Quote (Taurean @ Mar 13 2018 08:33pm)
Nihlathak's corpse explosion:
Explosions cannot be blocked, and Dodge, Avoid, Evade and Weapon Block do not apply: only way to escape damage is to stay out of radius.
Unlike Fire Enchanted explosions, damage applies to mercenary and pets.
50% of damage is converted to Fire Damage, the remainder is physical.
There is no chance of critical damage, and damage is not affected by number of players in game.
Damage is only (10-20)% of corpse's average base life in all difficulty levels.
Damage is not modified due to level difference
Avoid killing anything else before killing Nihlathak. Altering AI of monsters is advisable, preferably by blinding them or causing them to flee, as is applying stun length.
Use or destroy corpses before they can be made to explode. Most universal option is to equip item supplying Slain Monsters Rest in Peace, although this won't apply to kills made by mercenary or pets (unless mercenary is also equipping such an item, or Iron Golem was summoned from such an item).
Stay outside damage radius of corpses and cast pets repeatedly to cause him to explode those corpses.
Draw monsters away and kill them outside Nihlathak's awareness range, although this is potentially risky since he can teleport into range again.
Suicide Minions:
In Nightmare and Hell there is ~22% (2/9) chance that Slayers will be selected as one of three monster types that randomly populate Halls of Vaught. When Nihlathak attempts to transform them into Suicide Minions, they cannot do so because there is no corresponding Suicide Minion and so they appear to transform into Skeletons. However, this is purely graphical and they retain the stats of Slayers.
These 'skeletons' still explode like Suicide Minions, although since a Slayer's AI parameters are used instead of those of a Suicide Minion, explosion damage is slightly less but radius is much larger than for a Frenzied Ice Spawn (whose explosion damage and radius would be identical to those of a Suicide Minion properly summoned from a Slayer)
Consequently, if a Slayer is seen to transform into a 'Skeleton' then either it or Nihlathak should be killed as quickly as possible; if a 'Skeleton' is seen then, without knowing how many times Nihlathak has attempted to transform it, care should be taken to remain outside explosion radius when it is killed (although mercenary and pets do not take any damage).
Damage of each explosion can be doubled by a critical hit, but damage is not affected by number of players in game
Number of explosions is square of number of attempts made by Nihlathak to transform Slayer and subsequent 'Skeleton' into Suicide Minion:
Code
Attempts Explosions Total base damage
Nightmare Hell
1 1 (1^2) 78-104 140-188
2 4 (2^2) 312-416 560-752
3 9 (3^2) 702-936 1,260-1,692
4 16 (4^2) 1,248-1,664 2,240-3,008
5 25 (5^2) 1,950-2,600 3,500-4,700
This post was edited by Marieusz on Mar 13 2018 04:56pm