Ugh, I keep dying in Dark Palace!

[Ouroboros]

Yeah they deal 150% purely lightning damage with a 3% chance to crit, it can be pretty brutal if you're not well prepared; the main thing to do is just kill them asap, and if you can help it make sure the zealot aims your pet/summons 1st; I managed to get past the black palace with 0 elemental resist on a basic (though somewhat over-levelled) vanq on VHHC with no enchants at all (not even a single green/blue/unique item) at one point just abusing mass zombies/skeletons and an aggressive pet that also summoned things. Even disciples, which have a 5% crit chance, aren't that dangerous in general due to purely physical damage and high physical armour values being easy to obtain; zealots should always be top priority to kill, especially if you also have 100% missile reflect.

As a side note, the little drone things in the dwarven levels also use a similar missile reflect ignoring ability, but there's is just 100% physical damage with no crit chance, which isn't nearly as deadly.

[N3MES1S]

Yeah they deal 150% purely lightning damage with a 3% chance to crit, it can be pretty brutal if you're not well prepared; the main thing to do is just kill them asap, and if you can help it make sure the zealot aims your pet/summons 1st; I managed to get past the black palace with 0 elemental resist on a basic (though somewhat over-levelled) vanq on VHHC with no enchants at all (not even a single green/blue/unique item) at one point just abusing mass zombies/skeletons and an aggressive pet that also summoned things. Even disciples, which have a 5% crit chance, aren't that dangerous in general due to purely physical damage and high physical armour values being easy to obtain; zealots should always be top priority to kill, especially if you also have 100% missile reflect.

As a side note, the little drone things in the dwarven levels also use a similar missile reflect ignoring ability, but there's is just 100% physical damage with no crit chance, which isn't nearly as deadly.

As i said, it doesnt matter if u are prepared, the dark zealot lightning can hit u making low damage or on the contrary it can kill u in one hit. As i said, it is a bug, cuz i dont see wat is the point on a monster that can kill u most of the times in 1 single hit. And the worst thing it is a range shooter caster, if u tell me that a big troll can hit u and almost kill u in 1 hit, thats ok, cuz they are slow melee monsters with a supossed great strenght. But a Dark Zealot?? not only she shots u in distance, she kills u in 1 hit.... the thing is, if u nerf the lighting on the zealot, she will be no longer a threat, cuz the main problem is when u are running and suddently u die cuz u didnt see the Dark Zealot coming in the corner of the screen. If u nerf the Zealot lightning, at least u can retreat and attack again, even if u get hit with the lightning. This is more logical situation. Thanks to the mods soem people made the ligtning is normal again, and we can pawn the Dark Zealots without worrying of beeing killed in 1 single hit.

[Ouroboros]

Hmm..I don't know, I know to always stack resist+armour (for zealots+disciples respectively) ready for black palace (and just stack dps, preferably ranged/aoe dps, for literally everything else) and never really have any trouble with them - yes, the zealots do hit damned hard compared to anything else, but unless 2-3+ of them attack me at once I can pretty much always retreat and heal up, they're actually pretty darn unlikely to crit too considering them normally die shortly after they get chance to cast it once unless they're a champ. I kinda like that they pose a challenge for me during the story part while trying out new classes, as it's pretty rare anything else does; keeps me on my toes until I get to ordrak where I can normally be fairly relaxed and take it easy again.

That said - always playing on VHHC I have gathered up suitably enchanted gear to make even zealots in the black palace story part pretty darn weak should I find it too difficult with a class and decide I want to use that gear, though that rarely ever happens. Nerfing them too much would make the entire story a push over for me as I'm just too used to dealing with them at this point. It is however a perfectly reasonable choice for people finding it too hard.

[N3MES1S]

Well, i can only tell u this, i always play in VH, and i had about 500 electric resistance once, and i was dying anyways in 1 single hit. So, if u tell me that i need much more than 500 electric resistance, thats insane. 500 is already a very big hard to achieve number (i just used a character for test in the svault). Sometimes, the lightning hit me and maybe i lose about half of the hp, other times lightning hits me and i just die.

[dreamrider]

500 elec resist should be plenty to make you survivable through up to ~3 Black Palace level DZ hits. BUT, you must have a balanced (read: large) amount of DEF attribute to multiply your Armor and Resistances if you expect to get through there on HC.

dreamrider

[frozenfire]

dude i smacked odraks ugly arse with a can opener as a weapon and still he couldn't 1 hit me. and now these normal dark zealots literally melts my face off with one hit of that red lightning.

do you think, aside from crit they have ignore armor chance? is it possible?

[Rusty]

Dark Zealots are bugged. Their red lightning attack is scripted for "+150 percent weapon damage" added to the base spell damage. It was supposed to be "+50 percent weapon damage".

There are a couple of mods that fix the bug. The best one changes the script to "+30 percent weapon damage".

http://www.runicgamesfansite.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=355

This should help clear up a few things for you guys.

[Ichthyic]

you know what I found works great against those zealots?

charm.

Not only can you then stack your units around them (or traps, or whatever) and back yourself away, but their summons also work for you, even after you kill the zealot.

of course, that means you have to see them before they see you.

also, without the mod in place, the ONLY way to avoid being one shotted by the lightning attacks is by health-stacking items. I found that adding a few hundred extra hp with items was enough to leave me with a sliver of health left after a lightning crit attack.

resistances didn't seem to affect damage taken, even boosting them 55% with a level 7 spell. I had lightning resist OVER 600 straight, and still took me down to a sliver of health.

I recommend the mod.

[Ichthyic]

I managed to get past the black palace with 0 elemental resist...

so, no points in defense at all?

or did you mean no bonus elemental resistance?

seems pretty unlikely you would have zero resistance across the board.

[Ouroboros]

I managed to get past the black palace with 0 elemental resist...

so, no points in defense at all?

or did you mean no bonus elemental resistance?

seems pretty unlikely you would have zero resistance across the board.

Plenty of physical armour and defence lvls, just no resistance from equipment/abilities, and as defence is only a multiplier, you end up with 0 elemental resistances total, while physical damage is heavily soaked by the armour of basic gear. The amusing thing is, enslaved hit more damage than a blood disciple as a result of it, as enslaved use elemental damage while disciples use physical, thankfully with explosive shot enslaved survive all of 2 seconds anyway.

[Ichthyic]

yeah, explosive shot is quite the room clearer.

made the end boss fight pretty frikken easy.

1. pet distracts boss
2. boss summons dragonkin
3. dragonkin exploded by me.
4. boss dies.

at 15 seconds, it still was the longest fight in the game for me.

that was on hard; I'll have to try it on VH.

[bratuttle]

I have used the shared cache chest and mysterious map scrolls to boost my characters abilities. I have been playing both regular and hardcore sides and find the use of the shared inventory invaluable for items, swapping green items for gems and spell transfers. the mysterious map scrolls boost my inventory options and let me up my gems as i progress in levels. I also never (95%) destroy an item to get the gems back. I wait for a superior item then pass it down to another character.

[dreamrider]

What does THIS mean?....

....the mysterious map scrolls boost my inventory options and let me up my gems as i progress in levels. ....

dreamrider

[Zidders]

It means 'i'm a bot'

[gold163]

I have like 500 lightning resistance and the stupid things keep instagibbing me. I used to run in and silence but it was a waste of a spell slot on my alchemist since I could just ember phase in and attempt to ember shock them into submission. If I got the stun I was golden. If not I was dead.

But yeah, I really hope that TL2 doesn't have these things at all. As much as I like TL1 there are a lot of annoying things about it and I prefer not to use mods.

[Perictione]

used to run in and silence but it was a waste of a spell slot on my alchemist since I could just ember phase in and attempt to ember shock them into submission. If I got the stun I was golden.

My advice, charm spell rather than silence... and then send in the golems and the skeletons to mop up while you sit back and do your fingernails or blast things from afar at your leisure. I guarantee 100% success.

Of course, if you're going to be all bold and heroic about things, running into places angels fear to tread, all warranties are null and void, and you ought to expect to die many, many times

- P.

[gold163]

yeah, I know. but it feels like a cop-out if I just let friendlies do the work, if my pet tanks for me, or if I spam lightning from my fists. UNLIMITED POWEEERRRRR

Part of me feels like the game should just be more attuned to my play style of recklessly charging into mobs and expecting them to spontaneously explode simultaneously; instead I find that I'm the only one exploding. I used to have that wand that had like 1% chance to charm enemies. I didn't know what charm was so it always confused the heck out of me whenever that happened and I couldn't attack my target. I'd usually be shocked for long enough to be killed by a stray goblinhound or something.

[Perictione]

*giggles*

Great post!

But, really, rein in the inner Rambo, gold, and learn the glories of stealth and caution and circumspection. There are advantages to this - first, you'll die a whole lot less; second, you'll soon be merrily dropping bad guys at a rate that will astonish even yourself


- P.

[N3MES1S]

What does THIS mean?....

....the mysterious map scrolls boost my inventory options and let me up my gems as i progress in levels. ....

dreamrider

I think he was talking about something else, cuz there is no sense on those words... lol.


The problem is not to kill the Zealots, something that can be done with a lot of strategies, the thing is that the Zealot seemed the only monster overpowered in the game, and no matter if u kill her or not, shes the center of attention in the Dark Palace :p, but trying to make annoying strategies only for killing a Zealot... i think that is not the way. But again, just use the Zealot fix mod and thats it.

I suposse all the people that played in the Dark Palace ended using the Zealot fix. At those levels it is a bit boring to spent 30 minutes to finish a level..

[dreamrider]

I suposse all the people that played in the Dark Palace ended using the Zealot fix. At those levels it is a bit boring to spent 30 minutes to finish a level..

No, we didn't. Many, many people play vanilla.
and proud of it.

Really folks, DZs are not that difficult to cope with, at a reasonable c-level and resistance, once you understand how they act. Not easy, but not "wah, wah, wah, these are impossible."

dreamrider