Skull of Pain

[KongMysen]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

I actually value it quite highly before It gets changed. +50% rage is a whole fricken lot of it. I got my Dragon to level 58 (or was it just shy?) in my last game because of the amount of rage I could use.

I agree that the rage increase makes you able to spam mana accelerator. However it doesn't make you use more usable pet skills like the Phantoms or the Ball of Lightning, because you'll wanna gain that mana back before the battle ends.

I just cleared most of Montero and Verona battles except the Driller and castles and the item is complete.
Sure my dragon is leveled a little higher right now, but I haven't once used anything but treasure searcher or Mana Accelerator. In the largest two islands...
And its not that I use the "accelerator" feature to anything with my Black, Red and Bone Dragons

(I got 1 Bone Dragon from the Shield of Recross and it seems the item drops faster with this undead unit. Very rarely by 1 % and more frequently with 4%. I can't confirm this since its still very random)

Bottom Quote: Skull of Pain = +50% pet xp. All skills except Tresure Searcher and Mana Accelerator are disabled

[Zechnophobe]

That's just not true. Do you have any points in transmute? You can get mana via rage even if it isn't directly, and often make up the difference. Mana source for Green dragons as well, and you don't have to wait until mid combat. My no loss Paladin/impossible game used the skull easily, since it had 2 points in transmute. It isn't like you need to drop 60 mana worth of spells each combat or anything (I guess maybe if you NEED to get those spell casting medals?)

[KongMysen]

ok, I agree that you CAN do without the mana casts.
However I'm a mage with just 10k Leadership and a wish to use oil mist and fire arrow as frequent as possible. Also my tactic require a stoneskin on my Red Dragons

I start combats with full mana which is 140. The skull makes it drop to 70. Right now Transmute is lvl 2 and concentration lvl 0, so if I don't use spells at all I will end the fight with 105 mana usually.

I can Easily do with 70 mana, but if I don't use mana accelerator, I will have to wait for the regeneration after each battle.
In a Montero Non-hero fight I usually get rage to cast 2 Mana Accelerators and 3 Treasure Searchers

I guess I could Call Colloseus for some Green Dragons. Except now its a Skull of Death and I don't have the mana Issue any longer
Imo you need as much max mana as possible as a mage, and if that means -70mana in each fight with the Skull of Pain so be it.
The -20ish mana for a Paladin makes it a little less annoyong I guess

Edit: Does anyone know why my posts have spaces between each line? Only when I edit, I'm able to reove the extra space?