Fade and Burst of Speed

[Taem]

Alright, so my Assassin died fighting Uber Mephisto a few days ago, but I do not believe I should have died. So basically I used Burst of Speed as my main passive-castable skill, but when fighting Uber Mephisto, I'd always switch to Fade for the added resists. With Fade, Mephisto's attacks took 1/4th of my life every time; a critical hit would probably take 1/2 of my life. This did not seem to be the case this fateful night as I had already cast Fade, however Mephisto killed my Assassin in 1-hit, simply impossible under normal circumstances. I has killed the Specters and Vampires hanging out around the area while my friend was the target of Mephisto's skeletons. After mulling over her death the last couple of days, I'm at a loss for exactly how I died however have a working and provable theory:

** DESCRIPTION **
After having casted Burst of Speed, if I suffered some specific attacks(1), my Burst of Speed would be gone instantly and I'd have to recast it.

** THEORY **
Because of the way Burst of Speed and Fade cannot work together I'm making a guess that the same nullifying effects when specific attacks land also happens with Fade, however I do not have an Assassin anymore to test this theory out with. I am making a guess that one of the Specters had cast Amplify Damage on me right before I engaged Mephisto because my friend also had Amp on him and his Mercenary. Amplify Damage by itself would not be enough damage to kill my Assassin in one hit, however if it somehow nullified Fade, then yes, it would of killed me.

(1) Any curse effects, slow or chill effects

** WHY **
Why does Burst of Speed suddenly end when those specific attacks are applied to your Assassin? I hated having to recast it in Baal's Throne over and over because Baal does his ridiculous curse, sometimes several times in a row. Is it a "feature" of the game, like you've just been 'seen', so you can't be 'hidden' anymore? Is it a bug? Anyways, I'll have to level up a new Assassin again someday and do more testing. If anyone else has any information they'd like to add, I'd like to hear it.

[librarian]

Heiho,

sorry, I'm not aware of any means which could nullify BoS, Venom, or Fade.
Those skills apply a state to the target (ie yourself), and this state can't be overridden, except from another state with the same group flag in States.txt. That is BoS and Fade have the same group, so they'll exclude each other. Venom had the same flag some patch ago (1.10?), and by simply removing this flag it is enabled now to have both Venom and Fade active, or Venom and BoS, but still not BoS and Fade.

So the question is, did you wear something that might have triggered BoS or Fade when you got hit? I haven't meorized all this stuff, but the asn runeword armor is famous for triggering Fade; maybe this one has a lower sLvl than your native skill. Don't remember if there's something around which casts BoS when hit.

[Taem]

Heiho,

sorry, I'm not aware of any means which could nullify BoS, Venom, or Fade.
Those skills apply a state to the target (ie yourself), and this state can't be overridden, except from another state with the same group flag in States.txt. That is BoS and Fade have the same group, so they'll exclude each other. Venom had the same flag some patch ago (1.10?), and by simply removing this flag it is enabled now to have both Venom and Fade active, or Venom and BoS, but still not BoS and Fade.

So the question is, did you wear something that might have triggered BoS or Fade when you got hit? I haven't meorized all this stuff, but the asn runeword armor is famous for triggering Fade; maybe this one has a lower sLvl than your native skill. Don't remember if there's something around which casts BoS when hit.

I have searched and searched all over the net and can't find anyone experiencing the same problems I had, except for my friend who had the exact same build I did. I'm starting to think you may be right about the gear automatically casting something which nullified Burst of Speed when struck. I'm going to search over the gear I had and see what it could be.

[librarian]

Heiho,

a further research at the Keep showed that the maximum of states allowed to be present at a unit is 27 (or 26). If that max is exceeded various glitches may happen, then basically the game is busted.

But 27 states at same time are not that easy to accomplish in unmodified game.

on a char you may have active at one time:

healthpot (drinking's effect)
manapot (drinking's effect)
portaled (just came out of a portal)
BoS _or_ Fade
venomclaws
fullsetgeneric (the glow, and fade with asn)
poison (you're poisoned)
stunned (you're stunned)
slowed (though IIRC no monster can slow you)
spiderlay (the webby stuff spiders leave when they flee, so obviously spiders need to be involved, and you need to step on that stuff)
openwounds (though AFAIK no monster can apply OW)
fingermagecurse (the manaburning missile's effect on you, not a curse in states.txt meaning, but the state is named so)
one common curse _or_ shrine effect
bone armor _or_ any of sorc's armors
blaze
enchant
shout
battle command
battle orders
might
prayer
defiance
blessedaim
conviction (from yourself) _or_ convicted (from foes)
resistfire
resistcold
resistlight
resistall
holywind
holywindcold (both from Holy Freeze, one from enemy)
holyfire (from enemy)
holyshock (from enemy)
cleansing
meditation
fanaticism
concentration
oaksage
wolverine (HoW)

plus, specifically as an asn
cloakofshadows
weaponblock
progressive_xxx (used to build up the different damage-progressive skills)
clawmastery

(as, say, barb you'll have some other states specifically, say, weapon masteries)


Now that list exceeds 27, but if you strip away stuff which is not possible without a party of Paladins and Act2 hirelings dedicated to use even the most far-fetched aurae at the same time on you it becomes considerably smaller; further strip away the stuff only monsters which weren't present at the time (nasty aurae bosses, spiders ...), and it'll become hard to get even near 20.

[Taem]

a further research at the Keep showed that the maximum of states allowed to be present at a unit is 27 (or 26). If that max is exceeded various glitches may happen, then basically the game is busted.

Interesting list! I had 16 of them active.

I found the cause however and it was not the maximum amount of states being exceeded, but more along the lines of your first hypothesis: I was using a Last Wish with a 6% chance to cast Slvl 11 Fade when struck. While this did provide 56 in resists, it apparently was not enough to save me. I didn't do the exact calculations of what my damage would be if Uber Mephisto hit me with my max resists and a Slvl 11 Fade, but my research on this is done; I feel vindicated. I now know why my Burst of Speed kept offsetting and am sure this is the reason I died in Ubers also.