Weapons' Reach and Elites in NM

[Occhidiangela]

Two odd things I observed today. In Tristram, NM Difficulty, two people in a game, bnet West.

1. My merc, Jemali, was jabbing Griswold. Griswold kept swinging and missing. I watched him swing and miss 11 times. Eventually, Jemali killed him. I was watching my ravens fight the carvers as well, such fun.

Has this effect of weapons' reach always been present? The ability to hold some monsters off with a long reach? I recall Pikes being weapons length 5, the longest possible.

2. Griswold dropped an ELITE blue voulge, a Colossus Voulge of the Locust. I had not seen elites drop in Act I NM before. Is this a function of Griswold's TC, or was this a fluke? The only other activity in the game was Dr Disaster killing Baal in Act V, which should not have influenced the TC of Griswold in Act I.

Thoughts on either point? On the weapons' reach issue, I may just never have noticed, on the drop, the TC seems too high.

Occhi

[Baajikiil]

Has this effect of weapons' reach always been present? The ability to hold some monsters off with a long reach? I recall Pikes being weapons length 5, the longest possible.

I can't say anything here; the affect of reach for hirelings has always been there, but I've never noticed it holding a monster off if it's not doing enough damage to cause hit recovery.

Is this a function of Griswold's TC, or was this a fluke?

No fluke. I've read elsewhere(most likely the AB) that griswold is one of the, if not the, earliest possible droppers of elite items in NM. He can drop several elite items, but they are all low end elite items(no hydra bows or berzerker axes...).

[adeyke]

Griswold's nightmare TC is higher than it really should be.

In normal, he can drop from Act 1 Uitem C or Act 1 Melee B.
In nightmare, he can drop from Act 1 (H) Uitem C or Act 1 (N) Melee B.
In hell, he can drop from Act 1 (H) Uitem C or Act 1 (H) Melee B.

That really should be an (N) instead.

Because he still has a very low mlvl, his drops aren't actually very good, though. He can't drop most of the exceptional unique or any of the elite uniques, even though his base items are that high.

[Occhidiangela]

Griswold's nightmare TC is higher than it really should be.

In normal, he can drop from Act 1 Uitem C or Act 1 Melee B.
In nightmare, he can drop from Act 1 (H) Uitem C or Act 1 (N) Melee B.
In hell, he can drop from Act 1 (H) Uitem C or Act 1 (H) Melee B.

That really should be an (N) instead.

Because he still has a very low mlvl, his drops aren't actually very good, though.  He can't drop most of the exceptional unique or any of the elite uniques, even though his base items are that high.
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Thanks. :)

Occhi

[bigeyedbug]

1.  My merc, Jemali, was jabbing Griswold.  Griswold kept swinging and missing.  I watched him swing and miss 11 times.  Eventually, Jemali killed him.  I was watching my ravens fight the carvers as well, such fun.

Has this effect of weapons' reach always been present?  The ability to hold some monsters off with a long reach?  I recall Pikes being weapons length 5, the longest possible.

I've never seen anything like that. I think the only way long weapons really hold monsters off is via knocking them into HR at the right time, or other effects (Knockback, AI effects, etc, all things I'd think you'd have mentioned). Since HR only goes into effect when a target is damaged for 1/12 of their life or more in one hit, and you say that your merc only "eventually" killed him, that doesn't seem to match up either.

Just FYI, Act 2 Merc range is locked at three regardless of weapon as well.

[Zingydex]

I've never seen anything like that.  I think the only way long weapons really hold monsters off is via knocking them into HR at the right time, or other effects (Knockback, AI effects, etc, all things I'd think you'd have mentioned).  Since HR only goes into effect when a target is damaged for 1/12 of their life or more in one hit, and you say that your merc only "eventually" killed him, that doesn't seem to match up either.

Just FYI,  Act 2 Merc range is locked at three regardless of weapon as well.
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I'm thinking Jemali got reeeeeeeaaaaalllllly lucky on the AR vs AC dice roll. It is quite an anomaly for a monster in NM or Hell to miss that many times in succession, seeing as the to-hit equations are rigged in their favor.