Blightheart is underrated

[Koo]

Hi!

Blightheart is recognized as a stat stick for chanters and wizards, but I think it is also an excellent Ranger/Rouge weapon !

• Heartbeat: Heals 20% of the damage done by the weapon per 3.0 sec for a short duration (6.0 sec)
  -> better than none at all. (Covering the fragility of the Assassins)
• Living Wood: 20% chance to cast Corrode Damage cone AoE from self and Hobble target on attack
  -> It is triggered by probability, so it is not stable, but it is not bad because the triggering rate is doubled (40%) by Driving Flight. (May occur at the same time.)
      10-17 base damage scales with PL and weapon quality. Two-Handed Style and other weapon effects are applied, Also applies to sneak attack and Deathblow.
      In a simple test, a lvl 13, Mig 11 char with sneak attack, nothing else equipped and no other damage compensation abilities, did over 30 damage to 5 enemies each.
      Sharpshooter's Bonus applies to Living Wood's AoE.
      Since Living Wood is incorrectly described and is penetrating damage, Deep Wounds will work !
      And then there is affliction. 
• Blighted Shot: Grants Blighted Shot (Target: Full Attack, Hobbled, Weakened for 15.0 sec | Accuracy vs. Fortitude) (1 per encounter)
  -> Not as good as Chanter or Wizzard, but not bad as multiple prolonged debuffs to multiple enemies that do not consume class resources.
      (*Personal guess: Ranger doubles chance of Living Wood with Driving Flight, so the soulbind effect may be suppressed.)
• Corrupting Beauty: Nearby enemies (1.5m radius) will become Distracted after killing an enemy with the weapon for 15.0 sec
  -> Likewise, not bad. Correction, it is given as a Player buff aura and debuffs only the Player's vicinity. This is not useful.
• Superb: +45% Damage, +12 Accuracy, +3 Penetration
  -> Too bad it's not legendary, but the secondary attack by Living Wood makes up for it.

And the weapon attack ability that Ranger/Rogue have can "incidentally" activate Living Wood !

Dragon's Dowry and The Red Hand is superior in terms of damage to single enemies, but Blightheart is no less useful due to its AoE damage and debuffs (and heals).
The difference in single damage between Dragon's Dowry and Blightheart is covered by Living Wood's damage per unit.
(Dragon's Dowry's burn lash is multiplicative, so I don't think that would be the case when stacked with other multiplicative effects. It's a matter of taste and strategy)

I am surprised it is not talked about much.

Edited 7 hours ago by Koo

[Kaylon]

Heartbeat and Blighted Shot are indeed nice for scouts (good HoT and one big shot every fight).

Living Wood has 20% to trigger on attack (not hit) and thus Driving Flight changes nothing. It has also a base range of 5m ie around 7m with 20INT - which means you will draw aggro rather easily if you want to hit something with the AoE.

Corrupting Beauty is basically useless because it requires to be nearly in melee range to affect something. 

For Maia, the Red Hand is the best option overall, while for a ranger watcher Frostseeker is also hard to beat. You're basically left with the chanters ands wizards as possible users - overall I think Blightheart is the most suitable for a chanter/rogue build.

[Koo]

2 hours ago, Kaylon said:

Living Wood has 20% to trigger on attack (not hit) and thus Driving Flight changes nothing.

No, even though the description says so.

I have tested it in-game and it definitely doubles the odds. (It even happens twice at the same time)
I fired 20 times in the test and the visual effect occurred 6 times, 2 of which also caused damage twice.

(8 occurrences in 40 attempts)

Edited yesterday at 09:37 AM by Koo

[Koo]

5 hours ago, Kaylon said:

Corrupting Beauty is basically useless because it requires to be nearly in melee range to affect something. 

Corrupting Beauty is around the target.

(Same as The Best Defense's "Sickening to Watch", etc.)

[thelee]

4 hours ago, Koo said:

Corrupting Beauty is around the target.

(Same as The Best Defense's "Sickening to Watch", etc.)

that's a nice find - i feel like even though i haven't used blightheart much, i had absorbed from somewhere that it affected around yourself as well. maybe that was an old interaction that was silently patched out? but that definitely makes it better.

[thelee]

i wonder if Driving Flight is implemented not as a jump, but as an additional attack that you instantly make at another target. Would it also double-up on other "on attack" effects that have been ignored because of that distinction?

[Kaylon]

5 hours ago, Koo said:

Corrupting Beauty is around the target.

(Same as The Best Defense's "Sickening to Watch", etc.)

Corrupting Beauty gives a timed buff aura which applies Distracted in a small area around the player. 

PS. The Best Defense is great when used with 1h ranged weapons - great procs and also the recovery reduction.

Edited 17 hours ago by Kaylon

[Koo]

6 hours ago, Kaylon said:

Corrupting Beauty gives a timed buff aura which applies Distracted in a small area around the player. 

I'm sorry. I must have looked at it wrong.

I tested it again and it is a buff aura as you said and it worked around the PLAYER.

 

However, it is true that Living Wood doubles in Driving Flight.
For this reason I strongly feel that Blightheart is very good in Scout.

(The base 5m cone reaches farther and wider than imagined. And the damage to scale due to PL and quality is significant.)

 

Thanks for the response.

Edited 11 hours ago by Koo

[Koo]

5 hours ago, thelee said:

i wonder if Driving Flight is implemented not as a jump, but as an additional attack that you instantly make at another target. Would it also double-up on other "on attack" effects that have been ignored because of that distinction?

At least 20% of Living Wood triggers seem to take place at the start of the roll.

It would be interesting to see if there are other similar features.

[Chaospread]

It would have been a great weapon if Living Wood had been from the hit point and if it had been upgradable beyond superb. But Healing ability can be useful also late game in some situations.

[Boeroer]

I'd say it's a great weapon in general because it doesn't require any resources to get to superb. For any character who doesn't rely on shooting 100% of times (Rangers, Scouts ;)) it's very nice to have a weapon that doesn't drain your enchantment resources.

But because other arquebuses work even better for Scouts' and Rangers' single target damage output (the aforementioned Red Hand and Dragon's Dowry) - and that's why you bring Rangers or Scouts in the first place (most of times) I also tend to give Blightheart to Wizards and Chanters.

The +1 phrase on kill (which works with any kill, no matter if ally or enemy, no matter if shot or spell or whatever) of Blightheart for chanters is an especially intriguing feature to me. I recently played a "plague" themed Skald/Ancient and let my summons (first Ancient Brittle Bones, then Many Lives) run into my own Wicked Briars - and that gave me a big influx of phrases all the time I would use to spam the skald-made-it-cheap White Worms (it can target skeleton corpses because Ancient Brittle Bones and Many Lives will leave skeleton corpses).

Such tricks are only doable with Blightheart and that's why I really like it. But I'd still not use it for a Ranger-  unless Red Hand and Dragon's Dowry (and also Spearcaster, Forstseeker and several more "better" ranged weapons for Scouts and Rangers) are not available for whatever reason. 

Exception of course if it's a Rogue or Ranger multiclass with Wizard or Chanter. Streetfighter/Troubadour with Aefyllath + Sure-Handed Ila with the help of upgraded Wisps to become flanked + Blightheart for more phrases and instant healing from the Wisps attacks for example is pretty great.

Edited 2 hours ago by Boeroer