KILLING ME SOFTLY

- Hi, ginger beauty! Im Mizan, traveling mercenary from Lut Golein. This is my Boss...

 - Im not a "beauty". Im Flavie, Rogue scout, defender of this camp.

 - Stay back, Mizan! Sorry, young lady! We are looking for Akara, the priestes.

 - Follow me!

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 - Wellcome, stranger!  My name is Akara. Can I help you?

 - Im looking for an antidote. I found Andariel's lair, but my merc was infected by poison and looks like something  between Hulk and Yoda.

 - Oh, I can heal him. And you can drink this potion. It instantly removes poison. Also you get +50 poison resist and +10 maximum poison resist for 30 seconds. Remember: if you drink more than one poison/thawing potions,  duration stacks.

 - Seems like you know some things about poison, Akara. Tell me more, please!

 - Usualy poison damage is fixed amount and applyes during time, called poison lenght (PL).

This is important - pay atention! The actual effectivenes of poison (PE) is hp lost per frame. 1 second = 25 frames. Always use the simple formula (Amount/seconds)/25

Lets try: 200 poison damage over 4 seconds. PE = (200/4)/25 = 2hp lost per frame.

 - Its easy! What elce?

  - Poison damage can be delivered with:

1) "Breath poison" -> poison clouds from items/skills like Poison Nova, Plague javelin, gas potions etc.

2) "Blood poison" -> cuccesful phisical hit - melee or missile (arrows, bolts, throwing weapon). Projectile spells like Fire bolts, Tornado, bone spells etc do not carry poison. Any added damage, include Venom from Treachery/Grief dont works with Smite. Assassins kicks are hits. They applies poison damage, although its not displayed.

Poison damage “pierce” Energy shield, draining only life. Life and mana stolen per hit do not works for poison damage (and other elemental).

 - But poison is slow. How can I increase my poison damage?

 - The mod +% to poison skill damage is great for increasing poison damage, resp PE. There is a... I call this "bonus-bug": When you wear +poison skill damage item and cast Venom, poison damage from this skill is increased. But this damage is increased one more time while you still wear the item. The same is with self-enchanting sorceress and Fire mastery. Not only assassins can use this trick. Any class, even mercenaries can use Bramble, Trang gloves and poison facets for pre-buff the Venom from Treachery/Grief.

 - This is interesting, but we have to survive against Andariel. Tell me, Akara, how to protect myself against poison!

 - When you take poison damage, first debuff is resist. Poison resist decrease only amount of damage resp PE. Next is Poison lenght reduce.  PLR reduce duration. For example 50%PLR =  half duration = half damage.  PLR reduce and damage as well, but damage/ lenght ratio is the same, so PE is the same.

- So, if I have 50% resist and 50% PLR? Is that means Im immuned to poison?

 - No, Mizan! That means you are stupid!

If you take 200 poison damage over 4 sec. PE = 50/sec

First is 50% resist 200*0,5 = 100 poison damage over 4 sec. PE=25/sec

Next is 50% PLR 4*0,5 = 2 sec remains, 2 sec are canceled by PLR. Total 2 sec x 25 = 50 damage.

 - If I have 100% PLR, the poison is applied for a single frame, full duration is canceled and I'm immuned. Tell him, Akara!

 - Not realy, my dear Mizan. Only poison shrine make you immuned. PLR is capped to 75%. And there is a hidden penalty just like resist on NM -40% and HELL -100%. If you have PLR 50% on hell dificulty its actualy 25%. Without any PLR on Hell, you will suffering by poison twice longer, taking double damage. When dueling on PvP, dont forget than -X% enemy poison resist from mods/facets/curses, afects not only resistance, but PLR as well.

 - This is not fair, but we can use it against enemies. How different poison sources works together?

 - Total poison damage from 3 sources is amount1 + amount2 + amount3 = X damage

Total duration is (duration1 + duration2 + duration3)/3 = Y seconds. (PE = X/Y)25

Delivered by missile PE is the same, but the lenght is: duration1 + duration2 + duration3 = Z seconds.

 - WOW! Bowazon + poison charms = high damage + high PE + long duration.

 - Lets talk about this later. My people suffering. I will be very grateful if you kill Andariel!

 - Sure! Come on, Mizan, wear your Treachery, cast Venom and Fade and lets go kill her... softly.

 - Hey, Flavie, I’LL BE BACK!

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 - Hi again, Akara. Im disappointed from Andy, I was hoping for SoJ... But something is wrong with poison duration. It doesnt stacks.

 - Poison hits does NOT stacks. If new poison is applied, then engine compare PE

1) If new poison is equal or more effective, the old is canceled and ovewrited. Lenght timer starts for the new one.

2) If old poison is more effective, the new is canceled and the old works untill the lenght timer run out, or untill is overwrited by the same or stronger poison.

- Fast repeating hits with the same amount of poison damage, permanently overwrithe your own poison. It still works for several frames untill next hit.  In this case duration doesnt matters but you need high as possible PE.

 - Im confused.  In multiplayer game, the player with higher PE makes useless all poison damage, delivered by other players in most cases. Please, tell me how to combine sources to do high as possible poison damage!

- Its simple: sources with higher damade and/or short lenght = high PE

- Lets try with some examples:

a smal charm 100 poison damage over 6 sec. PE = (100/6)/25 = 0,67

skill Venom 100 poison damage over 0,4 sec. PE = (100/0,4)/25 = 10

Adding more sources with the same duration, even with lower damage, increase total damage and PE

Smal charms 100 poison damage over 6 sec. + another smal charms 100 poison damage over 6 sec.  100+100=200 p.dmg over (6+6)/2=6 sec. PE = (200/6)/25 = 1,33

Adding more sources with longer duration, dramaticly decrease PE.

skill Venom 100 poison damage over 0,4 sec. + smal charm 100 poison damage over 6 sec.

100+100=200 p.dmg over (0,4+6)/2=3,2 sec.  PE = (200/3,2)/25 = 2,5

- What you trying to say, Akara? Long duration poison charms is a waste of space and  long duration poison skills is a waste of points?

 - Poison damage must be used smart. If you wish faster impact - add sources with short lenght for less total duration = more damage per second. If you wish big amount of poison damage - use sources with higher damage for more total damage. Using hit-and-run tactic you can safety deliver huge poison damage with long duration (Poison dagger) and wait for full effect or finish your enemy with another skill.

 - The Amazon can use Poison javelin for first hit, then swap to bow + charms max damage,  instead of poison charms.

 - Right, using the highest poison damage from Plague javelin over 100 000 theoreticaly you can hit Diablo once, and if you negate his 50% poison resistances, using Low resist curse, you can open a beer and wach him dies in agony after 2 minutes. But that requires 40 skill points, 10+ skillers and specific items.

Now lets compare the most deadliest poison skills: Poison Nova can reach 12 000+ damage over 2 sec fixed duration. PE ~ 240. Only high level Venom, can overwrite Poison nova, but usualy assassins dont use Bramble + Trang + facets + shadow skillers.

- I understand. Even lower damage, like 2k Venom can overwrite even 100k Plague Javelin, because of higher PE.

I already know how to compare and choose the best option and tactic. Thank you, Akara!  Lets go, Mizan, Warriv has prepaired the caravan. Hey, Mizan, where are you? Oh, my god! This useless idiot follows Flavie outside the camp. Akara, please tell me the fastest way to kill him... softly!

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 - Hey, Akara, where is my Boss?

 - Oh, Mizan, he traveled west. Run fast if you want you can catch him...