Pain Skull -is it worth it?

[Va'an_Majere]

Right now i'm playing as a mage, and recently after beating karador i obtained an item "pain skull". It's an artifact that increases your attack, and giving 50% rage at the same time, but decreases your mana in half. Being a mage, the bonuses that the skull grants is not really useful. But i've been holding onto the item since i knew when i deplete the spell power the skul will become dead skull, which gives 5 + intellect. But i've been in the demon land stage, and so far i've only managed to reduce the spell power to 55%. It's been pretty onerous, since i had to look for very strong to impossible fights to get 3% decrease after each fight, and numerous reloading when i didnt get it. The game is beginning to look more like a chore than enjoyable.

So my question is, is there a possible way to get better decrease for the skull? I've managed to get so far in decreasing the skull because i had leftover weak units in elven lands and freedom isles. With the +5 intellect, i can increase my intel to 51+. Right now, i already had bonuses of 46 intellect with 160 mana, and my wife xeona is holding to archmage staffs with old skull. So is it realy worth it making the game a chore by killing units with as little as possible and making the game hard for myself?

[Metathron]

Doesn't sound worth it to me.

[Ryastar]

The dead skull is TOTALLY worth it. It not only gives you +5 int, but also +5 att, an amazing bonus for a mage, whose attack will generally be lower. Try to find other fights that you still haven't fought. Examples: tournament in greenwort, suppressing items etc. look around for easier fights, and get that thing down to 0%. I've managed to do it after Karador before i even got to Demonis, so you should be able to as well. Good luck!

[megajon]

wow that is nice! I saw it for sale in demonis I think, I will have to go buy that skull... dunno how I will do as a mage cut to 75 mana tho.

[Leind]

dunno how I will do as a mage cut to 75 mana tho.

I got it just before Demonis, and so far after cleaning the last creep of the dwarf underground and Demonis I got it at 39%.
To survive as a mage with 65 mana (in impossible) I found trap and mass shackles + dryads to be very helpful in Demonis.

Without their magic ability the high level demon troops are just slow melee, easy to control with trap + thorns summon + slow & the spirit abilities. The only shooter are lvl2 and can be put asleep indefinitely if you split your driads in two stacks.
Greens Dragons are also great to regen some mana in combat, and against the other dragons they are great with the combo catching attack + trap.

I also got the Gremlins castle to use to get it down a little more :)

[BB Shockwave]

Quick question... dunno if I understood well.

-When the spell's power reaches 0%, you get the option to release the soul of the Necromancer, transforming the item to the Dead Skull, which gives +5A and +5I. However, the description of the Dead Skull says nothing about the +50% rage, so I guess it doesn't give Rage increase?

I never upgraded the skull because of this, after the 0% is reached it will stop halving your mana anyway... just asking whether the Dead Skull is worth it?

[Elwin]

It is, +5 attack +5 int is much, actually its the best item in game. I was sad that i had this item only on 1 of my 3 games ( my killer sprites would be more powerfull :D )

[BB Shockwave]

It is, +5 attack +5 int is much, actually its the best item in game. I was sad that i had this item only on 1 of my 3 games ( my killer sprites would be more powerfull :D )

Hmm, I did not need attack that much, but Rage was much harder to accumulate (with a paladin) so I chose to let it as the Pain Skull. Was very effective, I could usually use Time Back in the first round already if needed.

I guess for a warrior, the +5I is much more usefull as he already gains Rage very rapidly, but for a Paladin or Mage the +50% rage increase is a life-saver.

That said, I hated how we had to fight through so many battles to decrease it.

A note to the designers - I think the "unlocked after 50 victories" number should be moved down to 25 or 20... Simply, there are not enough battles for that. I got the Magic pendant in Demonis, and even by the end of the game I could not get the +10 Magic runes, there were not enough battles for that.

[Elwin]

50% rage but 50% less mana, for mage its esential ... i prefered death skull. And i had bad luck with timeback i got lvl 1-4 after fight with bagud -.-

NAh, there are quite much battles left even if u were in demonis, u have also grmlins castle for aditional fights.First thing is that u can get to demonis when creiston mines are open, it requires a little sneaking but atill very possible.I always do that way. get all the stuff from demonis which is posssible without fight ( and the onyl one which is not possible is marrying Xeona ~~)
And the most important thing items are random so it can be either in Kronberg Castle or in murock( then its really too late)

[Ryastar]

Hmm, I did not need attack that much

What do you mean, you don`t need attack that much? It`s only the most important non-leadership stat in the game, with the possible exception of int, and, oh wait, the dead skull gives both. I`ve personally never had any rage problems as a mage, and was way more interested in getting the 5 att and 5 int. You can NEVER have enough of either stat, and I cannot see how a 50% rage increase can ever be better.

[Saridu]

There's a reason I don't fight weak/very weak mobs as I play through, just in case I later find one of the victory items.

Last game my warrior (yes warrior folks) found the skull at the undead castle yup the one in the cemetery :grin:

I had it finished before I went to Freedorn Islands :cool:

This of course was the same warrior who's best chest armour was an archmage robe (post demonis) but I'm a warrior wahhh!!!

[BB Shockwave]

What do you mean, you don`t need attack that much? It`s only the most important non-leadership stat in the game, with the possible exception of int, and, oh wait, the dead skull gives both. I`ve personally never had any rage problems as a mage, and was way more interested in getting the 5 att and 5 int. You can NEVER have enough of either stat, and I cannot see how a 50% rage increase can ever be better.

I found attack not that important - sure, you need an average number, but I made it through the game with my Paladin on 12 A, 20 Defense.

There are lot of other modifiers for increasing Attack - my Royal Snakes had double Attack due to Fenora, I had ... well forgot the name, but that skill that gives me +4 A each time I kill a stack. Against Dragons/Demons, there is Dragon/Demon Slayer - plus various Paladin skills and items that give you bonus Attack stat.

That said, I found that even enemies with much higher defense then my attack can be defeated without losses easily, with the combination of Rage spirits, buff/debuff spells and the right tactics. The spell that decreases enemy defense by 60% was essential in beating tough creatures like Cyclopes/Dragons.

Rage on the other hand, is accumulating very slowly for a Paladin to use - with the Pain Skull it was easy to get 20 or more rage in the first round to use for a Glot Armor or Soul Drain.