Pain Skull -is it worth it?

[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 )

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by 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 )

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.