Mage Ability: Curse

[Theorems]

Hello All,

I've been considering picking up curse for my mage and dropping one of my DPS abilities - either frost bolt or lightning.

Although I would be losing 33% of my attack skills, because I will be going from 3 attack skills to only 2, I am wondering if this will end up in an overall better build. I always play with friends and rarely solo. My friends are capable players that can hold their own.

I assume that the additional damage for everyone in the party should outweigh the damage from just 1 of my attack skills right? I'd like to hear from the pro mages on the forums and see what they have to say.

Also, a few quick questions:
1. How long does curse last on the enemies? Is Lingering Curse worth it if I were to get it?
2. Is it worth getting the damage reduction skill for curse? Does it make a noticable difference? Does it affect bosses?
3. Is sweeping curse worth it? I will mainly be playing Nordr and I've noticed there are quite a bit of enemies. How many targets can curse hit normally? Have you found the additional 2M increased range helps?
4. What does charging curse even do? Does it just give more range? There is no description of what charging curse does. Should I save the time in the rotation and never charge it?

5. Essentially, if I am trying to save points for passives, what points should I pick in curse in order to make it fully effective for Nordr maps on elite mode and which ones would it be OK to pass up? I am level 30+.

Thanks in advanced for any answers from the mage pros!

[xcainnblecterx]

If you only pve , I highly recommend it. Max it, as for the other questions idk. But in PvP the skill is next to useless

[Valsacar]

In my tests curse was useless, even with lingering it doesn't last long enough to make any difference.

[Theorems]

In my tests curse was useless, even with lingering it doesn't last long enough to make any difference.

You tested it for PvE purposes?

I had it for a bit when respecs were free. I dropped it because I felt the same way, like the curse felt like it didn't last long enough for me to feel like it was making a big difference, but then its also harder for me to really gauge how much more damage my teammates were doing since there is often too much going on and too many enemies getting killed at the same time.

My main thing is that LOGICALLY it seems like a skill you take when you want to be a team player. Team play generally equals lower individual performance in order to enhance your team's overall performance.

Any pro mages out there, perhaps LB runners want to chime in? When you are rushing LBs, do you use this ability?

[bluotaku]

I personally do not like curse in its current form. Now I have not done any extensive tests or calculations, but the following points jump out at me:

1. If you replace say frost or lightning with it, you're giving up over 400 dmg every three seconds. In 15 seconds (CD of curse), you can spit out over 2000 dmg. To make up for that lost 2000, your party needs to be able to dish out quite a lot of dmg while curse is active (2000 is 15% of what number? 13,333!), and curse does not last that long. Now of course curse hits multiple enemies, and your teammates hit multiple enemies, there's dmg reduction, etc...but this is just a rough look at the skill

2. IMO, another CC (especially frost) is much more worth it than the 10% dmg reduction from curse. I can keep a group of mobs frozen for a whole battle.

[Pyromagnium]

I'ts funny; I was about to start the exact same thread.

Honestly, I feel it is more appropriate now that the percentage buffs/debuffs have more relevance. I'm seeing an increasing trend of mages using Curse. I even asked a mage at the end of a WT4 run how he liked Curse. "I love it." was his reply.

Going forward, once the spell gains more popularity, and perhaps even by the next expansion, it could become standard in PvE rotations.

[Excuses]

I love to try curse...but too good to give up any of fire, ice, and time in pve.
Stun, freeze and root actually stop mobs attack not just reduce it.

But wonder how long curse last.

[Jed]

From what I've heard, you can't really see how long curse lasts. Maybe that's changed.
I haven't used it yet, but I might play around with it the next free respec.

[Yakiniku]

From what I've heard, you can't really see how long curse lasts. Maybe that's changed.
I haven't used it yet, but I might play around with it the next free respec.

The last time I played with curse was during the very first free respec weekend. The duration back then was literally two seconds, four with upgrade. You could tell by going into the Bard quest with the four mini-bosses, dropping skills on them that have damage over time, then dropping a curse on them. The damage would increase when the curse was active, then decrease again when the curse duration ended. Or I guess you could just estimate the duration with pet attacks too. Either way, there was no way I was allocating two or more skill points on a four second boost that could simply be wasted if teammates' skills were on cooldown or if they were just auto attacking.

There wasn't a graphical indicator for curse back then, but there is one now. It's that funky gray cartoon cloud you see over mobs heads from time to time. Of course, you probably don't see it often because curse mages are pretty rare.

[ryantat]

fire's burning + damage all the time from time shift + curse's reflection is effective but one problem is long cold down from fire and time shift. If using Frost, we cast a lot of spells at the same time.

[Cero]

^necro

[Alhuntrazeck]

^necro

...again. sigh.