Mod/Fix : Hunter of Heroes Nerf

Epaminondas · #1 November 25th, 2006, 12:50 AM

Quote:

The DarkOne said:
Here you have the hunter of heroes.

Hmmm. I have not seen him in the game (I only have the Demo), but his stats don't look overwhelming. That is, a well-equipped SC should handle him or even a mage-type with strong body guards, no? He just looks like an SC who is slightly better stat-wise than a Niefel Jarl. Of course, I don't know what all of his attacks do...

Endoperez · #2 November 25th, 2006, 08:27 AM

Consume Soul - mr roll or die
Astral Fetters, Astral Hooks, Life Drain are all armor-piercing or armor-negating, add strength, and can't be resisted by magic. Curse Luck is like some strange inverse Luck, as per the spell.

He has good defence, so only few units can hit him. He has good attack, so he can hit all units... Only few units can damage him through that protection, and they can't deal much damage, any way. He, on the other hand, mostly ignores armor. Also, he has Blood Vengeance, so anyone trying to hit him has to succeed a MR roll or damage themselves instead. Then he's also ethereal, so you'd need magical weapons to actually hurt him. The Fear rating is +20 or so, i.e. Very Bad.

He has 90 hp and no elemental resistances, so in theory you can use spells to hurt him. Most elemental spells can't punch through prot 25; Air probably could. If the caster could deal, say, 20 damage/turn, and had 10 bodyguards (Ring of Warning), and Rarku only killed 2 of them each turn, and if the bodyguards were undead and he couldn't drain life back, and only one of the bodyguards killed himself on his Blood Vengeance every turn, and he killed all the bodyguards before attacking the mage...

1st - 70 hp, 7 bodyguards left
2nd - 50 hp, 4 bodyguards left
3rd - 30 hp, 1 bodyguard left
4th - 10 hp, last bodyguard is dead and Rarku moves next to the mage, giving him 50% chance of not being able to cast due to being threatened.

Of course, if you had something like Ether Warriors as bodyguards, they could be VERY nasty indeed. Attack just 13 and Moon Blades have just 2 att IIRC, so only 14% of the attacks bypass Rarku's defence, but with 16 str and increased damage against magical creatures they might deal 10 or so points of damage to him on a successful hit, if they succeeded the Blood Vengeance resistance throw and didn't hurt themselves.

But yes, it IS possible to defeat Rarku. It will be hard, but it can be done. He might even have some afflictions when he comes again.

Turin · #3 November 25th, 2006, 09:04 AM

Can he fly in storms? I know the old doom horrors could, but maybe IW forgot to implement it for Rarku. If he can�t it should be easy to beat him with a staff of storms due to his 4 ap.

Epaminondas · #4 November 25th, 2006, 02:07 PM

Endoperez,

Ok. I didn't realize what his attacks did. Further, I missed the Ethereal icon. So I guess he can't be soloed by a well-equipped Niefel Jarl!

Are Ether Warriors undead? It's been a while since I played Dom II, and they are not available in the Demo.

Endoperez · #5 November 25th, 2006, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Epaminondas said:
Endoperez,

Ok. I didn't realize what his attacks did. Further, I missed the Ethereal icon. So I guess he can't be soloed by a well-equipped Niefel Jarl!

Are Ether Warriors undead? It's been a while since I played Dom II, and they are not available in the Demo.

Magical beings, but their Moon Blades deal more damage to magical beings such as Doom Horrors.

Lleihsad · #6 January 15th, 2007, 04:22 AM

I fired up a game as early age Ulm with your mods in effect, and found that my warrior chiefs now had the stats of horrors! I did some experimenting and found that it's caused by the general Horror Nerf mod. I don't know if other units are changed as well, but I thought I'd let you know.

NTJedi · #7 January 15th, 2007, 04:29 AM

Lleihsad... the most recent Dominions patch fixes the Hunter of Heroes bug, so there's no legit reason to use this mod.

Twan · #8 January 15th, 2007, 08:13 AM

It seems some units numbers have been changed in the last patch, normally my mod only change the hunter of heroes (and some other unique horrors in the version posted after).

Epaminondas · #9 November 25th, 2006, 02:21 PM

Also, are magical beings not protected from Life Drain? You know, they are not "alive" or organic in the sense we are

Taqwus · #10 November 25th, 2006, 02:56 PM

If memory serves, the only difference is if you happen to be lifeless / inanimate. You still take life drain damage (!), but the drainer will not regain hp / fatigue in the process. I seem to remember killing a (Dom2) Sacred Statue with Drain Life casts...

Rarku is nasty. Not as nasty, perhaps, as the two True Ethereal forms are of Umor, depending on just how much protection TE offers.

A Spirit Helm will offer extra lightning damage per turn; so does the shield o' shocking grasp. A Phoenix Rod will do fairly significant always-hit armor-negating fire damage via Incinerate. Frozen Heart may also help. A bodyguard of Storm Demons might also be fun.