Iron Maiden

Curses a group of enemies, causing them to damage themselves when damaging others.

Iron Maiden is a level 12 Necromancer curse (Curses tree, requires Amplify Damage; it unlocks Life Tap). A cursed monster that lands a melee hit takes a percentage of the physical damage it just dealt: 200% at level 1, +25 a level, 675% at level 20. The radius is a fixed 4.67 yards, the mana a flat 5, and the duration grows from 12 seconds to 57.6.

The numbers

• Damage returned is ln56: Param5 200 at level 1 plus Param6 25 a level ("Damage % returned baseline" and "per level"). calc1 (ln56, "Damage % Returned VS Monster") is the monster figure; calc2 and calc3 are ln56/4, the figure against a player and against a hireling. 675% at level 20, 925% at level 30.
• Duration is Param3 300 frames plus Param4 60 a level, at 25 a second: 12 seconds at level 1, +2.4 a level, 57.6 at level 20.
• Radius is Param1 7 with Param2 0 a level: 4.67 yards at every level, so it is left out of the table.

The duration and the percentage read the full skill level, so +skills count.

How it works

Iron Maiden is a cast curse with no attack roll. Its aura event is domeleedamage: the returned damage fires when the cursed unit deals melee damage, not when it fires a missile or casts. The Basin's rules for what comes back:

• The percentage is of the melee physical damage that actually lands and is applied. An attack that misses, or whose physical part is reduced to nothing, returns nothing.
• It is based on the damage dealt, not the potential damage: if a 1,000-damage hit only needed 100 to kill its target, level 1 returns 200, not 2,000.
• The returned damage always goes to the attacker but is itself physical and is reduced by the attacker's own physical resistance: an immune to physical monster takes none of it.
• It adds to the percentage returned by Thorns and Spirit of Barbs. The Basin notes that because the attacker's own physical resistance cuts the return, Amplify Damage usually yields more with those skills than Iron Maiden does.

The curse has no effect on a monster that never swings in melee, and nothing on this page increases the attacker's chance to hit you, so a monster that misses returns nothing.

The curse takes the monster's single curse slot, so Amplify Damage or Decrepify cast afterwards replaces it. The Basin notes that Oblivion Knights no longer cast it.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: Iron Maiden has no synergy lines in skilldesc.txt and feeds none. Both lines read lvl, so a +1 from items is worth exactly one hard point: +25% returned and +2.4 seconds.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else. On top of that, the table's calc2 and calc3 give the damage returned to a player or a mercenary as a quarter of the monster value (ln56/4): the Basin states the same rule. A level 20 curse returns 168.75% of a player's landed melee damage, computed on the already reduced hit. See Player versus Player.

Build notes

• At level 20: 675% returned for 57.6 seconds at 5 mana. The percentage rises by 25 a level with no cap in the table, so levels past 20 from +skills keep adding (925% at level 30).
• The radius never grows, so the curse always covers a 4.67-yard circle: aim it on the pack that is swinging at your minions.
• It is for melee attackers that hit your summons or mercenary; ranged monsters, casters and physical immunes are not punished by it.