Sanctuary and Tornado

[art_vandelay]

I vaguely remember reading that the "Ignore Undead Physical Resistance" effect of the Sanctuary aura also worked on physical damage spells, for example for a Druid wielding Azurewrath/Lawbringer while casting Tornado. Am I crazy? There's people claiming both things when I google it and no "authority" to settle it.

Does anybody know of someone who tested this or have a high level Druid equipped to test it with? Best way to test this is to let the merc die, go to the Arcane Sanctuary while wearing Lawbringer/Azurewrath (on main of course) and then attack a bunch of Specters with Tornado. If you can easily kill them (instead of dealing 0 damage), then Sanctuary works on Tornado.

I appreciate any help on this!

 

[saracen85]

Sanctuary ignores undead's physical resistances. So if wielder attacks with Tornado, it applies.

EDIT: Tested. Killed Ghosts with Tornado while wielding Lawbringer.

 

[SirName]

Could be a good gimmick for a singer too!

 

[art_vandelay]

Thanks for testing! @saracen85

That should make Lawbringer one of the best UT weapons for Wind Druid. You can run Pindle with it and don't have to worry about Stone Skin roll. Also it's better than Reaper's in those immune instances.
Should be a lot of added safety in the CS too.

 

[PhineasB]

As someone with an almost lvl 96.5 untwinked Windy Druid, this is a really interesting concept. I think the point about leveling at Pindle is spot on, even with the loss of +skills (including likely loss of lots of +skills from helm slot due to needing FCR to hit 99 FCR, absent great caster ammy craft). And the knockback would aid safety.

I'm more skeptical of CS. The knockback might make targeting boss packs challenging with Tornado, and I think the loss of +skills would be felt a lot for Megademon packs, and especially Infector and/or if stone skin. Resists usually don't matter, but I could see loss of @resist from HotO also being an issue with convicted Infector tearing through cyclone armor and making that quite dicey if fire is too negative. But I am definitely interested in testing it out for 97-98 compared to current build. I have 2/20 circlet that makes 99 FCR very doable, and I haven't spent any time in CS with the Druid to have playing experience to gauge. Who knows, three seal runs might be viable with de Seis made safer due to Sanctuary knockback

 

[Luhkoh]

I don't love the idea in CS, would rather just run a lawbringer a5 merc, though I think windy in cs is gonna be sorta rough regardless. I could see it working great for the seals on p1/p7 runs at lvl 98, but then windy takes so long to kill diablo. For pindle on a druid who doesnt have infinity that's such a good idea. Also might be very nice for running AT.

 

[d2lover]

for Pits this was my switchweapon until I found enough stuff for cta, helped with Stoneskin Undeads (i used insight, not reaper)

 

[Gynli]

iirc the 0 physical resists from the aura does not apply if not equipped on yourself. So sadly the a5 merc with lawbringer wouldnt work.

 

[art_vandelay]

iirc the 0 physical resists from the aura does not apply if not equipped on yourself. So sadly the a5 merc with lawbringer wouldnt work.

I think in that case people are after the decrepify, not the ignoring of physical resists.

 

[Luhkoh]

When I mentioned a5 merc for CS, it's definitely for the decrep like art said, but also for the undead knockback. Helps sooo much against de seis. Quite annoying with vizier though, pushing them out above the lava sometimes. But correct it wont set the physical resists to zero. But I mean the knights only have 33 phys res and everything else has 50, so I guess they go to zero or less once decrep procs. But not the same thing ofc.

 

[PhineasB]

My untwinked Windy is now to lvl 97 and . . . wow, not great options from XP/hr based on initial testing. Baal runs were pretty rough, and the idea of p8 Ventar runs all the way to 98 is pretty brutal for me.

CS is the most interesting. Gripp runs weren’t workable with current HotO set up due to PI megademons, and p8/p7 runs were out similar reasons. But p1/p7 with switch for Vizier seem like maybe the best option after a little running, especially if I get good shrine roll. Diablo doesn’t take too long actually.

But I plan to try out the self-wield Lawbringer option on Gripp runs and p1/p7 switched to p7 both at de Seis and Vizier. The loss of 3 skills might make Diablo less workable for full runs, but we’ll see.

I’d welcome any feedback or theory crafting insight before I tackle this, likely not until the weekend. Septimus has very cushy life pool (~2800 without Oak and BO active, >5k with Oak and BO), and overstacked fire resists with the 99 FHR breakpoint met. So he’s very sturdy. But the Oak hasn’t fared well when Infector is tackled at p8, so I’m assuming no Oak for that portion at p8. With knockback for de Seis, I assume Oak will be ok.

Thanks!

 

[Luhkoh]

@PhineasB shew, I feel for you. Druid is just a tough one to tackle. Unfortunately I have no good ideas to add. Your chaos running idea sounds interesting and I'll love to see it. How long is "not too long" on p7 diablo? . Are stridjdjejde and @Pb_pal the only 99er druids you know of? I guess the former just did a mix of runs? And ofc I know about Klaus in AT. Some likely unhelpful musings:

• I agree ventar runs for 97-98 seem like the worst thing ever. Guess you can mix them in when they don't seem so bad some of the time.
• Might be too ridiculous, but I wonder how a fury wolf baal runner would compare to baal windy. Would certainly take down baal faster anyways.
• I'm not sure if it really opens up extra ideas, but do you have the runes for infinity? I did find p8 AT fissure to be faster than p8 pits windy, but ofc they are fairly similar and the former probably requires infinity and phoenix minimum (and possibly ravenlore). I cant think of anywhere else fissure would do well.
• I assume you dont want to test out nihla just because dont want to run him for 97 and 98 both?
• No azurewrath right? Seems superior to lawbringer with the skill, well idk would be nice not to have to do 136 dex.

I guess worse comes to worst, guess you can just mix together pits, ventar, and these CS runs as you feel like. But yeah good luck! Seems daunting, but ofc I have complete faith with your track record so far .

 

[maxicek]

First SPF 99er ever was a Windy, suck it up!

 

[PhineasB]

His runs were Pindle -> Baal runs (hitting Baal when MFing but skipping when focused on XP). And he may have ran pure p8 because it was well before the XP bug was identified on the Forums (but maybe he already knew about it). He also went with two cold facets to help Hurricane, which was interesting. But that 99er is definitely completely nuts (and I’m realizing now even more so how much), especially because it was v1.10 and pre-nerfed OKs

 

[Pb_pal]

Seems nuts now, yeah. I still remember MPing with his windy doing Baal runs and he seemed so very OP at the time (and really, he was, compared to the rest of us). How things change..

 

[Tarisus]

20 years of D2, something new always come up. What if you made lawbringer in a war sword or grand scepter so it only takes 3 slots in your inventory and switch whenever needed, or borrow your Mercs lawbringer PB.

Could also use weapon on switch if you don’t have cta. Nonetheless, never give up 3 skills and fcr. The fcr is critical for more damage as 163 is the best, imo.