Curse

Draconis85 · Dec 14, 2006, 07:03 PM // 19:03

I'm trying to complete all the quests in the Realm of Torment, but I'm having a lot of problems because groups of water elementalist enemies such as the Rain of Terror clump together and cast "Ice Spikes" all at the same freaken time!

Ice Spikes: Target and adjacent foes are struck for 20...68 cold damage and move 66% slower for 2...5 seconds.

...But they are all level 28 so it's even more. They usually wipe out my whole party in seconds

The two I can't beat beacuse of this problem is "The Troubled Keeper" and "Holding the Line" so far.

I'm using a Mo/Me smiting monk and I was wondering if you guys and gals knew an easy way to counter the huge spike damge.

Wrath Of Dragons · Dec 14, 2006, 07:13 PM // 19:13

protective spirit
spirit bond
shield of absorbtion
that elite shielding hands or whatever
something bond
life barrier

aohige · Dec 14, 2006, 08:01 PM // 20:01

bonders ftw.

I love how people are having hard time with WATER ELEs.
It's the wrath of all those water eles that don't get the attention they deserve.
Ice ftw.

Eclair · Dec 14, 2006, 08:50 PM // 20:50

Just be glad they're not fire elementalists with Searing Flames and Meteor Shower.

Bring Mantra of Frost, chocking gas, ward against elements, etc.

Star Alfur · Dec 14, 2006, 09:07 PM // 21:07

Edit: Sorry, must be mistaken. ^^

Consider Cry of Frustration. =)

RoadKill97 · Dec 14, 2006, 09:46 PM // 21:46

One way is to send one Hero to take the first hits before the others in the team move to kill. Or if you would happen to play melee yourself, you could use only the ranged Heroes/henchmen and flag them a small distance away while you move in to grab the aggro. This also works in TotPK and DoA.

Now, if you meant playing with other players, just spread out a little.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star Alfur

Also remember that Lightbringer's Gaze and Cry of Frustration perform AoE interruption. =)

Gaze interrupts only the first foe it hits.

Arx Baron · Dec 14, 2006, 10:21 PM // 22:21

I thought Gaze was an AoE interrupt...

Rok · Dec 15, 2006, 04:36 AM // 04:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arx Baron

I thought Gaze was an AoE interrupt...

It affects 1 enemy per LB rank.

Iuris · Dec 15, 2006, 08:41 AM // 08:41

From a warrior perspective, I can tell you those are a pain in the rear. However, my group could generally handle a single group and the real problem was killing the group without getting overwhelmed by neighbouring patrols. I actually had to move a significant distance and wait for a while before a single group was alone.

I have no experience with monks, but wouldn't it be possible to counter the damage with Protective spirit?

LONGA · Dec 15, 2006, 09:54 AM // 09:54

To get the job done
1 Flag all your heroes and hench. Put hench group behind so not all of them will be hit by AoE.
2 Prot the tank let him aggro.My favorite is spell breaker.
3 Tank run back to party's aggro range.
4 Finish those bastards.

And most important. Patience and obervation especially in Domain of Fear where there are at least 3Ele patrol groups intersect an area.

ramma77 · Dec 15, 2006, 09:59 AM // 09:59

Norgu with power block, power drain, power spike, power leak and other interupting stuff.

Antheus · Dec 15, 2006, 11:30 AM // 11:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eclair

Just be glad they're not fire elementalists with Searing Flames and Meteor Shower.

You, mean, like those Ruby Djins? The ones that weep in horror even against sig of humility, not to mention even the most basic anti-caster voodoo?

Rains are casters, with some really slow casting spells. This makes it worth focusing at them rather than Words of Madness at the start.

Another tactic that works is sending the tank in first, ctrl-shift-space, while the group is out of agro range. The damage dealt in that case is limited to one, preferably protted warrior, negating just about all of it.

The only serious damage they deal comes from their high level and godlike NPC attributes, making their spike dangerous.

As always, running your heroes and yourself with high health (500+) does wonders for RoT.

FalconDance · Dec 15, 2006, 03:58 PM // 15:58

Hmmm, I haven't had much trouble with these baddies, and I was out with just heros and henches last night, no special anything. Of course, I also was not successful but that had to do with the Dryders mooching with the others more than anything. And how in the world do you get the henches to stay put after you flag the heros? The silly gits always follow me.....but then, so does Koss. Then again, I think he'd follow any skirt.

Has anyone noticed that LB Gaze does NOT do full damage against the target but usually does about 150% damage to the adjacent foe? Weird.

LicensedLuny · Dec 15, 2006, 06:40 PM // 18:40

My 2 cents ...

First, to Drac the OP, yeah I know what you mean. Those Rains of Terror are even more irritating than the Ice Imps the first time you encounter them. But I agree with those above saying it can be dealt with.

It just seems to take a lot more work on your part controlling the heroes/henchies than what you're used to. (That's what I found, anyway.)

IIRC, LB gaze interrupts the target and causes damage. It causes damage but not interrupts to nearby foes for every rank you have. Read the description closely, I think it's there.

Note however, the damage from LB gaze is not armor-ignoring. So if you cast gaze on, say, a ranger that's standing next to say, a necro, it will cause less damage to the primary target since rangers have higher base armor than necros.

The way I've found to flag the henchies and release certain a hero(es) is:
- place the full team flag where you want the henchies to stand
- place the individual hero flag(s) where you want each hero to stand
- if you want to leave one hero unflagged to follow you, place and then cancel only that hero's flag.
Say I did that with Koss. He'll be loose and following me while the remaining henchies and heroes stay at the team flag. (They're all set to avoid combat or guard. I don't like how far they'll stray on full aggressive mode, especially in RoT.)

GL & cheers!
Luny

Laenavesse · Dec 18, 2006, 08:43 AM // 08:43

one thing i did that helped some was have temple strike on my sin and falaharn's chakrams to make the blind and daze last longer. i targeted one of the rains of the terrors, temple striked it, then kinna ran away before the others aimed to kill me o.o

it's always a good feeling to see the purple bar repeatedly pop on the terror. and while that one was dazed for like forever cos the chakrams rock i pounded on the other terror.

course when there's more than 2 or 3 it's bad o_o...

i guess for a sin to counter the deep freeze is to use shadow step instead of running in.

*shruggers* interrupts/daze ftw o.o

Cebe · Dec 18, 2006, 10:22 AM // 10:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramma77

Norgu with power block, power drain, power spike, power leak and other interupting stuff.

Power Block is teh win.

Horseman Of War · Dec 19, 2006, 07:16 AM // 07:16

deaths charge lol

works for me.

LordDeArnise · Dec 19, 2006, 07:51 AM // 07:51

Interrupts and concentrated fire on them, plus making them priority one before you go after the Torment Monks and Necros.

Carth` · Dec 19, 2006, 08:17 AM // 08:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by aohige

I love how people are having hard time with WATER ELEs.

To be fair, if you meet a large group of these Rains of Terror, they do have a nasty spike. Because they all have the same AI behind them, they tend to switch to the same target, and often a monk at the back who was at full health suddenly gets 100+ damage x5.

But they aren't actually that hard to deal with, you just have to be careful and know what you are doing. To the unsuspecting player they can be a shock, but I'm sure enemies in the Ring of Fire were at some point. A few weeks later when you're used to it, they are just not a problem at all. I was out killing them this morning, and had no deaths at all and it was generally very easy. But when I first came up against these guys I had a lot of party wipes.

Now the whole of the Realm of Torment that I used to find frustrating, is just like any other area now, easy.

Paperfly · Dec 19, 2006, 09:47 AM // 09:47

Quote:

I love how people are having hard time with WATER ELEs.

The problem with human water eles is that their damage sucks.

...Whereas the problem with monster eles is that they get massive damage bonuses from their high level and inhuman stats.

Water elementalist damage skills come with additional hex elements that restrict your movement and attacks. If anything, this makes Water monsters more dangerous than Fire ones (see: Imps, Ice).

Blurred Vision, Deep Freeze and Ice Spikes are considered good skills even in high-level PvP (especially DF).

They also use Call to the Torment - which Heroes are notoriously reluctant to attack into.

Finally, in the Domain of Fear you encounter multiple groups that consist of four Rains, a monk and a minion master. Oh, and these groups have an open "wandering" pathfinding script that pretty much guarantees that any time you attempt to fight one, two more will bumble into your flanks in mid fight.

...Am I labouring the obvious here?

In other news, Stunning Strike is an absolute pain to cap. Stupid deceptive map teasing you with its apparent proximity!