Halt Undead at Higher Levels (10-12)

[flynnjd5150]

I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to weather or not Halt Undead is of any value on higher level quests such as From Beyond the Grave or Wizzie King. I was thinking of taking it at lvl 9, but I've never seen anyone use it in either of those 2 quests (or others for that matter) while playing my melees. I know its great in Deleras, but since I'm (thankfully) done with that portion of my sorc'sl life, I'm just curious if its worth grabbing.


Thanks in advance!

[GeneralDiomedes]

Heightened works 'OK' in From Beyond the Grave (and I'm necro focus). Actually I found Command Undead was more effective in keeping Zombies from reaching the gate.

[isldur]

Halt undead works great on the gate smashers, they don't move even when attacked. It doesn't work so good on the other mobs trying to kill you. If your going to charm the mobs in btg, please please don't stand by the gate. When they break free it can be ugly.

As a sorc I don't know if it would be worth it to use a spell slot on it, since it doesn't work to well on higher level undead.

[bigj1608]

as far as i can tell, any zombie you attempt to halt that gets caught in the aoe range, gets halted, and doesn't get freed when attacked.. however, skellys (anything but simple ones, such as those in deleras) get to make a will save. arcanes (besides the normal ones in deleras) also get a save but fail it often, but on elite quests.. halt rarely works.. but i have it and personally still use it a lot

[Grinson_Bartlebee]

I have found that it works great in both beyond the grave and VoN5(even on elite) for the zombies. More times than not (about 7 out of 10) I can also halt the archers and warriors in Beyond the grave.. However I have only about a 50-50 shot of getting the ghouls to fail their save on it. (All of this is without Heighten, or spell focus with a 30 Char)As frequently as I run both of those quests, I actually keep the spell in my slot at all times.... Maybe thats just me though.. It also seems to work well in elite Wizard king runs if you can keep those silly melees from attacking the skeletons with swirlies over their heads. Just my 2 coppers.


*EDIT* Also in beyond the grave, when you halt the zombies you don't have to have the melees kill them, they will automatically explode after a certain amount of time. I don't know if that is common knowledge or not, but alot of groups I have been lately don't seem to realize that, so I thought I would at least put it up here.

[~KwonTchii]

Yeah I have been capped for quite some time, and I have found halt very useful. In FBTG you can halt the zombies and go to town with your dual wield puncturing picks/burst picks and crit just like they are held. Yes I realize that the above post makes that moot, but any time I can go to town melee on my sorc I do it, just for kicks.

[MotorEyes]

Yeah I have been capped for quite some time, and I have found halt very useful. In FBTG you can halt the zombies and go to town with your dual wield puncturing picks/burst picks and crit just like they are held. Yes I realize that the above post makes that moot, but any time I can go to town melee on my sorc I do it, just for kicks.

Unfortunatly they are immune.

[shvbacae]

They are immune to the extra damage from the weapon, but the critical burst effects still go off.

[flynnjd5150]

Thanks for the insight!

[Aspenor]

In general, halt undead is ineffective in high level questing unless you have spent the appropriate feats to improive its effectiveness (SF: Necromancy, GSF: Necromancy)

[Grinson_Bartlebee]

Yeah I have been capped for quite some time, and I have found halt very useful. In FBTG you can halt the zombies and go to town with your dual wield puncturing picks/burst picks and crit just like they are held. Yes I realize that the above post makes that moot, but any time I can go to town melee on my sorc I do it, just for kicks.

That is a fun little thing I like to do in VoN5. Except I use either a +1 holy burst greataxe, or a +3 shocking burst greataxe. It carves them right up when you are being a haste junky like I am usually am. Which reminds me.... Maybe I should take power attack on my next sorc.... lol

[samagee]

I found it useless in the higher levels, so I changed it out for sleetstorm. The party needs to have balance or freedom of movement though. Most of the time people will not wait for those that make it through the sleet.

[MrWizard]

Usually when running quests, my toon tries to do elite stuff only, especially from level 7 dungeons on...
If lowbie-ing a dungeon, halt undead seems worthless.

On elite in the big quests (like wiz king and such) I find it does not work...even with heighten and necro focus. I can only assume it is broken, hd dependent, does not work with heighten well....or the save for it is insane..

A group of wraiths will all save, but I can easily charm them...with no saving at all..

makes no sense..

On the other side though, doing Deleras elite I find the halt undead scrolls work wonderfully....and again, this makes no sense at all...
The caster level is woefully low, but the thrall of the necro is waht, 10th level on elite, and the skellys just give it up to the scrolls.