Unholy cursebearer
| |
| Release date | 12 April 2010 (Update) |
|---|---|
| Members? | No |
| Combat level | Varies (22, 33, 37, 53, 71, 92, 115, 139, 169, 205, 246, 276, 279, 308, 336, 366, 401) |
| Life points | Varies (Level 92: 2110, Level 115: 2480, Level 279: 7170, Level 366: 10460, Level 401: 11850) |
| Experience for killing | Unknown edit |
| Slayer level | Not assigned |
| Aggressive? | Yes |
| Poisonous? | No |
| Immune to poison? |
No |
| Attack style | Magic, Melee |
| Attack speed | |
| Max hit | Varies (Level 115: 163, Level 279: 346, Level 366/401: 371) |
| Weakness | Melee (Crush attacks) and Ranged |
| Always drops | Nothing |
| Examine text | This mage died a long time ago. |
- For the music track, see Unholy Cursebearer (music track).
The unholy cursebearer is a boss in Daemonheim, requiring 29 Dungeoneering. It can be found on the abandoned floors. The unholy cursebearer is known amongst players as one of the easiest Dungeoneering bosses, due to his low health and max hit, but should not be underestimated for his ability to rapidly drain your combat stats with his undead rot.
Strategy
There are two unholy fonts on the wall opposite the entrance which allow for restoring one's stats from the undead rot. However, either may not be used until notified by the chatbox, after the undead rot works through the player for some time. Using the unholy fonts will also heal the unholy cursebearer by 1/8th of his maximum lifepoints. Therefore, it is strongly advised use them only in case of emergency.
This boss uses a crush-based melee attack and a magic attack in which red energy appears on top of his staff and spell that looks very much like Iban blast is fired at the target. The magic attack can either be single-targeted or multi-targeted.
Damage can be completely avoided by using Protect from Melee and quickly switching to Protect from Magic when he raises his staff and the red energy appears on top of it; however, the effects of the undead rot still do small amounts of typeless, unblockable damage regardless of activated prayers. In addition, the damage caused by the rot appears to increase by 20 with each hit, up to a predetermined maximum, which varies depending on the cursebearer's level. Also, turning on Protect from Magic and Piety or Chivalry will nearly do away with damage. While team fighting, all players should activate protect from magic, and the designated tank should wear armour with high crush defence. Ranging and maging players in team are recommended to wear magic-resistant armours, although the former-mentioned prayer will block the magic attacks totally. He appears to prioritise players that use magic or ranged, so a feasible strategy may be to have one party member attack with magic, while the rest block the cursebearer and use melee. If all players use protect from magic, they will only take damage from the undead rot, as the cursebearer will be focusing on the mage/ranger for the majority of the fight. This strategy does carry some risk, as the cursebearer has been known to occasionally shift his aggressiveness toward meleers for an attack or two while a mage or ranger is attacking him, though this can be countered by wearing armour with high crush defence.
There is one tactic that can slow the drain of the rot. Turning on Rapid Restore will cause your stats to regain some points in the duration of the fight. The benefit is that this prayer is a very slow draining prayer. The downside is that this prayer's effect is relatively slow, compared to the drain rate of the undead rot.
Since there is no minimum limit of his stat draining ability (he will eventually drain all of a player's combat stat to zero if the fight is long enough), the player may find that their Magic level is reduced below 32 (or 64, as the case may be), the level required to teleport to gatestones. If the player is in imminent danger and cannot teleport out because of this, it may be to their advantage to use the unholy font to restore their magic level to re-enable gatestone teleports. Avoiding any deaths is of the highest concern, even at the cost of healing the cursebearer.
A slower strategy to avoid the stat drain and any damage is to use a gatestone. Place a regular gatestone outside the boss room and enter just long enough to hit him twice before teleporting out. If done right, the player will not lose any lifepoints or combat stats.
Rot damage
| Combat level | Rot damage |
|---|---|
| 22 | 17 |
| 33 | 27 |
| 53 | 42 |
| 71 | 75 |
| 92 | 88 |
| 115 | 91 |
| 139 | 110 |
| 169 | ? |
| 205 | ? |
| 246 | ? |
| 276 | ? |
| 279 | ? |
| 308 | ? |
| 336 | ? |
| 366 | ? |
| 401 | ? |
Drops
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price 
Air staff (Dungeoneering) 1 Varies Not sold 
Empowered air staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Water staff (Dungeoneering) 1 Varies Not sold 
Empowered water staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Earth staff (Dungeoneering) 1 Varies Not sold 
Empowered earth staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Fire staff (Dungeoneering) 1 Varies Not sold 
Empowered fire staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Catalytic staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Empowered catalytic staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Celestial catalytic staff 1 Varies Not sold 
Dungeoneering journals Various parts Common Not sold
Thok Your Block Off
The unholy cursebearer serves as the primary antagonist of Thok Your Block Off, where Thok gets his sword stuck in his skull. Throughout the saga Thok refers to him as "Bone Face". Thok follows him down the dungeons in search of his missing sword, until a final confrontation where the Cursebearer hides on top of a pillar while the gravecreeper, hobgoblin geomancer (whose name is Derek), and gluttonous behemoth fight him. After Thok defeats them, he takes the sword back out of the Cursebearers head, and the cursebearer promises to turn over a new leaf. Thok states that he will let the cursebearer live, as long as he doesn't see him again, but if he does, Thok will show him no mercy. Moments later, after Thok comes back from a dead end, true to his word, he pummels the cursebearer into oblivion.
Trivia
- The unholy cursebearer appears to be wielding an empowered catalytic staff.
- His spell resembles the spell Iban Blast.
- Although he is named unholy cursebearer, he is called a skeletal archmage by the message given when a player restores their stats while fighting him.
- The Unholy cursebearer is one of the few Dungeoneering bosses that is not immune to poison, along with the Warped Gulega, Sagittare, Skeletal Horde and Blink.
- He appears to have an irregular attack speed, similar to Cave horrors. Most of the time he attacks at a speed of 6, and sometimes at a speed of 5.
- The unholy cursebearer shares the same walking and death animations as Rammernaut, as well as the same walking sounds (this might be because the curse bearer appears to be an undead version of a brute mage).
- There is apparently a glitch where, if you teleport out at the exact time you use the undead font, when you re-enter you will not be re-afflicted by it.