IM was nerfed from Oblivion Knights, presumably because it was able to one-hit kill high-level characters, which shouldn't ordinarily happen. I have a sorceress who can do battle in every area of the game (outside Uber Tristram) without ever meeting a one-hit kill fate, except in Nilly's chamber. Even the game's penultimate baddies, Baal, Diablo, or even the Diablo Clone cannot one-hit kill her. But there she is, standing several feet away from a dead minion in Nilly's chamber, and without warning she's crying her death scream. This needs to be nerfed, or toned down. No viable Matriarch character should be able to be one-hit killed by a monster. This is a game imbalance that should be fixed just like IM was fixed, especially since Nilly is the only one who drops the Key of Destruction.

Two ways to fix this imbalance:

1) Nerf Nilly's CE damage
2) Buff SMRIP to include creatures killed by elemental damage.

The second solution is my preferred solution. I've always thought it another imbalance that a sorceress is denied the benefit of "Slain Monsters Rest In Peace," as if what she is doing is not slaying the monsters...

A lot of people wear the Nature's Peace ring when running him. Then he can't cast CE, unless your merc makes a kill.

As for the tomb vipers, you need to turn off always run and get some "Damage reduced by X" gear and not reduced by X%, or so I've heard. I know for a fact that turning off run helps a lot, I do it for all my characters when I'm in places where I can get hit a lot.

I thank you both for the helpful replies, but I am not a complete noob at this; I've run Nilly hundreds of times, farming my own keysets in my solo endeavors to take advantage of all the game has to offer. I never have problems with the Vipers. They cannot one-hit kill my sorc. Those she can stay out of the way of.

With Nilly, it's a matter of going back and forth a lot to give my merc the brunt of damage. But sometimes, either by summoning a new minion that promptly dies in her waves of lightning or by my not seeing a fres body in all the carnage on the ground, he'll get one CE off and -- BAM! no warning and not even a millisecond to quaff a rejuv -- she's dead. This cannot happen anywhere else in the game for her. Even with the Vipers, she has time to tele and quaff, even if it's a fraction of a second response time. Not so with Nilly's CE. Resists are maxed, she has very decent gear. Nothing with fire absorb, yet, but she's looking. Natures Peace only works for monsters slain in melee, so it's useless for her. That was the point of my proposed solution, is to at least make SMRIP work for a sorceress, who is denied its benefit. If that were to be done, I could wait to get one and then run Nilly.

EDIT: Either I'm a complete stoner, or the effects of SMRIP have been changed to include elemental damage. I could have sworn that a couple patches ago, Nature's Peace wouldn't work for her, but I'll never say I can't be wrong. I just looked up NP on the Summit, and it says elemental damage will make it effective. So I was completely wrong.

Sorry to waste everyone's time.

I still think the one-hit kill is a bit much, tho.

How much life does your sorceress go to battle with?
Softcore is so much more forgiving. And people build characters with minimal vitality if they do not plan to PvP.

Tomb Vipers are more nasty because their poison attack will tick once for their physical attack damage. It hurts A LOT.

I give her enough not to be one-hit killed by anything. She has around 900 right now. Vipers are never an issue, as I use Blizz to waste them right off the edge of the screen, beyond their poison spears. I'm not saying she dies a lot from CE, either. It's just that it happens occasionally and it shouldn't. There shouldn't be anything that can one-hit kill like that. Occasionally, she'll meet a boss that's enchanted just the right way to do it, but them's the breaks with bosses. Nilly, being a permanent fixture who is the sole keeper of D-keys, should not have this ability. It's a real pain to lose experience in Hell.

I'll just look for a Nature's Peace, now that I know it does work for elemental kills. I don't know why I thought it was otherwise, honestly. Long-held mistaken belief. It happens.

It should be mentioned that "Slain Monsters Rest In Peace" does not work if a minion does the kill. (Mercs, Summons, Traps) And Nihlathak can occasionally Corpse Explode the corpse before the "Slain Monsters Rest In Peace" effect is established. (It's very rare)

Well, when I do find a NP, I'll take her farming D-keys sans merc to prevent such happenstance. And If Nilly does CE her before SMRIP takes effect, I'll cuss and rage for a few seconds, and live with it, I guess. I do hope it's *very* rare.

---

Q u o t e:
IM was nerfed from Oblivion Knights, presumably because it was able to one-hit kill high-level characters, which shouldn't ordinarily happen. I have a sorceress who can do battle in every area of the game (outside Uber Tristram) without ever meeting a one-hit kill fate, except in Nilly's chamber. Even the game's penultimate baddies, Baal, Diablo, or even the Diablo Clone cannot one-hit kill her. But there she is, standing several feet away from a dead minion in Nilly's chamber, and without warning she's crying her death scream. This needs to be nerfed, or toned down. No viable Matriarch character should be able to be one-hit killed by a monster. This is a game imbalance that should be fixed just like IM was fixed, especially since Nilly is the only one who drops the Key of Destruction.

Two ways to fix this imbalance:

1) Nerf Nilly's CE damage
2) Buff SMRIP to include creatures killed by elemental damage.

The second solution is my preferred solution. I've always thought it another imbalance that a sorceress is denied the benefit of "Slain Monsters Rest In Peace," as if what she is doing is not slaying the monsters...

---

1) If your sorc can't stand even one CE from Nihlatak you either need to buff life/vitality or re-think your playstyle.
2) Other chars can farm Nihlatak a lot saver than sorc's can, i.e. a Barb with Jump and Howl.
3) Stop whining.

---

Q u o t e:
3) Stop whining.

---

Hmmm.. Now that's attention-getting. Did you come up with that all by yourself? I'm very impressed.

Slain Monsters Rest in Peace does apply to monsters killed by Sorceress spell damage, with the exceptions of Hydra, Shiver Armour and Chilling Armour damage.

Here are some references regarding the various issues experienced when running Nihlathak:

Nihlathak's Corpse Explosion
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=80995&view=findpost&p=892430

Tomb Viper poison clouds
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=55484&view=findpost&p=914271

Slayer 'Skeleton' death explosions
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=83204

Arach corpses can apply approximately 1,032-2,063 total damage, which Fire Resist 75% would reduce to approximately 645-1,290 total damage.

---

Q u o t e:
Slain Monsters Rest in Peace does apply to monsters killed by Sorceress spell damage, with the exceptions of Hydra, Shiver Armour and Chilling Armour damage.

---

Thank you, yes, I realized that. Posts 4 and 6 in this thread contain my statements discovering this.

---

Q u o t e:
Here are some references regarding the various issues experienced when running Nihlathak:

Nihlathak's Corpse Explosion
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=80995&view=findpost&p=892430

Tomb Viper poison clouds
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=55484&view=findpost&p=914271

Slayer 'Skeleton' death explosions
http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=83204

Arach corpses can apply approximately 1,032-2,063 total damage, which Fire Resist 75% would reduce to approximately 645-1,290 total damage.

---

Thank you for those links. I will check them out.

Edit: Those are excellent resources. I think I will spend some time browsing that forum. Thanks again!

---

Q u o t e:

Hmmm.. Now that's attention-getting. Did you come up with that all by yourself? I'm very impressed.

---

Honestly what did you expect after your opening post? The essence of it reads "eeew that Nilly guy one-hot-kills my little sorcy everytime! Why they removed IM from OK's but let this still happen??"

Hey, you're going toe-to-toe with an evil necromancer and we all know he blows up corpses! Call yourself lucky that Blizzard did only buff Corpse Explosion for players in 1.13c and not Nihlatak's CE. He's still at 60..100% damage of the corpse hit points, not 70..120%.

The point is: hell critters got a lot of hit points. That's how themonster are set up and without already included difficulty-specific damage reduction of 50..35..20% (Norm/NM/Hell) one CE could plain wipe any char.

OK, now more into solutions. We know CE is half fire, half physical. Toning down the fire part is kinda easy. Just up fire res to 75+% and/or slap some fire absorb on to deal with it. The real problem is the physical part, that get's to your life ball unhindered. Here items with damage reduce xx% are key. If you want to run Nihlatak your sorcy better get's a few of them. Items with absolut damage reduce won't help a lot since one CE blast from Nihlatak easily deals several hundred(!) points of physical damage.

---

Q u o t e:
No viable Matriarch character should be able to be one-hit killed by a monster. This is a game imbalance that should be fixed just like IM was fixed, especially since Nilly is the only one who drops the Key of Destruction.
4thdimension

---

You're aware of Nihl's CE. Perhaps you should rethink your attack strategy.

My MA Bowazon with a Rogue hireling has no problem here. Of course, Decoy and Valkyrie are a big help. I line up with the narrow corridor on one side of Nihlathak's chamber, pull his minions into the room I'm currently in and kill them there. I immediately run down the corridor and cast Decoy as close to Nihl's platform as possible while Valkyrie rushes in to battle the minions, keeping them away from me and the Rogue. Once the initial wave of Nihl's minions have been decimated I run all the way around to the other corridor and move in to cast Decoy right at the center of Nihl's platform. I continue to spam Decoy as fast as she pops until Valkyrie can get into position, keeping Nihl's minions on the platform. At this point, I forget about Decoy and let Valkyrie tank the horde of Nihl's minions. The Rogue makes sure none of the monsters advance on us while I concentrate on dispatching Nihlathak.

Obviously, playing a Sorceress, your strategy will be different. But, my point is, strategy is everything; not nerfing everything in the game.

BTW, Dr.`disaster offered some good suggestions on DR items.

As a final note: The D-keys are like respect. It's not something that's given… It's something that's earned. ;)

---

Q u o t e:

Thank you, yes, I realized that. Posts 4 and 6 in this thread contain my statements discovering this.

---

Sorry for the redundancy, but you mentioned the Arreat Summit as your source and that has a reputation for not being entirely accurate.

---

Q u o t e:

Call yourself lucky that Blizzard did only buff Corpse Explosion for players in 1.13c and not Nihlatak's CE. He's still at 60..100% damage of the corpse hit points, not 70..120%.

The point is: hell critters got a lot of hit points. That's how themonster are set up and without already included difficulty-specific damage reduction of 50..35..20% (Norm/NM/Hell) one CE could plain wipe any char.

---

Fortunately the values for Nihlathak Corpse Explosions are only 10-20%: an Arach has 9,100-11,527 base life (10,313 average) in Ladder and single-player Hell games, and its corpse applies approximately 1,032-2,063 total damage.

The MonsterCEDamagePercent column in DifficultyLevels.txt is used when calculating the damage of Fire Enchanted and Bone Fetish death explosions, but not Corpse Explosions.

---

Q u o t e:
Sorry for the redundancy, but you mentioned the Arreat Summit as your source and that has a reputation for not being entirely accurate.

---

Hey, no problem; I appreciate the detail.

---

Q u o t e:
Fortunately the values for Nihlathak Corpse Explosions are only 10-20%: an Arach has 9,100-11,527 base life (10,313 average) in Ladder and single-player Hell games, and its corpse applies approximately 1,032-2,063 total damage.

The MonsterCEDamagePercent column in DifficultyLevels.txt is used when calculating the damage of Fire Enchanted and Bone Fetish death explosions, but not Corpse Explosions.

---

So let me ask you this: is there any other creature in the game (outside the Ubers) that delivers that much damage in one swat? Because honestly, I have resists maxed and *nothing* else (except an exploding random boss doll) can bring her down like that. To me, that's a strange imbalance, when the act bosses themselves can't even approach that. And the vipers have nothing on that CE; there's reaction time to tele out and rejuv with those. With SMRIP I should be okay, I think. Anyway, that's all just my take on it. I think it's weird. It's not going to stop me from running him for keys (that he's such a stingy bastard makes it all the worse - LOL).

---

Q u o t e:
The D-keys are like respect. It's not something that's given… It's something that's earned. ;)

---

Cute, but nonsense. T-keys are a joke to get and so are H-keys. It takes more time to tele to their locations than it does to slap them down. A potion never need be quaffed hunting for those keys. There is an insanely huge difference, and it's silly. Hell Diablo and Baal are less dangerous *together*. I still say it's silly. I'm not a fan of nerfing just for nerfing's sake, but this is one definitely on par with That Other Nerf.

I agree Nilly has to be nerfed. A hacknslay game is not meant to be dangerous to your charachter at any time. And while they are doing it, they should remove cursed, extra fast, extra strong, enchantments, iron skin, auras and whatever i forgot from bossmonsters. Or make it easier, remove bossmonsters from the game. How bout ranged monsters? they could hit you, so lets remove them, too.

To be serious, you are playing a sorc - some damagereduce and the technique Justindarkwater uses with his amazon should be more than you need. Add a little caution, which should not be a bad thing for softcore either, and you should be just fine.