envenomed strike

[Ichthyic]

OK, was toying with my blunderbus, yeah, I get it doesn't do well against high DR... but I had a thought....

what if evenomed strike works PER projectile, instead of just per attack?

nothing in the description says it doesn't.

so, decided to try it out on my next level up.

whoah.

yes indeedy, all that raw poison damage is PER PROJECTILE.

my very first attempt (sorry Aloth; he's my favorite guinea pig) resulted in:

5/6 poison hits, 1 graze, 2 crits, 2 normal

target is now taking....

12.2 raw damage per second... for 15 seconds.

that's a ton of raw damage.


O.o

next question:

does raw damage from different SOURCES stack?

so... where one blunderbus with poison bullets does that... how about 2?  3?  6? 

if they all hit at the same time... could you really be doing 70-80 raw damage per second?

so, give everyone envenomed strike, give eveyone a shotgun, er I mean blunderbus... have them all fire at a target at once... even if the target has FULL dr against the bullets themselves, you can still just stand back and watch your target melt nearly instantly from raw poison damage.

I'll test that tomorrow, if nobody else does before then.


in any case... my prediction for the next patch is they will make posion damage, at least from the same source, unstackable in the next patch.

or have they already?  don't plan to use 1.03 myself.  will wait for 1.04.

another test... against heavy armor.

my paly has 21dr against piercing damage.

blunderbus hits, 2 crits out of 4 hits for... 2 damage.

...envenom hits....

4 grazes.

raw damage total:

55.

so there you have it.  grand total of 57 damage, 2 from the actual weapon, and the rest just from poison.

oh, also, that's against fortitude of 70 (likely why they are all grazes).

...second attempt:

5/6 hits, 1 graze, 1 crit.

total physical damage:  3

total poison damge:  150!

...that's from a SINGLE attack from a blunderbus mind, against a paly with really good fortitude defense!



 

Edited April 4, 2015 by Ichthyic

[Mysh]

Interesting, let us know the result please.

[skaffen]

This is too cool - especially for a cypher where you get the additional raw soul damage! Will take it with my next level up and check.

[Ichthyic]

OK. finally got around to testing multiple source stacking today.

answer:

yes, but they actually can't be at *exactly* the same time, oddly.

so, if you have two guys with envenomed strike, delay your second guy attacking by a second.  might have been just a fluke, but the 3 times i tested firing at exactly the same time, it did not stack the second shot's poison damage (even said so in the stat panel:  "failed to trigger secondary effect".

but... if I waited for the first tick of the first stack of poison to go off, before having the second character fire on the same target.... they do indeed stack.

2 characters, both hit 5/6 with envenomed strike on my paladin.

result?

88.3 damage... PER SECOND. is what is listed on the character card under status effects.  Highest I got in double stacking was 120/s.

that's for 12 seconds so...

yeah.  that's right.  that's over 1000 total damage, theoretically.

even the superspeed regeneration that happens outside of combat was having trouble keeping up, though she never actually came close to dying.

I think it dumps a lot of the raw damage potential once you are outside of actual combat, because I never saw it actually *do* the full 1000 damage.

you only get about 3 ticks of it before it turns off sustained damage.

IN combat though, it's absolutely brutal.  so far, nothing has surived when I've gotten a good hit.  I suppose I might actually try doubling up if I run into something that has more than 150 health on it, but that's pretty rare.  at level 6, one envenomed blunderbuss shot was taking down elder lions.

but yeah, any physical attack that uses multiple hits/projectiles should work with stacking envenomed strike.





 

Edited April 6, 2015 by Ichthyic

[Dead Optimist]

I presume it is the same effect with the Rogues Deep Wounds? (raw DoT on pierce damage)

[Ichthyic]

yup.

I also assume you can stack both effects, but have not tested to be sure.

so, you are using a piratey rogue with a blunderbuss.... since deep wounds is passive, and evenomed strike is an active skill.... you should get them stacking on the same shot.

I do not know if deep wounds also applies its effects to each projectile, but I'll bet it does.

that wold be some serious, serious raw damage if so.

edit:

sadly, there is no easy way for me to test this, as deep wound effects only apply in "real" combat, like other passive effects.  tomorrow.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Ichthyic

[Benedictous]

OMG do it to that harpy known as the Adra Dragon

[Infares]

IIRC Deep Wounds does do a bit of damage on application so you'd actually bump the per-projectile damage by 4 for each projectile, that's significant by itself, let alone the stacked DOT damage. 

Edit: Not sure how Sneak Attack stacks with Backstab, but if you do it from stealth within 2 meters, you'd potentially multiply the damage done by the projectiles and possibly even the dots by 2.25.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Infares

[Ichthyic]

sounds like more stuff to try.

it's getting tougher though, as a lot of the passive stuff only applies in real combat, and things typically die so fast anyway, you can't really tell if all that poison stacking is doing them in except on really beefy targets, and there are so few of those.

might have to actually look up how to spawn creatures in, and test that way.

FWIW, i thought backstab replaced sneak attack if you have the skill and are attacking from the appropriate distance?

I never picked backstab, as I had built a ranged rogue for quick targeting casters with blind and cripple.

but... a blunderbus backstabbing deep wounds rogue with envenomed strike...  I suppose I could make one at the tavern and give it a shot... pun intended.