Bone Spear

Summons a deadly spike of bone to impale your enemies.

Bone Spear is a level 18 Necromancer spell (Poison and Bone tree, requires Corpse Explosion; it unlocks Bone Prison and Bone Spirit). It fires a single bone missile that deals magic damage and pierces: the Basin says it hits every target in its path until it expires and has enough range to reach any target on the visible screen. The damage is 16–24 at level 1 and 192–204 at level 20, before its four synergies at +8% per hard point each. Mana is 7 at level 1 and 11.75 at level 20.

The numbers

• Magic damage is EMin 16 to EMax 24, with five brackets that are nearly the same for both ends: the minimum grows +8 a level to level 8, +9 to 16, +12 to 22, +18 to 28 and +24 past that (EMinLev1–5); the maximum grows +8 to 8, +9 to 16, +13 to 22, +19 to 28 and +25 past that (EMaxLev1–5). That gives 16–24 at level 1, 90–98 at level 10, 192–204 at level 20, 372–394 at level 30. The range is narrow, 8 wide at level 1 and 22 at level 30, so the spear's damage is close to its average.
• Mana is 28 sixty-fourths plus 1 a level (mana 28, lvlmana 1, manashift 6): 7 at level 1, +0.25 a level, 11.75 at level 20, 14.25 at level 30.

Both lines read the full skill level, so +skills count. The synergy reads hard points only (blvl).

How it works

Bone Spear is a missile cast from the Necromancer (srvmissile "bonespear"). It is a spell, so it does not roll against attack rating and takes nothing from the weapon; its speed is set by Casting Speed and faster cast rate. The damage is magic (EType "mag"), read against the target's magic resistance (Dealing Elemental Damage). Because it carries no physical damage, leech, Crushing Blow and Open Wounds have nothing to work with.

The Basin's rules for the missile:

• It pierces: the spear hits and passes through every target in its path until it expires, and its range covers the visible screen. The Basin's advice is to aim at a distant point so the trajectory crosses every target between you and it, which is why the spear excels in tunnels and corridors.
• The hit-recovery threshold is twice that of most other skills: the spear has to deal twice the usual share of a target's life in one hit to put it into hit recovery. See Hit Recovery and Stun.
• It is not usable in town and has no casting delay.

The synergy total counts hard points only. A Necromancer with +10 skills and no points in the four synergies casts a level 30 spear for 372–394, less than a level 20 spear with 20 points in one synergy (499–530).

Synergies and +skills

The synergy is EDmgSymPerCalc (Bone Wall.blvl + Bone Prison.blvl + Teeth.blvl + Bone Spirit.blvl) × par8, Param8 8, printed as four tooltip lines:

• Teeth: +8% Magic Damage per Level
• Bone Wall: +8% Magic Damage per Level
• Bone Prison: +8% Magic Damage per Level
• Bone Spirit: +8% Magic Damage per Level

All four read blvl, hard points only. The Basin notes the older value was 7% a level in Lord of Destruction and 8% in Resurrected; the table's 8 is the current game. Bone Spear in turn feeds Teeth and Bone Spirit by hard points, as their pages show. Items with +% Magic Skill Damage apply to the spear as the stat page describes. No mastery raises it.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else; the magic damage is then read against the player's magic resistance. The Basin's page records no other player-versus-player rule for this skill; the doubled hit-recovery threshold applies as above. See Player versus Player.

Build notes

• Level 20 is 192–204 for 11.75 mana; every +1 from items past that is worth +12 to +25 damage depending on the bracket, the last bracket (+24/+25 a level) starting at level 29.
• Each hard point in Teeth, Bone Wall, Bone Prison or Bone Spirit is worth +8% of the base, so 80 synergy points make the spear 7.4 times its base; the synergies, not the spear's own level past 20, are where the damage lives.
• Bone Prison and Bone Spirit both feed the spear and are themselves fed by it, so points in them are not wasted on a build that casts all three.