| |
| Release date | 19 May 2014 (Update) |
|---|---|
| Members | Yes |
| Skill | Attack |
| Level | 75 |
| Type | Threshold |
| Adrenaline | −15% |
| Equipment | Any |
| Cooldown | 45 seconds |
| Description | |
| Blood tendrils whip at you and your opponent for 5 seconds. The first hit deals up to 180% weapon damage, with four subsequent hits each dealing up to 90% weapon damage to your target and up to 25% weapon damage to you. | |
 Click animation for full size | |
Blood Tendrils is a threshold Attack ability, requiring level 75 Attack to use. When activated, it summons tendrils of blood to inflict a damage-over-time (DoT) effect on both you and your opponent, the damage in your favor.
The DoT damage is proportional to the initial hit. The opponent will take 1/2 of the original damage with each hit, and the user takes 5/36. Both DoTs hit for four times. Blood Tendrils can kill players who use it at low health.
Freedom will clear the bleed if it was caused by another player, but it cannot clear the self-inflicted effect of this ability.
Because Blood Tendrils damages the user, it is advised to use it with caution. Although this ability deals relatively little damage to the player compared to Smoke and Shadow Tendrils, the magic and range counterparts. It is best used with Soul Split or a scrimshaw of vampyrism against weaker monsters with many lifepoints.
An alternative to Blood Tendrils is Slaughter, which is also a DoT ability. Blood Tendrils deals up to 540% damage and Slaughter does 250-625%, provided the target moves after its first hit. One should note that their target must move for Slaughter to deal maximum damage.
Blood Tendrils, along with Smoke Tendrils, Shadow Tendrils, and Ice Asylum, is learnt by reading the Codex Ultimatus, which is obtained by talking to the Archaeological expert after The Dig Site quest.
It is worth noting that with all damage over time abilities, the player is free to use other abilities while Blood Tendrils does damage to the enemy. The same does not hold for channelled abilities like Assault. This essentially means in terms of long term damage per second and assuming the enemy stays alive during the duration of Blood Tendrils, Blood Tendrils is just as good as an ability which does 540% damage in one hit.
