Yearn | Dark Souls 2 Wiki

Yearn is a Sorcery in Dark Souls 2. To cast a Sorcery, you must use a Staff or Special Weapons that can cast Sorcery.

Yearn
Spell Type	Sorcery
Slots Used	1 Slot
Requirements	19 Intelligence
Type	Short to Long Range Support.

"Creates a warm soul-like orb that serves as a decoy and lures foes toward itself.

People regret loss, and yearn for what they do not have. Perhaps the name of this sorcery harkens to this irony."

Acquired From

• Purchased from Carhillion of the Fold for 3000 souls

Notes

• This spell works similar to Aural Decoy from the first Dark Souls game and it is recommended to take care when aiming this sorcery as whatever the spells hits it creates the decoy on, including walls, floors etc.
• Extremely useful against The Skeleton Lords and Skeleton, as well as Tower of Prayer Bonfire Ascetic farming route in Dragon's Sanctum.
  It lures unintelligent enemies (hollow, skeletons, etc) to attack the decoy with either melee or ranged attack (confirmed with Hollow Rogue archer).
• An offensive usage of the spell is to lure enemies especially skeletons to bottomless pits and knock them down with Force miracle.
  White & Gold Phantoms can also use this spells to allure enemies, oddly, griefers can use this as a measure to aggro Agdayne by luring the Torch Hollow to his place.
• Whether it can be used for repositioning enemies while you're invader needs confirmation. (if yes, it could be used for gathering up sheer number of enemies to swarm upon the host)
• Yearn works on the following enemies (tested): almost all Hollows, including infantry and soldier varieties, as well as the Rogues in the Huntsman's Copse; the Ducal Spiders and Parasitized Undead in Brighstone Cove Tseldora; Lion Clan Warriors [very useful for battle mages, so you can set up an easy backstab OHK with a large physical weapon against lion warriors]; Royal Swordsmen; Undead Citizens; Manikins; Varangian Soldiers; the bloated, poisonous abominations in the Shaded Woods, and Skeletons. (note: this list is not exhaustive, and further testing is needed to see what other enemies Yearn attracts).
  Given the vicious nature of some of these enemies, and their tendencies to attack in large numbers, Yearn can be incredibly useful for crowd control, and is particularly useful for setting enemies up for an easy backstab (the ones that can be backstabbed, anyway).
• Yearn works on the following foes
  Undead Traveler, Hollow Infantry, Royal Hollow Infantry, Hollow Soldier, Royal Soldier, Undead Citizen, Rogue, Undead Laborer, Undead Prisoner, Captive Undead, Undead Peasant, Undead Supplicant, Duke Tseledora, All Skeletons (except Skeleton Lords themselves), All Pigs, Kobolds, Forest Grotesque, Varangian Soldier, Dark Stalker, Undead Jailer, Royal Swordsman, Enhanced Undead, Torturer, Artificial Undead, Undead Steelworker, Manikin, Hunting Dog, Lion Clan Warrior, Gyrm, Grym Warrior, Parasite Spider, Parasite Undead, Giant, Sanctum Soldier, Sanctum Priestess, Ashen Warrior, Possessed Armor, Fume Sorcerer, Scorcher, Spellsword, Retainer, Rampart Golem, Ice Golem.
• Does not work on Frozen Reindeers, Rampart Stray Dog and Rampart Hedgehog.
• This spell does not seem to effect anything till it leaves into it's aggro state thus you must either premtivly cast it then aggro or aggro and aim at the spot you need to grab their attentions. Also the foes will not charge over any obsticle that they cannot reach themselves thus you cannot lead them off a cliff but they do take priority to attack yearn over anything else.
• Lasts for exactly 10 seconds from the moment it lands or detonates in mid-air. Its duration cannot be modified by Lingering Dragoncrest Ring, Northwarder pieces or other similar equipment.
• The aggro range is not infinite, but definitely large enough to draw the attention of all valid enemies in almost any room in the game.