Imps Guide

From HoAWiki

Imps were introduced in fall 2008. The main motive behind the imps was to limit the HP of heroes. After the Dark Forest release, there became an abundance of vitality-boosting items which allow your character to gain a large amount of HPs upon level up. For example, by using vitality items, it was possible to reach 800 HP at level 40 with a traditionally low-HP class such as wizards. It is believed that Dumble Dwarf (an HoA developer) frowned upon the possibility of gaining unnaturally high HP, so he pushed for the addition of the Imps - although later, he denied that this was the real motive and added some fluff saying that imps were there "to provide an ecological equilibrium because heroes were becoming too powerful." For this, a storyline was added to accompany their in-game addition. After Imps were released, the system was widely criticized because it stole HPs from heroes, thereby taking away a stat earned by the player. The imps are regarded as the most heavily-criticized feature of the game.

Contents 1 What do Imps Do? 2 Do HPs Matter 3 Anti-Imp Strategies 3.1 Strategies for limiting the HP lost to lesser imps 3.2 After reaching the Greater Imp threshold 3.3 Anti-Imp Machine and the Imp Token 4 Appendix: Vitality Items

[edit] What do Imps Do?

When your character reaches a certain amount of base max-HP (known as the HP threshold), Imps appear and attack you. The imp attack cannot be avoided using the potion of monster detection. The imp has a special skill that drains your max-hp, resulting in a permanent loss of HPs. The imps were also given the relentless ability to prevent you from fleeing when it was discovered that fleeing from imps was an effective strategy against them.

Locations:

Imps are located in every area frequented by mid-to-high-level heroes EXCEPT: Fertile Plains, HFM Southern Pass, Desolate Wastelands, Ruins of Thallis. When exploring in an area with imps, the imp randomly attacks.

HP Thresholds:

When your HP is above the threshold amount listed below, imps attack to drain your HP back down to this threshold. This threshold is set in stone and does not depend on level. Each class has a particularly HP Threshold.

Warrior of Discord - 900

Paladin - 700

Warrior - 700

Solarus - 650

Dwarf - 600

Ranger - 500

Adept - 450

Elf - 400

Healer - 300

Cultist - 375

Rogue - 375

Gnome Champ - 275

Wizard - 260

Priestess - 325 (unconfirmed, but should be around this value)

Monk - 600 (confirmed June 26, '10 by Judge the Righteous)

Barbarian - 800 (also unconfirmed)

Lesser and Greater Imps

The lesser imp appears when your HP is above the above threshold. The lesser imp has a high-priority ranged attack (ranged stat ~ 300), and if it hits you then, you lose 1 HP permanently each round. The imp is not an especially difficult opponent, and is usually killable in around 10 combat rounds, but you lose the HP permanently. The greater imp, on the other hand, appears when your HP is 1.5 times that of the threshold value. When your HP is this high, only greater imps appear - lesser imps no longer attack you. Greater Imps have 90 HP rather than 50 HP, and drains 2HP per combat round.

[edit] Do HPs Matter

In easy areas, no; in hard areas, yes

In places with weaker monsters, including most of the "old" areas, HPs do not matter because it's possible for heroes to gain complete dominance over by using simply combat stats and equipment. For example, the monsters in the Dark Forest can be beaten with minimal health loss if your stats are high enough. In the more difficult areas released in late summer of 2008 (such as Krolmn's Anvil), HPs do matter, because they are significantly powerful, and many of the less powerful need "everything" to beat these monsters. For more powerful classes such as Paladins, and Warriors of Discord, HPs do not matter as much as for less powerful classes such as Solarii, Barbarians, and Cultists.

Healing efficiency with TRTs

The Total Restoration Tincture (purchased from the Lormidia Bazaar) heals up to 9999 HP per use. So if your character has 2500 HPs, for example, then you can heal up to 2500 HP with a single use of a TRT in a single combat round. Since TRTS cost 1500 gold each, if you heal 750 HP per use, then they are as efficient in HP per gold as Elixirs. If you heal 1500 HPs, then they heal twice as efficiently in HP per gold as elixirs, and you only use 1 combat round to heal rather than using 10 rounds to drink all 10 elixirs. The efficiency that you heal with ties into how much gold you'll receive, because the less gold spent on healing, the more gold you can have. For example, for a certain WoD (in-game name "Regnator") with 2500 HPs, healing is extremely efficiently. This character is able can run through Krolm's anvil with auto-attack on, fight every single battle, and still make a gold profit. If he only had 900 HPs, then gold consumption would be significantly higher, and the character would rapidly lose money in Krolm's anvil.

HPs are needed to cushion damage

If the enemy can do 200 damage per hit, and you only have 150 HPs total, then you're dead even if you have a million healing aids to use. If the enemy does 200 damage, then you would need around 400 HPs to absorb the damage. Are there fights in which you can take 200 damage per combat round? Yes, In fact, the Towering Golem does about 170 damage per hit, has double attack, and can attack in groups of two. Large groups of Death Reavers can do upwards of 800 HP damage per combat round against poorly armored heroes. While it is not necessary to fight these monsters, it's been pointed out that at least 450 base HP is necessary to beat the Nomad Champion, which is required to complete a quest. Note that many classes are not allowed to have 450 HP due to their threshold limit, so for these classes, it is probably impossible to complete the Nomad Arena quest without bringing the HP past the limit. However, one can also argue that it's entirely possible to play the game simply by avoiding the hardest monsters.

The motive for "realistic" HPs

In principle, enforcing a limit on HP is not a bad idea. The main problem with the system is that it is implemented in a manner that annoys the player, and the HP limits imposed are not suitable for late-game gameplay. In addition, different classes are more or less capable of defeating imps, so this system is not consistent across all classes. The massive vitality/HP inflation brought about by the Dark Forest release has caused a lot of problems in terms of "realism", but since the imps' attempt to fix this problem is hugely flawed, the imps have created even more problems of player resentment, rather than fixing the vitality inflation.

[edit] Anti-Imp Strategies

[edit] Strategies for limiting the HP lost to lesser imps

1. Avoid Going to Imps Locations: This is the most obvious strategy. If you aren't in imp areas, then they can't get you! The best strategy to do this is to finish the imp locations early on (Dark Forest, HFM regions, Sunken city), so you can move to non-imp regions (Fertile Plains, Thallis, Desolate Wastelands) with minimized exposure to imps. For some classes, this may be the best strategy. The rest of the strategies, outlined below, are somewhat class-specific.
2. Exploding Aura: The imp casts the invisiblity spell, but the Exploding Aura spell can hit invisible targets. At high int, the imp can be killed in one hit (Exploding Aura does 15-35 base damage, so you need an additional a 32 spell damage bonus to guarantee the one-hit kill). The Ring is essential for an Int hero, so you'll need to get it regardless of whether you need it against the imp or not. Also, remember that ever 4 int is +1 spell damage. Due to this, Int classes can easily push HP up to 1.5 times the HP limit. If your character can kill the imp in one hit of exploding aura, then you will lose only 2 HP per encounter (since you lose HPs for two combat rounds).
3. Illusionary Hero and invisibility: If you have illusionary hero, there's a 50% chance you won't get hit. In that case, if the imp's first shot misses you, you can then use the invisibility gem to prevent the Imp from hitting you for several rounds. The invisibility gem allows enough time for two blasts of Exploding Aura. A quick way to use invisibility while going through mountain passes is the use the forest cloak or the an item that gives invisibility. This method reduces the HP loss by half, but is expensive because you need the Illusionary hero enchantment.
4. Priestess Skeletons/followers and invisibility: Against lesser imps, with the skeletons in combat, the priestess hasa 75% chance of avoiding the first attack, since the imp might target the skeleton instead. When the imp misses, further HP loss can be prevented by having an invisiblity gem readied. This tactic can also be used with normal followers, but the Priestess is the only class that can generate followers on the fly.
5. Outspeed the lesser imp: If you have enough speed, you can out-prioritize the first hit of the lesser imps, allowing you to use the invisibility gem before it is able to attack to prevent (if using Exploding Aura) or minimize HP loss. Speed Increasing items include the Belt of Godly Finesse (+1), Vigilance Enchantment (+3), headband of prescience (+2), and Boot of Lunord (+2). Slow classes like warriors and wizards have base speed of 1. Rangers and Artifice classes have speed 3. Paladins and Solarii have speed 2. Adepts have speed 5.
6. WoD's Howl of Discord: The Howl of Discord hits invisible enemies, so can easily damage the imp. If the WoD is very high level (therefore, the howl damage is very high), the howl and exploding Aura combination easily kills lesser imp.

[edit] After reaching the Greater Imp threshold

The strategy posted here earlier is no longer possible (as of Sept 2009) due to modification of game combat procedures.

[edit] Anti-Imp Machine and the Imp Token

As of April 15, 2010 an Anti-Imp Machine could be found in Valmorgen if a character has encountered a combination of 10 Lesser and Greater Imps. The announcement and details can be found in the forum here.

http://www.heroesofardania.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=495&PN=1&TPN=8

It should be noted that the Imp Token does not work during Battle of the Plains and that only Greater Imps appear in the BoP as the random encounters. This means that if your HPs are over your Lesser Imp threshold you WILL encounter Greater Imps during Battle of the plains 100% of the random encounters until your HPs go below the normal threshold. For most characters with a RoMD this represents a loss of 10 hps each encounter. It also represents a significant loss in potential XP and gold.

[edit] Appendix: Vitality Items

Vitality items are used during level up (and only during level up) to increase the amount of HP gained from leveling up. This system is quite awkward, and you can see why it has led to problems when an abundance of +vit items have become available.

The following vitality-boosting items are available to all classes:

1. Red Charm (+10 VIT) - Lormidia Bazaar
2. Ring of Fortitude (+5 VIT) - East Cheswick Trading Post
3. Weapon Socketted with 3x Hellbear Beard rings (+12 VIT) - requires "enchanted weapon" schematic and socketted weapon
4. Bracers socketted with 2x Hellbear Beard rings (+8 VIT) - requires socketting manual schematic
5. Gloves socketted with 2x Hellbear Beard rings (+8 VIT) - requires socketting manual schematic
6. Boots socketted with 2x Hellbear Beard rings (+8 VIT) - requires socketting manual schematic
7. Aura of Health (+16 VIT)
8. Minotaur Potion (+20 VIT)
9. TOTAL: +87 VIT (results in an average of +32 HP per level-up).

Class-specific:

1. Ancient Belt of Godly Strength (+5 VIT)
2. Monk weapon can socket an additional hellbear ring (+4 VIT)
3. Skullcap of Self-Improvement (+1 VIT)

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Please contribute to this article as you see fit. Article originally posted on the forum by Veneficus.