I've been running a few tests in duel games on assassin's shadows. I can confirm that once they cast fade, they appear to be literally invincible at least vs. fire or cold attacks from a sorceress. This can be very significant in pvp because an unkillable summon that constantly dragon flight tele's directly onto you, or at least always runs at you, is almost always between you and the sin you are targeting and hence blocks your projectiles (not to mention slowly chips away at your life over time and frequently stuns you even though it should have died first). Is this a bug that Blizzard may attempt to patch in the future, or is this intended behavior?

Hypotheses I have tested:

• Is the shadow always invincible?
  ----> No, it seems to only become invincible once it has cast fade. Before that it is killable (usually in one fireball).
  
• Does the shadow glitch to have 100% claw block?
  ----> No, because firewall also doesn't hurt it (firewall can't be claw blocked, or dodged / avoided / evaded)
  
• Does the shadow glitch to have no cap to its resistances, so that it is hitting 100% resist?
  ----> I think no, because even a blizzard from a sorc with over 200% pierce does zero damage. Before fade it is killable, after fade it is invincible. Unless its fade is glitched to add >200% all resist AND its resists are uncapped

I'd also be curious if others have done more testing. Can lightning kill it? How about poison? I know physical damage can still kill it, and I think magic damage can. Does the shadow have to be a certain level to be invincible? Does the sin need enough base points in fade? etc.

Anyone have more knowledge on this?

It’s all based on level of your master and stats rolled on its items.

All is working as intended. And works this way on legacy as well

I agree it's bullshit but it was like that on legacy ...you can still rock a sin as a sorc it's just super annoying

This post was edited by Dragunovtp on Dec 14 2021 06:47pm

Agreed it's not new to D2R. Could you elaborate though on how it depends on the shadow's level or items? Like, what mods make the shadow invincible? It doesn't show up as "immune to fire" the way, say, a necro's summons will when they have a salvation aura, or the way an oak sage is immune to poison. The shadow just... doesn't take any damage. Invulnerability also never happens to valkyries (which also roll random items, whose mods are based on the valk's level), so why only shadows?

Just curious to understand the mechanism.

This post was edited by Bell Guard on Dec 14 2021 07:24pm

google. This game is 21 years old or so.. tons of info

they gain resist from gear and can be immune to all elements, lvl17 is when they get full equipment so it's generally the minimum level of master you want for pvp

firewall can be blocked by clawblock. its used in LLD and clawblock reduces fw dmg output by like 30-40%. its massive.

Hmm, so does that mean blizzard doesn't hurt them because they regularly just roll gear with more than +200% cold resist? I would have thought if they were at 100% resist it would say "Immune to X" under their name the same way it does when all other summons get immunities from resist auras.



I never knew that! Interesting...

cold mastery does not break cold immunes, only lowers cold resist if the monster is not already immune or has their immunity broken by conviction.

shadow masters spawn with random equipment, at level 17+ shadow it spawns with full equipment, all of which can roll rare mods like +res
if the shadow has over 100% resist, it is immune to that element same as a monster would be.

sometimes takes a few casts if it spawns with bad equipment that doesnt give resists.

once you see the shadow is immune to your opponent, have fun.
or if you are the sorc.. good luck.

it has always worked this way, working as intended

This post was edited by Ziecheik on Dec 15 2021 05:54pm

Spawn big i res shadow with amp ctc pls