Sacred:Call of Death
This magic spell draws the souls of the dead into the Daemons weapon. The current weapon becomes more charged with every soul and thus inflicts additional damage. This effect will decrease if the weapon is not fed fresh souls. The % bonus is applied each time a monster dies while Call of Death is active. Contrary to the description, the bonus damage is added to the "normal" damge, rather than just increasing the maximum damage that your Daemon can do. So if your Daemon would normally have done 1,000-1,500 damage, and was given bonus damage of +100 from Call of Death, you would then do 1,100-1,600 damage. The bonus decreases quite quickly, but the bonus is applied to all damage you do, be it from melee, ranged or spells.
[size=3]Call of Death - How Does it Work?[/size]
After extensive testing of the Call of Death spell and watching damage figures float to the top of screens, I believe I can safely post the results without being lynched.
As you'll notice, the spell lists "Maximum Damage Bonus" in the description screen. On the surface, this amount seems rather trivial. It would indeed be trivial if that's all the spell considered...
The Maximum Damage Bonus is added to your Daemon's damage output each time an enemy is killed. This amount accumulates as the Daemon kills more enemies. Therefore:
A Call of Death spell with a Maximum Damage Bonus of 4%: +4% to the Daemon's total damage for each slain enemy. 5 enemies slain = +20% to damage. Each additional enemy slain adds another 4% to total damage inflicted per spell/attack. This damage bonus applies to every spell, special attack, and weapon attack by the Daemon.
The Wildcard Timer: Unknown at this time is the invisible "timer" which seems to run as kills are scored by the Daemon. If your Daemon makes 2 consecutive kills, then (using our example spell amount above) 8% will be added to all damage she does. However, if more than a few seconds passes before her next kill, the damage boost is lost. She will then have to build it back up again. It seems that the Daemon must maintain a steady stream of slain enemies to maintain a consistently high damage bonus.
Here's one scenario during testing. The Daemon was using normal weapon swings vs. a group of enemies surrounding her. Infernal Power and Call of Death were both running. Her damage bonus from CoD is 5%.
- First Goblin: Hit for 24K, killed (5%)
- Second Goblin: Hit for 28K, sayonara (10%)
- Third Goblin: Critical scored, hit for 62K, dead as a door nail (15%)
- Fourth Goblin: Critical scored, hit for 83K, vaporized (20%)
- Fifth Goblin: Hit for 76K, obliterated (25%)
- Goblin Shaman: Struck for a decent critical of 108K, no chance to scream (30%)
Note that her Call of Death spell isn't very developed in the example. It's only at 23rd level. Her Infernal Power spell, however, is level 72. With more levels in Call of Death, the damage would turn from insane to utterly mad. The Advantage of Split in Racking up the Damage
The more enemies she kills in quick succession, the more damage she does. Therefore, a good Split modifier is essential in maintaining a steadily increasing output. Having Hellspeheres and Blazing Discs working for your Daemon will aid in this endeavor. They can attack enemies out of your immediate reach. With a good Chance for Open Wounds modifier, the chances for a split occurring are even better.
Wounds Increase Damage Dealt: Another Factor
If you wish to venture beyond the fine line between madness and complete insanity, a WIDD Daemon using Call of Death and Infernal Power theoretically has the greatest damage potential of any character.
Usage Strategies
- Cast Call of Death before entering a mob, kill as many as possible as fast as possible for a huge damage bonus
- Try to have Call of Death on all the time when fighting in areas with many enemies
- Call of Death works best with Area of Effect CAs/Spells, such as Poison Ring, Fire Wall & Tentacles.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Call of Death increases your damage to the insane when you are killing many enemies at once
- Call of Death works with both spells and combat arts
- The Call of Death damage bonus is maxed (6%) at lvl 36
- The execution of the spell is very fast
Cons
- The duration is only 60 seconds
- The damage Bonus is maxed as early as level 36 so when the spell is level 200 it will increase damage as much as it did in level 36
Damage Type(s): % Additional Damage
Call of Death lvl | 1 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 |
Max Damage bonus | 3% | 6% | 6% | 6% | 6% |
Duration | 25s | 60s | 60s | 60s | 60s |