Slow Missiles

Illuminates nearby enemies and slows their ranged attacks.

Slow Missiles is a level 12 Amazon skill (Passive and Magic tree, requires Inner Sight; it unlocks Decoy). It is a cast that puts a state on every enemy within its radius; while it lasts, the missiles they fire travel slower and hit for less. Two numbers decide it: the missile speed, 33% at level 20, and the missile damage cut, 33% at level 20, both on diminishing curves.

The numbers

• Speed is 100 − dm12, where dm12 is the diminishing-returns calc from Param1 (25) toward Param2 (75): the slow is 32% at level 1 and 67% at level 20, so missiles move at 68% and 33% of their speed; the floor is 25%. The Basin's page writes it as 100 − min(25 + [50 × [(110 × slvl) ÷ (slvl + 6)] ÷ 100], 75), and notes the 1.10–1.13 game used a flat 33%.
• Damage reduction is dm78, the same curve from Param7 (0) toward Param8 (40): 6% at level 1, 33% at level 20, 36% at 30. It is applied as aurastatcalc2 = 100 − dm78 to the missile damage scale.
• Duration is ln34 ÷ 25: Param3 300 frames plus Param4 150 a level, so 12 seconds at level 1 and 126 at 20.
• Radius is ln56: Param5 27 with Param6 0 a level, printed as × 2 ÷ 3 = 18 yards at every level, so the column is left out. The Basin's page records 13 1/3 yards for the older game and 18 for the current one.
• Mana is a flat 5 (mana 10 in halves, manashift 7, lvlmana 0).

Every line reads lvl: +skills from items push both curves and the duration.

How it works

Slow Missiles is cast at Casting Speed speed and applies a state (auratargetstate slowmissiles) to each enemy in the radius; the state lights the target up and changes the missiles it creates from then on, not the ones already in the air. By the Basin's page a slowed missile also travels a shorter distance, since it expires on the same clock, while the rate at which the enemy fires does not change.

The tooltip says "physical damage received reduced"; the Basin's page, citing the current game's patch notes, says the cut applies to fire, cold, lightning, poison and magic missiles too, and to spell missiles, not only to arrows.

The cut does not shorten cold length or poison length, and it is multiplicative with other damage-reducing effects such as Weaken and Taunt. What is left of a missile's damage then goes through the Amazon's own defences in the usual order, see Taking Damage; Avoid can still throw the missile out entirely.

Recasting follows the usual rule for states: by the Basin's page, a cast of equal or higher level replaces the duration, a lower level does not overwrite a higher one. It does not conflict with Inner Sight or with curses.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: the row has no SymPerCalc column, the skilldesc row has no dsc3 line, and no skill reads Slow Missiles' points. Both curves read lvl, so +skills from items count in full.

Against players

Slow Missiles deals no damage, so the player-versus-player damage rule has nothing to cut, see Player versus Player. The Basin's page says nothing about its effect on hostile players' missiles.

Build notes

• Level 20: missiles at 33% speed and −33% damage, in 18 yards, for 126 seconds, at 5 mana.
• Both curves are front-loaded: 5 points buy a 50% speed and a 20% cut, and the last 10 of 20 add 8 and 6.
• One hard point already slows missiles to 68% and lasts 12 seconds; +skills on gear do the rest, since every line counts them.
• The damage cut reaches elemental and spell missiles, so it is worth casting against casters, not only archers.