I've been watching this question about Nihilus's protection in my P4 NS runs for quite some time now. By way of adding to jkray622's comments:
In runs where I successfully land plague early in the attempt, it becomes increasingly difficult to break Nihilus's protection after he takes a turn. By the end of the attempt his protection has grown to the point that it's almost unbreakable. I see this happen more often on plague runs than non-plague runs, and i suspect that it has something to do with how Nihilus registers damage from plague.
Here are the questions I have based on this - how does Nihilus process damage from multiple stacks of plague when attacked with and without the DD debuff, and is how he does this working as intended? Here is what I have observed:
-As jkray622 mentioned, Nihilus’s max protection drain also recovers protection for him.
-All damage caused by the plague debuff is credited to Mother Talzin when she uses her basic, regardless of which unit is targeted. I’m not sure if this also applies to the damage Nihilus suffers from the plague debuff on each of his turns.
-If Nihilus has multiple stacks of the plague debuff, his protection drain is triggered on a basic attack from MT even when she doesn’t have the defense down debuff. I’ve seen this when targeting Nihilus with MT’s (sans DD debuff) basic. I’m not sure if it applies when MT targets another unit when she doesn’t have the DD debuff.
Consider the following situation:
Nihilus has 4 stacks of plague. MT attacks him with her basic while she has the defense down debuff.
Does this trigger his protection drain 1x (all damage is counted as one attack), 2x (basic damage and total plague damage are counted separately), or 5x (basic and each plague stack hit are counted separately)?
What happens in the same situation if MT does not have the DD debuff? From my observations, his protection drain will still trigger in this instance, but to what degree? Does MT gain the DD debuff after her basic attack damage is counted, but before the plague damage from her basic is counted?
If individual plague ticks are triggering Nihilus’s protection drain mechanic, that could explain instances of extreme protection values at the end of an attempt.
