Curse

Siren Danica · Sep 10, 2005, 01:50 PM // 13:50

Talking strictly PvE here...

First off, is there a proper build for Death Nova? Would this be good enough:

Blood Magic 11+1
Death Magic 10+1
Soul Reaping 6+2
Curses 6+1

I don't really understand the basics of Death Nova. The way I've practiced with it using henchies is:

1. create a bone horror or pair of bone minions
2. target the bone horror/minion
3. cast Death Nova on him
4. target the foe (to get the minion attacking the foe)
5. re-target the minion
6. cast Taste of Death on the minion, which saps 320 health from him, killing him and exploding the Death Nova 80 damage on the foes

Maybe you don't need to use Taste of Death, and just let the minion's health degenerate?

Death Nova's damage is pretty good, but it just seems a lot easier to cast Deathly Swarm on a foe, for roughly the same damage on multiple foes. I do see the Soul Reaping advantage to Death Nova, but if my health is already okay, then Deathly Swarm seems much easier and pretty much as effective.

What is proper way to use Death Nova?

Yamat · Sep 11, 2005, 12:54 AM // 00:54

A great part of Death Nova is that it spreads poison... however, I would think you'd only want to kill your minions with Taste of Death in a dire situation and when you needed the health... most of the time you should let them wail on the monster... perhaps casting something like Barbs or another Curse on the monster to help bring it down. Minions form a great wall, keeping other casters fairly safe.

Keep an eye on which ones are in their last third of health and then cast Nova on them, at least that's how I use it.

timmo567 · Sep 15, 2005, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Yeah, it's an added bonus really, not something to base a whole build around

Zaxares · Sep 15, 2005, 06:13 AM // 06:13

Death Nova is a handy way of dealing out extra damage if you're a minion master (or a sacrificing necro

), but as others have said, it's not a focal skill that you should build everything else around, like IWAY or Fragility. In most cases, I find that Death Nova is not worth the micromanagement I need to do to keep casting it on various minions before they die. I'd much rather just get off a Putrid Explosion as enemies drop, possibly leaving me with more options for a second P.E. 5 seconds later and making it easier for existing minions/henchies to take down surviving enemies.

I ALWAYS take Death Nova when playing with my sacrificing necro in PvP, however. It makes smart players who recognise the aura reluctant to engage you in melee, and it works well as a final kicker for times when I overstretch myself and end up sacrificing myself to death.

Ollj · Sep 15, 2005, 08:10 AM // 08:10

theres better ways:
Dark bond and always cast death nova on the minion that is next to you.
Infuse condition, and cause bleeding on yourself or spread disease and see the minion next to you degenerate. (only works if you dont have an army of them)

smurfhunter · Sep 15, 2005, 03:03 PM // 15:03

edge bomb builds rely on death nova to help the chain effect, since like 50 * 8 damage isnt going to kill everyone. you just put a maxed death nova on everyone and run in yelling and hope you die at the same time. oh wait this is pvp you were talking pve. my b =/

Yukito Kunisaki · Sep 15, 2005, 03:45 PM // 15:45

Death Nova truely works well in pve where bodies are plentiful and you can summon 2 enemies [using bone minions vs. horror] and then death nova them both and then Taste of Death Both.

In a mob heavy situation, you've just dealt a LOT of damage and some lasting DoT to AoE. Not bad, and when more foes go down, you repeat the process. More poison, more minions to go pop. With 10 Soul Reaping or maybe a little less, you've got yourself an infinite nuke engine. [which stops when all foes die but hey, that's the goal right?]