Darkness

[Elystan]

I use hexes a lot, but I don't understand how this one is useful, especially not for 7 spell levels (that's as much as controlled blink). Someone sell it to me?

[KoboldLord]

If a monster isn't on screen, that monster cannot harm you. Darkness makes it so fewer monsters fit on-screen, and makes it so you have to spend fewer turns with the monster on-screen before you can reach it in melee and do whatever it is you're going to do. Fewer stealth-breaking steps required before you can stab. Fewer tiles open for summons.

It isn't worth it for every character build, of course, but if you've got a significant amount of pre-existing investment in hexes and you aren't using the subset of attacks that can reach the edge of normal LOS as your primary form of damage, it's going to be better to have Darkness up than not have Darkness up. You can walk right past those ancient liches and orbs of fire without them ever knowing you're there, because 'there' is smaller than normal. In the post-game, you can shank foo fiends and hellions with a much lower chance of having another one blunder onto the screen to complicate things, because even a little popcorn chokes up a screen that is that much smaller.

Ziggurats are terrible and you shouldn't do them, of course, but hypothetically if you were to do a Ziggurat, shaving off the edge of LOS will cut the number of monsters you have to handle at a time in half. The rest are helplessly walled off by the impenetrable wall of blackness, at least until they can step over the corpses of their allies.

Probably don't train hexes from scratch just to get Darkness, though. It would be pretty expensive.

[ajon]

It reduces your LOS thus it reduces monsters LOS. If you are sneaking up on a monster, every turn you are in their LOS your stealth is checked against their HD I believe. If it fails, they wake up. Less turns in LOS, less chance of wake up. Also, monsters can only follow, torment, or shoot projectiles at you if they can see you.

[roxymo]

Is it worth it? I play alot of stabber and rarely use this spell. It's lvl 7 so alot of investment and alot of mana. I'm also not the best crawl player either lol but I would like if some veteran stabbers could give advice about this spell

[Elystan]

Yeah, level 7 seems like too much for this spell. I'm not sold on it. Does anyone regularly learn it if they're playing a stabber with hexes? It just seems like 7 spell levels that could be better spent elsewhere.

[roxymo]

Could be 2 tiles for a lvl 7 spell maybe...

[Siegurt]

Or it could be a spellpower-dependant radius, where it maxes at 2, and fractional darkness radius's could leave you with an irregular shaped LOS (That's a weird, but not really serious suggestion, I can't see that being anything but awkward and annoying)

[roxymo]

Really it should grant a stealth bonus with power

[Rast]

We don't want to make spellpower breakpoints where the usefulness of the spell dramatically increases.

Spellpower could determine how long the LOS reduction is a full 2. After that initial period, LOS would gradually (or quickly?) increase back to the normal radius, at which the spell would expire.

[barretdolph]

If a monster isn't on screen, that monster cannot harm you. Darkness makes it so fewer monsters fit on-screen, and makes it so you have to spend fewer turns with the monster on-screen before you can reach it in melee and do whatever it is you're going to do. Fewer stealth-breaking steps required before you can stab. Fewer tiles open for summons.

It isn't worth it for every character build, of course, but if you've got a significant amount of pre-existing investment in hexes and you aren't using the subset of attacks that can reach the edge of normal LOS as your primary form of damage, it's going to be better to have Darkness up than not have Darkness up. You can walk right past those ancient liches and orbs of fire without them ever knowing you're there, because 'there' is smaller than normal. In the post-game, you can shank foo fiends and hellions with a much lower chance of having another one blunder onto the screen to complicate things, because even a little popcorn chokes up a screen that is that much smaller.

Ziggurats are terrible and you shouldn't do them, of course, but hypothetically if you were to do a Ziggurat, shaving off the edge of LOS will cut the number of monsters you have to handle at a time in half. The rest are helplessly walled off by the impenetrable wall of blackness, at least until they can step over the corpses of their allies.

Probably don't train hexes from scratch just to get Darkness, though. It would be pretty expensive.

Darkness won't help much in a Zig. Even with a Demonspawn with three levels of Night and uncannily stealthy I got mobbed. But even as a stabber I love Zigs after I have gotten a few runes. Tons of experience, lots of cure mutation potions and training manuals. Also pick up a few good pieces of gear.

It is nice to have elsewhere but I would think invisibility is most important for Hexes throughout the game and Haste. But haste is Charms so you would have to train that.

[Hurkyl]

Darkness won't help much in a Zig. Even with a Demonspawn with three levels of Night and uncannily stealthy I got mobbed.

The point wasn't to sneak up on anything; the point was that the mob is smaller, simply because that's all that will fit in your field of vision.

[gameguard]

nightstalker 3 + darkness + tornado. That is the ultimate zig build

[Sar]

Don't forget the robe of the Night!

[mikee]

Unless it's been changed since I last used it, darkness isn't actually very good for stabbing because casting the spell makes noise.

[archaeo]

Don't forget the robe of the Night!

In wizmode, try a DS with Nightstalker 3, Robe of the Night, casting Darkness: The Spell, and wielding a Lantern of Shadows. Bonus points for a Passive Mapping mutation, so that you can actually see where you're stumbling around!

[Kolbur]

Darkness + Detection (from Ashenzari or Antennas) allows you to detect monsters before they are in LOS even in open terrain. It let's you avoid them easily and that's particularly useful in extended (Abyss, Hells, Pan).

[edgefigaro]

Still isn't worth 7 spell levels. Maybe 5.

[roxymo]

Lvl 7 spell is abit to high for what it does. I'd give it a buff or a spell lvl reduction