Poison

Trigger

 * Poison is a special ability that must be selected in the attack box of your enemy target. Poison is resolved like a duel. In general, your chance to succeed at poisoning a target is about the same as to win a standard duel against that target. If your target is polymorphed, you will automatically succeed when applying poison. If you succeed at applying poison, you also deal damage as though you won a duel, however, you do not get the benefit of a rogue’s bonus damage. You earn battle activity points as you would when dueling, earning 160/200/240 when you succeed and 100 points when you fail.


 * When a target is poisoned, for the next 5 attacks (whether the target attacks or is attacked), that target takes an additional 35 damage. Poison damage cannot be evaded. A poisoned target does not suffer poison damage when using a special ability such as Heal or Polymorph, but the use of such a special ability doesn’t knock one off the poison “counter”, either.


 * A cleric’s innate ability to heal everyone in the same gate upon a victory is applied after poison damage is applied.


 * Poison does not stack. If an already poisoned target is poisoned again, the new application of poison will supersede the old one.


 * Poison can be removed with the Cleric power Dispel or Cleanse.


 * Poison cannot be performed if the caster is stunned.
 * Hero powers that apply when dueling also apply when using the poison ability. For example, Deianira will deal up to +20 damage if she is your active hero when applying poison. Note, however, that Deshara's power is of no use since the rogue’s bonus damage is not applied when using poison.

Special Inclusion

 * None

Usage

 * Poison is a very useful ability for increasing a rogue’s damage output, especially against other rogues that may evade damage from a duel. Although you are giving up as much as +140 damage when applying poison (assuming +100 rogue bonus damage and +40 damage from Deshara), poison will deal up to 175 damage. ***Note*** You are also losing the base damage of a win. Therefore poison is most effective when the number of winnable targets have decreased and/or to save the attacker's remaining health.

Recommendation

 * Just as every rogue should seriously consider adding Deshara to their inventory of generals, any rogue with poison should seriously consider adding Aethyx to their inventory. If you use Aethyx when applying poison, poison will deal up to 315 damage. Considering that normal attack damage is dealt when applying poison, that adds up to a phenomenal amount of damage for the use of a single token making it a better swap than a straightforward attack.
 * Using poison against a target already low in health is generally not advisable, since much of the poison damage will end up being wasted once the target is stunned or nearly stunned.