I die too, alright. But HOW??

[Ombra]

(have a coffee, it's a long post)

Hello,
I'm now in Act 2, Nightmare, Canyon of the Magi (the 7 Tombs). Assassin char.
As you can guess I've encountered many kinds of Champions, mini-Bossess and SuperUniques
by now.
In a way or the other I manage to deal with them, whatever their enhancements are,
including what few Lightning Ehn. + Multishot combos I've met so far.
However, in the last few games something odd has happened and I died 4 times to it already.

Fire Enhanced mini bosses and their minions now seem to be lethal for my Assassin.
My char ends up badly wounded every time a Minion dies. And when it's the boss' turn, I'm
dead as he explodes. I have 75% Fire res! I shouldn't suffer ALL that damage.
Last time I died was against a slow moving Fire Enh. Zombie-like boss.
I'm positive he didn't touch me, not even once. I was in full health (400+ HP).
When he exploded, I instantly died.

But there is more. In fact it does NOT always happen.
Not every Fire Enh. boss gets to damage/kill me so much when he dies. Why???

And then there is Ancient Kaa the Soulless...
When I encounter him he always features the following enhancements (IIRC):
- Extra Strong;
- Mana Burn;
- Lightning Enhanced;
- and either Stone Skin or Fire Enhanced.

He is Fire Enh. roughly half the times. But whether he is it or not, it doesn't seem to make
a difference. In fact, despite his enhancements, he often manages to waste me in one single
blow. I'd say (again) that it happens approximatively half the times I fight him.
Unlike the other Fire Enhanced bosses I don't have to kill him to be wasted. As I hurt him,
I get back a wagon of damage. And when it happens, if I touch him twice I'm dead.
Other times instead, I'm free to punch him all I want and at most he gets to poison me.

I thought the problem was due to the lightning bolts spreading from him, so I have made an
experiment.
While my Shadow Master fights Kaa, I purposedly chase around all the bolt charges I can,
to *taste* how much damage they can cause me. I've done it a few times, and the damage is
always reasonably low. So even if I get 20 or so simultaneous charges, they can't possibly
inflict me over 390 dmg points!
I know when Kaa is "lethal" because my Shadow Master's dies in few seconds. Other times,
instead, the Master withstands Kaa for more than a minute. Or even kills him on his own.
Therefore, if the bolts aren't the problem then what is it?
He's always Extra Strong but he is not always lethal. I don't get it =/

Since I get so much XP in the Tombs, I'm running them over and over.
My equipment never changes (except when I find some better charm). I'm very careful around
every non-standard monster. I recast Fade before it wear off (keeping all res up to 75% all
the time), and I also cast Cloak of Shadows so I get the little extra Physical Resist
(it's a hidden boon of Cloak).
A friend even gave me an Ancient Armor with Treachery rw and a Winged Helm with Lore rw!
My HP are 430+ at the moment.
What more do I need???

Can a guru shed some light?

Thanks in advance,
Ciao ciao : )

[John]

try fire absorb vs. these types

[A|fzZz]

Im not too sure about that but the exploding is not all fire damage..theres physical damage yea?

[Joshy]

Lol, beetleburst in act 2 3 hitted my sin on nightmare hc yesterday and he was fire enchanted I was at full life (844 I think close enough) I think theres some kind of bug with the fire enchanted monsters because seriously, my resist was at 20 and I've encountered many LE/FE/CE monsters in nightmare and they never even came close to killing me. Beetleburst ****ed me up so fast I didn't even have time to alt-f4 it was so ****ing lame I didn't even manage to kill him either so I didn't get raped by the fire explosion.

[Ombra]

Hello,
so there IS something more than just fire when they are Fire Enh.
Maybe it's nothing, but I noticed the *change* in damage in conjunction with my switching to better weapons.
Could this have something to do with my Vitality and Strength?

Before the 'problem' I was using a pair of Blade Talons with the Strength rw, granting me a total of +20 Vitality and +40 Strength.
I remember clearly that no monster could pose a serious threat (given the due cautions, of course). Not even Ancient Kaa.

When I switched to much higher damage weapons (magic Greater Talons without rw), the Fire Ehn. dudes began to beat the crap outta my sin.
With these new Talons now I have no more extra Vitality and Strength.
Does the Vitality stat mean more than just higher HP?


------------------------------
One more weird thing... In the last run in the 7 tombs I was welcomed by a big party sitting at the entrance.

I tele-kicked past them and then I called the Shadow Master.
There were 4 or 5 champion Greater Mummies in the group. I saw clearly the Master taking damage upon landing hits on one of the mummies.

It was like the Iron Maiden curse, but there was NO visual indicator above the head of the Shadow Master.
Everything else was there, instead, including the sound and the visual effects played when you hit someone (that's how I tell it was Iron Maiden).

Aren't Oblivion Knights the only monsters supposed to cast that curse?



Ciao ciao : )