Grim Ward

Use on the corpse of a slain monster to create a frightening totem that causes nearby monsters to flee.

Grim Ward is the last Barbarian corpse skill (level 24, requires Find Item). Cast on a corpse next to you for 4 mana, it raises a totem that stands for 40 seconds, and every ordinary monster inside its radius runs from the Barbarian for 2.4 seconds at a time; while it runs it is slowed, 11% at level 1 and 63% at level 20, and it takes more damage, 20% more plus 5% for every hard point in Find Potion. Resurrected turned the ward from a fear into a debuff: the slow and the damage-taken line are what the points buy.

The numbers

Mana is 4 at every level (mana 4, lvlmana 0). The ward's duration is calc1, a fixed 1,000 frames, 40 seconds, at every level. The radius is skills.txt Param1 (6) plus Param2 (1) a level in sub-tiles, two thirds of a yard each: 4 yards at level 1, 6 2/3 at level 5, 10 at level 10, 13 1/3 at level 15, 16 2/3 at level 20, 23 1/3 at level 30; the Basin's page writes it as (5 + slvl) × 2/3 and marks it as Resurrected's, two yards wider than the original game's. The slow is a diminishing-returns curve from Param7 (0, "Slow % Min") toward Param8 (75, "Slow % Max"): 11% at level 1, 37% at level 5, 51% at level 10, 58% at level 15, 63% at level 20, 66% at level 25, 68% at level 30; the Basin's table reaches 75 at level 60. The row applies the same curve three times, to velocitypercent, attackrate and other_animrate, so movement, attack speed and other animations are all slowed by that percentage. The damage-taken line is Param3 (20) plus Param4 (5) for every hard point in Find Potion, applied as negative damageresist; it does not change with Grim Ward's own level, so it is not in the table. The flee is Param5 (10 sub-tiles, 6 2/3 yards) for Param6 (60 frames, 2.4 seconds). Radius and slow read lvl, so +skills from items count; the Find Potion term reads blvl.

damage taken by a fleeing monster = +20% + 5% × Find Potion hard points

How it works

The Basin's page gives the engine's rules. You must be adjacent to the corpse, though it need not be selected; the cast uses cast rate and has a next-hit delay of 6 frames; the ward's look depends on the corpse's size and that has no effect on what it does. Only normal and minion monsters flee, with the Basin's few AI exceptions, and they flee from the Barbarian, not from the ward; in Resurrected the slow and the damage-taken debuff are applied only to monsters that flee, so a unique, a champion or a boss gets neither. The Basin ranks the fear effects: Grim Ward is at the top and cannot be overwritten by Terror, by Hit Causes Monster to Flee or by Howl.

The damage-taken line is a physical-resistance cut, and the Basin says it is reduced to a fifth against a monster that is Immune to Physical (applied to undead before Sanctuary), and works in full against a monster whose immunity has been sundered, see Monster Physical Immunity is Sundered.

The Basin adds two cautions: the attack-rate slow is usually redundant, since a fleeing monster does not attack, unless it is stuck in a confined space, oscillating on the edge of the radius, or forced to attack by a repeated Taunt; and monsters in a confined space may sometimes stand idle instead of fleeing. The corpses that cannot be used are the same as for Find Potion, listed on that page.

Synergies and +skills

One synergy: +5% damage taken per hard point in Find Potion (the dsc3 line, Param4), read as blvl, so +skills on gear do not add to it. Grim Ward feeds nothing. Its radius and slow read lvl, so a +skill from an item widens the ward by two thirds of a yard and moves the slow a step along its curve. The Basin's page says +1–3 Grim Ward can spawn on a primal helm of item level 25 or higher and Heart Carver gives +4.

Against players

Grim Ward never damages anything, and its fear, slow and damage-taken state are described by the Basin's page only for normal and minion monsters; it says nothing about Grim Ward against players. See Player versus Player for the rules that do apply between players.

Build notes

• Level 20 is a 16 2/3-yard ward slowing by 63% for 4 mana; five points already slow by 37% over 6 2/3 yards, and the slow curve flattens after that.
• The damage-taken line comes from Find Potion, not from Grim Ward: 20 hard points there are +100% on top of the base 20%, and they are the same points that feed Find Item.
• The ward moves nothing that is unique, champion or boss, and the debuff goes only on what runs.