Immune to Lightning
To be refined at a later date...
While compiling lists of normal monsters and minions in Hell whose lightning, fire and cold immunities couldn't be broken by an [[D2 Rune word blade#Infinity|Template:D2 Unique bold]] polearm's Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped (Lightning Resist -85%, or -17% vs immunity) to contribute to a topic on Battle.net's Test Realm forum, a thought occurred to me: it's widely known that a player or hireling equipping this weapon can break practically every Immune to Lightning normal monster or minion in the game outside the Pandemonium Event, but how many are left if you only have access to the much more realistic level 1-3 Lower Resist (LR -31-41%, or -6-8% vs immunity) charges, which can be found, bought or gambled on wands, daggers or staves?
This is the complete list of normal monsters and minions in the game outside the Pandemonium Event that would remain Immune to Lightning in Hell after being cursed with LR charges:
LR % MONSTER ACT AREA(S)
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100 Lightning Spire 2 Arcane Sanctuary
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110 Hungry Dead 1 Cave 1-2, Burial Grounds, Crypt, Mausoleum, Stony Field
Night Clan Tristram, Black Marsh
Misshapen Underground Passage 1-2, Hole 1-2
Dark Archer Tower Cellar 1-5
Dark Lancer Tamoe Highland, Pit 1-2
Burning Dead Mage 2 Sewers 3, Stony Tomb 1
Scarab Maggot Lair 1-3
Fiend 3 Arachnid Lair, Spider Cavern, Swampy Pit 1-3
Soul Killer Flayer Jungle, Flayer Dungeon 1-3
Temple Guard Kurast Causeway
Burning Soul 4 Plains of Despair
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115 Disfigured 1 Monastery Gate
Black Archer Inner Cloister
Horror Mage 2 Ancient Tunnels, Palace Cellar 3
Steel Scarab Canyon of the Magi, Tal Rasha's Tombs
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120 Horror 2 Sewers 3, Stony Tomb 1-2
3 Sewers 1-2
Bone Scarab Forgotten Temple, Ruined Fane, Disused Reliquary
Damned 4 City of the Damned
Dark Familiar City of the Damned
Returned Mage 5 Arreat Plateau, Frozen Tundra
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130 Horror Mage 5 Worldstone Keep 3
That's just 21 monsters in 50 locations, 18 of which you never have to visit to progress through the game, and many of which you only have to pass through. Of course, breaking an immunity can still leave a monster with as much as LR 99%, so there's not much point unless you can equip items with -% Enemy Lightning Resistance, as listed below:
-% ELR ITEM ----------------------------------------------------------- 35 Crescent Moon axe, sword or pole-arm 15 Tal Rasha's Lidless Eye Swirling Crystal (4 Items) 3- 5 Rainbow Facet Jewel 15 Thunderstroke Matriarchal Javelin 15-20 Griffon's Eye Diadem 45-55 Infinity pole-arm
Some of those are more realistic than others, but none have anything like the sheer rarity of Infinity. The most realistic single item is the Crescent Moon axe, sword or polearm, and fortunately it also has the second highest -% ELR (although this won't do a pure lightning Amazon a lot of good): even if you only play with what you find, an Um has 1/11 chance of dropping from the Hellforge quest in both Nightmare and Hell, or approximately 17.35% chance of at least one dropping overall... and if you're patient enough, there's always [[D2 The Countess|Template:D2 Unique bold]]...
However, once you can equip -% ELR items and cast LR, then aside from the monsters listed above you only have to worry about individual (Super) Unique monsters and the occasional Immune to Lightning Possessed Champion, all of which could potentially be handled by a well-equipped hireling. Interestingly, in the end-game the following level 85 areas contain no Immune to Lightning normal monsters or minions that cannot be broken by LR charges:
- River of Flame
- Chaos Sanctuary
- Worldstone Keep 1-2
- Throne of Destruction
Even more interestingly, none of the (Super) Unique monsters that can spawn in the Throne of Destruction can be both Immune to Physical and Immune to Lightning at the same time... and because Burning Souls already have two immunities, lightning (100%) and poison (115%), even if a Unique spawns Lightning Enchanted (LR +75%), it'll remain breakable at LR 100%.
This information is probably most relevant to a pure lightning Sorceress, although I'm now intrigued by the possibilities of a Paladin investing 20 points in Holy Shock, Resist Lightning, Fist of the Heavens and Holy Bolt: as already mentioned a pure lightning Amazon would be harder to accomplish without the option of Crescent Moon (although technically if she switched to it in the time between the javelin being thrown and hitting, or immediately after attacking with Lightning Strike, -% ELR from Crescent Moon would be applied), and a pure lighting trapper Assassin could only apply -% ELR to Shock Web damage (and a martial artist wouldn't have a problem both maximising lightning damage and dealing with immunities... well, neither would a trapper).
This may have come up before (I'd be surprised if it hadn't), but I couldn't think of which terms to enter in the search function to narrow down the results enough to confirm that suspicion before posting.