Waves of Exhaustion and high HP mobs

[Seventh]

I've heard vague tips on how casters can have an easier time taking down high HP mobs by incapping them with stat drain spells like Waves of Exhaustion and Ray of Enfeebling then auto-critting them to death in melee. I imagine this is most useful in Epics, but I was hoping to put this to use in Shavarath, which has been a nightmare and a half for my sorc. A few questions on that then-

1) Does this actually work? Considering how tough the bastards are I wouldn't be surprised to find out Orthons are all immune to stat drain or something, or have ridiculously high stats.

2) Do the penalties caused by the spells stack with themselves? As in, could I spam Waves of Exhaustion over and over till everything's incapped, or do I need to have several stat drain spells avaliable?

3) If it is spammable, how many shots of Waves of Exhaustion does it take to incap Shavarath mobs like Orthons, Bearded Devils, and those red and black Trolls?

4) Since incap gives you auto-crits, will hitting an incapped mob with a vorpal be an autokill?

5) Does this work on named mobs?

6) Would this be more mana-efficient than neg levels and FoD/Wail?

[Crazyfruit]

1 - Yes, but not on orthons. Try something else like cone of cold, dance, hold (also gives auto crits).

2 - No.. but you might have to cast a few rays of enfeeblements to get a high roll (not sure). If you have the Staff of Arcane Power from the Zawabi raid it has a greater effect than casting the spell yourself.

3 - Not spammable. Those creatures you mentioned should all have enough strength that this isn't going to happen without also using some stat-draining weapons (not worth it)

4 - No. People still need to roll a 20 for vorpal, a 19-20 for frenzied berserker crits, etc.

5 - Some. Usually only the caster types.

6 - Sometimes.

[testing1234]

-waves are used for its slowing down effect in movement mostly
-doesnt stack with itself
-rednamed enemies are capped at 10 stat damage max of any type
-vorpal doesnt trigger from a stunned enemy its on "natural 20" only

[Phidius]

I've heard vague tips on how casters can have an easier time taking down high HP mobs by incapping them with stat drain spells like Waves of Exhaustion and Ray of Enfeebling then auto-critting them to death in melee. I imagine this is most useful in Epics, but I was hoping to put this to use in Shavarath, which has been a nightmare and a half for my sorc. A few questions on that then-

1) Does this actually work? Considering how tough the bastards are I wouldn't be surprised to find out Orthons are all immune to stat drain or something, or have ridiculously high stats.

I've never tried to get them to 0 Str, but Waves + Web works pretty good. In general, I'm too lazy to try to Exhaust them and get them stuck in a web, but it can help when you're in a party.

2) Do the penalties caused by the spells stack with themselves? As in, could I spam Waves of Exhaustion over and over till everything's incapped, or do I need to have several stat drain spells avaliable?

No - once they're exhausted, the spell doesn't affect them anymore. MrCow put out a list of spells that stack - if I recall correctly, the 1st level spell Ray of Enfeeblement stacks with Waves, although purple names no longer are affected by Ray.

3) If it is spammable, how many shots of Waves of Exhaustion does it take to incap Shavarath mobs like Orthons, Bearded Devils, and those red and black Trolls?

Nope, not spammable. As far as I know, the only way to incap them is with Weakening/Enfeeblement

4) Since incap gives you auto-crits, will hitting an incapped mob with a vorpal be an autokill?

Vorpal occurs on a confirmed 20, not on a crit.

5) Does this work on named mobs?

Waves of Exhaustion works on everything AFAIK. Purple named raid bosses are immune to stat damage like Weaken/Enfeeblement, and Red named only take a few points of stat damage.

6) Would this be more mana-efficient than neg levels and FoD/Wail?

Can't say - I use a Docent of Defiance, Torc, and a Conc Opp to keep me alive as I beat Shavareth into submission.

[DANTEIL]

Glad to see this thread...I've only recently begun to use Waves of Exhaustion after getting some recommendations to use it while running in groups on high-level content.

I have some questions about using the spell though:

Does it have a visual effect? Is it like a cone? How close do you have to be to the creature in order to be sure that your spell has a good chance of hitting them? Also, once it has landed, is there any way to tell that it's worked? I know that there have been times when I've wasted SP spamming WofE several times in a row because I'm not sure whether or not it's working...

thanks

[Phidius]

Glad to see this thread...I've only recently begun to use Waves of Exhaustion after getting some recommendations to use it while running in groups on high-level content.

I have some questions about using the spell though:

Does it have a visual effect? Is it like a cone? How close do you have to be to the creature in order to be sure that your spell has a good chance of hitting them? Also, once it has landed, is there any way to tell that it's worked? I know that there have been times when I've wasted SP spamming WofE several times in a row because I'm not sure whether or not it's working...

thanks

I don't know what the range is, but it does have a visual effect, and seems to be a narrow cone. Shouldn't have any problem hitting all the mobs in front of you in the hallways of "Sins of Attrition", for example.

I usually target a mob, then press "Z" to see if it got exhausted.

[Crazyfruit]

There is a subtle color change on the monsters when they're struck by it - easy to miss in a fast-paced battle or in AoEs. It's much more noticable by the sound it makes.

You can select a monster and ID it: It landed if it has the exhausted debuff

[DANTEIL]

There is a subtle color change on the monsters when they're struck by it - easy to miss in a fast-paced battle or in AoEs. It's much more noticable by the sound it makes.

You can select a monster and ID it: It landed if it has the exhausted debuff

Ah thanks.. Yes the heat of battle (both visual and auditory) is probably exactly the reason why I haven't been able to tell whether or not the spell is having any effect. Last time I tried it was on the Demon Queen and things were a bit, uh, frantic with firewalls and bladebarriers and such Good advice to check the creature after to see if they're exhausted, though.