Undead Stygian Dolls in Nightmare level

[rogermw]

Undead Stygian Dolls in Nightmare level

I've just made it to the Durance of Hate in the Nightmare difficulty level, and I am having just a devil of a time dealing with undead stygian dolls.

Every time I kill one, I lose, like, 200 life points. Instantly.

Is there a name for this particular "sore loser" power that the undead stygian dolls have? I didn't see any of the obvious effects that I usually see when I kill a creature that is cold-enchanted or fire-enchanted or lightning-enchanted and take damage from some kind of nova-looking blast. (Which are a lot easier for my character to withstand, since he's a barbarian and I've pumped up all his resistances to max.)

And more importantly, is there a good defense against it? Other than "drink another greater healing potion every time you're about to kill one"?

 

[Humphrey]

Every time I kill one, I lose, like, 200 life points. Instantly.

How odd. I've never seen that. Their attacks do a lot of damage for something so small, but I've not been damaged by one dying. Were they Minions?

 

[paladinking]

I think the things is that they have a corpse explosion when they die,like in the throne of descruction hell when I kill one I lose like 900 life!

 

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Shael'd Shaftop on Mercenary. :thumbsup: Let him take the hits.

 

[Orphan]

The stygian dolls do have an explosion when they die. To quote RTB, "It's either 3.125 - 6.25% of the doll's life, or 6.25 - 12.5% of their life".

The damage done by this is physical, it will not affect minions, and is apparently block-able.


Edit: Quote from Hammerman:

Doll explosion
It is 3.125% - 6.25% of the monsters max hit points (and all physical), if my calculations are correct. The exact formula is:

hpfactor = maxhp - ((maxhp * 75) / 100)
damage = (rnd[hpfactor] + hpfactor) / 8

 

[Fluffballer]

How odd. I've never seen that. Their attacks do a lot of damage for something so small, but I've not been damaged by one dying. Were they Minions?

How the heck do you have over 800 posts and not know dolls corpse explode when they die? :scratch:

 

[rogermw]

The damage done by this is physical [ ... ] and is apparently block-able.

Blockable?

Drat, I would have to be running a Barbarian wielding a weapon in each hand, wouldn't I?

It sounds like the only defense against this is one of those "Damage Reduced By X" items, or one of the rare "Damage Reduced by X%" items that I have yet to find. Does the corpse explosion have a limited radius, so that an attacker standing far enough away won't take any damage? (My barbarian could theoretically hack at some stygian dolls in melee until they're really low on life points, then back up and throw oil potions at them to finish them off.)

 

[Orphan]

Yes, the corpse explosion only hits the people directly next to the monster when it dies. In theory, it would be possible for you to hack away at them and then safely kill them from a distance with oil potions, but what would most likely happen is that they would just keep chasing you and you'll never gain any distance between yourself and them (they're pretty fast).

Ideally, you'll want to have a merc that will deal the killing hit (while you move out of range). Preferably a melee merc (act 2 or act 5). The mercs are immune to the explosion anyway.

 

[Freezing Rain]

Use a merc, i've noticed they NEVER damage mine when i run baal.

 

[Humphrey]

How the heck do you have over 800 posts and not know dolls corpse explode when they die? :scratch:

I play mostly casters and ranged attackers, so I'm not near them when they die ever. They've never killed a merc or a skelly by exploding, so I've never noticed this.

 

[AnimeCraze]

You mean you never have been amped and your merc pop one while you are teleing? I find that rather hard to believe too, unless you don't tele with your merc at all. (I do for insight) 1 hit ko for me......

 

[paladinking]

The damage done by this is physical, it will not affect minions, and is apparently block-able.

hmm..so that why sometimes when I kill them I dont get hit I have a 72% chance of blocking without holy shield.


btw-most of the time I back off and let my merc do the damage.

 

[Humphrey]

You mean you never have been amped and your merc pop one while you are teleing? I find that rather hard to believe too, unless you don't tele with your merc at all. (I do for insight) 1 hit ko for me......

I don't tele with my merc for meph, I am a cheap bastard so use the moat trick, and the stupid merc screws that up. 75% block too, so if the damage is blockable I might have been hit and blocked it.

 

[Zukarius]

I usually run from them or tele and let the merc kill them. They are rather a rather annoying bunch!!

 

[paladinking]

I usually run from them or tele and let the merc kill them. They are rather a rather annoying bunch!!

man you got that right if there is one enemy besides the doom knight guys I would want off the game it would be them.

 

[rogermw]

By "tele", do you mean read a scroll of Town Portal, or do you mean some kind of short-range teleportation? (The only class I've played beyond Act I is a barbarian, so I haven't checked to see if any of the other classes have a teleport skill.)

 

[paladinking]

By "tele", do you mean read a scroll of Town Portal, or do you mean some kind of short-range teleportation? (The only class I've played beyond Act I is a barbarian, so I haven't checked to see if any of the other classes have a teleport skill.)

Short-ranged teleport.its a sorceress skill, and another way you can get it is if you make the Enigma rune word body armor.

 

[AnimeCraze]

There are also charged items that does the same, like Naj's Staff and such. :lol: Rather useful for regrouping your minions.

 

[paladinking]

There are also charged items that does the same, like Naj's Staff and such. :lol: Rather useful for regrouping your minions.

naj's staff has tele charges? cool! my friend has the armor and the circlet.

 

[Fluffballer]

It's mad expensive to repair items with tele charges. Though I hear Enigma costs a pretty penny as well.