Question re: Vipers in the halls

[YellowDyeNo5]

Question re: Vipers in the halls

So on the way to Nihlathak, there are those ugly viper things. From what I know, they're ok unless you walk through or get knocked into a cloud. Once that happens, there are spores inside the cloud that hit you for the vipers physical damage many times over. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I'm curious to know a fairly accurate estimate of the physical damage that vipers do (haven't the means to test this right now). My idea is to stack up on that PDR gear and hope for the best. Good idea?

 

[RTB]

Unmodified values are 45 - 60 in NM/hell, which means that they hit for a bit less than that, unless it's a critical hit. Champions/uniques increase this value.

 

[Verbatim]

Is it the physical damage that gets re-applied every frame while you're poisoned with the vipers? I'd heard it was that the magic damage from their bone spears got re-applied every frame, if you get poisoned by being hit by a poison spear.

If it's magic, non-elemental damage, +x magic absorb would be the most effective way of dealing with it, though you might need some MDR as well. With the right combination of MDR and +x magic absorb (e.g. from Spirit or Crescent Moon rune words), you'd actually gain life each frame from the magic damage...MDR gets applied first, so too much MDR would reduce the amount of damage that reaches the +x absorb phase, and reduce healing, but , of course, if you can't get your +x absorb up to the amount of magic damage done each frame, then MDR will save you from some damage, and increase the net healing.

If it really is physical, I guess PDR would be the best way, with % physical resistance from SS, String, etc. being applied to whatever amount of damage is left *after* PDR...but I sort of doubt it is physical...I had the impression that it was because the damage was "magic" rather than physical that the bug appeared in the first place--usually, you're only poisoned by physical attacks (or poison-only clouds), and I'm pretty sure you don't take the phys damage done by preserved corpses every turn after they hit you...but since bone spears are a "magic" attack, and no other monster in the game can poison you with a magic, non-elemental attack, they didn't notice they'd messed up and allowed the magic damage to be applied each frame by the poison.

Hopefully someone can confirm whether it's magic/nonelemental damage or physical that's being carried by the poison, as it's rather important in deciding how to combat the damage.

 

[helvete]

It is physical without doubt. I was bold and went down there with my paladin with battle orders and all... CURSED. Got "pwned" so hard his body almost vapourised!

Take my advice: Don't mess with extra fast cursed multiple shots toomb vipers.

 

[rettet181]

It is physical without doubt. I was bold and went down there with my paladin with battle orders and all... CURSED. Got "pwned" so hard his body almost vapourised!

Take my advice: Don't mess with extra fast cursed multiple shots toomb vipers.

That does not prove it's physical. It just proves what we already know, they do insane damage per frame inside the cloud.

There's an easy test for this, just use an editor of some sort, give an item insane "damage reduced by x" mod, and venture down there. Record the results. (Editors are not discouraged for testing purposes, right?)

 

[AwesomeDude]

It's physical. %DR definitely lowers it.

 

[noodleor]

Should the damage increase with the amount of players in the game?

In solo games I have no troubles with them other than the occasional merc death (omfg just stand still! ) but in multiplayer games I don't stand a chance. Even a single cloud is hard to survive, whereas I have no troubles surviving a triple cloud in a solo game.

I always thought more players meant more monster hp but their damage/defense/etc remained the same. So, I was kinda shocked when I first came up against the vipers in an 8 player game... I got owned so badly

 

[alexzed]

My barb only has about 35-40% DR, but really can walk right through many of them (75 resists too) so I'd back up the Physical aspect...

 

[helvete]

In a solo game, I kill the vipers very fast (7k hammer is enough) but in a full one, there seems to be some of them that doesn't even go into hit recovery. AFAIK the only things that change with number of players is nodrop chance, monster hp and monster exp.

I am concidering spending my spare 47 stat points on vitality.

 

[Quietust]

That does not prove it's physical. It just proves what we already know, they do insane damage per frame inside the cloud.

There's an easy test for this, just use an editor of some sort, give an item insane "damage reduced by x" mod, and venture down there. Record the results. (Editors are not discouraged for testing purposes, right?)

There's an even easier way to test it: get a Necromancer with sufficiently high life and cast Bone Armor, then walk into the poison cloud - if the bone armor disappears, it was physical damage.

There is also another thing to consider - at least since 1.11 (didn't get to test it in 1.10), the Tomb Viper poison javelin attack (NOT bone spear as some were claiming) does NOT inflict the bugged physical damage in single-player, but only the normal poison damage. This in itself makes it impossible to use any sort of editor for testing, since any testing would have to be done on the realms.

 

[rettet181]

There's an even easier way to test it: get a Necromancer with sufficiently high life and cast Bone Armor, then walk into the poison cloud - if the bone armor disappears, it was physical damage.

There is also another thing to consider - at least since 1.11 (didn't get to test it in 1.10), the Tomb Viper poison javelin attack (NOT bone spear as some were claiming) does NOT inflict the bugged physical damage in single-player, but only the normal poison damage. This in itself makes it impossible to use any sort of editor for testing, since any testing would have to be done on the realms.

Well, that explains why my poorly equiped sorc can walk through the clouds without getting a dent...

 

[HoshNasi]

So on the way to Nihlathak, there are those ugly viper things.

Next to maulers these are my favorite Revives in the game.

I might revive some and go PVP. How rediculous would that be.

 

[helvete]

It was definetly there in 1.10 SP. Just try and walk down there with an Iron Golem (always poison immune) and wach him get squashed.

I am not sure the bone armor would take damage if this is a bug that adds a physical element to an attack that is pure poison to begin with.