I'm forced to quote Wesley, from The Princess Bride: "I don't believe they exist."

[Wyrm]

I've noticed he's got 5 attacks.

1. Big Fire Nova - kills helpless little guys after their corpses.
2. Big Iightning Inferno - zaps melee'ers without resists into big ouchies.
3. Small firewall - kinda like what ghoul lords use, pricking at characters.
4. Big Firestorm - makes Elemental Duids jealous and everyone else toast.
5. Small, kinda backwards blaze - like his firestorm only it's one stream of fire as wide as the firewall that shoots from him in a straight line at the player, easiest attack to avoid.

[Tommi]

And also:

6. Bone Prison
7. Chilling Touch
8. Charge Attack

Anything else?

Cheers,

Tommi

[NiteFox]

Tips and Other Additional Information
Diablo's special attacks are: a Taunt (does nothing); Red Lightning Hose; Fire Nova; Cold Touch; Fire Wall; Firestorm; Prison; Charge Attack.

[Wyrm]

And also:

6. Bone Prison
7. Chilling Touch
8. Charge Attack

Heh, forgot about those, whoops.

[Obi2Kenobi]

And regular. :P