Ward of the Damned

Ward of the Damned
Ability type:	Basic
Damage:	-
Effect:	Block melee and projectile attacks in front of you for 2s. Each absorbed attack summons a skeleton. Enemy melee attackers are knocked back. Recast launches a cone attack dealing 25% magic damage and inflicting Condemn.
AOE:	No
Cooldown:	10 s
Cast time:	0 s
Charges:	1
Ability Category:	Unholy

Ward of the Damned in-game tooltip.

Description

Blocks melee and projectile attacks in front of you for 2s. Absorbing an attack summons a skeleton, each consecutive attack absorbed has a 50% chance to summon an additional skeleton up to a maximum of 5. Enemy melee attackers are knocked back.

Recast during the effect to launch a wave of energy dealing 25% magical damage and inflicting Condemn.

Unlocking

Ward of the Damned is unlocked via Kriig the Undead General.

Usage

Ward of the Damned is a directional, defensive skill that will negate most melee and projectile attacks it intercepts. Once intercepted, it will create a skeleton that moves to the nearest target and begins attacking. Hostile AI mobs will always choose to attack the nearest target available when not in an attack animation, and will automatically being attacking the skeleton. This makes skeletons great at distracting enemy units, especially bosses, and can be a wonderful tool against foes with multi-hit attacks.

The skeletons have a health pool and a timed duration. They can be healed, but their duration is quite short and it is generally ill-advised to expend a healing spell such as Purgatory for the sole purpose of healing your skeleton.

Recasing Ward of the Damned during the recast window will launch a cone attack dealing 25% magic damage and inflicting enemies hit with Condemn, increasing all damage they take by 15% for 5s. Enemies inflicted with Condemn will summon an unholy warrior upon death.

Ward of the Damned in action