wtf is up with vipers in the Halls of Vaught?

Made my first HC character, a meteorb sorc, and things were going really well... got to NM act 5, went through it to Halls of Vaught with no difficulty, then some viper or two kill me in 0.5 seconds before I can hit full rejuv, with some ranged attack I think. I have no idea WTF I could have done to avoid dying there, the attack they killed me with is so ridiculously overpowered compared to anything I'd run into up till then. Any recommendations, apart from leveling up more before going into that area and equipping more +HP gear? I was about level 60 with 600 HP.|||Same thing happened to me http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=758282 :/



I think they are bugged, suggestion is to skip the area, doubt I go there again with any hc char.|||Bah... 10x seems about right for how far wrong the damage is, guess we probably lost our chars cause some guy at Blizzard who was changing monster damages hit "56" when he meant to hit "5" and no one can be bothered to change the number.|||I think a sticky for "ridiculous bull**** that will get you killed" would be much appreciated by many people, or if this is a fairly unique instance then just an addition to the FAQ that hardcore characters should never enter the Nihlithak area.

edit: Though the notice on their poison bug should have been enough to convince me to avoid the area, I just didn't remember it very well from the FAQ, perhaps it could be worded to make it more obvious how incredibly dangerous the area is.|||Quote:








Bah... 10x seems about right for how far wrong the damage is, guess we probably lost our chars cause some guy at Blizzard who was changing monster damages hit "56" when he meant to hit "5" and no one can be bothered to change the number.




You number guess is surprisingly accurate, the reason isn't (likely) right though.

Their physical damage gets applied when you move around in the clouds, and it happens to be 41-55.

As for the FAQ, nobody would read it until it killed them. And probably not even then.

*cough* *cough*


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Tomb Vipers - These guys are often seen in the Halls of Vaught, on the way to Nihlathak. They have a bugged poison projectile attack. This bug makes it so that if you move around in the poison cloud left from the poison projectile, you will get hit many many times. Think of it like a machine gun going off if you move into a cloud. The best way to counter this bugged "machine gun"-like effect, is to wear a boatload of PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCE (ie items that say: damage reduced by X - where X is any number). % Damage reduce does not work effectively to counter this bugged poison cloud damage. The recommended amount of damage reduced by X is anywhere between 30 (feeling some pain) to 55 (completely nullifies the damage).|||Quote:




But theres these really nasty Tomb-Vipers down there that kill my gosu character really fast!!!

for a start, they aren't always there. they aren't that tough, and drop very fast to physical attacks. they ARE always Lightning & Poison immune.

the trouble for most people starts once they poison you. their poison cloud damage has a physical damage component. thankfully if you STAND STILL the physical damage has no effect. Shift+Attack is your friend, don't move while poisoned!
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Originally Posted by Malloy

A percentage of their charge damage is included in the secondary cloud of poison. The AoE cloud. This means that you could avoid the initial poison from the spear but still get the physical + poison damage of the cloud should you run into it.

THE CLOUD IS NOT VISIBLE. This is why many people think they get killed by something that isn't really there. The cloud will stay about five seconds AFTER the initial spear's cloud vanishes. If you do not move in this time, the second cloud will not effect you. Getting knocked back will also not trigger the second cloud. You will get poisoned by the viper and get a nice percentage of life taken away from you but it won't be over time.

Best thing to do is stand still when they fire or run past them at high velocity. The cloud will only form a second or two after the spear is thrown, this gives more than enough time for a character to run past them. Should you need to stop....stop and don't run or walk until five seconds after all the clouds have gone.





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Originally Posted by ilkori

Because of the way Viper Poison clouds are calculated, having integer DR can drastically improve your living chances. Effectively, the poison cloud is some minor poison damage with the monster's main attack tacked onto it (I think this is similar to the effect found on the Countess Firewalls, actually). Every frame, this gets applied, so the 50-100 physical damage reduced in half will quickly knock down even the most resiliant players with 50% DR.

On the build, it means carrying around some (fairly) nonstandard gear. A maxed PDR/MDR build with marginal resists can tank everything (except poison damage) with great success. Pure kickers will take great advantage from this since sufficient CB can be found from just your weapon and boots. More is better, but this can work well also. Poison damage is the only thing you'll have to work with.









Information taken from : Nihlathak 1.0.1 by mephiztophelez.|||Well, both NorthViking and myself think it was an instant ranged hit that killed us, although it's entirely possible (and probably likely) we were wrong and we just didn't realize we were moving at the time.

I know that at least I, for one, did read the entire FAQ before starting hardcore, but the section you quoted doesn't really make it clear just how dangerous the area is. It would probably prevent a good number of deaths if the FAQ mentioned that the bug will very likely kill you in under a second, and would be no harm in suggesting that the area be avoided entirely.|||The damage is applied per frame--one 25th of a second. It will happen far too fast for you to react.

The part I quoted showed that it has a hidden physical aspect. It works the way poison does (damage / frame), so imagine the damage being done that fast, on top of other damage.

It even mentioned how necessary integer DR was to reduce the damage to where it won't kill you.|||Look at it this way... if someone makes a hardcore character without understanding just how deadly this bug is, they're virtually guaranteed to die when they reach nightmare act 5... so I think it's worth highlighting more strongly in the FAQ, i.e. "this will kill you instantly" or "entering this area without high DR will very likely result in death".

Oh, also, can vipers with this bug occur in any areas other than the Nihlithak dungeon? Don't want to run into another one without noticing.|||Most of us are aware of the bug already. Like Mouse said, if one were to read the FAQ in the hardcore forum they would know what's going on. =)