Pseudo-"Offering of Blood" for you Blood Lovers

[hotdogtesting]

For those Blood Magic lovers, the following article will detail how to get a pseudo-"Offering of Blood" effect when using Blood Sacrificing spells.

In case, you did not know what "Offering of Blood" is, here is the official description:

Offering of Blood (5, .25, 15): Sacrifice 10% maximum health. You gain 8-18 energy. This is an elite skill.


The method for triggering an energy gain from life sacrificing is quite tricky. For it you will need a Necromancer/Monk.

You will also NEED the following skills:

One of Balthazar's Spirit (Gain 1 energy and adrenaline whenever damaged) or Essence Bond (Gain 1 energy whenever physically damaged)
Dark Aura
Any spell that sacrifices life


The trick is to trigger the energy gain from Essence Bond and/or Balthazar's Spirit. By themselves, the sacrificing spells do not count as any specific form of damage (this has come from extensive testing). Thus, no matter how you try they will not trigger either monk enchantments alone.

HOWEVER, Dark Aura triggers 5-16 damage whenever you sacrifice life! This damage is counted as physical damage in the game. Thus, when you have Dark Aura on, you can trigger the energy gain.

Now some of you may argue that this seems a lot of trouble to go through to get a partial "Offering of Blood" effect, but I would like to point out 3 convincing reasons to use this method as opposed to Offering of Blood.

Firstly, this method provides a good mana source should you ever be swarmed and in dire need of mana.

Secondly, none of the life sacrificing is for energy alone. Most if not all the methods of sacrificing life (Dark Pact, Blood of the Master, etc.) have extremely useful effects that are merely complemented by the energy gained.

Thirdly, this method can be performed much earlier than Offering of Blood. Whereas, Offering of Blood can only be found near the end of the game. The components of this method can be acquired by the time you reach Lion's Arch.

I'm not sure if I'm the first to suggest this, but I'm certainly the only one I see using it. It was a secret that belonged solely to me. It was known only by me and a few members of my guild. But, it is now in the open.

I welcome people to copy and/or modify my Offering of Blood method, if only in return for some fame.

If you want more details for this method and other crazy necromancer tricks I've discovered, you can contact me in-game on the following character names:

Hero of Infamy
Carniak the Crimson
Easel of Pain
Sero of Greyhawk


Cheers and have fun!

[UndeadBehlial]

moved at users request :)

pretty wicked combo, i'll look harder at it later though.

[hotdogtesting]

Thank you for the move!

[TheQuickness]

ummm....but the only gained energy would be 2 max, the way you describe it at least. I havent tried this yet. But it seems that at the most you would use 2 less energy to cast life sacrificing spells, at the cost of sacrificing more life.

doesnt seem worth it to me, as you would use up 4 skills slots to reduce your energy usage by 2 and you would lose one regen for energy.

but seeing as how i like messing with stuff, im still gonna check this out.

[OThePestO]

Nice trick.......but can I get a second oppinion on someone who has tried this?

[TheQuickness]

I just tried it and it seems to give me more then 2 energy, more like 5, could be because of smiting level.

Still dont think its worth it however as you lose 2 arrows of regen and dark aura can kill you when you sacrifice.

[IWantMORIDIN]

But you could also put points into Protection Prayers and use Mark of Protection for some crazy healing.

But probably sacrificing doesnt trigger Mark, so never mind.

[hotdogtesting]

The combo depends greatly on your build type. If you enjoy close range support, then max'ing you Death and Blood attribute would yield excellent results.

With the max'ed Death attribute and using touch attacks, you are expected to do 100+ guaranteed damage every 2-3 seconds. As you're in close range, the reduction in energy cost (from 5 -> 4 or 5 -> 3) will work out quite nicely in the long run for your vampiric touches.

In close range, I usually go with Signet of Agony (sacrifice 8% life for ~60 life steal), which is equivalent to free energy for life lost anyway. The Essence Bond and/or Balthazar's Spirit will ensure a great deal of energy flowing in bound. All of my other spells are 1.5 second casting time or less, to ensure that I can use my massive energy gains for immediate casting of "healing" spells (healing for me, not them). Mind you this is quite high upkeep, usually, while using this type of close range, a single mistake will result in death.

Personally, I prefer a more range-based strategy. It such a case, I usually keep my Death attribute at 0 and focus on Blood/Curse or Blood/Healing. This will give me enough mana to turn into a literal machine gun. The loss of 5 life from Dark Bond is really nothing compared to the benefit of being able to pull of that extra Vampiric Gaze or Dark Pact.

A proof of concept is on a typical Abaddon run, an elementalist can pull off a big damage spell every 10 seconds or so (due to casting time, energy, etc.), with a number of decent damage spells in between. A build using this combo can usually chain off 60+ damage spells on multiple targets for upwards of 2 minutes before the first use of Offering of Blood or the first pause.

The key of this combo is to limit the steep energy cost that many necromancer spammers face.

Really just look at how expertise affects a ranger's strategies. Many may scoff the 8% or so reduction in casting cost that rangers typically gain, but that extra bit of energy means that you can pull off your combo earlier and faster.