How to deal with Diablo's firestorm

[krischan]

Equipping a merc with them might be a bit difficult

I'll list down all the items your merc can use here

[crawlingdeadman]

ha! reading skills -1

[KiraZ]

forgot a few items:

Hotspur
Boots

    Defense: 10 (Base Defense: 2-3)
Required Level: 5
Durability: 12
Assassin Kick Damage: 3-8
+10-20% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+6 Defense
Fire Resist +45%
15% To Max Fire Resist
Adds 3-6 Fire Damage
+15 To Life

Waterwalk
Sharkskin Boots

    Defense: 112-124 (varies)(Base Defense: 33-39)
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 47
Durability: 14
Assassin Kick Damage: 28-50
+180-210% Enhanced Defense (varies)
20% Faster Run/Walk
+100 Defense Vs. Missile
+15 To Dexterity
+5% Maximum Fire Resist
Heal Stamina Plus 50%
+40 Max Stamina
+45-65 To Life (varies)

Infernostride
Demonhide Boots

    Defense: 94-105 (varies)(Base Defense: 28-35)
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Durability: 12
Assassin Kick Damage: 26-46
5% Chance To Cast Level 8 Blaze When Struck
20% Faster Run/Walk
Adds 12-33 Fire Damage
+120-150% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+15 Defense
10% To Maximum Fire Resist
Fire Resist +30%
40-70% Extra Gold From Monsters (varies)
+2 To Light Radius

Dwarf Star
Ring

    Required Level: 45
+40 To Life
+40 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
Fire Absorb 15%
Magic Damage Reduced By 12-15 (varies)
100% Extra Gold From Monsters

Um, it's purposeful because I include only items for merc to equip, so no rings/boots there. Or does he himself also need the added protection? I can find some more items then (and crawlingdeadman's items are really good for that purpose (not occupying weapon slot, etc))

Edit: ninja'ed

[Hairless]

on a semi-related note, i have found the unique amulet The Rising Sun quite handy when hit with 10 or so Hydra's whilst running the Council. Granted they aren't really that hard to deal with in the first place, but still i enjoy the constant healing.

[krischan]

Rising Sun is also very useful at the beginning of a ladder season, e.g. when doing hell Meph runs with a sorc with crappy equipment and negative resists.

[hubb]

on a semi-related note, i have found the unique amulet The Rising Sun quite handy when hit with 10 or so Hydra's whilst running the Council

Yebo. My last sorc was a FB/Nova with Rising Sun, T-gods (and max block). People seem to like GA when making tanky sorcs but IMO stacked res and some sorb is much more effective.

[onderduiker]

I'm going to respond to the following directly, since it might have been overlooked in my previous post:

There are 2 ways in going here, absorb or +max fire resist

There is a third option that can counter Diablo's firestorm damage:

As mentioned earlier, although in Hell each missile only applies 456-560 fire and 176-240 physical bit (1 bit = 1/256 point) damage per collision and thus per frame, the effect of integer (magic) damage reduction is reduced to ~1/25 (41/1024): so although maximum 2 _48/256 (560/256) base fire damage per collision is applied to a player, MDR 55 would be required to negate it (MDR 110 for a mercenary).

Better yet, a player applying DR 37 and Fire Resist 75% would completely negate both fire and physical non-critical damage, since excess DR is applied to remaining fire damage after FR 75%. DR 75 and FR 75% would completely negate critical damage (or non-critical damage applied to a mercenary, since Act bosses apply 200% damage).

on a semi-related note, i have found the unique amulet The Rising Sun quite handy when hit with 10 or so Hydra's whilst running the Council. Granted they aren't really that hard to deal with in the first place, but still i enjoy the constant healing.

A post from another thread:

Hydra are pets, so they only apply 17% damage to players but they still apply 100% damage to mercenaries. Council Members in Travincal cast level 9-10 Hydra (Geleb Flamefinger and his minions cast level 10) with +100% Fire Skill Damage in Hell, resulting in the following:

LEVEL   FIRE DAMAGE PER BOLT
        Mercenary     Player
----------------------------
   9      120-147      21-25
  10      135-164      23-28

Hydras have no chance of applying a critical hit, so a player equipping Magic Damage Reduced by 28 is completely unaffected by their damage even when level 10 [85/8] Conviction (Fire Resist -75%) applies. However, a mercenary would need MDR 164 to achieve the same effect.

Maffer Dragonhand, Bremm Sparkfist and his minions cast level 11 Hydra with +100% Fire Skill Damage in Hell, resulting in 150-181 fire damage to mercenaries and ~25.5-31 fire damage to players (so MDR 31 would be required for immunity).

Bartuc the Bloody and his minions in the Throne of Destruction in Hell cast level 11 Hydra with +120% Fire Skill Damage, resulting in 165 - 199 _25/256 fire damage to mercenaries and ~28-34 fire damage to players (so MDR 34 would be required for immunity).

[Hairless]

so...what about Black Souls?

I have been wondering whether Blackhorns Face would help out much against them. I'm not sure if the damage listed on arreat summit is correct and if absorb happens before resistances or after.

[hubb]

You can find info on souls halfway through this post. Absorb comes after resist. So in onderduiker's first example above (T-gods vs P1 Willowisp), in the worst-case 300 damage would get reduced to 45 after resists and then 25 after the sorb. You'd take 25 damage, then get healed for 20 as well, resulting in 5 damage taken. Right?

In Blackhorn's case (so 75% LR) the 20 sorb will reduce the average amount of damage you take (from a bolt doing 250) from 62 to 22.

[onderduiker]

You can find info on souls halfway through this post. Absorb comes after resist. So in onderduiker's first example above (T-gods vs P1 Willowisp), in the worst-case 300 damage would get reduced to 45 after resists and then 25 after the sorb. You'd take 25 damage, then get healed for 20 as well, resulting in 5 damage taken. Right?

Right, when current life <= maximum life - 20 (or more generally, when current life <= maximum life - integer absorb). Healing is applied before damage, so a player already at maximum life would receive 0 healing, then damage would be reduced by 20, from 45 to 25. However, the next lightning bolt would heal 20 life (since current life = maximum life - 25) before damage was reduced by 20, resulting in a net loss of just 5.