Is Stalk/Harrass Prey too stationary for Cursed playstyle?

[dukereg]

My understanding is that Stalk and hence Harrass Prey require you to stand there and get consecutive hits on the target instead of running around everywhere. I personally like to hit bosses with Blindside, Dominate, Slash, Frenzy and bump attacks, with Harrass Prey interposed as soon as Stalk activates. I often have regen and Rampage proc active as well. I'm a tank at heart and I don't usually leave quickly enough to avoid death.

I am trying to get out of tanking habits so I don't die so much, but I honestly don't know if my approach is good for cursed or not. Any thoughts?

[Red]

It's consecutive hits, not attacks, so a single Frenzy (assuming only one adjacent target) will usually proc it.

Really, there's only one issue with your strategy-the bump attacks. More importantly, bumping instead of running away. Cursed have a million and one options to get the hell out of dodge (one of which, Rampage, is already going to be ready to go) the trick is to use it before you absolutely have to. If you're running when the next hit is going to kill you, you're playing a losing strategy. Run when you can only take three hits at the smallest, so that way any snags in your escape can be dealt with, rather than killing you.

The main advice I could give for your default strategy is this-run in with whatever effects you want, get off all your big damage talents, run the hell away. Repeat as needed. Bump attacks aren't worth sticking around for unless the boss is very near to death.

[dukereg]

It's consecutive hits, not attacks, so a single Frenzy (assuming only one adjacent target) will usually proc it.

Are you sure? The description says two consecutive turns. I'm sure I have had cases where I did two hits and still didn't have the option of activating Harrass Prey straight away.

The main advice I could give for your default strategy is this-run in with whatever effects you want, get off all your big damage talents, run the hell away. Repeat as needed. Bump attacks aren't worth sticking around for unless the boss is very near to death.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try to get into this habit with my next Cursed.

[Red]

I play not Cursed often, so I might be wrong. If I am... Well, you won't be getting as large bonuses from it. Oh well, shouldn't affect your core strategy.

One change, though, if I'm wrong. Do a few weak attacks to trigger Stalk before you bust out your real damage dealers, so they get the most bonuses. The only time to not do that is if the boss is too dangerous to spend even a few turns next to.

If you do want to play a stationary Cursed, who can just run into combat and not leave until he's the only one left standing, go Antimagic and go 5/1/5/0-1 Fungus with two Regeneration Infusions. So long as the Regen CD is low enough, you can chain them forever with Wild Growth and Ancestral Life stops them from taking a turn. That way you'll regen, endgame, somewhere around 100-200 HP a turn, forever. It might work, but you'll be wanting to run a high HP build with this (Ghoul would be best if it wasn't for the whole no Infusion thing, with that in mind, Halfling or Dwarf is your best bet) and try to get extra emergency healing from elsewhere. (Shields too, if you can get them, but I've yet to find a non-arcane shield Cursed can get.)

I wouldn't actually recommend that build, though. Hit and run will almost always work better, and even if you do that keep a Torque of Physchoportation, Movement Infusion, and any other useful escapes on hand.

[jaumito]

Also, it's worth pointing out that a stationary playstyle doesn't play nice with Shroud of Passing if you go for Cursed Aura.

[dukereg]

Good point Jaumito, although I am way too intimidated by the equipment management aspect of Cursed Aura to ever unleash my hate.

Thanks Red, I'll keep that in mind, as I've been going anti-magic and I want to get the most out of it.

I might experiment with attack order on dummies to see how I can deal as much damage as possible in the first few turns.

It seems that Harrass Prey is only valuable when you are going to be standing there bashing a big enemy for the next N turns where N is the damage reduction duration. Ideally I'd want to Harrass Prey before dealing damage, so maybe I try this: unload biggest possible damage for two turns. Then either continue to beat them down if they aren't damaging me much, or run away for a few turns until I'm regenerated and then Harrass Prey as my opening move when I come in and hit them again.

[Doctornull]

Note that bump attacks are very good if you are under the effects of a well-invested Rampage.

But without Rampage, they're not very good.