Enemies with notable passive abilities.

[idbeholdME 395]

I will start putting here any enemies which I pinpoint as having a notable passive ability that does not have any visual cue or a way to tell in the game other than just knowing it. This is an important distinction, so things like the reflect some of the elite turtles have will not be listed here as it has a visual cue. The enemies I have noted so far:

 

All Elementals - they have a very high level of damage mitigation to their respective element. Using fire damage on a fire elemental without Ancient Magic will deal greatly reduced damage compared to other enemies. All you can see on the enemy card is damage and armor, not mitigation. The elementals usually have high armor against their respective element, but they also boast high level of damage mitigation against it (50%+ by guess.). Similarly, they are very vulnerable to their opposing element. Ice Elementals take greatly increased Fire damage, Fire Elementals take greatly increased Ice Damage.

Elemental of Protection - the earth elementals in Grunwald forest. They have a decent chance of blocking melee attacks, which can leave one wondering why regen per hit did not trigger or why some swings are doing no damage. By guess, I'd say 30% chance on high Niobium.

Lupan in the Seraphim Hunting Grounds - same as above, chance to block melee attacks. The chance seems notably lower however, I'd say 10-15% on high Niobium.

The Ice creatures (Aracin, Hucin, Percalacin etc.) in the Seraphim Hunting Grounds - all of them have a chance to reflect melee damage. Be careful if you are using heavy hitting weapons. Almost lead to several deaths in Niobium before I realized what was happening. This is probably the only noteworthy occurrence in the game, where the bonus on gear which reduces enemy chance to reflect melee attacks could be useful. Seems to be about 20-25% chance in high Niobium.

Elite Temple Guardians that throw Fire Traps - they have Ancient Magic at Mastery level on higher enemy levels. Extremely dangerous as Ancient Magic Mastery greatly reduces damage mitigation. On high Niobium, the Fire Traps are chunking me for ~20K damage per tick through 80% damage mitigation. That would kill me in 3 damage ticks with my 57K health pool. Even if I temporarily buff my damage mitigation to about ~110% (which is immortality in all other cases), the trap is still chunking me for ~14.5K damage. So whenever you are around Temple Guardians near the end of the game, pay close attention to any traps thrown by Elites and avoid them at any costs (or be quick on the spacebar ).

Small Red Dragons (even the non-Elite ones) - also have Mastered Ancient Magic at higher levels. Their homing fireballs hit hard, penetrate your defenses and are still able to deal damage even through 100% damage mitigation. Currently hitting me for 12.7K (16K on crit) at 80% damage mitigation and 9.3K (11.7K on crit) at 110% damage mitigation. Running into a larger group of these unprepared can spell death at high Niobium levels even when one thinks they're immortal or near to it.

Gahanka - very fast health regeneration. Especially when facing him very early on in Silver, one might have trouble pushing past the regen.

T-Energy reservoir - when fighting the Guardians, it will periodically grant them a shield. The shield itself is pretty weak, but it also gives the shielded Guardian a 50% damage mitigation against all damage that lasts about 15-20 seconds and works even if you break the shield.

Undead with no fire armor - have an innate 20% fire vulnerability, meaning they take 20% increased fire damage.

That is all for now. Should I happen to figure some more notable passive abilities of other enemies, I'll add them to the list.

 

EDIT:

Another noteworthy entry:

Scorpions in the desert - abnormally high Willpower/Spell Resistance stat, especially the Elite ones (both big and small). Vastly higher than any other enemy in the game (maybe excluding bosses). Extremely difficult to reach sufficient Spell Intensity to deal full damage to these dangerous buggers, meaning they will cut the damage from your spells by 30% before any other calculations, potentially leading to vastly lower damage than normal. You should be able to eventually counter the Spell Resistance of the regular scorpions, but Elite ones require very high amounts of Spell Intensity.

Du'Rach Commander Harrad'Smit - complete Ice damage immunity, 100% Ice damage mitigation, can't be damaged with Ice without Ancient Magic mastery, Feel Cold mod on Crystal Skin or Icy Evanescence (which reduce Ice Mitigation). Boss of the side quest "Attack is the Best Defense" in the desert.

Facetteleon - ~85% Ice damage mitigation.

Skeletons - varying degrees of Ice damage mitigation, especially in the Swamps. The normal ones have ~30% mitigation, elites ~40%.

Edited July 11, 2023 by idbeholdME

[gogoblender 3,072]

On 11/1/2022 at 5:58 PM, idbeholdME said:

I will start putting here any enemies which I pinpoint as having a notable passive ability that does not have any visual cue or a way to tell in the game other than just knowing it. This is an important distinction, so things like the reflect some of the elite turtles have will not be listed here as it has a visual cue. The enemies I have noted so far:

 

All Elementals - they have a very high level of damage mitigation to their respective element. Using fire damage on a fire elemental without Ancient Magic will deal greatly reduced damage compared to other enemies. All you can see on the enemy card is damage and armor, not mitigation. The elementals usually have high armor against their respective element, but they also boast high level of damage mitigation against it (50%+ by guess.).

Elemental of Protection - the earth elementals in Grunwald forest. They have a decent chance of blocking melee attacks, which can leave one wondering why regen per hit did not trigger or why some swings are doing no damage. By guess, I'd say 30% chance on high Niobium.

Lupan in the Seraphim Hunting Grounds - same as above, chance to block melee attacks. The chance seems notably lower however, I'd say 10-15% on high Niobium.

The Ice creatures (Aracin, Hucin, Percalacin etc.) in the Seraphim Hunting Grounds - all of them have a chance to reflect melee damage. Be careful if you are using heavy hitting weapons. Almost lead to several deaths in Niobium before I realized what was happening. This is probably the only noteworthy occurrence in the game, where the bonus on gear which reduces enemy chance to reflect melee attacks could be useful. Seems to be about 20-25% chance in high Niobium.

Elite Temple Guards that throw Fire Traps - they have Ancient Magic at Mastery level on higher enemy levels. Extremely dangerous as Ancient Magic Mastery greatly reduces armor AND damage mitigation. On high Niobium, the Fire Traps are chunking me for ~20K damage per tick through 80% damage mitigation. That would kill me in 3 damage ticks with my 57K health pool. Even if I temporarily buff my damage mitigation to about ~110% (which is immortality in all other cases), the trap is still chunking me for ~14.5K damage. So whenever you are around Temple Guardians near the end of the game, pay close attention to any traps thrown by Elites and avoid them at any costs (or be quick on the spacebar ).

Small Red Dragons (even the non-Elite ones) - also have Mastered Ancient Magic at higher levels. Their homing fireballs hit hard, penetrate your defenses and are still able to deal damage even through 100% damage mitigation. Currently hitting me for 12.7K (16K on crit) at 80% damage mitigation and 9.3K (11.7K on crit) at 110% damage mitigation. Running into a larger group of these unprepared can spell death at high Niobium levels even when one thinks they're immortal or near to it.

Gahanka - very fast health regeneration. Especially when facing him very early on in Silver, one might have trouble pushing past the regen.

T-Energy reservoir - when fighting the Guardians, it will periodically grant them a shield. The shield itself is pretty weak, but it also gives the shielded Guardian a 50% damage mitigation against all damage that lasts about 15-20 seconds and works even if you break the shield.

 

That is all for now. Should I happen to figure some more notable passive abilities of other enemies, I'll add them to the list.

This is very good work   

...and really hits at the heart of a lots of new player woes.. when they hit creatures that seem to have invisible super powers that arent documented because they're not really in "form" of how attacks are documented?

If you'll allow, I'd like to see how we can connect this to the Wiki... maybe a simple link in the index page that brings readers to this page as you update it?

Thanks for putting all your work into a very clear write up of what types of monsters  and situations can bring horrible ends to us all in this game

 

gogo

[idbeholdME 395]

On 11/7/2022 at 6:04 PM, gogoblender said:

If you'll allow, I'd like to see how we can connect this to the Wiki... maybe a simple link in the index page that brings readers to this page as you update it?

Sure, you can link it. I don't think there will be more additions any time soon though.

[idbeholdME 395]

Another find - Du'Rach Commander Harrad'Smit is COMPLETELY immune to Ice damage (100% Ice damage mitigation). Very interesting as the Desert is generally weak against Ice. He even has 0 Ice armor, just mitigation.

Added to the list.

Also, Harrad'Smit is not listed among the quest bosses on the wiki:

https://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Boss

Edited July 6, 2023 by idbeholdME