Those Water Elementals from A Frosty Reception... OUCH

[Certon]

I have a pure wizard, meaning no evasion, and running that quest on EE if I forget to run fire shield, or if it wears off and I don't notice... BOOM. I go from 1450hp to -350hp in a split second. NASTY. I can't believe they have an 1.8k polar ray. I guess if players can do it, monsters should be able to, but imagine if they practiced that mentality in all encounters. Wizards doing dragon breath with 4k a tick DOTs--bards that caused 2k sonic damage to everyone. BRUTAL.

[mr420247]

If you really want evasion at times you can take tier 4 in primal maybe not optimal yet but it should work

Or quik swap a skyvault shield in for some more mrr

[Wizard1406]

Fire shield and spell absorbtion items help or more MRR , wearing light or medium armor (but I don't know if there is wizard gear for your build with higher than cloth).

But still, I think 1.8k damage is way overtuned for elite.

[mr420247]

Layering defenses they all stack

Can build 2 ways now ek med armor or light and more dodge evasion either way will work

[Steeme]

Yup, iceberg to the face will get you out of bed in the morning as well.

[PrimalConcreteSledge]

Normally polar ray has no saving throw. So evasion would not work.

Doubt imp. evasion would mitigate half either.

Is it different with polar ray from those elementals?

[Certon]

Layering defenses they all stack

Can build 2 ways now ek med armor or light and more dodge evasion either way will work

Oh yeah. My WIZ had med armor and 109 MRR. Without fire shield running, I die in a second. My evasion guys DO evade it. Hmmm. Maybe it's not Polar Ray. It LOOKS like polar ray.

[Certon]

Normally polar ray has no saving throw. So evasion would not work.

Doubt imp. evasion would mitigate half either.

Is it different with polar ray from those elementals?

It just looks like polar ray. I know my evading characters survive it, but this evade-less wonder does not without fire shield.

[Halciet]

Oh yeah. My WIZ had med armor and 109 MRR. Without fire shield running, I die in a second. My evasion guys DO evade it. Hmmm. Maybe it's not Polar Ray. It LOOKS like polar ray.

Not sure about those particular Water Elementals, but Flensers and Mephits tend to be the ones which Polar Ray, I presume it was freezing sphere if you can evade it.

Edit: after testing the Winter Warden on EE cast Frost Lance, Ice Storm, Niac's Biting Cold, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, Freezing Spray, Polar Ray, and Iceberg

Iceberg was hitting for about 700
Polar Ray was hitting for about 120
Freezing Sphere was hitting for about 110 (failed save)

with 119 MRR and 49% cold absorption, 21 resist

[slarden]

It just looks like polar ray. I know my evading characters survive it, but this evade-less wonder does not without fire shield.

It's polar ray + champion dots potentially and those dots stack really quick with water elementals.

In addition to fire shield you can use spell absorb but it doesn't last very long in those encounters.

MRR cap is one of the most broken things in the game right now. MRR was supposed to be an alternative to evasion but it's vastly superior at higher levels.

[Steeme]

It just looks like polar ray. I know my evading characters survive it, but this evade-less wonder does not without fire shield.

Sounds like iceberg, as I mentioned above. I've been one-two shot specifically in Needle in a Feystack by the orange name elementals, on a Wiz EK. It's one of the reasons why I got into the habit of deciding at the beginning of the quest whether to hotbar Fire shield Cold or Hot. I also swap them mid-quest if necessary - but Fire Shield Hot is actually my default on a EK because of iceberg.

I recall the elementals in Frost Reception hit hard as well, because there are three of them in a group (up top before talking to Dame Allegra a.k.a. Cadence) - so they need to get focused first.

Immortality Lessons, final fight, you'll get a few icebergs to the face there as well.

[Tilomere]

I have a pure wizard, meaning no evasion

Get evasion from SD or PA and insightful reflexes. Never go past leather armor or skip taking evasion on anything other than a dedicated raid tank.

Wear spell absorb at all times in trinket, cloak, ring, or gloves spot. Last spell absorb item equipped is only one that will function. Have enough swap items to never run out.

Spells that hit your character after evasion will be absorbed, so evasion will extend the usefulness of spell absorb to effectively permanently with good saves and a few swaps.

Other than Creeping Doom (Dryads, Bullywog Shamans, and Fomorians) and Niac's Cold Ray (white abishai) which are bugged and bypass spell absorb, you may never be hit by a spell ever again.

U50 stat crunch of MRR plus U51 evasion availability in SD as a hybrid tree basically means spell absorb just became effectively permanent for every character in the game other than tanks.

[LightBear]

I have a pure wizard, meaning no evasion, and running that quest on EE if I forget to run fire shield, or if it wears off and I don't notice... BOOM. I go from 1450hp to -350hp in a split second. NASTY. I can't believe they have an 1.8k polar ray. I guess if players can do it, monsters should be able to, but imagine if they practiced that mentality in all encounters. Wizards doing dragon breath with 4k a tick DOTs--bards that caused 2k sonic damage to everyone. BRUTAL.

Isn't that a whole pack of them going wild on you like it's Spring Break and Mardi Gras on the same night?
What I sometimes get is that multiple effects get counted as one or can only find the last thing back in my logs with a number not enough to kill me and yet it does.

Oh and is Dragon Breath nerfed so bad it only does 4k damage now?

[Certon]

Isn't that a whole pack of them going wild on you like it's Spring Break and Mardi Gras on the same night?
What I sometimes get is that multiple effects get counted as one or can only find the last thing back in my logs with a number not enough to kill me and yet it does.

Oh and is Dragon Breath nerfed so bad it only does 4k damage now?

No I meant the Mantle DoT. Dragon breath still can hit for 20k sometimes.

[Certon]

Get evasion from SD or PA and insightful reflexes. Never go past leather armor or skip taking evasion on anything other than a dedicated raid tank.

Wear spell absorb at all times in trinket, cloak, ring, or gloves spot. Last spell absorb item equipped is only one that will function. Have enough swap items to never run out.

Spells that hit your character after evasion will be absorbed, so evasion will extend the usefulness of spell absorb to effectively permanently with good saves and a few swaps.

Other than Creeping Doom (Dryads, Bullywog Shamans, and Fomorians) and Niac's Cold Ray (white abishai) which are bugged and bypass spell absorb, you may never be hit by a spell ever again.

U50 stat crunch of MRR plus U51 evasion availability in SD as a hybrid tree basically means spell absorb just became effectively permanent for every character in the game other than tanks.

Doesn't Death Aura screw up spell absorb?

[slarden]

Get evasion from SD or PA and insightful reflexes. Never go past leather armor or skip taking evasion on anything other than a dedicated raid tank.

Wear spell absorb at all times in trinket, cloak, ring, or gloves spot. Last spell absorb item equipped is only one that will function. Have enough swap items to never run out.

Spells that hit your character after evasion will be absorbed, so evasion will extend the usefulness of spell absorb to effectively permanently with good saves and a few swaps.

Other than Creeping Doom (Dryads, Bullywog Shamans, and Fomorians) and Niac's Cold Ray (white abishai) which are bugged and bypass spell absorb, you may never be hit by a spell ever again.

U50 stat crunch of MRR plus U51 evasion availability in SD as a hybrid tree basically means spell absorb just became effectively permanent for every character in the game other than tanks.

Once suggestions like this start getting tossed around it's proof positive we have an issue that needs to be looked at.

At the same time it seems like odd advice as I don't really have issues with this encounter on my high mrr characters. Dodge is good, but in most cases prr + hp is fantastic mitigation. Evasion I find extremely useful at heroic levels and not useful at level cap.

Doesn't Death Aura screw up spell absorb?

[LightBear]

Get evasion from SD or PA and insightful reflexes. Never go past leather armor or skip taking evasion on anything other than a dedicated raid tank.

Wear spell absorb at all times in trinket, cloak, ring, or gloves spot. Last spell absorb item equipped is only one that will function. Have enough swap items to never run out.

I had so much fun as a paladin feydark inquisitor, shadowdancer and epic reflexes, twist in Perfection of Body and Impregnable Mind. Make sure you had You've Got My Back, Ask First and Diplomatic Immunity.

Made me enter every room like

[Halciet]

Doesn't Death Aura screw up spell absorb?

It did when the spell came out; they fixed that a long time ago.