Mark of Pain


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 * [[Image:Necromancer-icon.png]] ||Profession:|| Necromancer

Description
For 30 seconds, whenever target foe takes physical damage, Mark of Pain deals 10...34 shadow damage to adjacent foes.

Usage Notes
This curse has the potential to deal more damage to a clustered group than just about any other skill. However it can be difficult to set everything up to take full advantage of its effects.

This skill works very well with henchmen because it easy to convince them to focus fire by calling your target. To get the best effect, make sure to choose as many henchmen as possible that do physical damage. Little Thom, Stefan, and Reyna are all good choices.

Keep in mind that the longer your target lives, the more damage Mark of Pain will do to surrounding foes. A good strategy is to cast Mark of Pain on the strongest foe you face and allow the AoE to kill everything around it. Minions, fiends, and horrors attacking your target will also contribute to the effect.

Remember that wands and staffs will not trigger Mark of Pain. If you want your attacks to trigger the spell, get a bow or melee weapon. Necromancers with ranger or warrior sub-classes may find this curse particularly useful.

Using Mark of Pain with other players instead of henchmen can be a little more challenging. Warriors and rangers must know to focus on your target. Players doing damage that is not physical may wish to choose a different target in order to spread their damage around and allow the curse to do it's full job. Be aware of nature rituals and other ranger skills that change physical damage into elemental damage. Also make sure that your rangers and warriors are not using weapon upgrades that change their damage type.

Mark of Pain triggers only if someone deals physical damage, so, most of the AoE spells (such as Fire Storm, Inferno, Searing Heat, Chaos Storm) won't trigger this curse since these spells deal elemental damage.

Monsters will react to Mark of Pain as an AoE spell and run. But since the curse is located on a target foe and not a location you can follow your target and still do damage. Also, foes may still remain close enough to each other so the effect remains even if they run... just follow them.

Acquisition
Skill Quests: Skill Trainers:
 * Death in the Ruins (Sardelac Sanitarium)
 * Captain Osric (Yak's Bend)
 * Dakk (Ember Light Camp)