Please Explain Nostura's Rampant Curse

froger

How do I get her to stun me after I'm cursed? It seems she only stuns after I die. Like, ever hamster procreating time. Does she stun at random or is there a way to trigger it?

rjc9000

The mechanic is that Nostura will randomly place a stacking damage over time effect on the target. Nostura will randomly face towards whoever she curses and a ox/devil like symbol will appear on the target's head. If teammates stand near this curse target, they too will contract the curse, so make sure to practice some social distancing.

The curse can only be cleared by intentionally looking at nostura when she does the petrifying eye attack. As for how to get her to use the petrifying eye attack, it's a matter of luck. Pray that your healer can keep up with healing the cursed target, or they'll die.

As for the reason behind the post ... I'm guessing your team is stuck on Nostura for Spellplague Hardcore for the Zariel weekly challenge?

It's doable, but requires a bit of luck, some patience, and some planning.

Strategy:

Play the fight as normal, making sure to do the two tentacle phases as usual.
If anyone gets cursed, spread out and hold off on attacking. You don't want her to phase when one of your party members has the curse, or you'll lose. The moment you clear the curse off the party, phase her and play as normal.

The team I did it with only contracted the curse twice, once before her second tentacle phase, and once after her second tentacle phase. The first was a natural random mechanic of the fight. The second was to intentionally wait out the curse before the last DPS check, since most teams fail when they have someone cursed and are on the last DPS check (the boss doesn't use the eye attack during this phase).

We spread out and let her curse us. We waited for her to use her stone attack, then phased the boss to the DPS check without anyone having the curse on them. Do the DPS check as normal, then you should be home free to get your hardcore win.

We went in 1x tank/1x healer/3 DPS. Paladin tank, 2x Trapper Rangers, 1x GF DPS, and 1x DC healer.
No chickens/Xunas used so we could control how we phased the boss.

tgwolf

The Nostura fight is mainly to punish people for being mindless murder hobos.

froger

Yeah, failed the weekly challenge because of the curse multiple times. We weren't in any of the phases where it would be impossible not to clear the curse. I am the healer and, as arrogant as this sounds, I am a good. When cursed it quickly gets to the point where I can't cast fast enough to keep up with the HP loss. Daily + encounters + at-wills + health stone are all for naught. I can fully heal my HP bar (probably 350k, need to check with scaling) and it depletes just as fast.

Logically, being kitted for content such as Infernal Citadel when doing this, I should be able to survive. But I've played long enough to know Neverwinter logic makes little sense.

I was hoping for there to be something I missed or forgot about it. It just sucks to do everything right only to have runs fail because of bad luck.

xenocide

The only trick I know for the curse is to not bunch up while attacking like you would on most bosses.
Spread out a little and pay attention so you don't spread the curse to others.
If you get cursed step away from the party, the heals will be stronger on you if you are out of range for them to be shared with other members of your party.
Your healer should be paying attention but posting CCC a few times will get their attention if they have missed it, let the healer heal you and hope you get cursed in time.
Watch your health bar, use a potion if you need too.

froger

Bumping this because it's back on the Hardcore list this week. Last night was like playing a broken record, except I was on DPS with my cleric. The cleric healer, and the group for that matter, were very good. While working Nostura I got cursed, stopped attacking and waited maybe 10 before she cleared the curse. No big deal, we continued wearing her down. After the second tentacle phase the healer got cursed, we tried the same approach to no avail. She cleared the curse immediately after the healer died. At this point I'm wondering if it's a bug.

worldoffred

This curse always bugged me but I think I've mastered it after several years of frustration/failure. I don't ever bother with hardcore dungeons since they are so frustrating.

If you get the curse icon over your head, you want to stay away from your teammates since the curse spreads to nearby people. The only way to get rid of the curse is to be temporarily paralyzed by nostura's big red eye. In order to be paralyzed by the big red eye, you have to move in front of the boss and look into the big red eye. At 25% or so health, Nostura screams that you've doomed yourselves. Your group has to attack the three tears on the outer edges of the platform. When the tears have been eliminated, your group need to jump through the newly opened portals in the rear of the dungeon. When you jump through the portals, you are impervious to damage. If you fail to jump through the portal, it's an insta-kill. After that, it's a simple boss melt.

aerhythia

Wait for the curse, wait for her petrifying eye and if cursed look into it to uncurse, then phase her.

fredwkols said:

If you get the curse icon over your head, you want to stay away from your teammates since the curse spreads to nearby people.

This too, considering latency I'd always spread out a bit during those phases, also helps somewhat with some of the healers encounters such as Bastion which are only really good when casted on less then 2 targets. Do not run, shadowslip, lag or teleport across the entire map while cursed...

darthpotater

The seconds between the damage ticks from the curse should be incremented, or the damage increase in each tick should be lower.

Spellplague is a very long dungeon (if not the longest), so failing in hardcore because of bad luck when your team is good and know the mechanics, is very frustrating

froger

> @darthpotater said:
> The seconds between the damage ticks from the curse should be incremented, or the damage increase in each tick should be lower.
>
^^^ this.
Knowing the mechanic is useless if it doesn't trigger to clear the curse before you die.

There should be a set time to stun after cursing a player, or a way to trigger the stun.

xenocide

It's a good idea to stand away from the party and wait for the stun.
Creating a distance from the group makes it easier for the healer to keep you alive and can increase the magnitude of your heals received depending on the spell.

Unless you are really upset with your party then go ahead and walk over everyone and watch them die