Monster attacks/skills that don't seem to do anything

[Irma2]

OK, this isn't a biggie but it's something that has occasionally caused me to pause and wonder - monster attacks or skills that don't seem to have any effect. There are some that come to mind immediately:

* - that red imploding nova thing that Ichthian mages cast. I've been caught in it a number of times and it doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever.

* - the bubbling red AoE attack that Mellinoe mages cast. Again, I've been caught in it several times and haven't seen much effect. I'm assuming that both of these skills are some form of Vitality/Bleeding but they seem pretty weak. They both look horrible and the type of thing that you should avoid at all costs. But I can't say that either has had me scrambling for the 9 key.

* - that earthquake-type attack that Jackalmen melee Champions (the big orange guys) cast, along with the Minotaur Lord. MinoLord's does have an effect - sometimes. At other times, it does nothing. It does seem to kill the Wisp, though, if you're unlucky.

* - that ridiculous spam casting of what sounds like Heart of Oak that the one Turtle Hero does. What in heck is that all about? You're standing potting the guy from range with a staff or bow and he just cranes his neck out and spams HoO? Huh? What gives with that? Does each of your hits turn it off, thus forcing him to spam it?

Also, what is that crazy skill that the treetrunks in Act IV do, where they look upwards, moan and then some leaves drop off them? I'm presuming it's some type of defence skill/aura they're activating as it does no damage. But what is it?

Any other weird and mysterious monster skills you can think of?

[CrocMagnum]

- the bubbling red AoE attack that Melinoe mages cast.

Not sure about that one. Maybe your resists are off the sharts? :p Because that one really hurts! (I'm playing with 1.17).

That reminds me of an old question I posted a few weeks back: I asked about the Red Waves of the Greys Sisters (I thought it was Vitality Damage):

- my Core Dweller is quite impervious to the Blue Wave attacks casted by Charon & Hades,

- but the CD can take a serious beating from the Red Waves casted by the Grey Sisters & the Melinoes Mages. The same goes for my toon). Violos answered by saying "The Greys mainly do Lightning Damage". So I'm still curious about that Red Wave, hope someone clarifies this...

I agree with the majority of your comments, though. :D

[Irma2]

I'm guessing it must be Vitality then, as that is the one resistance I usually have capped out at 80%. But, if it's Vitality, the CD shouldn't take big damage from it. However, the CD should take damage from Hades' blue attacks as those have physical damage in them. Weird.

[CrocMagnum]

the CD should take damage from Hades' blue attacks as those have physical damage in them

Granted the Dweller takes damage from "Blue Waves" but he can hold his own pretty well. (Hades, Charon,...)

But they're nowhere near devastating as the "Red Waves"! (Especially The Grey Sisters and Melinoes Mages). Cory can go down pretty fast if I don't dance him around.

Seeing that the CD has 0 Lightning Resist (http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/threads/29664-All-about-pet-damage) (look the charts), Violos comment about Lightning Damage makes sense. But I'm still guessing...

[hacknslash]

I noticed while on my farming runs that the tree auras can affect nearby mobs too. Sometimes I think I take more damage from them when it's active. So I bet not HofOak but more like Tree Rage? Like Rally for Trees?

The Melinoe blood effect looks exactly as the artifact spell effect on Blood Rage. The artifact is a bit useless because it only activates on low health but sucks like 1-2k vitality. And I've been damaged by it before too but not like say the Empusa energy burn pool.

Earthquake stuff I agree, I've never seen much from it. I thought was supposed to have a slow effect too as it resembles an artifact effect I saw somewhere. Does Minotaur earthquake slow? I thought it did. I always try to avoid it anyway.

[ASYLUM101]

* - that red imploding nova thing that Ichthian mages cast. I've been caught in it a number of times and it doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever.

OK - after looking through all the skills in the effect viewer (to determine which skill it is) I've figured out...

It's actually an ex-spirit mastery effect for a skill called "CONSUME LIFE". (fits for spirit no?). Anyway, all it does is 3-53 lifeleech damage over 3 seconds.

You sure it doesn't do any damage? Try standing next to him, naked, when he uses it. Could be broken...



* - the bubbling red AoE attack that Mellinoe mages cast. Again, I've been caught in it several times and haven't seen much effect. I'm assuming that both of these skills are some form of Vitality/Bleeding but they seem pretty weak.

The melinoes cast a spell called BLOODBOIL, which deals an IMMENSE amount of vitality damage and has 100% adcthp. That is to say, it deals 196-555 vitality damage in addition to 98 - 278 bleeding damage over 2 seconds. The reason it doesn't hurt must be because you have maxed vitality resists. (555*.2 = a meager 111 damage...). I remember when I tried farming massbosses or achilles, I forget which but there was a ton of strong melinoe witches spamming that and using their blood-vitality projectiles.. with low vitality resists and no bleeding resists, they killed me in seconds every damn time.



* - that earthquake-type attack that Jackalmen melee Champions (the big orange guys) cast, along with the Minotaur Lord. MinoLord's does have an effect - sometimes. At other times, it does nothing. It does seem to kill the Wisp, though, if you're unlucky.

The skill is called Earthfury -it's pure physical damage, as expected, and it doesn't really scale. It does piss-poor damage, even in late difficulties. (40 - 297) And no, it doesn't slow hackandslash.


* - that ridiculous spam casting of what sounds like Heart of Oak that the one Turtle Hero does. What in heck is that all about? You're standing potting the guy from range with a staff or bow and he just cranes his neck out and spams HoO? Huh? What gives with that? Does each of your hits turn it off, thus forcing him to spam it?

Could be that Roughneck is just retarded. It IS Heart of the Oak.


Also, what is that crazy skill that the treetrunks in Act IV do, where they look upwards, moan and then some leaves drop off them? I'm presuming it's some type of defence skill/aura they're activating as it does no damage. But what is it?


It's called ROAR. There's 2 different ones in the database, one called ROAR and another called WUSSY ROAR, but WUSSY ROAR doesn't seem to be used by any one. *shrug*

ROAR adds 80-118% physical damage(!!!) AND 33% attack speed.

[CrocMagnum]

...Does Minotaur earthquake slow? I thought it did. I always try to avoid it anyway.

I think the thing slowing you down is "Hamstring" from the Onslaught tree.

One last thing about the CD and Hades:

- When Hades goes Blue Waves: no problem Cory can tank well,

- When Hades goes Red Waves mode: Cory bites the dust. So what's the difference between those 2 damage types for chrissake! :eek:

[Irma2]

Great, thanks for the info, Asylum. Yeah, I have maxed Vit resistance pretty much constantly, which would explain the lack of damage from the Mellinoe Bloodboil skill.

[Tyr]

WUSSY ROAR? Seriously.

Maybe you had skill disruption? Should explain why Roughneck keeps trying to recast it. ToW? Probably bad AI that. I've never seen him do it.

@CrocMagnum
This (http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/threads/26681-Bosses-and-Damage-Types?highlight=barmanu+meteor) might help.

[ASYLUM101]

Yeah, Wussy Roar is in the database for real. It's not used by the tree guys and I don't think anyone else uses it either so I dunno. I thought it was funny. It's the same effect as ROAR but it's half the damage%.

[Irma2]

Tyr, it's quite possible. I invariably have Rage of Ares socketed in my cuffs and that has a chance of skill disruption, albeit a fairly low one. But I haven't noticed it on other monsters with auras. For eg, skellie mages don't continually recast Deathchill if I attack them with the same cuffs. My understanding is that, if you disrupt a monster skill, they simply don't cast it again unless it's a charge-up skill like Onslaught. I dunno, maybe Roughneck has a different AI routine to other monsters?

The one place I have noticed it is with Hades. My Harb has Rage of Ares in his SBC and often while I'm fighting Hades in third form he will rear up to cast his stunning blue nova - only to get disrupted before he can fire it off. Sometimes he'll do it two or three times in quick succession. You see his animation start, then stutter, then he tries to do it from the beginning again to no avail.

I always found it unlikely that Rage of Ares was doing it because its chance to proc is only 15% iirc. And, like I say, I often get it several times in a row. But, seeing as I don't use ToW, I can't think of any other explanation.

I'd also like to find out just which skills the various skill disruption mechanisms affect. ToW in my experience disrupts very little. It switches off Onslaught and Deathchill, and little else from what I can see. I don't think it would stop Hades from using his blue nova, although Rage of Ares does seem to do that.

I tried mucking about with skill disruption against Barmanu and it didn't seem to stop him either doing his stunning howl or casting his meteors. Both of which should be disruptable skills imo. If I get skill disrupted, then every skill on my hotbar goes onto cooldown. But the monsters seem to get a bunch of stuff that doesn't. I don't think ToW would stop a Dactyl casting his doom wave, for eg. If it did, it would be great, all Dream toons would have an instant anti-Dactyl mechanism.

There is a green weapon affix (Treacherous?) that disrupts skills with every hit. I think I must load up a weapon with that and then do long runs through different areas, noting what monster skills I can disrupt and what not.

[Deathshadow]

I have noticed that boar-men use an earth shake thingie like attack that also doesn't do any damage or skill disruption . Also there is a skill that mostly turtle heroes use ( Roughneck , Old Snapper ) like they are enchanting them-self but in my opinion it has no real damage or bonuses for them or for player .


There is a green weapon affix (Treacherous?) that disrupts skills with every hit. I think I must load up a weapon with that and then do long runs through different areas, noting what monster skills I can disrupt and what not.

Oh man I had that problem with my brigand , when in the quest skeleton riders , the prince of bow had an green bow with that affix on . It was pretty annoying cuz all of his attacks have an 4 second disruption . And he hits every time :) , and we all know that he does around 110 + damage on normal diff .

[Irma2]

I have noticed that boar-men use an earth shake thingie like attack that also doesn't do any damage or skill disruption .

Ooh, yeah, thanks for reminding me about them. It's not just the earthquake skill, they also do that weird whining/squealing thing where they thrust their heads forward which, I presume, boosts them in some way. Not sure what it does, though.