Difference between revisions of "Necromancer Curses"

Revision as of 16:07, 22 October 2009

The Necromancer's Curses are powerful magical skills that must be used cleverly to come to their full effect. Curses do not do direct damage, but are cast on monsters to increase the damage they take, slow them, blind them, and so on. Using the right curse in the right situation is what makes a Necromancer powerful, and the fact that almost no curses stack makes the choice and timing of which to use, and when to use it, quite important.

Amplify Damage

Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None
Details: Amplify damage greatly increases the physical damage taken by any afflicted target. Use this on monsters that are being beaten on by minions or other players. It's of less use for the Necromancer himself since his melee and bow attacks are so weak. (Some rare melee Necromancer builds not withstanding.)

• Amplify Damage lowers the targets resistance to physical damage by 100%.
• Amplify Damage will "break" physical immunity in almost all cases.
• Amplify Damage teams nicely with Corpse Explosion, since that spell deals 50% fire and 50% physical damage.

Dim Vision

Required Level: 6
Prerequisites:: None
Details: Monsters that have had their vision dimmed no longer see their enemies. They will stand still, or randomly move in short distances, but will fight back against melee attackers.

• This curse does not work on other players in PVP.
• Does not work on Oblivion Knights, SuperUnique Monsters and Bosses.
• Dim Vision will stack on a monster Cursed with Attract or Confuse, but will be overwritten by those curses if Dim Vision is active first.
• Most monsters will not use their special attacks while cursed. Blood Lords will not Frenzy, Frozen Horrors will not use their icy breath, etc.
• Monsters already pursuing a target will continue pursuing it if hit with Dim Vision. They must reach the target or an obstruction before their AI resets and they go into dimmed mode.

Weaken

Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: Amplify Damage
Details: Lowers the physical damage the target inflicts by 33%.

• This spell has no effect on elemental attacks from monsters or other players in PVP mode; only physical damage.

Iron Maiden

Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Amplify Damage
Details: Causes the physical, melee damage inflicted by the target to reflect back to themselves. Does not effect non-physical damage, or non-melee attacks.

• Iron Maiden does not affect archers, but does reflect damage to the Flayer blowdart gunners.
• Iron Maiden is best used against fast hitting melee monsters, especially if the Necromancer's minons are not capable of dealing high damage (which is better teamed with Amplify Damage.)
• The target still takes full damage when hit by an Iron Maiden'ed enemy. The Cursed monster just takes much more, reflected back.
• Iron Maiden is extremely dangerous against melee characters since it can also be cast by Oblivion Knights; using any sort of physical damage melee attack in the vicinity of those monsters is very dangerous.
• Iron Maiden is nerfed in Nightmare and Hell, and in PVP.

Terror

Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Amplify Damage, Weaken
Details: Cursed monsters run away at very high speed.

• Does not affect other players in PVP.
• Does not work on bosses or SuperUniques.

Confuse

Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Dim Vision
Details: Confused monsters attack whatever target is nearest them, including other monsters. Use other curses, such as Amplify Damage or Decrepify, to help the Confused monster kill more quickly, or use Iron Maiden on the other monsters so they kill themselves fighting back.

• Confuse does not work on bosses or SuperUniques.
• Confuse does not work on other players in PVP mode.

Life Tap

Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Amplify Damage, Iron Maiden
Details: Life Tap causes huge life leech to flow to any physical damage attacker. One monster so afflicted will essentially provide full rejuvenations to anything that strikes it.

Attract

Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Dim Vision, Confuse
Details: A monster with Attract cast on it becomes the target of aggression to all other monsters in the vicinity. This skill does not change the monster's AI, it just makes all the other monsters hate it.

• Attract will not work on other players, Oblivion Knights, SuperUnique Monsters, or Bosses.
• The small radius of Attract allows it to be used surgically; cast Iron Maiden on a large mob, then hit one a few individual monsters with Attract, and the pack will kill themselves hitting the Attracted enemy, damaging that monster in the process.
• Attract will not overwrite Confuse.
• Attracted Monsters can still be damaged (unlike Paladin Conversion).

Decrepify

Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Amplify Damage, Weaken, Terror
Details: This powerful curse lowers movement and attack speed, as well as reducing all resistances (physical, poison, magic, fire, cold, lightning) by 50%.

• This curse is all purpose, and the slows target aspect can greatly preserve the life of your minions.
• For pure damage, it's better to use Amplify Damage for physical attacks and Lower Resistances for elemental and magical attacks.

Lower Resist

Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Weaken, Amplify Damage, Terror, Iron Maiden, Life Tap, Decrepify.
Details: Lowers the target's resistance to cold, fire, poison, lightning, and magical damage the listed amount.

• Does not effect physical resistance. (Use Amplify Damage or Decrepify for that.)
• Will break immunities, but only lowers the resistance 1/5 as much when doing so. (Making the monster no longer immune, but still highly resistant.)
• Boosts the effectiveness of the Necromancer's bone and poison attacks.
• This curse is highly useful when partied with a Sorceress.