Cloak of Corruption
The Cloak of Corruption is a pure black elven hooded robe dropped by Shadowlords during the Blackrock Detector event. To acquire one you must be one of the top 3 damagers on a Shadowlord. One of the best ways to achieve this is to cast the Armageddon spell, dealing damage equal to half of the Shadowlord's current life total.
When worn, the item has different effects depending on whether or not your character is in the Ethereal Void (and the area beyond the Moonglow Rift is considered part of the Void).
Outside the Void, your character's hit points, mana and stamina will be drained away. The reduction rate is approximately -14. The draining effect can be countered if enough regeneration items are equipped; though regardless it won't take your reserves below one. Tests have indicated that even the combination of the Bracelet of Health (Hit Point Regeneration +10) and the Ring of the Vile (Stamina Regeneration +6) are not enough to counter the stat drain of the item.
Within the Void, however, your stats are "rapidly restored" as opposed to being rapidly drained as above.
Furthermore, wearing the cloak quickly drains Karma at a rate of approximately -500 every 30 seconds. In roughly an hour this will take even a Glorious character down to Dread level.
The Cloak, presumably either inside or outside of the Void, can also cause otherwise passive animals and monsters to be particularly aggressive against the wearer.
Originally, outside the Void the cloak had an extra feature: Every two seconds your stamina and mana would be set to an amount either equal to their maximum or your current life level, whichever was lower. This meant that even the most draining spells could be cast over and over at effectively no cost, or great weight carried at high speed; albeit regenerative armor or frequent healing would still have to be used to keep the character at full power.
This feature was removed a few days after the item's introduction, and we were left with the current system.
Due to the Cursed property the cloak can not be Insured or Blessed, thus actively using it is not without risk. However, Necromancers may find some extra value for it as a quick way to lose karma.
Draconi's Comment on the Cloak's Powers
On 21 April 2008, Draconi himself stated that the Cloak has the following powers. Where?
Exact quote follows:
Attempts to aggro a large area around the player
- Doesn’t work in towns/guard zones
- Cannot aggro players, pets, summons, or benign creatures
- Cannot aggro anything that is currently in battle
- Increases speed of aggro’d mob for several minutes
- Boosts Fame obtained from aggro’d mobs
- Can draw attacks up to 30 tiles away
Rapidly decays Karma
- -500 karma every 30 seconds equipped
Rapidly decays HP, Mana, Stamina in the normal world Rapidly restores HP, Mana, Stamina in the Ethereal Void
To sum: A dread's best friend, or a hero's shield in the unknown.
Quote ends.