Predator's Sense & Stalker's Torc

[mentaltyranny]

Does anyone know if Predator's Sense is triggered by Stalker's Torc?  I know that the latter was bugged and was supposedly fixed by a patch, but I am not sure how both of those items and Stalker's Link interplay.  

If this was a tabletop game, I would assume if you Stalker's Link you get "+10 accuracy when attacking the same target as animal companion".  Stalker's Torc should says it modifies Stalker's Link to do "+20% Damage per 3.0 sec", which I assume also triggers when attacking the same target as animal companion.  The question is whether "+20% Damage per 3.0 sec" counts as damage over time, which if so would give the Animal companions of Rangers with Predator's Sense "+50% damage against targets affected by damage over time".  

Can anyone confirm whether this is the case?

[Boeroer]

Predator's Sense adds a +50% additive dmg bonus to the attacks of your animal companion (as long as the enemy sufferns from any DoT effect).

Stalker's Link gives the Ranger +10 ACC for his attack rolls if he attacks the same enemy as his animal companion does.

Stalker's Torc adds a +20% additive dmg bonus to your Ranger's damage (not animal companion). Same as Savage Attack or so would do. It is no DoT effect but just a plain old damage bonus to your Ranger's weapon attacks. so if your Ranger's bow would do 10 base dmg it now would do 10 + 2.

You can see the effect if you open the char sheet during combat, go to active effects list and search for Stalker's Link. It will say +10 ACC and +20% dmg. If you are not wearing the Torc it's only +10 ACC. 

So - tl;dr: Stalker's Torc doesn't do anything for Predator's Sense.

What you can give your Ranger in order to almost always unlock Predator's Sense is to use a wouding weapon such as Persistence. THis will put a DoT effect on the enemy every time you graze, hit or crit. SInce the duration usually is longer than your recovery you can keep up the DoT all the time (it also stacks). Other option could be a Chanter with a DoT phrase like Soft Winds or Drgon Thrashed or a Druid with Plague of Insects etc.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Boeroer

[mentaltyranny]

Weird... With Stalker's Torc equipped, if you compare the item card for Stalker's Link it reads like damage over time.  However, it does use "per" instead of "over" like known DoTs like Touch of Rot.  I just don't know how else to read "per 3.0 sec".  Could someone please clarify what this language means in the Stalker's Link item card below.  I included the item card for Touch of Rot for comparison.
 

[Boeroer]

Wow - that's weird. Also doesn't make any sense unless they turned it into some kind of mini Wounding Shot mechanic (which would be pretty awesome and way better than a flat 20% additive bonus). Maybe this was a more recent change because there still were some issues with Stalker's Torc's bonus not getting removed after taking it off and turning it into a DoT fixed that issue - no idea.

It used to work as I described and I didn't play PoE for quite some time now. I will just check in game and report back...

 

@mentaltyranny Edit: Ah, so I guess I know what happens now. It seems the game applies the 20% additive dmg bonus to your character every 3 seconds.
I tested the dmg output with the help of the console and it really seems to be a standard 20% additive dmg bonus as I said. It won't show on your char sheet under weapon dmg though because the dmg bonus is circumstancial (only applies if the AC attacks your target as well).
Another hint was that the description doesn't say something like 20% over 3 seconds like it does with other DoT effects - but instead it says 20% per 3 sec like it does with "pulsing" effects like Beams, Chillfog or Wall of Flame. Sp the "buff" gets reapplied every 3 secs and overwrites itself (doesn't stack). In the end it works just like before and as I said above: a simple 20% additive bonus to your weapon's base damage (no DoT effect).
Only weird thing is that the bous gets reapplied every 3 secs.

But I guess I know why: in the past there was a bug with Stalker's Troc: if you put it on it gave you the passive 20% dmg bonus - but if you took it off in certain situations the game wasn't able to remove the buff from Stalker's Link  and you had it permanently then. The dev team had big troubles in fixing this in a straightforward manner (I guess because the buff wasn't pinned on your char directly but onto Stalker's Link). So I guess what they came up with is that the Torc now refreshes the buff every 3 seconds - and once you take it off it can't refresh that buff anymore and thus it runs out and goes away.

Funny workaround - but seems to work. A bit confusing though. 

So tl;dr: it's a 20% additive dmg bonus only with a funky application.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Boeroer