Diablo II Hints

Skills: Curses

• Curses are the second of three skill types that the Necromancer can learn.  Curses are a must for single player, but they really shine in multiple player games, as the entire troop will directly benefit from the effect.
  
  Amplify Damage -- This is a great curse.  Whether you use it in single player or a group, whether you attack in person or send you minions, always use Amplify.  It doubles the damage of every hit you make!  Adding more levels has little effect, just increasing the radius and duration.  Put a couple of skill points in, so that you can get a large group at once.
  
  Attract -- This is like an in improved form of Confuse.  It can be used best on monsters that resurrect minions -- use it on them so that their own minions will bring them down.  Remember to stay away from the action, though, because you are still a good target.
  
  Confuse -- This skill gives you a good way to boost your attack power in a mob situation.  Some of the monsters will stop going after you and start killing each other.  This is very effective.  Help out with a ranged attack, like Teeth, to really have some fun.
  
  Decrepify -- This skill is a good way to slow your enemies in an area.  This works in your favor if the enemy is fast and likes to run up and hit you.  Slow him down, and whittle away at him from a safe distance.
  
  Dim Vision -- This is useful for the crafty Necromancer.  With this spell, you can effectively blind your enemy and use ranged weapons to kill him while you hide in the shadows.  This does not work very well if you have a horde of minions with you, so be careful about going down this road.  Dim Vision is also good if you need to make a "strategic withdrawal".
  
  Iron Maiden -- This is the most important curse for a Necromancer.  It really can multiply the damage that your opponents do and hand it back to them.  This is great even on the tough bosses, as they harder they hit you (or preferably your minions), the harder they get hit.  At level 9, you are returning 400% of the damage that you or your troops get.  Combined with Amplify, this is a fantastic spell.  As you can imagine, this combination is perfect for use in multiplayer games as well.  The only time this spell is not almost a necessity is if you do not plan on taking any damage -- for example, if you're playing as a sniper Necromancer using Dim Vision and only ranged attacks.
  
  Life Tap -- This curse makes any physical attack into a leech type attack.  You will get back 50% of life for yourself from any damage you inflict.  Obviously, you have to be hitting the monsters to get the life back, though.  This is not good for mob situations.
  
  Lower Resist -- This curse removes some of the immunity that higher level bosses have to magical, fire, cold, poison, or electrical attacks.  If you are going to use this curse on a boss, use it first to help the following spells work better.
  
  Terror -- This curse scares smaller monsters and makes them run away.  This is good if you are having trouble being mobbed.  It doesn't work on bosses, or even some of the special monsters. 
  
  Weaken -- This is the twin curse to Amplify.  While you want your attacks to be strong, you want your enemy's attack to be weak.  This spell does not get much better with many skill points, and it's most useful when you are under direct attack.  This curse also works against Iron Maiden, so I am not fond of it.
  

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