Walking Bomb (Dragon Age II)

Walking Bomb is a mage spell from the Spirit tree in Dragon Age II.
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== Information ==
* Spirit damage: of victim's maximum health vs. nearby targets upon explosion
* Physical force: vs. nearby targets upon explosion
== Upgrades ==
== Notes ==
* Damage is not affected by +X% spirit damage enhancements on gear nor by Spirit Mastery or even the character's Magic attribute. The explosion's base damage is determined solely by 1/2 of the maximum HP of the enemy rigged to explode upon death. The final damage is still mitigated by damage resistance, but as a spirit-element attack, those values are only half as effective by default. Damage resistance reductions due to Hex of Torment will also apply, making the damage even greater to the afflicted, however spirit vulnerability does not increase the damage to enemies who are weak to it.
* As a spirit element attack, it has no effect on several enemies on Nightmare difficulty, including shades, desire demons, Arcane Horrors, apostates, and blood mages.
* The Virulent Walking Bomb upgrade inflicts 200% damage if the victim is afflicted with Disorient upon death. In effect, the detonation will cause 100% of the enemy's health in spirit damage.
* Given the relatively high maximum health of enemies Normal-ranked and above, with this maximum increasing as enemies scale in power over the course of the game and/or at higher difficulties (Normal health + 30% = Hard health, Normal + 60% = Nightmare), 50% of such values equates to a level of damage that cracks the high hundreds as early as mid-Act 1 and hitting four digits around Act 2. On Nightmare difficulty, where friendly fire is in effect, this level of damage is often fatal to any party member caught in its blast radius. That being said, this can be one of the most powerful spells in the game if used correctly (difficult though it may be, as melee enemies are near allies on a regular basis and ranged enemies seldom stay in groups).
:* Thanks to patch 1.03, allies cannot suffer more than 75% of their max health in damage from friendly fire, thus as long as they haven't lost 25% of their health, they will survive the explosion no matter how powerful. Unfortunately, elemental resistances are capped at 95%. Even at the max allotted spirit resistance, 5% of 2000+ damage is still 100 or more, enough to hit the 75% cap on any class with no health upgrades anyway. Maxed out damage resistance will only be half as effective, only shaving off an additional 2.5%. Thus, crowd control techniques and staying at range are the preferred complements to this spell.
:* In spite of this, the efficiency with which a single Rune of Spirit Warding whittles the friendly fire damage down by 90% makes the four-digit AoE damage to enemies a far more manageable and worthwhile risk, without having to min-max spirit damage resistance to do so.
* The 1x physical force multiplier guarantees that the spell's explosion will have some type of physical force effect. If cast on an enemy at Normal rank or above, the explosion will have an initial force that is consistently high, i.e., equal to the damage dealt, in spite of the mere 1x value. This can make the spell a reliable source of knockback effects, particularly against the victim's fellow Normal ranks. (The spell only ever seems to inflict a prolonged knockback, both against the enemy and on companions who survive the friendly fire hit, despite the math allowing for a knockdown effect.)
== Bugs ==
* Walking Bomb's white noise sound effect remains even after the opponent dies and combat stops, and can be heard if a cutscene happens in the same area as the killing.
== Gallery ==
DA2Walkingbomb1.jpg
Category:Dragon Age II spells