Pre 1.09 Frozen Orb Mechanics

[fearedbliss]

So I've been playing 1.08 lately and finally got my Sorc to Level 30 (she's currently level 34 and doing some exp runs on players 8 using Singling's players command). I noticed that the Frozen Orb Mechanics work the same as what people reported on 1.07, and also seems to be consistent with what I've read about Frozen Orb in prelod (1.00 - 1.06b), that is to say 1.00 - 1.08 all seem to have the mechanic where if the orb touches a monster, further damage gets cancelled, and thus you need to shoot the orb basically next to the monster without touching them. This also means combining Static Field with Orb as a finisher is probably the best combination.

1.09 Frozen Orb mechanic seems to be my favorite since in order to do maximum damage, you should shoot the orb through the monster directly, where as in 1.10+ the Orb should terminate and explode on the monster.

The above behavior (and also given I haven't really read anything in the patch notes regarding a Frozen Orb bug - but there's lots of bugs that haven't been reported as fixed in the patch notes) also make me feel that when people say the Frozen Orb is bugged in pre 1.09, it may not be correct. There is a possibility that this was the intended Frozen Orb behavior for prelod and that remained in 1.07/1.08, and after that they decided to change it in 1.09.. subsequently further modifying it with the final Blizzard North, 1.10 patch.

I'll post more about this once I've had a chance to continue playing my 1.08 sorc.

[fearedbliss]

To add to the above, even if I shoot the Orb through the monster, I still feel that I do the maximum amount of damage when the Orb terminates and explodes on the monster itself. Maybe the total amount of damage is different than 1.10 somehow but I haven't played 1.10 in a while but eventually I'll need to come back to my childhood version of 1.10 haha. That's where it all began for me. It's been a hell of a ride. It's crazy to think I'm an adult and still playing D2, but I'm proud and happy about it. Diablo 1 and 2 for lyfe.

[fearedbliss]

Now that I've Baroned my 1.05b Sorceress, i can report back on the prelod FO mechanics. Basically you want to shoot the orb as close as possible to the monster without touching them. You also want to shoot it at a strategic location so that when the Orb explodes, it can spray all the ice bolts the surrounding monsters. If your Orb touches a monster, it will immediately stop doing further damage. I don't think this is a bug, but an explicit design decision which makes sense from a fantasy perspective IMO, although it could make sense for it to go through from a fantasy perspective as well if you feel the Orb almost has some type of ethereal ghostly characteristic to it.. but if you feel that the Frozen Orb is a bit physical crystal, then it makes sense that it would stop doing damage on impact into something in it's trajectory due to it shattering. Of course the Orb doesn't visibly show the shattering, it just silently deactivates. That might the only visual indicator the game could have had.

[dariustriplet]

I've long wondered about how weapons with Piercing Attack interact with 1.05 FO. IIRC, holding that one unique crossbow with Piercing Attack also grants it to spells, but I haven't tested it with FO (or in general).

I could see one of three things happening:
- The orb and shards pierce, so you can use it like in 1.10+
- The shards pierce but not the orb
- Nothing pierces

[fearedbliss]

@dariustriplet If I find a piercing weapon on my 1.05b sorceress, I'll let you know .

[oni]

The orb always pierce, but it does not do any damage, because the skill is not referenced, while each orb's ice bolt and the nova's ice bolts does, but the piercing is disabled. This can be viewed and edited in data/global/excel/missiles.txt There is orb explosion, but its not linked in the code and can't be enabled easily. As for piercing attack - complete Vidala's Rig gets you 50%, Stormstrike - 10%, Ichorsting - 50% and Doomslinger - 35%, all of which are fun for fireballs, glacial spikes and such.

[fearedbliss]

Thanks @oni. So to confirm, in 1.05b, holding a weapon with piercing attack does cause some of the spells to pierce? (Excluding the Orb itself for FO).

[dariustriplet]

@oni Thanks! Pity that FO isn't affected by pierce - it would've been nifty if Ichorsting made it behave like in LoD.

I'll take a look at missle.txt later to see if anything interesting can pierce; my hope is that Bone Spirit could although I'm not optimistic