Mechanics · Skill mechanics · Necromancer

Terror

The Necromancer's fear curse sends normal and minion monsters running for 8 seconds at level 1 and 27 at level 20 in Normal, halved in Nightmare and quartered in Hell with no change to the tooltip, inside a fixed 2.67-yard circle.

Necromancer skill · level 12Not against players

How it works

Curses a group of monsters, causing them to flee in terror.

Terror is a level 12 Necromancer curse (Curses tree, requires Weaken; it unlocks Decrepify). Every normal or minion monster in a small, fixed 2.67-yard circle turns and runs away from the caster for the duration: 8 seconds at level 1, one more a level, 27 seconds at level 20 in Normal, and far less in the later difficulties. Mana is a flat 7.

The numbers

Terror by level, from skills.txt — past 20 from +skills

Level	Mana	Duration
1	7	8 seconds
2	7	9 seconds
3	7	10 seconds
4	7	11 seconds
5	7	12 seconds
6	7	13 seconds
7	7	14 seconds
8	7	15 seconds
9	7	16 seconds
10	7	17 seconds
11	7	18 seconds
12	7	19 seconds
13	7	20 seconds
14	7	21 seconds
15	7	22 seconds
16	7	23 seconds
17	7	24 seconds
18	7	25 seconds
19	7	26 seconds
20	7	27 seconds
21	7	28 seconds
22	7	29 seconds
23	7	30 seconds
24	7	31 seconds
25	7	32 seconds
26	7	33 seconds
27	7	34 seconds
28	7	35 seconds
29	7	36 seconds
30	7	37 seconds

Duration is Param3 200 frames plus Param4 25 a level at 25 frames a second: 8 seconds at level 1, +1 a level, 27 at level 20 and 37 at level 30. That is the tooltip's figure and the Normal-difficulty one.
Radius is Param1 4 with Param2 0 a level: 2.67 yards at every level, so it is left out of the table.
Distance to run is Param5 24 at level 1 plus Param6 2 a level ("Distance To Run baseline" and "per level" in skills.txt). The tooltip does not print it.

The duration reads the full skill level, so +skills count.

The Basin's page warns that the duration is cut to a half in Nightmare and a quarter in Hell like the other AI curses, but that unlike those the skill description does not show the reduction. Its tables give level 20 as 27 seconds in Normal, 13.48 in Nightmare and 6.72 in Hell; level 1 is 2 seconds in Hell.

How it works

Terror is a cast curse: no attack roll, no damage. It puts the terror state on the eligible monsters inside its radius around the targeted point. The Basin's rules for the state:

Only normal and minion monsters flee, with a few AI exceptions. Champions, Uniques, Super Uniques and bosses do not.
A monster finishes its current action and flees at its next AI check, in the direction away from the caster. If the curse expires before that check, it never flees; and a monster that is fleeing may keep going after the curse ends until its next check.
Flee effects have a hierarchy, and a lower one cannot overwrite a higher one: Grim Ward, then Terror, then Hit Causes Monster to Flee, then Howl.

As a curse it takes the monster's single curse slot, so the next curse cast on the monster replaces it, and the Basin lists Terror among the curses that cannot overwrite Confuse. The Basin's screenshot note is worth repeating: cast on a Unique, Terror makes the minions around it run while the Unique stays, but the circle is small enough that a minion a few yards off is outside it.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: Terror has no synergy lines in skilldesc.txt and feeds none. The duration and the run distance read lvl, so a +1 from items is worth one hard point: +1 second in Normal (+0.25 in Hell) and +2 to the distance. The radius does not change at all.

Against players

Terror is a monster-AI effect and does nothing to a player. See Player versus Player.

Build notes

Level 20 buys 27 seconds in Normal but 6.72 in Hell, for 7 mana; level 1 is 2 seconds in Hell. The Hell duration is the number to plan around, and the tooltip will not show it.
The 2.67-yard radius never grows, so the curse is a precise tool for the monsters right next to the target, not a pack clearer.
Bosses, Uniques and Champions are unaffected, so it buys space from their minions only.

Written from the game's tables (build 3.3.93847) and the cited pages; a per-level table is computed from skills.txt and skilldesc.txt by the same evaluator the skill pages use. A “legacy rule” is a published engine rule no table proves; a “game table” is read from the table named. · Report incorrect data

Unless stated otherwise, everything here is Diablo II: Resurrected build 3.3.93847, Reign of the Warlock.

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