What are these horrible (lightning?) things?

The one thing to which I die regularly must be a (rare?) mob I've never been able to see, so I don't know what mod this is and can't find it on the wiki.

From off-screen, I become surrounded by ... pods of lightning looking spires (?) that detonate quickly and decimate me (with maxed lightning resists, so maybe it is some other damage form). These things follow me when I run away. If I don't notice them quickly enough I die very quickly and I can't seem to find their source.

What are they, and what is the mod that lets someone cast them?

Since I have been playing SSF ruthless, I don't have any movement skills (and of course my gear is suboptimal) so it seems my only real method of "dealing" with this is to notice it quickly enough and leave the instance. That feels really bad. I'd like to be able to learn some strategy to improve, but I can't even see what it is!

There're from a rare monster modifier that's displayed as "Lightning Totem Minions".

The totems aren't directly spawned by the rare monster. The monster's minions spawn a lightning totem as they die (up to a limit), which despawns when the rare monster is killed.

"

onomastikon#6270 wrote:

I'd like to be able to learn some strategy to improve, but I can't even see what it is!

If your char is slow and weak then you dont have good options. Otherwise:
Understanding their damage dealing mechanics may help. Far as I remember they first teleport and then after some delay do a damage nova. The delay and/or AoE may be influenced by map and/or rare mods. The gist here is that if you move fast enough from the damage aoe you wont take any damage. And you have a window during which you can do something other than moving away. It may also be possible to lead them away.

Build: They probably do spell damage. If your build is strong with good recovery you can usually tank them. Even if you cant fully tank them having more survival (esp vs spells) makes them easier to deal with.

Ok thanks.
(And yes, no movement skills in ruthless, and also no crafting bench, so I'm stuck at 25 movespeed )