Darkness | Elden Ring Wiki

Situational, but great against armored knights. You don't have to cast it on them like a fire incantation. Cast from a distance, throw a knife at them, then twiddle your thumbs as they run at you. When they hit the cloud you can backstab them.

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should've been an AoW

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The initial cast staggers some enemies (ex: Soldiers and foot soldiers) but not knight. Maybe low poise enemies?

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when you can't be bothered passing time at a site of grace

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Want a pot version

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Despite what its appearance and description suggest, Darkness is not used for cloaking yourself, nor does it have any lingering effect beyond the initial cast. Think of it more as a fistful of ash that you toss into a foe's face at point-blank range, which blinds and stuns them for a couple seconds. Quite handy for getting yourself out of a pinch when you're cornered in a legacy dungeon, but not very useful for much else.

That said, the dark cloud can confuse enemy Tarnished. It doesn't always work, but if you're clever with using it then you can pull off some pretty crazy stuff.
— Courh the Explorer

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My favorite spell. Masks your movements while being very dark, allowing you to cast a spell while you're in the cloud. My favorite spells to use while I'm hidden in the darkness include Lightning Spear, honed bolt, giants flame take thee, and dragonclaw.

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Must've been the wind

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Must've been the wind

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Noticed that there is a black particle effect that follows effected players in PVP for a short while, showing this spell actually has hit detection on player characters the way it does on PVE enemies. Only problem is that the incantation doesn't do anything on hit. In PVE, the effect is to deaggro NPC enemies. In PVP, a useful effect would be to disable target lock for the affected player until the black particle effect disappears.

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This spell should cost 1 faith. I seriously don't get From sometimes.

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I'm just running this incantation on a Frenzied Assassin build and I'm pleasantly surprised at its uses in PVE. 1V1 with a tough knight, you can cast this repeatedly and chain backstab. Slap on Assassin's Cerulean Dagger Talisman and you are getting crits for free. Another good use is group enemies together and blind them all. They will be stunned long enough to get a full blast of "Flame of Frenzy" or any other nuke of choice. Not sure of effectiveness on bosses, but right now, I think this is a perfect choice for an assassin build. PVP I would not use this unless I'm trying to cover up a cast of something dodged easily like "Frenzied Burst" or "Inescapable Frenzy".

-Con

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wish it lingered for a while, and could at least be stacked twice. even without breaking lock-on, it would be a ridiculously effective cover spell if it could be used like a smoke grenade.

i dunno. i just remember getting really excited about potential pvp and pve interactions and then being disappointed it was just a short aggro-breaker for pve only

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Doesn't work as advertised, it's even better. What a way to describe something that BLINDS your opponents, sounds like a fog that makes you invisible but... it isn't lmao, more of a smoke bomb on steroids

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Anyone remember how stealth worked in WoW back in the day? There was a calculation based off level difference that made a range at which you could detect stealth.

Take that idea, and make stealth detection part of the focus or mind stat.

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Shamac!

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essential for any "true" stealth build, since there are a lot of scripted encounters in dungeons and stuff that can't be sneaked through, like the land octopi jumping from the ceiling

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should do at least something to players, probably not outright blind them but like heavily reduce their game brightness or something

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Incredibly broken with an assassin build for dealing with tough non-boss enemies. While it doesn't always trigger properly, (usually due to certain attack animations), it can often function as a "stun" to knock enemies out of attacking, and then line you up for a free crit or some free hits. Combine with the cerulean dagger talisman and for enemies you can crit on you refill almost the entire cost of this incantation allowing you to just spam it until they're dead.

It's also particularly useful for dealing with crowds of melee enemies so you're not swarmed. If you do as I said above or just have enough FP, you can wipe out small swarms with crits in moments with barely any risk. I really underestimated this spell until I decided to swap from a int/dex build on my assassin character to a faith/dex setup, and now outside of boss fights I find myself making use of this all the time.

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ZEHAHAHAHA

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Why isn't this a cracked pot instead of a spell? WTF FROM THIS GAME IS ****! so many inconsistencies

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Exactly what anon below said,pop it in combat and you can ise map for grace getaway

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This feels like something that would be in demon's souls

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y'all see this from a wrong perspective. this spell is used to de-aggro mobs that have no business following your tarnished bum bum while you are on your way to stylishly murder a more powerful enemy. Especially in Mohgwyn dynasty you cast it to open the chest or escape the cave without fighting a horde of enemies

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I will never understand FromSoft's line of thinking with these kinds of spells.

"Oooh, utility spell for sneaky characters... 18 FTH REQUIREMENT ONLY MONKS AND PALADINS GET TO USE THIS SCREW YOU"

People who invest in Faith will never use this because they're casters, so just give it no or negligible requirements ffs.

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I mostly just use it for WWE entrances in PvP. I wish the smoke lasted longer

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This spell is really fun in pve.
I use darkness + Flame of the fell god + fortissax spear or Crucible Horns. It may be not the most optimized combo but it's so fun to wide up groups of mobs that are running to you...

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A couple ideas of improvement:

1. Bosses, mobs, players affected by darkness will receive a higher critical damage towards them if affected by darkness and will have this debuff for 60 seconds.

2. Darkness now affects player that stands in it. Standing in darkness will turn you invisible to the enemy eye and players for the duration it is there, but going out of it will reveal yourself again.

3. (Optional) Faster cast speed so you can more reliably use it in the midst of combat or bigger radius.

If you read this far, maybe I may pose one new incantation idea?

"Shabiri's Woe" incantation.

Instead of attracting enemies towards you like the talisman does, you will instead put it on someone else such as an invader, boss or just a normal mob. This would turn the eyes of the enemy frenzied. It will make duo bosses, mobs fight each other and start true chaos in the midst of combat.
To make the incantation not be too overpowered the target afflicted (Except players) will take much more damage, but also do more damage just like Shabiri himself would.

On players this means mobs that normally wouldn't attack you now will, but it can be reversed by using the same incantation on them and flip the tables to your favor once again. You could also use darkness or madness incantations to reverse the effect to normal. Also if you happen to have Shabiri's Woe effect from either a talisman, clothing or even the incantation itself mobs will target specifically you at all times when this incantation is afflicted on someone and this can be used to your advantage or be a disadvantage when facing bosses or enemies.

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The FP requirement for a smokecloud is insanity. 24 FP is already ridiculous. I can't believe it used to cost 34. Fromsoft is clearly terrified this would get annoying or abused in some way so they want to make it as **** as possible, in which case, why the hell even have it in the game?

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I really want to use this, but man is it an investment. Last time I used this I had some tea, got married, had two children, got divorced again and when I finally came back the casting was still going...

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responding to someone who suggested the fix for this is simply make it a target lock break spell... (wiki here is just as jenk as DS/FromSoftware, too meta for me) for context their desired effect was to break locks and disengage being the fix and purpose for this spell for PVP.

for your desired effects, pointless, and ineffective, sorry friend. just blunt truth. #1 spell/aows already legit do this, albeit at range #2, exloits(s) do this at any range even while fighting (might not be an exploit maybe side effect intended on gambit or something). #3 lock-on is not required for pursuit at all for anyone of average skill, lock-on not required for those of certain builds and player skill, I.e. a giants flame specailist manually throwing fireballs (i do this for dodge perfectionists to mind game them into jumping into the point of impact, most of the time, long as you aim anywhere close to the direction they dodge (talking a difference of inches from default aim in some cases), its un-dodgeable to them once theyve started rolling) =========================== my solution would include yours, cut their physical rendering (to stop gamma exploits or make it harder for hackers) to about 1-2 feet around them (or cone, whichever) and its all black, and no targeting outside it, or at all, as 1-2 feet? gonna just break lock anyway most likely lol. this makes it unique and have identity as a spell, and non dmg dmgy spells need all the identity which it has none in pvp. for #1 obviously an entirey new effect, #2, this would top any expoit as its 100x more debilitating than the ones i mention #3 would actually allow for escape and disengage if designed right (i.e. no seeing auras through black etc.) as it only takes about 2 secons to run to the stealth range for gambit or something. anyway, just only common sense way i see of making it work as intended, seems simple to me but who knows, maybe devs are working with an engine so jenk it just doesn't handle entirely new effects well. or they are entitled/lazy/etc. insert negative creative pronouns here.

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Short and to the point:
detail missing: how long smoke lasts.

The Long/Why, thoughts:
Last i checked, befoer the big patch, was only like 1.5 seconds. if its longer sure viable to mask actions, if not, probably better off using unseen weapon for that kina thing. using a non dmging, non staggering, non debuffing magic simply to make smoke, is really risky when plenty of people have AOE roflstomps that dont care, and they will be just as masked as you are. so... yea if gonna advertise that use, it needs all the details (or help) it can get, when it comes to deciding to even consider this pvp viable or not, for other ppl.

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Easy way to fix this for PVP: gives a lingering debuff for EVERYONE that get caught in the mist so they can't lock-on/be locked-on to/by anyone for the whole duration and a bit more. A potentially good spell for invaders to disengage instead of getting chased by three phantoms across the map, but now it's just mostly a PVE spell.

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if this blinded players to some degree the same way it blinded enemies i could see it having a lot more use.

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Also for those who don't know, the size and amount of time the cloud stays out last longer with higher faith.
Using this 18 faith vs 50 is quite a difference.
Probably worth adding to the wiki.

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Very useful for the Omens in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds

^w^~

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use this into black knife weapon art as a ranged duel opener to murder, confuse, and impress your foe at the same time, all for low low cost of you're entire fp bar

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I've seen this used in pvp exactly 1 time. The guy used it to setup a lionclaw & oneshotted my bro. I was pretty impressed.

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I've seen this used in pvp exactly 1 time. The guy used it to setup a lionclaw & oneshotted my bro. I was pretty impressed.

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oh how i miss the darkness

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Since bosses will react if they see the player character using a flask and do a reactionary attack, will using this spell in between them prevent that interaction from happening?

Can someone confirm/debunk?

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how can this cost 34 fp? thats more than giantsflame lmao

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Has a secret combo with Starlight.

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They should either make it cost 10fp, last longer or prevent lock on. Preferably all of the above. Even then it would be a gimmick spell.

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Darkness + Golden Order Totality = Rumia Build

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This spell has limited use against other players due to its slow startup, but can be useful as a confusion tactic. Against enemies however, it is very powerful because it essentially guarantees you a free move against them — a backstab, a spell cast, a retreat, or whatever else you need within those couple seconds of time. — Courh the Explorer

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So it's sleep, but costs a but load of FP, works only on most small enemies and lasts a fraction of the time?

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This WA should have a quicker startup, at most a second, if not under that, which should be about as fast as blackflame blade’s cast. It should also disable lock-on, like Unseen Form does. These two changes would improve its risk-reward ratio and make it much usable in both PVE and PVP.

Also Old Lord’s talisman doesn’t seem to work when used on Darkness or Shadowbait. Not sure why, but would be nice if they could get fixed too.

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This incantation is niche but effective. It needs just two things to be truly viable: faster startup and disabling of lock-on. The startup should be under a second, considering its current risk-reward ratio (although the endlag can stay the same for balancing), so about as fast as blackflame blade. In PVP settings, the caster should be untargetable. I used to think FromSoft didn’t do this on principle until i saw the Unseen Form sorcery, so there’s no reason Darkness cannot do this also.

Also Old Lord’s talisman doesn’t work on Darkness, and for that matter Shadowbait (which is basically Darkness-lite, as it has the exact same animation, effect duration, and basic application in PVE). Don’t know what’s up with that, but that should not be. A fix for that would be really nice.

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This is very underrated for PvE. It works against those powerful knights in castle sol which means it should work against almost all enemies that aren't crab/lobster level or over. I haven't tested it on those but I'm sure it doesn't work. As soon as they touch the black cloud their ai turns off pretty much and you can hit them with a very strong attack and since it's AoE if you place it well against melee enemies they will all get stuck.

I haven't tested but you may also be able to chainstun enemies. Hit the smoke then use smoke again and immediately attack with a single hitting charge attack then they should still be in the cloud as their ai comes back so it possibly turns off again and you repeat until dead. With backstabs it will chain for sure because you can cast the cloud again as they are getting up.

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I like this, it seems to de-aggro many enemies (like resetting them). Even worked on the black blade kindred new the marshmallow flute players in the capital, I was surprised. Run through a mob and don't want them back biting you? Cast this as your run.

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You’d think this would disable lock-on like Unseen Form, given its twice as expensive, FP-wise

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"The duration of the incantation can be extended with talismans and a higher faith value."

Who wrote this crap? 18 FTH or 80 FTH, it lasts the same time.

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I use this for my Black Knife roleplay for when I need to break aggro and go for backstabs (like against the Omens in the sewers) but holy **** can they lower the FP cost and up the duration

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Cant cast as an invader?

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Good lord, why does this require 18 fth AND more fp than most incantations that actually do damage or provide buffs?? Never mind aows?? 34 fp for this, while frigging bolt of gransax is 25, mohg spear is 20, lansseax glaive is 28!! Forget about casting this 3 times with less than 17 Mind. Yeah real good for invasions

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It's time for Darkness!

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Darkness + night sorcery + silent talisman(Idfk the name) = meme?

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Useless!

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charlie murphy

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Twin brotha darkness!
Black magic darkness!
Darkness is spreading!

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Fun spell in pve and pvp. Allows easy escapes and free backstab chains in pve, can be used in pvp to escape or do long casting incantations. Really nice mix up tool in pvp that allows non meta spells to work. My favorite use is to apply darkness and then switch to a heavy weapon and scare them.

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Can anyone confirm that this works on NPC Invaders?

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While it doesnt break lock on, it does completely obscure you from the opponent, allowing you to cast something without them being able to see it.

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If you cast this on a group of aggro'd enemies then follow up quickly with ancient dragon spear or strike you can easily destroy a whole group of enemies

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This thing would be so cool in PvP if it could force players to de-target you. What a misdirection tool that would be!

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Does this have any effect in PvP?

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This feels like it'd make a really good CC spell if it lasted longer, i.e. affected targets are blinded and pacified for # seconds. That'd be really handy. Aside from Sleep Bombs, it doesn't feel like there are a whole lot of good CC options.

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I’m not convinced the duration actually “scales with Faith”, but I haven’t tested it thoroughly. I’m wondering if it literally only scales with Faith, or if it scales with your seal’s power. Ignoring the seal to only use Faith would be stupid, but the Arcane on my Dragon Communion Seal +10 certainly seemed to have no effect.

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Which this spell just put a cloud of darkness in the area so it'd work for pvp. Maybe counterplayed with a Glowstone or Torch, etc. It'd be fun.

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doesn't work on all enemies.

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You can use this spell to effortlessly chain backstabs on crucible knights, and heal whenever you want. Not bad.

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And the award to worst spell in Fromsoft goes to this garbage. A spell costing 34 FP that lasts two seconds, and almost does absolutely nothing. It would have been cool if it lasted 20 seconds, costed 10fp, and just gave your character slight invisibility while inside it, but nope.

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"The duration of the incantation can be extended with talismans and a higher faith value." What talismans extend this? How much does faith extend it by? It seems pretty short at base.

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"The duration of the incantation can be extended with talismans and a higher faith value." What talismans extend this? How much does faith extend it by? It seems pretty short at base.

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Does it breaks the lock on in pvp? It would be nice

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Pocket sand!

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1.03 patch increased the FP cost to 34!!!

what is with all of these shadow nerfs to incantations? I'm especially upset with lightning spear!

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Hello old friend...

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How does this work in pvp? Lol

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Wait a sec, this isn't my waifu

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The ultimate "**** this enemy I'm walking past them" incant

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Shield-wielding knights killer, as it allows you to backstab them again and again as long as you have fp. If you chain it right, all they do is stand still.

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I got it from the guy in the Roundtable hold after giving him the scroll, but it isn't in my list of incantations?

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What this actually seems to do is apply a darkness/blind status effect to enemies that seems to cause them to not be able to see you properly. Its a lot like poison mist except it inflicts darkness instead of poison.

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Will this by any chance, while in coop boss fight, I attack the boss in the smoke but the boss wont change the aggro on me?

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For those that don't get it still, it is NOT for you to hide in. It's a mistake that applys an effect to the enemy's, blinding them.

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I'm confused about this spell. Is it a cloud you hide in or a cloud you drop on an enemy that blinds them? Wanted to run this on my status effect ARC build, but I tried it for a bit against some academy casters and got promptly murdered for my efforts.

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If you played WoW this is essentially a rogue vanish, and its really good in its niche

you drop a black smoke cloud and enemies just forget youre there. combine this with concealing veil talisman (stealth on crouch when far enough away) and the black knife for a real assassin feeling character. combine with godslayer magic and its even better

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Very good for getting rid of aggro and allowing you to either get a free backstab or prep up a dragon breath

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Will have to test this in PvP but if my theory is correct, then this Incantation has potential. I recently used (Concealing Veil Talisman) located in Sage's Cave North East from The Abandoned Coffin Grace; it allows the user to become "Concealed" crouching AWAY from the enemy. After testing with a friend in PvP we found that from their POV you become COMPLETELY Invisible, very similar to (Thief's Ring) from Demon's Souls. My theory is that this will do the same as long as you remain in the cloud, if that is the case, sniping people is going to feel oh so good >:)

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Some ennemis (besides boss) seems to be resistant to that spell, even if their vision is indicated as clouded. This is the case of the Banished Knight besides the church in Stormveil Castle.

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A godsend in the academy against all those casters for my dex/fth build, though probably useless against other players

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Wanna know how this works in pvp

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Would be useful for some experimental One Piece-Blackbeard FashionSoul.

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What does this do in pvp? When I land it, some of my enemies seem blind, some don't. Does it handicap your vision or something?

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To clarify: The spell causes enemies to de-aggro or unlock from you, lets you get a backstab on most enemies. Lasts about 3 seconds but as soon as the spell completes you're de-aggroed while inside it

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THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS HIDDEN BODY! It only creates a black fog lasts around 3 sec that would also block the user’s vision

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Is this thing useful against bosses or just pvp?

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Great for free backstabs and getting aggro off casters in boss fights in PVE

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