Barb Howl bugged?

[chainbreaker]

I've been developing a new mace barb--ladder HC--and upon his arrival in Hell noticed that his Howl shout doesn't work in some areas where my other barb's Howl works fine.

Old barb's Howl works in The Pit--new barb's doesn't; Old barb's Howl works in The Hole--new barb's doesn't, etc. In some areas the shout works on one level and not another. For instance, it works on the first level of the Viper Temple but not the second. In all instances the old barb's Howl works--he is also uswest ladder HC, BTW.

I thought maybe the problem was related to some gear somehow, but I've outfitted the newer barb with the older barb's gear and it's still present. This is a criticial skill to a HC barb, and if a solution isn't found will make his eventual demise certain to come before it otherwise would.

Has anyone else experienced this and found any solution?

[kryo]

I'm not certain, but from what I remember, the success of Howl (and all make moster flee enchantments) is based on a formula that figures in monster level, slvl, and clvl. So basically, if it isn't working, try levelling up some more and that might do the trick

[Kip]

I agree, I had a similar problem to this. My howls did nothing but waste my mana when I would use it. After I leveled a few times I went back to the same area and it worked fine on the same monsters. I think the previous poster is right, there is a formula for it's success, as I recall the last thing that started to run from it last was one of the sorceror guys in late act 1 which I believe are one of the higher leveled monsters in act 1. Level up a bit, come back, let us know if it worked, if not, no clue man.

Kip

[Chaldan]

If Arreat Summit is correct, then this is the formula (taken from http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic/pre.shtml , at the bottom where fleeing prefixes are listed) :

"If the Character Level + 1 + Howl Skill Level > Monster Level, the monster will flee"

[Dreamsmith]

Originally Posted by Chaldan

"If the Character Level + 1 + Howl Skill Level > Monster Level, the monster will flee"

Bah, they had to stick that +1 in there just to avoid a ">="? The above means the same as: "If character level + skill level >= monster level", which is I believe how Howl works as well.

So either level up or drop some more points into the skill. The latter, incidentally, also increases your Howl radius. At high enough skill levels, you can clear to the edge of the screen...