testing grounds

[librarian]

Heiho,

so I did a bit of testing, since I was asked some questions and couldn't give an honest answer ^^


1) does Druid's Armageddon physical damage?
well, obviously it has damage values in Skills.txt for physical damage. People don't believe me, so maybe there's some broken skill function which doesn't call this damage columns?

This was a simple one :-)

Modifications:

MonStats
zombie1 has 500 to 501 hitpoints, Idle AI, noratio=1, fire resistance 100%, spawns in groups of 3 to 4

Levels
in Bloodmoor let only zombie1 spawn

Skills
stripped off Armageddon's fire damage columns, moved fire damage synergies to physical damage column for better effect

no changes in SkillDesc for a simple testing

=> started a game with a cLvl91 Druid, gave each skill a point, buffed Arma a little bit and set out to meet zombie1. zombie1 all were fire immune. Casted Armageddon. zombie1 died. Buffed former-fire-now-physical synergies a bit. zombie1 died faster. End of testing.
Armageddon does physical damage, regardless of what people tell you at other places. Unmodified it is not that much, but it is there.

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2) is Amazon's Impale affected by her Critical Strike skill?

MonStats and Levels same as before

Skills
gave CS 100% chance at sLvl1

=> started a game with a cLvl33 Amazon, maxed Impale thus she did 10 to 51 damage according to Char Screen with that toothpicks an Amazon starts her life with. Met zombie1. Quite a romance, needed about 20 hits to bring one down, repeatedly. Invested one point in CS. Still needed about 20 hits each until some other zombie1 guys keeled over, no significant damage boost gained.
Indeed, it seems Impale doesn't work with Critical Strike, for what obscure reason ever.

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3) what can an Amazon Dodge or Avoid?

Levels same as before

Skills
invented clones of Dodge and Avoid, both use GetHit animation if used by monsters, both give 100% chance at sLvl1

MonStats
assigned both skills to poor zombie1, removed fire resist

=>
Amazon: each skill could either be dodged or avoided, all components (yes, also explosion damage kinds)

Assassin: Psychic Hammer and Mind Blast couldn't be avoided, see Smite for reason

Barbarian: all attacks could be dodged or avoided; if enemy was forced to move via Howl or Taunt damage was properly applied;
Bash could be dodged (seems that damage is checked before Knockback here, Knockback worked), see Smite;
War Cry could be avoided;
Battle Cry (as an example) could not be avoided, no surprise, since the missiles are graphical stuff only (same for Necromancer's curses)

Druid: each skill could either be dodged or avoided, all components (yes, also explosion damage kinds); for Molten Boulder see conclusio

Necromancer: each skill could either be dodged or avoided, all components (yes, also explosion damage kinds), but Corpse Explosion and Poison Explosion not tested

Paladin: the three Holy Aurae (Fire, Freeze, Shock) plus Sanctuary couldn't be avoided (... they don't use missiles for damage, so no surprise here);
Conversion couldn't be dodged (no surprise, since the effect doesn't need an actual hit);
Smite couldn't be dodged in some very special way. It seems that inherent knockback movement of enemy either counts as movement or has priority over D/A animations, so Dodge and Avoid don't work while pushed. My missiles shooting hireling could do damage while zombie1 was in pushing movement, too, so this is not Smite specific, first Smite does no damage, but if second one is applied whilst zombie1 is still in pushing routine it does damage (rechecked, same happens with Sanctuary)

Sorceress: Static Field (doesn't use missile for damage, no surprise here) and Telekinesis (see Smite) couldn't be avoided

conclusio:
nearly everything will be dodged or avoided, if enemy doesn't move. Knockback pushing counts as move or overrides D/A animations due to priority settings. Had a Casting Delay on Molten Boulder, so maybe I could cast it just not fast enough to catch a zombie1 in pushed mode. With the Assassin I was fast enough to catch 'em.

Haven't tested Evade for obvious reasons, but I think it is not too far-fetched to assume similar behaviour. Also haven't tested monster skills, but I feel inclined to generalize the result.

side note: since D/A/E are checked at the moment when damage is technically already applied zombie1 always splattered blood at least with missile attacks, but never lost life
second side note: GH animation doesn't count as movement; it wasn't shown graphically when zombie1 was in D/A mode, but like blood splattering it was shown with missile AoE attacks
third side note: because of first side note most probably durability of Amazon's equip in unmodified game will potentially wear down if D/A/E step in; this needs some more sophisticated testing at another time

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That's it for today, hope someone enjoyed it ;-)

<edit>
fixed some spelling and added the animation priority statement
</edit>

[ShadowHM]

Thank You :wub:

[Baajikiil]

Thank You

Seconded, I may not post(or play) much anymore, but someday I may dust off the d2 disks again, and I still read the forums, and any tibits are quite welcome.

[librarian]

Heiho,

some other bits which don't fit elsewhere

4) Fire Golem's splash damage
I've permission to translate the testing I've referred to in the golem thread.

Modifications:

Levels.txt

in Bloodmoor let only zombie1 spawn


MonStats.txt

- zombie1 has 1000 to 1001 hitpoints, Idle AI, noratio=1, spawns in groups of 5 to 6; mLvl=90
- firegolem does 1-2 punching damage


Skills.txt

- stripped off Fire Golem's Holy Fire Aura and his fire punching damage, Mana Cost constantly 1, max sLvl=50
- Golem Mastery gives +100% life per point
- Blood Golem gives +20% life per hard point
- sLvl1 Poison Dagger does 40 poison damage per second


Testings

#1
- zombie1 is 100% resistant (just immune) to everything
- Fire Golem sLvl=20 (ca.680 life), GM 1, BG 1

Necro runs into Blood Moor, meets zombie1, casts FG, nothing happens


#2
- zombie1 physical resistance set to 0%, other immunities stay intact

Necro runs into Blood Moor, meets zombie1, casts FG, needs about 11 to 13 casts until zombie1 keels over


#3
- zombie1 physical resistance set to 100%, fire resistance set to 0%, other immunities stay intact

Necro runs into Blood Moor, meets zombie1, casts FG, needs about 11 to 13 casts until zombie1 keels over


#4
same as #3
GM sLvl=20 -> FG about 1800 life
no significant difference


#5
same as #4
BG sLvl=20 -> FG about 3600 life
no significant difference


#6
same as #5
FG sLvl=49
no significant difference


#7
same as #6
additional Amplify Damage casting changes physical immunity to 80% resistance

needs about 7 to 8 casts until zombie1 keels over


#8
Fire Golem sLvl20, GM 1, BG 1; FG has 95% Critical Hit instead of 5%

needs about 7 to 8 casts until zombie1 keels over


#9
same as #8 but with AD support like #7

needs about 5 to 6 casts until zombie1 keels over


Add-On
zombie1 poison resistance set to 0% for countertesting approximately with Poison Dagger the 1000 life, checked


conclusio:

death splash (it only splashes on death, not on conjuring) is composed of partly physical and fire damage, both kinds of damage to the same amount, about 80 to 100 points. There's no influence of Golem's sLvl or life. Critical Hit may double this damage similar like with other monsters and their kinds of damage.

Measured by eye the splash radius is about 3yd.


Appendix
There was a rumor about Fire Golem does a Corpse Explosion similar to the Necromancer's skill thus maybe Necromancer's CE sLvl figures in.

Some more testings with the same settings like above described and continually increasing sLvl of CE up to 20 showed no influence

<edit>
Nefarius over at the Keep spoke evidence that the base life of an unit is always responsible for explosions on death. This is the reason why the Fire Golem's death splash does more damage in Nightmare and Hell difficulties, since his base life is higher then.
</edit>

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5) Amazon's Evasive skills again - animation speed

There are two concurring opinions about what will increase Evasives' animation speed, some say it's attackrate (in nonmodding words 'skill attack speed') others say other_animrate.

I did a lot of fiddling, but since I don't get the Evasive animation to actually display I can't tell you. But I still want to add if you equip your Zon with focus on Evasive speed you should consider playing another class. Neither Fend nor Strafe nor Impale, which are those skills suffering most from whiffles due to Evasives, will work better if you manage to decrease animation duration from default eight frames to at best six frames. And this is only achievable if the attackrate opinion is correct, if the other one is true there's nothing you can do about it. Notabene: Vigor speeds up velocitypercent and does nothing to Evasives AFAICT (this is a third opinion rumoring around).

!!! An Amazon should never be played to get hit !!!


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6) Sanctuary's bugginess

Sanctuary assigns the boni to damage and attack rating versus undead in the wrong fields in Skills.txt, they're listed in aurastat fields but belong into passivestat fields.
Now in a recent AB thread a concept of Sanctuary in combination with Conversion was discussed, with the goal to bring your enemies the boost, convert undead and let those Converted being whacked away by the enemies.

Modifications

MonStats.txt
- zombie1 has 500 to 501 hitpoints, noratio=1, spawns in groups of 3 to 4

Levels.txt
- zombie1 and brute1 spawn in Blood Moor

Skills.txt
- Sanctuary magic damage 1-2
- Conversion has 100% chance to convert

Testpaladin set out into Blood Moor, meet both monsters, converted some zombie1 and activated Sanctuary. Unconverted zombie1 is knocked back, unconverted brute1 couldn't damage converted zombie1.

conclusio:
Sanctuary's aurafilter defines that enemy undead are affected. But the missiles emitted by Sanctuary ('sanctuarybolt') will knock back undead enemies. brute1 aren't undead, so they don't gain the wrongly assigned aurastat boni. zombie1 may gain the boni, but since they're undead, they're constantly pushed away as long as the aura is active, so they have no opportunity to whack the converted undead.
This will also happen with allied Necroskeletons or 'reanimate as: Returned' semi-allied ones. Both are undead, but count as allies, so they aren't affected by Sanctuary due to the aurafilter; allies and semi-allies aren't affected by sanctuarybolts' Knockback


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7) well another failed test, maybe I sometimes get an idea how to make it better
Assassin's Weapon Block
It is not fully explored against what this skill works. The only summary about that topic I'm aware of is listed at dii.net, and this one is incomplete and, to be honest, a mess to read.
I've tried to assign claw block to zombie1, but to no avail yet (yes, I did remove claw dependancies in Skills.txt). Most probably, since passive skills with item dependancies have some fancies, this can only be tested against an Assassin enemy, and I don't have two computers ready to do a modded multiplayer testing.


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That's it for today, but don't expect me to keep that testing frequency ;-)
And thanks for the thanks, good to know some people still have an eye open here :-)