Defiled Growth

[Zarkarion]

Defiled Growth tooltip says it does 1d4 negative damage per spell level.

Is this correct - e.g. Spiked Growth is level 3 spell, so Defiled Growth does 3d4 damage regardless of caster level?

Has this been nerfed or was it always spell level (rather than caster level) since U58 was released? (I have only done one Blight Caster life, and thought it was caster level).

If it really is Spell Level, does it give more negative d4 dice (at higher levels) if Spike Growth is Heightened?

 

[Zarkarion]

At level 8 I am finding that the spiked growth force damage and negative damage is roughly equal, at roughly equal spell powers.

This suggests that
a) it must be 1d4 negative damage per caster level, rather than spell level.

and

b) The negative damage (as well as the force damage) is being doubled by Every Rose Has its Thorns.

No wonder it clears swathes of mobs so quickly!

 

[Zaszgul]

b) The negative damage (as well as the force damage) is being doubled by Every Rose Has its Thorns.

This runs contrary to my experience and the wiki, are you sure you're not comparing piercing non-crits to negative crits?

 

[Zarkarion]

Yes, I think you are right.

The negative damage in fact seems to be about half the pierce damage on non-crits.

However, that still suggests that either

a) it must be 1d4 negative damage per caster level, rather than spell level.

or

b) The negative damage (as well as the force damage) is being doubled by Every Rose Has its Thorns.

Otherwise the negative damage would be even lower.

I guess (b) would not contradict the tooltips, though it was unexpected by me.

 

[Zaszgul]

a) it must be 1d4 negative damage per caster level, rather than spell level.

Yeah there's nothing in the game that scales with "spell level" (it'll be either your class level or your character level) that's just a typo in the description.

 

[Zarkarion]

Yeah there's nothing in the game that scales with "spell level" (it'll be either your class level or your character level) that's just a typo in the description.

Probably.