Diablo 2

Immunity against Conviction Enchanted MSLEBs through MDR and Lightning Absorb
Diablo II Expansion, patch 1.09d
By Tommi Gustafsson

In Diablo II, boss (B) monsters, which spawn with lightning enchanted (LE), multiple shot (MS), and Conviction aura enchanted abilities, are among one of the most dangerous creatures in the game, capable of easily killing characters with high amounts of life and good resistances. With the right equipment they are easy to confront, though. The key idea is to achieve a high amount of Magic Damage Reduced By X and Direct Lightning Absorb, which make you almost immune to MSLEB damage. (Plus, barbs have an easy solution of wielding two Lightsabres, which give 50% lightning absorb. All characters have also an option to gather 140 lightning resistance over the maximum.)

1. Conviction Enchanted MSLEB Statistics

Let's look at the abilities of the Conviction enchanted MSLEBs:

Monster Level (mlvl) Boss monsters late in hell difficulty are mlvl 93 (90+3). This is the monster level of LEBs I am interested in.

Lightning Enchanted

LEB sparks are of the type LightUnique (missile id = 195) and they are not the same as sorceress's Charged Bolts, although their graphics are similar. When struck, a LEB emits LightUnique at level mlvl/2. Thus, a level 93 LEB emits a level 46 LightUnique (93/2 = 46; fractions are dropped). LightUnique does exactly 1 point of damage at level 1 and the damage increases by 2 per each level thereafter. The damage of a level 46 LightUnique is hence 91 (1 + 45 * 2).

Conviction Aura Enchanted

The level of Conviction aura is mlvl/4. For a level 93 monster, it is 23, which lowers resistances by 140%. For example, 85% lightning resistance is reduced to -55%. Resistances cannot be lowered below -100%.

Multiple Shot

Multiple shot triples or quintuples the number of sparks a boss monster shoots forward. The number is randomly chosen when the monster is created. Multiple shot is especially dangerous with the Lightning Enchanted modifier, because instead of making the attack to cover a wider spread, it concentrates extra missiles into thick clouds, effectively making them super-powerful lightning sparks, which deal 3 or 5 times normal damage.

Damage of a Conviction MSLEB spark

Let's see what kind of damage a spark of a Conviction enchanted MSLEB with 5 bolts inflicts against a character with 85% lightning resistance and +20 lightning absorb. The resistance is lowered to -55% by Conviction, which increases the damage of one bolt to 141. The absorb reduces it back to 101. Now we multiply this damage by 5, and get 505 damage for the whole 5-bolt cloud. (This does not take critical hits into account.)

Critical Hits

There is a 5% chance that a LEB spark inflicts double damage, i.e. 182. To take this into account, the average damage should be multiplied by 1.05. In the example above, the total damage would be 530. However, the most important aspect of critical hits is that they make damage reduction approach more trickier, which would suggest using at least some direct absorb. See more on this below.

Cold Enchanted LEB Statistics

Although Cold Enchanted (CE) LEBs are not in immediate scrutiny in this article, they are also deadly adversaries. This is because the death explosion damage of a CE boss transfers to LE sparks within the death explosion range. The CE death explosion uses ColdUnique skill, although its animation is that of Frost Nova.

ColdUnique damage is 6-8 on the level 1 and rises by 4 with each level. The chill time is 3 seconds on the level 1 and rises by 1 with each level. CEBs use ColdUnique with a skill level of mlvl/2. Thus, a normal CE unique boss in Act 5 Hell (mlvl 93) uses ColdUnique at slvl 46 (fractions are dropped). It deals 186 - 188 cold damage and has a chill duration of 48 seconds.

Thus, a CELE spark from a level 93 boss deals 91 points of lightning damage and 186-188 cold damage within the death explosion range. Cold damage disappears from the sparks when they pass out of that range.

Fire Enchanted LEB Statistics

Fire Enchanted LEBs can be pretty dangerous, too. The death explosion damage is carried to FELE bolts within the death explosion range, just like with CELEBs. The death explosion of a Fire Enchanted boss is a corpse explosion (60-100% damage, 50% fire & 50% physical), which is based on the maximum possible hit points of the base monster type in normal difficulty. For example, if the base monster type of the boss has 28-39 hit points in normal difficulty, the boss will explode for 23.4-39 points of damage (50% fire, 50% physical), regardless of on which difficulty it is encountered. The range of the explosion is 2.6 yards in normal difficulty, 3.3 yards in nightmare difficulty and 4.0 yards in hell difficulty.

Thus, the dangerousness of a FE explosion depends heavily on the monster type. The most dangerous FE monster is, by far, Lister the tormentor, whose base monster type has 805 maximum hit points in normal difficulty. All other monsters have considerably fewer maximum hit points in normal difficulty. A FELE Lister in hell difficulty would release bolts that cause 91 points of lightning damage, 241.5-402.5 fire damage and 241.5-402.5 physical damage, for a maximum of 896 damage. Furthermore, there is a 5% chance of critical strike, which doubles all damage types. Fortunately, this spark is blockable, since it includes physical damage.

2. Damage Reduction

Magic Damage Reduced by X (MDR)

Unlike other damage modifying abilities, Magic Damage Reduced By X, is applied straight to damage done, before resistances take effect. Against Conviction Enchanted MSLEBs this is good news, because the damage is not magnified by Conviction at that step.

Direct Lightning Absorb (LA)

Direct lightning absorb (+X Lightning Absorb) takes effect after resistance has modified damage. If resistance is reduced to -100% (the negative cap), direct absorb is just at effective as MDR. If resistance is higher, direct absorb is more effective than MDR. In what follows, we assume that MDR and Direct Lightning absorb are equally effective (i.e. -100% lightning resistance after Conviction). Absorb may be utilised to regain life, as explained in the critical hit section below.

Reducing Damage to Zero

The basic idea is to accumulate MDR and direct lightning absorb so that the sum is 91 or more (the unmodified damage of one LEB spark), which is enough to reduce the damage of LEB sparks to zero. Because each spark in a MSLEB cloud is a separate attack, MDR and LA protect from each of them. Therefore, having enough damage reduction to nullify the damage of one spark, is sufficient reduce the damage of an entire cloud to zero (not counting critical hits).

Healing Via Absorb

It is also possible to heal from Conviction MSLEB bolts. For example, 81 MDR and +20 lightning absorb first reduce leb spark damage to 10, which gets doubled (-100% lightning resistance assumed after Conviction) to 20. Now, direct lightning absorb comes into picture by reducing damage to zero and giving 20 life. As a result, each LEB spark heals the character by 20 life.

Surviving Critical Hits

If a LEB spark scores a critical hit, it inflicts 182 points of damage. Because MDR and absorb protect against the first 91 points of damage, it is the same as one was hit by a regular LEB spark with zero MDR/absorb (assuming exactly 91 MDR/absorb). With -100% lightning resistance the damage gets doubled to 182.

On average, one bolt in 20 scores a critical hit. Hence, to heal from such a damage one should gain about 10 life per spark, which suggests at least 76 MDR and +20 lightning absorb. Generally, it is best to have 81 MDR and +20 lightning absorb, because it doubles the rate at which you gain life from sparks and it is also the maximum rate achieved with a single absorb item (20 life per spark). The highest possible life gain is achieved with 71 MDR and +40 lightning absorb, which gives 40 life per spark requiring only 5 sparks to heal up the injury (there are only two items in the game which have direct lightning absorb).

Lightsabre (25% lightning absorb) is also a good protective item vs. critical hit sparks. If one has 91 MDR, it reduces the critical hit damage to half (from 182 to 91). With 81 MDR and 20 direct lightning absorb, it reduces damage from 162 to 61.

3. Items with MDR and Lightning Absorb

The next step is to build equipment that is Conviction enhanced MSLEB "proof", i.e. high MDR and direct lightning absorb. The items below are the best ones I could think for this purpose. The number of MDR is reported in a slash format, where the first number is the maximum MDR/LA without socketing and the second one is the maximum with socketes filled with Mal runes (Mal gives "Magic Damage Reduced by 7").

Helm

• Vampire Gaze (unique grim helm) - 15/22 MDR. Vampire Gaze has the highest MDR of all the unique helms, up to 15. Socketing it with a Mal rune yields an additional 7 MDR, totalling up to 22. Vampire Gaze has also amazing other attributes, such as high dual leech and high DR%, which probably makes it overally the best helm for this setup.
• Blackhorn's Face (unique death mask) - 20 LA (+7 MDR with Mal). Blackhorn's other mods are not very good for PvM, and I recommend using Thundergod's Vigor instead, if possible.
• Natalya's Totem (set grim helm) - 18/25 MDR (with another piece of the set). Natalya's Totem has only 3 MDR normally, but the partial set bonus for two items grants 15 more, to a total of 18 MDR. The second set item is probably the boots, or one may be wearing the entire set.

Armor

• Gladiator's Bane (unique wire fleece) - 20/27 MDR. Gladiator's Bane offers the best MDR (up to 20) and other stats for this purpose but requires level 85 to use.
• Iron Pelt (unique trellised armor) - 16/23 MDR. Iron Pelt is "Gladiator's Bane lite" and already available on level 33. It can have as high as 16 MDR.
• Skin of the Vipermagi (unique serpentskin armor) - 13/20 MDR. This generally very useful skin has up to 13 MDR, making it an excellent choice.
• Skullder's Ire (unique russet armor) - 10/17 MDR. Along with the best magic find in the game and +1 to all skill levels, Skullder's has also 10 MDR.
• A socketed armor with 4 Mal runes - 28 MDR. Although 4-Mal armor has the highest possible MDR, it lacks other stats and is very difficult to come by.

Belt

• Thundergod's Vigor (unique war belt) - 20 LA. This belt is the best choice against LEBs, if you can afford 110 strength to wear it. If not, you have to direct yourself below at...
• String of Ears (unique demonhide sash) - 15 MDR. Not only having DR% and life leech, String of Ears also provides up to 15 MDR. A great overall belt.

Ring

• Dwarf Star (unique ring) - 15 MDR. In addition to a good amount of MDR, Dwarf Star provides nice bonuses such as 15% fire absorb and +40 life.

Shield

• Gerke's Sanctuary (unique pavise) - 18/25 MDR. If you have no problem using shields, Gerke's is a great choice when you want add up your MDR.

Amulet

• Crescent Moon (unique amulet) - 10 MDR. Crescent Moon provides 10 MDR and dual leech but not much else.

Boots

• Natalya's Soul (set boots) - 0 MDR. There is no MDR on the boots, but if they are worn with Natalya's Totem, the partial set bonus gives +15 MDR.
• Otherwise, no good alternatives available.

Gloves

• No good alternatives available.

Weapon

• Lightsabre (unique phase blade) - 25% Lightning Absorb. Although not in the focus of this scrutiny, Lightsabre warrants mentioning. First, a barbarian wielding two Lightsabres is almost immune to lightning damage. Second, Lightsabre is a good defensive weapon when it comes to surviving LEB sparks that score a critical hit.
• Otherwise, commonly used weapons do not add significant amounts of MDR.

4. Example Equipment

Below I list some example equipment that grant a sufficient protection against Conviction Enchanted MSLEBs. An optimal MDR/LA is 81/20, which is the target in all the examples.

 

Note that adding Mal rune somewhere allows you to wear Skullder's Ire or Skin of the Vipermagi and retain the maximum protective effect. They also make it possible to use items with less than optimal stats.

It is possible to socket Gerke's with Mal rune, too, but it may be better with a perfect diamond or Shael rune.

5. Conclusions

After all, Conviction enchanted MSLEBs are not that common, so why bother? Well, if you encounter one, you know now how to beat them safely and surprise your friends. However, they may be dead, fleeing or consider you a lunatic if you want attack the horror. My second objective was reconsider the role of MDR and see if it useful enough when stacked at its maximum. Fortunately, high amounts of MDR was found on items that are considered powerful even without them (e.g. Vampire Gaze and String of Ears), which makes a MDR-based equipment a viable alternative. Still, MDR does not offer good protection against single attacks with high damage, but only few such exist. What is more dangerous than a MSLEB anyway?

Acknowledgements

• Hammerman for Fire Enchanted LEB statistics.
• Nookiestar for Cold Enchanted LEB statistics.