Ancient Curses



The Ancient Curses are a set of prayers that is obtained as a reward after completing The Temple at Senntisten. It consists of prayers ranging between levels 50 - 95 Prayer. Prayers of this set include combat skill boosts, special attack energy drainers, and damage recoilers.

Introduction
When players complete the quest "The Temple at Senntisten" and have read from the Ancient Hymnal, they will be given access to the Altar of Zaros. Praying at this altar gives players a 15% boost to his or her overall prayer level and the option to switch between standard prayers and the Ancient Curses. The altar is located at Senntisten Temple (under the Digsite).

While the Ancient Curses are active, praying at any altar restores prayer as normal and also gives the option to revert to standard prayers. This option may be toggled off.

The Ancient Curses gives players an idea of the level of piety a Mahjarrat has towards a divine figure, namely Zamorak and Zaros, through either hatred or loyalty reflected after the God Wars.

The deflection Ancient Curses immediately became popular to those with the required prayer levels, as they act like the normal protection prayers, with the same drain rate.

It once was said that when using Deflect Curses, the player stopped moving for as long as the Deflection animation was running, but Jagex fixed this. This animation is run only when the player is deflecting from the attack method they are being attacked with. However, if other animations such as defending or attacking are still running and the animation for the Curse is unable to run, the player is not stopped. This used to make using these prayers in places like the God Wars Dungeon extremely dangerous. In situations where it is necessary to keep moving, for instance, when fighting with the Commander Zilyana, death is inevitable. (Note: This is speed lag. Something similar happens chinning at monkeys and when casting vengeance. You really keep on moving.) Further investigation shows that the player was only stopped if they were wielding a weapon. It appears that the animations associated with weapons interfered with the Curse animations, stopping the player as a result.

Prayers
Notes:
 * ~ Like the 'Protect from' prayers, Deflect curses stop 100% of damage caused by NPCs and 40% ( NOT 60%, like some players believe) of damage caused by other players (in PvP).


 * + These curses can be used with others of the same type (e.g. Sap Warrior and Sap Mage), but Sap and Leech curses cannot be used at the same time or with Turmoil.


 * & These curses can be used with any others.


 * % These curses cannot be used at the same time.


 * = Deflect Summoning can be used with other Deflect Curses, but not with Wrath or Soul Split.


 * Note: Turmoil can be used with Soul Split, Wrath, or the Deflect Curses.

Quest Requirements
The following quests are all requirements, directly and indirectly, for The Temple at Senntisten (indirectly meaning they are requirements of requirements of The Temple at Senntisten, and so on). These quests must be completed unless stated otherwise.


 * The Temple at Senntisten
 * Black Knight's Fortress
 * Creature of Fenkenstrain
 * Death Plateau
 * Defender of Varrock
 * Demon Slayer
 * Desert Treasure
 * Devious Minds
 * The Dig Site
 * Doric's Quest
 * Druidic Ritual
 * Family Crest
 * Garden of Tranquillity
 * Gertrude's Cat
 * Goblin Diplomacy
 * Icthlarin's Little Helper
 * Missing My Mummy (tomb needs to be fully recharged)
 * Nature Spirit (needs to be started)
 * Priest in Peril
 * Prince Ali Rescue
 * Recruitment Drive
 * Gunnar's Ground (used to be Romeo and Juliet)
 * Rune Mysteries
 * Shades of Mort'ton
 * Shield of Arrav
 * The Curse of Arrav
 * The Golem
 * The Knight's Sword
 * The Lost Tribe
 * The Restless Ghost
 * The Tale of the Muspah
 * Temple of Ikov
 * The Tourist Trap
 * Troll Romance
 * Troll Stronghold
 * Wanted!
 * Waterfall Quest
 * What Lies Below
 * Wolf Whistle

Skill Requirements
The table shows a list of all the skill levels that a player needs to have to be able to use the Ancient Curses. They are required in The Temple at Senntisten and all quests below it. The skill levels stated here are the minimum needed, however boosts can sometimes be used.

Other Requirements

 * 33 Quest points


 * 125 Kudos


 * Must have completed the Abyss (miniquest)


 * A trustworthy partner for Shield of Arrav


 * Must have completely restored Senliten's tomb

Switching Between Prayers and Curses
The only altar that can activate the Ancient Curses is the Zarosian altar in the temple beneath the Digsite. After completing the elite Falador Tasks players can use an Ancient Hymnal on the altar in the White Knights' Castle to convert it to Zaros, allowing for activation of the Curses from that altar as well. Players can switch to the standard prayerbook again at any altar by default. One may choose to remove the option to switch to the standard prayerbook at normal altars. This will speed up the recharging of prayer points, but to use the standard prayerbook again, the player will have to travel to the Digsite altar (or the Falador one). When the player has removed the option to revert to the standard prayerbook from normal altars, they may restore it at the Zarosian altars.

Trivia

 * When fighting the Jade Vine with Deflect Melee active, you may receive the message "Your ring of recoil is useless against this creature."


 * Using more than one sap curse does NOT stack defence drain.
 * The Ancient Hymnal, given to players by Azzanadra, gives an overview of the effects of the prayers.
 * The 'Ancient Language' in the Hymnal is Latin.


 * You can have multiple sap or leech curses active at the same time (e.g. Sap Mage, Sap Warrior and Sap Ranger), but you cannot have any sap and leech curses active at the same time (e.g. you cannot have Sap Ranger and Leech Attack active together).


 * Turmoil may not be used with any leech or sap curses.


 * The effects of the Turmoil curse apply to monsters, as well as players, although for strong monsters like the Corporeal Beast, they are treated as a maxed player with 99 stats.


 * Berserker, Protect item, and Turmoil curses have animations associated with them being activated. The Sap, Deflect and Soul Split curses do have animations when they drain stats/deflect damage, yet not on activation like the others.


 * The Deflect curses do not rebound 100% of the time, and they reflect damage similar to that of a ring of recoil.


 * It is believed that Deflect curses rebound 10% of the damage you would have received, rounded down to nearest integer, as damage is calculated before protection.
 * After Ancient Curses were released, most types of Bones saw a big rise in price because many wanted to train Prayer to access these new prayers.
 * When using sap or leech against an enemy using Deflect prayers, then the percentage of the increase of using the sap or leech is switched to become negative as it has been deflected back upon you, resulting in a loss of stat adjustment, rather than an expected gain.
 * The icon of the Deflect curses resemble the icon of the corresponding skill (e.g. Deflect Melee resembles the icon for Attack, and Deflect Summoning resembles the Summoning icon), except for the Deflect Missiles curse, which resembles the Fletching icon instead of the Ranged icon.

Fixed glitches and other odd behaviour

 * On the day of the release multiple glitches were found including players who had completed Dwarf Cannon having it appear in the "In progress" area of the quest guide. This has since been fixed.


 * Within the first few hours of release, it was possible to have multiple deflect curses active at once (e.g. having Deflect Magic and Deflect Missiles active at the same time). This was quickly fixed by Jagex.


 * When it was first released, there was a glitch with Turmoil where you could have a maximum of +31% defence.

Ancient Curses Ancient Curses