Mercury Vapours

From CrawlWiki
Revision as of 05:39, 20 May 2023 by Hordes (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
Poisonous vapours.png Mercury Vapours
Level 2
School1 Air
School2 Alchemy
Source(s) Book of Vapours
Young Poisoner's Handbook
Casting noise 2
Spell noise 0
Power Cap 50
Range 3
Flags Not self, Target
Briefly transmutes the air around a target into gaseous mercury, poisoning those who breathe it in. Further, the target and adjacent creatures (living or otherwise) may be weakened by mere exposure to the alchemical substance.

Poisonous Vapours is a level 2 Poison/Air spell which causes smite-targeted poison on any vulnerable enemy within line of sight. Poisonous Vapours will fail to cast if the monster has poison resistance.

Venom Mages start with this spell.

Strategy

Poisonous Vapours is an excellent spell for Venom Mages to pick up at XL 2, as a more reliable, higher damage, longer-ranged Sting. It costs 2 MP, making is slightly prohibitive at low levels, but MP concerns quickly fade away. The fact that it is level 2 and can't miss also makes it appealing for any character with a few free spell levels, especially if they want to learn Mephitic Cloud later on.

With Ignite Poison, it is a surprisingly strong damage spell, much stronger than being a level 2-3 spell would suggest. It is cheap on MP, smite-targeted, and never misses. It is capable of killing non-rPois enemies, even into Zot (moths of wrath, non-green draconians, and orb guardians).

History

  • Prior to 0.27, Poisonous Vapours would create a short lived cloud, and wouldn't work if there was a cloud already there (including from the spell itself). Also, Vehumet did not consider this spell "destructive".
  • Poisonous Vapours was added in 0.20.