How to Use Corpse Rot

[MainiacJoe]

Split from the GDD Animate Dead thread:

In regard to the OP, I've seen this kind of situation a number of times. Not having animate dead is irritating, but your staple kiku spell is corpse rot.

It seems then that it's time I learned how to use it. I've tried a few times, and each time I've given up because I found it too hard to get the clouds and the enemies to meet. I'd welcome advice.

[edgefigaro]

The basic premise:

Stand next to a corpse.
Lures enemies on top of corpse.
Cast Corpse Rot.
Tank 2 melees from enemy mob.
Enemy dies to corpse rot.

Also works great in corridors and undead minions can sub in for the tanking 2 melees part.

[Psieye]

In the old days, when you could pick up corpses, you tele-threw it (Portal Projectile) then cast Corpse Rot.

Now you'd use it with Kiku Orbital Corpses. Or alternatively, in a corridor to a bee room littered with the aftermath of Bolt of Draining spam (have an undead meatshield in front and Sub.Blood for spam fuel). If you want to get creative (read: unnecessarily expensive skill investments), Force Lance and Gell's Gravitas are possibilities.

Note the cloud slows living targets, so you can use it for emergency kite or flee.

[Leszczynek]

You use it in exactly the same way you use spellbooks with Trog.

[Sar]

Save them for the inevitable postend switch to TSO/Makh?

[MainiacJoe]

Well it certainly makes sense that if you can stand up to something in melee, then if they're standing in miasma that's better than if they aren't. Waht about situations where you don't want to melee it? Does it always take effect in oen turn of standing, or in a random amount of turns? Can a faster monster past a corpse without you getting a chance to rot it while they are on it? Do monsters avoid miasma clouds or stand in them, compared to say Conjure Flame?

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Save them for the inevitable postend switch to TSO/Makh?

No, you die when you throw them at a tough enemy next to you. You didn't know that it takes 15 aut.

[KoboldLord]

Well it certainly makes sense that if you can stand up to something in melee, then if they're standing in miasma that's better than if they aren't. Waht about situations where you don't want to melee it? Does it always take effect in oen turn of standing, or in a random amount of turns? Can a faster monster past a corpse without you getting a chance to rot it while they are on it? Do monsters avoid miasma clouds or stand in them, compared to say Conjure Flame?

If you are afraid of melee, then you kill a pack of green rats, preferably in a row, and then lure your target to the corpse pile. A slightly different subset of monsters will avoid miasma but not fire clouds or vice versa, but you can estimate based on pretty much the same factors, raw hit points and resistances. You can either corpse rot when it steps on the first corpse, or just do this in a corridor where it has no choice but to step on the first corpse. Once the target monsters steps into the first cloud, it will happily step into the clouds produced by all the green rats you cared to lure into a row, stacking the effects of the clouds as it goes.

Miasma will also slow dangerous monsters that you are afraid to melee, so you can make it walk through multiple clouds and then kite it in complete safety. You can also hammer your torment invocation a time or two on the way over if you are worried you might run out of mp before it runs out of hit points. You weren't planning to let it touch you anyway, after all. Torment and miasma work very well together.

So, yeah. Basically conjure flame, only with slow, and you can trigger a whole bunch of them at once if you're willing to spend some time dancing rats first. Often I just corpse drop a few times instead of dancing rats because it's faster, but you might miss a tile in that case.

[duvessa]

you can estimate based on pretty much the same factors, raw hit points and resistances.

A monster's HP is completely irrelvant for whether they will walk into miasma. Monsters will only walk into miasma if they are immune to it, they are berserk or insane, or they are already in a harmful cloud. Otherwise, even a 10000 HP titan will not walk into miasma.

[goodcoolguy]

Yes, standard use involves luring. With kiku, it's more straightforward in that you can just receive corpses then cast after a bit of positioning. Most monsters will be slowed and poisoned, so tanking them isn't usually a problem, but you can use allies to trap them in there instead, e.g. switch places with a skeleton in a corridor then cast.

If you have animate dead and numerous corpses that span a few tiles, you can trigger corpse rot then use animate dead on the remaining skeletons to get your surround. Variations on these techniques will easily kill any early-to-mid game unique except the undead and demon ones.

Against packs, if you've got a choke point or partial choke point, you fight there and use corpse rot to either split the pack if you have ranged attacks or just catch guys backed up there in miasma. Works well with melee and especially polearms.

[tabstorm]

Just use corpse drop -> corpse rot or walk enemies onto an existing corpse and cast it

[MainiacJoe]

you can estimate based on pretty much the same factors, raw hit points and resistances.

A monster's HP is completely irrelvant for whether they will walk into miasma. Monsters will only walk into miasma if they are immune to it, they are berserk or insane, or they are already in a harmful cloud. Otherwise, even a 10000 HP titan will not walk into miasma.

Sounds like you have to make the miasma while the enemy is standing on a corpse, or he'll never enter it; but once he's in it, he will stay in it as long as miasma is in all the squares that lie on the shortest paths to you. And it looks like it's 100% effective at blocking corridors (or 0%, based on rot resistance).

[and into]

you can estimate based on pretty much the same factors, raw hit points and resistances.

A monster's HP is completely irrelvant for whether they will walk into miasma. Monsters will only walk into miasma if they are immune to it, they are berserk or insane, or they are already in a harmful cloud. Otherwise, even a 10000 HP titan will not walk into miasma.

Sounds like you have to make the miasma while the enemy is standing on a corpse, or he'll never enter it; but once he's in it, he will stay in it as long as miasma is in all the squares that lie on the shortest paths to you. And it looks like it's 100% effective at blocking corridors (or 0%, based on rot resistance).

Right, that's the mechanics of it. goodcoolguy's post above covers the tactical advice well. Corpse rot is still useful, but much more finicky without Kiku. With Kiku it is just really good.

Kind of niche case for corpse rot, but you can cheese monster AI to enter clouds by hitting them with a different type of harmful cloud. (Unless changed recently you can even use a harmful cloud that the enemy is immune to in order to get them to enter a harmful cloud that actually hurts them!)

The main use for that trick is meph cloud and conjure flame combo on wizards, but once in a blue moon you can use it with corpse rot plus meph cloud, p cloud, or whatever. Good times

[duvessa]

Sounds like you have to make the miasma while the enemy is standing on a corpse, or he'll never enter it; but once he's in it, he will stay in it as long as miasma is in all the squares that lie on the shortest paths to you. And it looks like it's 100% effective at blocking corridors (or 0%, based on rot resistance).

Not quite. I said "already in a harmful cloud", not "already in miasma". So if the monster is already in a mephitic cloud and has no rPois, it'll freely walk into miasma.