Health bars

[capnskull]

Health bars

Just curious, I was under the impression that a boss' health bar doesn't represents his health linearly because the last red pixels seem the hardest to get, is this correct ?

 

[krischan]

I'm under the same impression. I guess the is meant to be linear, but the last bit of life of a monster seems to be more than shown in the life bar, perhaps because of improper rounding.

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

If you are employing CB against a high HP monster, you'll find that the 10% HP reduction becomes less and less effective as the monster's life approaches zero. This is especially the case if you are using a CB weapon that has relatively small damage. Remember, CB's 10% is based on the target's current HP, not its maximum.

I've had the situation arise where I've had to switch out my CB weapon for one with greater straight damage in order to finish a boss off. The weapon with CB couldn't keep pace with the target's regen once it's HP was very low!

 

[krischan]

I got that impression when fighting monsters like Izual in normal when my characters usually don't have CB equipment.

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

If CB isn't involved ... well, I've no idea why that should be!

Perhaps it's just a question of how you perceive the health bar going down rather than an actual game feature? As in, "A watched pot never boils". Just an idea, I'm not suggesting this is the case.

 

[AnimeCraze]

Maybe they try to round it down, but they can't have a monster with very little life showing an empty bar, and forcefully made it 1 pixel.

 

[Insane Wayne]

My guess is that it's not linear. This can be seen using Static in Hell. Static damage is capped at 50%, yet more than half the monster's life bar will be removed. The life bar must be weighted, just like the character's life bulb.

 

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

If it isn't linear, then I'm a little confused (no change there, then!).

I've been doing Hell Baal with my necro recently, but without any CB at all. With about 12 skeles and 12 skelemages summoned, plus Clay Golem plus Merc, and with Baal Amp'ed, I've watched Baal's health bar drop in an entirely linear fashion. I haven't noticed any slow down at any stage.

Peculiar.

 

[helvete1]

w00t the bulb is weighted?

 

[krischan]

It's probably not. I guess the life bar of monsters is a bit shorter than it should be, perhaps because of rounding.

Static isn't truly capped at 50% in hell mode. If a monster is at more than 50% life, a casting ofstatic affects it in full, resulting in less than 50% life it it was just a bit above 50% before AFAIK.

 

[Insane Wayne]

Static isn't truly capped at 50% in hell mode. If a monster is at more than 50% life, a casting ofstatic affects it in full, resulting in less than 50% life it it was just a bit above 50% before AFAIK.

This explains everything about my observations. I change my vote to linear.

w00t the bulb is weighted?

Sort of, in that larger (wider, not taller) strips of bright red are removed as the bulb drains towards the midpoint, which has a visual impact. Also, the bottom section is heavily shadowed, not much red to see, like some deep reservoir of "bonus" life (which has saved several of my HC chars). The actual number of hit points decends linearly, as far as I can tell.

 

[Forbiddian]

Yeah, the weighted health bar is completely an illusion. But it does cause me to **** my pants sometimes in hardcore.

Unless you're looking carefully, it's really hard to see the shadowed hps, and the shadow is a stark contrast. The hps that you perceive are the brighter, smaller health bubble. That can fully deplete while your HC character is still alive.

Or softcore, although it doesn't really matter if you die there.

 

[helvete1]

Yes it does. The exp loss can be days and weeks of "work".

 

[Latex Glove]

I've always been under the impression that this effect is only experienced in Nightmare or Hell modes, as by then, you are surrounded by people who make heavy use of Crushing Blow and Static.

I've not once seen a similiar effect without Crushing Blow items or Static sorceresses.