LIGHTNING BASED MAGIC by Moriah I. Charged Bolt II. Lightning III. Chain Lightning IV. Nova Part I: Charged Bolt ==================== ...so how does CHARGED BOLT really work? Glad you ask, my friend, because here is the answer. This discussion will deal only with Diablo, is only tested in multi player and and is designed to give people a better understanding of the use of the spell during gameplay. - What exactly is Charged Bolt? Charged Bolt belongs to the Lightning based spells, which also include Lightning itself, Chain Lightning and Nova. Charged Bolt is the ideal Lightning based spell for a Sorceror for all occasions. They start off with a staff of Charged Bolt. All dungeon levels up to and including level 15 have monster types which are susceptible to Charged Bolt and at all the difficulty settings. Jarulf's Guide v1.20 tells us it does damage between 1 and 1+(Magic/4), has 3+slvl number of bolts and always costs 6 mana points to cast from your spellbook. - Where can you find Charged Bolt, and in what form? Charged Bolt can be found on a staff and as a spellbook. Abundant in the Church and the Catacombs, you can quickly raise your spell level if you have the magic requirement for reading the books. The witch Adria will also sell you books of Charged Bolt for 1000 gold pieces. Sacred shrines will raise your Charged Bolt spell level by 2, up to a maximum of 15, but at the cost of a permanent mana reduction. Avoid raising your Charged Bolt spell level this way. Enchanted Shrines will lower the level of 1 known spell by one and raise all the other known spells by 1. This works most of the time for raising the spell level of Charged Bolt (up to the maximum of 15). In addition to the character's own spell level, other wearable items can raise the spell level even further, up to a maximum of 20. Although not officially excluded from scrolls, Yours Truly has never encountered Charged Bolt as a scroll. - Who uses Charged Bolt? Sorcerors mainly. Usually early on in the game, when the character is still at a low level, But, sadly, they "forget" about the usefulness of the Charged Bolt spell when the other more powerful Lightning based spells become available to them. This post hopes to show that high-level Sorcerors can make effective use of Charged Bolt as well. Rogues have a limited use for Charged Bolt. Warriors almost none. If these character classes want to use a Lightning based spell, then a medium to high level Lightning or Chain Lightning is much more prefered than Charged Bolt. - What monsters do you use Charged Bolt on? As stated before, Charged Bolt can be used on any level except level 16, but the Lightning spells really come into play at the end of the Catacombs, when the new Sorceror starts to encounter Magma Demon type monsters. These include Magma Demon, Blood Stone, Hell Stone and Lava Lord - all of which are fully susceptible to Lightning based spells. Later on you may encounter Balrog type monsters, which are Slayer, Guardian, Vortex Lord and Balrog. These too are susceptible to Lightning based spells. The Slayer and Guardian being fully susceptible, while the Vortex Lord and the Balrog are resistant to Lightning, but never immune. Other monster types to use Lightning spells on, rather than Fire spells, include the Hiddens (apart from Lightning as a spell by itself, Charged Bolt and Chain Lightning will hit any Hidden type monsters in range and stalking you) and Spitting Terrors. To round things off here, Lightning spells are also used on specific monster types, like Steel Lords and Hellspawn in Hell difficulty, more on this later. - How does Charged Bolt deploy itself? This is a widely misunderstood process. Let Yours Truly enlighten you. A character will cast Charged Bolt. 3 Bolts flow forth from the caster. 1 Bolt will travel in the direction to where the mouse pointer was clicked for at least 2 game-squares. The other bolts come out either side of the main bolt. These side-bolts will also travel straight for at least 2 game-squares, though diagonally away from the middle bolt. Notice that this will develop 2 blind spots 2 squares away from the caster. This corresponds to the moves a Knight in a game of chess can make. A very annoying feature as Balrogs seem very adept at occupying these unreachable squares. The original bolts are supercharged. Since multiple bolts are cast in lots of 3, they have the ability to split up after traveling a little distance. Yours Truly has so far been unable to establish a pattern to this breaking up. Even with the splitting of the bolts, blind spots remain some distance out from the caster. The directions of travel of the bolts seem to be within a 90 degree arc, and will be if the outer bolts decide to travel in a straight line. However, once the outer bolts have come inwards on the 90 degree arc, they never turn against their original bounds, effectively curbing the 90 degree arc to somewhat less. Bolts will continue to travel until they hit a solid object like a wall, a pillar or a cauldron. They will keep on traveling through a spiked body, a sarcophagus and barrels. They will not harm you if you walk through your own bolts, but will harm your golem and other players. - What tactics do you use with Charged Bolt? These are varied, and the reader is urged to try out a few things for him or herself. Charged Bolt is a good attacking spell from a distance, in that it can cover wide open spaces very effectively and it can also inflict a good deal of damage up close. Lets look at covering open spaces first. The caster is asked to try for taking up a doorway or a corner of a large room. Taking a corner, cast a couple of Charged Bolts towards the diagonally opposite corner of the room. As the bolts dissipate, they will hit the monsters present and either kill them or inflict some damage. Those that survive the first wave are "woken up" and will come to the caster. Since the caster can see the bolts dissipate, s/he can see the monsters who have come past the first wave. Quickly cast another 2-4 lots of Charged Bolt. The advancing monsters will be almost completely exterminated, at the least literally decimated. (Note: this may not be the case if this method is used in Hell/Hell on Steel Lords and Hellspawn, but at least you will know about the monsters' presence and switch to different spells and/or tactics. It certainly works in Normal/Hell.) If using this tactic from a doorway, be sure to stand in the door and cast straight out, else the side-bolts will go to waste if the caster stands behind the door. Follow this up with 1 step forward and casting straight out to the sides of the room. In any case, do not cast like a mad(wo)man until all your mana is gone, rather cast the spell in small bursts for maximum effectiveness. If there are ranged attackers on the level, then be prepared to step back through the doorway and off to the side. Charged Bolt travels slowly, so don't give the monsters a chance to get to you first. It may seem at times that many monsters escape the bolts, however, this is not so. They are merely weakened by every hit as the split bolts deliver less damage per monster-hit at a distance than they do up close, so let's look at the up-close tactics. As noted before, make sure that the monsters are not standing in a blind spot, so either they move or you move. The latter is recommended when there are ranged attackers present on the level as well. It must also be noted that sorcerors are very fast at casting Charged Bolt, so as soon as a monster gets next to you, select the monster with the mouse and right-click. The monster will now have to bear the full payload of a third of the total bolts the sorceror has just cast. Say the spell level is 15, that makes (3+slvl)/3 = (3+15)/3 = 6 bolts. For a sorceror with 120 magic, that is a range of damage of 6*(1) - 6*(1 + 120/4) = 6 - 186 damage for the one hit. And you still have the side-bolts which continue to spread themselves around. There are other tactics for Charged Bolt, especially in conjunction with other spells and weapons, but they are left for the reader to find. - Last notes! This post may now seem to end abruptly. That is intended. The author will probably be trying out your patience from this point onwards, and there is no better way to learn the effective use of the Charged Bolt spell than to actually use it yourself. The only thing to remember when using Charged Bolt is not to right-click away like a lunatic, a tactic which may work for Fireball and Lightning on occasion, but rather use some thought about its deployment. Charged Bolt travels much too slow for immediate high-impact, so be prepared to duck around a corner at times while the bolts do the dirty work. Yours Truly has successfully used the Charged Bolt spell at level 15 in Normal difficulty and cleared Hell/Church completely with a level 31 Sorceror without using a Mana Shield, albeit with the help of Stone Curse for various bosses and unique monsters. Enjoy !~!~! Moriah. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Part II: Lightning ================== ...so how does LIGHTNING really work? Glad you ask, my friend, because here is the answer. This discussion will deal only with Diablo, is only tested in multi player and is designed to give people a better understanding of the use of the Lightning spell during gameplay. - What exactly is Lightning? Lightning belongs to the Lightning based spells, which also include Charged Bolt, Chain Lightning and Nova. Lightning is a utility spell for all classes of all levels for a variety of situations. All dungeon levels up to and including level 15 have monster types which are susceptible to Lightning at all the difficulty settings. According to Jarulf's Guide v1.20 (see Acknowledgements at the bottom) Lightning's damage unfolds as: Min. Damage: 2 Max. Damage: 2 + clvl Length of bolts: 4 + [slvl/3] (uncertain) The mana costs of casting Lightning start at 10 for a lvl 1 spell and decreases by 1 mana per spell level down to a minimum of 6 mana at spell level 5. The damage is done on a continous basis, as long as a monster or player is subjected to a stream of Lightning, it or s/he will lose hit points continuously. Please note that Lightning damage is based on a character's own level and not on the character's Lightning spell level. Thus a level 1 Lightning from a level 5 character will only do a fraction of the damage compared to a level 1 Lightning from a level 45 character. however, the level 5 character can increase his/her Lightning power simply by gaining Lightning spell levels to create longer streams of Lightning for more damage potential. - Where can you find Lightning, and in what form? Generally books of Lightning will start to appear towards the end of the Church levels and are abundant in the Catacombs as well. The requirement for a level 6 Lightning spell is 46 magic, within the natural limit for Warriors, so Warriors and Rogues will have little problem raising their Lightning spell levels to a very useable level. This is in contrast to Charged Bolt which needs a high magic attribute to be used effectively. Higher levels of the Lightning spell can easily be attained through the use of Sorcery and Wizardry items as well as hitting Enchanted Shrines (ignoring the remote possibility that Lightning will decrease every time an Enchanted Shrine is hit). Adria the Witch will sell books of Lightning for 3000 gold pieces once a character has leveled up to 4. The spell can also be found on staves with a minimum of 20 magic, having between 20 and 60 charges inclusive and on scrolls without any requirements. - Who uses Lightning? All the classes will benefit from the proper use of Lightning. It is generously used by most characters until they learn the more powerful Chain Lightning spell. For Sorcerors, Lightning usually takes over from Charged Bolt for its faster kill rate, its immediate effectiveness (Charged Bolt may take a few level raises before it delivers a good punch) and for Warriors and Rogues it is usually the first of the Lightning based spells they use. - What monsters do you use Lightning on? All monsters in the Church are susceptible to Lightning, as are all Catacomb monsters except Familiars. In the Caves, only the Storm Demon types and Death Wings are immune and in Hell, its the Blood Knights, Advocates and Cabalists. There are a handful of monsters which are immune to Lightning on Hell difficulty, yet merely resistant on Normal and Nightmare modes (not listed here, but can be found in Jarulf's Guide) Hell Spawns are immune to Lightning on Normal and Nightmare, yet are susceptible to Lightning on Hell difficulty. You can hit other players with Lightning and Golems, even your own Golem, but you cannot be hurt by your own Lightning. - How does Lightning deploy itself? As far as I know, it strings together a set of bolts which make up a Stream. The Length of the stream depends on the spell level of the caster with casts from staves and scrolls at the level of the spellbook entry, but always a minimum of spell level (slvl) 1. Lightning travels in a straight line until it hits a solid surface. These solid surfaces include walls, pillars (big ones, but not small ones) and stairs. Lightning will travel right through monsters and players, sarcophagi, chests, barrels, skeleton tomes, impaled bodies, gratings (both perpendicular and parallel), cauldrons and will even travel and kill monsters and players offscreen. - What tactics do you use with Lightning? For a simple spell, the use can still be very varied. Lightning does most damage when the monsters are constantly exposed to the stream or streams, so try to line up with the monsters as much as possible, even catching a few lined up in a row. This can be done most easily with Stone Curse, but using walls, corridors and doorways is a good ploy too. If the monsters can't be lined up along the tiles, try to get them at a 45 degree angle. This too will ensure maximum exposure to the Lightning stream(s) and thus maximum damage. When casting Lightning on several monsters which are hitting you, cast 1 or 2 game-tiles *behind* the monster you want. Casting close-in in a crowded area may result in a stream of Lightning being sent to the wrong monster, with potentially disastrous results. Consider a Lava Maw and a Storm Demon trying to claw away at you at the same time. The Lava Maw can be killed by Lightning, the Storm Demon can't. Casting behind the Lava Maw will ensure the stream goes through the Lava Maw and not be diverted through the Storm Demon by the Diablo Game Engine. There are 4 main tactical applications when using Lightning:- 1. Point-somewhere-and-click. Mainly used by Warriors and Rogues to kill ranged attackers, this is an effective ploy to get skeleton and goat archers as well as succubi with good efficiency. 2. Kill offscreen. Use this technique when you suspect a bunch of hard-to-get monsters in a certain corner of the level. This can be used successfully on Spitters and Goatarchers in the Catacombs and the Caves, as well as others you may care to experiment on. But please note that this is a mana intensive use of Lightning. 3. Spray-a-hose-in-front-of-you. Very much like the offscreen killing technique, but mainly performed on monsters actually coming at you (magma demons, melee goaties and skeletons) or circling in a confined space (ranged goaties, balrogs and, to a degree, some witch types). This is more mana intensive than single casts, so a supply of mana potions is recommended as well as reasonably high mana point attribute for the character using this technique. It is great for those in co-op games who don't want to hurt their playing partners and don't want to limit the spell-casting ability of others. The game allows a maximum number of active spells at any one time and Chain Lightning, if used instead of Lightning, will eat up a lot of the available spell "slots" the game has. This technique can simulate a small arc of Chain Lightning with less damage, but with a lot more control and partner-friendliness. 4. Empty-the-tank. The Empty-All-Mana approach can be used effectively against melee monsters who close in on you like Steel Lords. These are resistant to Lightning and have many hit points and thus need a lot of Lightning damage before they go down. Be sure to have plenty of Mana Potions on your belt to use as required. This can be used effectively by Warriors who don't have too much mana, but do use a weapon "of Vampires" to top up their mana at a steady rate. Frequently these Warriors end up with more mana they can use, even casting Heal and Heal Other on themselves and their playing companions, so using this extra mana in other spells is a good excuse to weaken Steel Lords and other hard-to-kill monsters like Fire Drakes, then recoup the mana in melee combat. - Some caveats when using Lightning. You may be aiming at a Lightning vulnerable monster and activate more Lightning sensitive monsters behind the first one. This may cause more monsters coming at you than you intended. An example here would be aiming at Soul Burners in Normal or Nightmare Hell and waking up a tribe of Balrogs. The Soul Burners are relatively easy to dispose of with Lightning, the Balrogs are not. Sometimes you have aimed a stream at a monster at an angle and it comes towards you in a zigzag fashion. As stated before, the monsters will only take reduced damage from the Lightning as they weave in and out of the Lightning streams. Try to get the monsters in a straight line, either along the tiles horizontally and vertically or else diagonally. Use the Lightning spell in combination with other tactics. A new character with a level 2 Lightning is unwise to rely on Lightning when tackling the Horror archers surrounding the Skeleton King. Some form of Fire is much more effective against Horrors. Use Lightning against the Burning Undead skeletons instead. Good luck with your games and may you enjoy some electrifying magic :*) Moriah. - Acknowledgements I thank Jarulf for his excellent guide, Jarulf's Guide (JG v1.20). For those who haven't got it yet, download it from:- http://pf.chemeng.lth.se/diablo/index.htm Others who have contributed to my knowledge of Lightning include, but are not restricted to, in no particular order, are Alex, Sourceror, Bostic, MonkeyLord, Hellbringer, jKeltor and Chrystalion. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Part III: Chain Lightning ========================= Under construction --------------------------------------------------------------------- Part VI: Nova ============= Under Construction