There are 22 Vampiric Powers at the player’s disposal in Diablo 4’s Season of Blood, most of which grant various - but usually fairly straightforward - boons. Five such vampiric powers can be equipped at any given time, and the effects these yield are sensible and appropriately vampire-themed, focusing on minions, the Fortify and Overpower buffs, the Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen or Feared debuffs, along with a few odd scattering like life leech, attack speed, damage over time and ultimate skill potency. One odd phrase does appear in several vampiric powers, however: Vampiric Curse. The game is light on details regarding Vampiric Curses, including what it does, how to trigger it, and how the various vampiric powers that inflict or benefit from Vampiric Curses work. This page will attempt to answer all your questions about Vampiric Curses in Diablo 4.
What Are Vampiric Curses in Diablo 4?¶
Vampiric Curses are inflicted or influenced by specific vampiric powers in Diablo 4, including the following:
Vampiric Power | Effect | Unlock | Pacts |
---|---|---|---|
Accursed Touch | Lucky Hit: Up to a 22% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Vampiric Curse’s stored souls deal 100% increased damage. | Hunter’s Acclaim Tier IX | x6 |
Coven’s Fangs | Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar attacks deal 26% increased damage to Crowd-Controlled enemies. Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar have up to a 30% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse when hitting enemies. | Potent Blood | x2 |
Flowing Veins | You deal 30% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse. | Potent Blood | x2 x2 x2 |
Metamorphosis | When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 2 seconds. Enemies along your path take 80% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. | Complete A Serpent Cornered | x2 x2 x2 |
Prey on the Weak | You deal 8% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers. | Potent Blood | x2 |
As you can see from the list above, some vampiric powers serve to propagate the Vampiric Curse debuff, and others benefit from it… some do both to varying degrees. On its own, inflicting Vampiric Curse on enemies has the following effect:
Killing an enemy affected by your Vampiric Curse stores their soul. Casting a Defensive, Macabre, or Agility skill will unleash stored souls to attack nearby enemies. You can hold up to 8 souls.
Simple enough, inflict Vampiric Curse via one of the aforementioned vampiric powers, kill them, and you’ll increment a Soul Counter effect, which will unleash a barrage of spectral forms at enemies the next time you use a skill from one of the aforementioned trees. These spirits will rush the nearest enemy and deal damage - it’s not a primary attack, but a nice little boon you can unleash from time to time.
Best Ways to Use Vampiric Curses¶
Which vampiric powers you want to use will, of course, vary depending on your class, build, and playstyle. If your build makes great use of Lucky Hit, using Accursed Touch will synergize well, while if you’re keen on letting your minions carry some weight, making use of Coven’s Fangs makes sense. The best all-rounder, however, is probably Metamorphosis, which will inflict Vampiric Curse every time you dash through enemies (note that the Vampiric Curse debuff from Metamorphosis doesn’t like to register if the enemy dies during the dash). High-end boots can give you extra dodge charges, which allows you to spam this with some regularity, guaranteeing that you inflict Vampiric Curse on whatever enemy you wish without having to wait for your minions or Lucky Hit to proc. If you’re proccing Vampiric Curses a lot, Prey on the Weak is a fine vampiric power to toss into the mix, as it’ll inflict enemies with the Vulnerable debuff and increase the damage you deal to Vulnerable enemies - a fine buff for Vulnerable builds, or for adding Vulnerable debuffs onto other builds.
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