Lightning Vortexes

[sytar6]

Playing a Mist Elf right now. I had my character learn Darkness, keep a few scrolls of it around, etc. to prepare myself for lightning vortexes. They're real quick, so it can be very difficult to take them out reliably with missiles. When the lightning vortex got near, I put my darkness spell on and started wailing on it. To my utter surprise, it exploded on me. I wasn't in a doorway or anything. I read on the wiki that as of 1.2.0 they now can stumble into the player? So is there a reliable trick for dealing with these bastards now? Maybe I should be trying some kind of bolt spell? Not sure was lightning is weak to.

Thankfully I lived, but that gave me a bit of a jolt. I thought I had the silver bullet. Now I'm suspecting I'll die in the late game to some stupid vortex.

[Stingray1]

The safest is to destroy it before it stumbles into the PC or get far away if this is unlikely. If you want to try your luck in darkness, do it in an open area, not a corridor.

P.S. Use the 'g'I've command to find out where it is while in darkness as it doesn't remain on one spot. And hope that the RNG doesn't move it in your direction.

P.PS. I haven't tested current vortex 'see in darkness' possibility as I roguelike all my characters. So this might even be possible. The above darkness behaviour is thus not confirmed by me.

[_Ln_]

Darkness and invisibility now seriously suck in 1.2.0. Invisibility was really strange even in 1.1.1, where monsters don't see the PC but are able to gravitate to his/her position from the other side of the level. Now monsters have a chance to hit the PC even if they don't see him/her and still gravitate. Moreover, a lot of people are complaining that the chance to hit the PC is much more than 1/9 (possible movement directions).

A couple of months ago, I was chilling out in the Big Room when a black wizard spawned. He then proceeded to summon fire vortices (around 9 of them). I immediately drank my single potion of invis and still escaped with 2 prayers and 4 HP left, because they were faster than me and all seem to know where I was despite not being able to see me.

To summarize, vortices will find you and explode on you despite any defensive measures in 1.2.0, you'll have to deal with it.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I think darkness sucked in 1.1.1, it was totally broken. It's much better now.

With invisibility, I guess it's normal that some monsters can track you up to a point with their sense of smell - probably not vortices, though.

[anon123]

Now monsters have a chance to hit the PC even if they don't see him/her and still gravitate. Moreover, a lot of people are complaining that the chance to hit the PC is much more than 1/9 (possible movement directions).

This matches what I've observed in the prereleases too. Invisibility is pretty useless now - it only prevents monsters from engaging you right away and using special attacks, but they still follow you amazingly well (I even got cornered a few times) and seem to have a 1/3 chance of "accidentally" meleeing you if in range.

[sytar6]

I think darkness sucked in 1.1.1, it was totally broken. It's much better now.

I thought its behavior in regards to Doppleganger Kings and Vortices was pretty reasonable...


This seems like it can be a bit unbalancing for Mist Elves. It could present a good possibility of getting 1 hit KO'd by a lightning vortex on the lower levels of the CoC. At least the other vortexes can somewhat reliably be taken down with missiles. Anyone know if Lightning Vortexes are particularly vulnerable to a certain kind of bolt spell?

[TheCableGuy]

This matches what I've observed in the prereleases too. Invisibility is pretty useless now - it only prevents monsters from engaging you right away and using special attacks, but they still follow you amazingly well (I even got cornered a few times) and seem to have a 1/3 chance of "accidentally" meleeing you if in range.

That's odd cause I hadn't noticed any issues with being Invisible.
I went through my last game entirely while Invisible
and ONLY Monsters that could see me were ever a problem.

Anything that did Gravitate to me only gave the "Seams to be Searching for someone" Message.
And those who do Gravitate did so only gradually (though that could be because of my own speed.)

Maybe high enough stealth makes the difference as to whether or not they can find you while Invisible...
And if not, It should.

[JellySlayer]

This seems like it can be a bit unbalancing for Mist Elves. It could present a good possibility of getting 1 hit KO'd by a lightning vortex on the lower levels of the CoC. At least the other vortexes can somewhat reliably be taken down with missiles. Anyone know if Lightning Vortexes are particularly vulnerable to a certain kind of bolt spell?

Lightning resistance is relatively easy to acquire. If you do the Druid quest, you can get it long before you will ever encounter a lightning vortex. Lightning vortices have no particular elemental weaknesses AFAIK. Wands of door creation are great for stopping vortices though.

[_Ln_]

I thought its behavior in regards to Doppleganger Kings and Vortices was pretty reasonable...


This seems like it can be a bit unbalancing for Mist Elves. It could present a good possibility of getting 1 hit KO'd by a lightning vortex on the lower levels of the CoC. At least the other vortexes can somewhat reliably be taken down with missiles. Anyone know if Lightning Vortexes are particularly vulnerable to a certain kind of bolt spell?

No particular vulnerabilities, but arrows/quarrels of construct slaying is your best bet after wands of door creation which JellySlayer mentioned. Some ideas for RFEs:
1) zap a lightning vortex with lightning (from wands or spells) to overcharge it and cause it to explode (not a kill and no xp).
2) read a scroll of monster aggravation to simultaneously explode all vortices on the level. Nobody uses these scrolls anyway.

[Joe]

This matches what I've observed in the prereleases too. Invisibility is pretty useless now - it only prevents monsters from engaging you right away and using special attacks, but they still follow you amazingly well (I even got cornered a few times) and seem to have a 1/3 chance of "accidentally" meleeing you if in range.

Imo this isn't that unrealistic. When I get cornered by some invisible Ogre mage and start getting hit I also deduce that it isn't coming from behind. Also when you 'miss' a few times and stumble around while getting hit you can deduce fairly well where the monster must be.