Badgradr's Barricade: limitless spell striking?

[Boeroer]

Hi,

 

I just noticed the following thing:

The medium unique shield "Badgradr's Barricade" has the enchantment "Spell Striking: Thrust of Tattered Veils" and bash. So the first thing is it will unleash this spell if you do a crit with the bash attack, I assume. But the second thing that is different to all other spell strinking itms I encountered is this: it has no description like "1 per encounter" like all the other spell strinking items have. Since 2.03 you also will see these spell strikings as inactive symbols next to your special actions (special attacks, spells, spell bindings, spell holdings etc.) together with a number how many charges are left. Badgradr's Barricade doesn't add such a symbol. So I assume it has unlimited charges per encounter? This would be quite powerful and whole new builds could emerge around that shield. Otherwise the shield is quite underwhelming.

 

So - can somebody verify my assumtions?

 

If not, I will have to go and generate a char that can try this out - but I'm really too lazy for that right now.  

[Boeroer]

Ok, so I couldn't wait and tested it with my paladin: it seems to have limitless spell strikings!

 

I managed to crit an Ice Troll three times in one encounter with the bash (which has +8 ACC and I don't know why) and every time it triggered Thrust of Tattered Veils (with +10 ACC). The best part is that not only the bash, but also the spell itself received +25% burning lash damage from my chanter's phrase. It seems to be considered an attack from a weapon instead a spell. Now I'm wondering if other modifiers will also apply to this spell (like vuln,. attack, sneak attack, deep wounds, lighning strikes, turning wheel, deathblows, savage attack, FoD and so on)? That would be absolutely awesome...

[Teioh_White]

That is pretty spiffy, I'll have to give that look. No clue why it'd have +8 acc, but I've never really gone in depth into Bash mechanics, as it seemed like such an obvious DPS hit. Maybe it gets to ignore it's own shield penalty or something? Or...maybe it's +deflection bonus also equals the Bash +acc bonus?

 

I don't know if those other things will boost the spell strike, as this game is weird and inconsistent on it's rules. The Chanter Flame Lash buffing the strike, however, is perfectly normal, as it buffs all damage already, even spells. So, if a wizard with the lash chant on throws a fireball, he gets an extra 25% on top from the flame lash. The lash alone is the main reason I consider Chanters to be pretty balanced with the rest, and what earns them spot in almost all of my teams.

[Boeroer]

I think the that's exactly the case: bash is not influenced by the ACC malus that the main weapon will get.

 

So... I figured out that pure melee skills like Vulnarable Attack and Savage attack don't work with this - but surprisingly Penetrating Shot does. So I think that at least this spell strinking form of Thrust of Tattered Veils is considered a ranged missile attack - maybe that's also the case for the wizard spell itself (needs further testing).

So I guess that all talents and abilities that apply to ranged missile attacks will also apply to this spell striking - which is a bit stupid since it's a shield and shields don't work well together with ranged weapons - but there are some talents/abilities that work with melee and ranged weapons (most of the rogue for example). I'm curious if a ranger's stunning shots or driving flight would work with this... or if it generates cipher's focus. Next test will be a tanky rogue with high crit chance and several modifiers like deathblows and deep wounds and so on. 

Edited November 13, 2015 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Quick update: doesn't generate focus. (

[Ksajal]

It used to be more powerful pre-2.03, it had pillar of faith as spell striking. Tried it on my rogue a while back, it's not that great for damage dealing rogues because the shield is too slow. It could work if you want to build a very defensive rogue that also has good offense,  I would pick riposte too, see how that goes.

[Vorad]

Nice catch! I didn't have much time to playtest but I tried it on both monk and barbarian and I wasn't really impressed with the outcome. Perhaps with a rogue there might be some chance to make it viable.  

 

PS: With the monk is semi-decent since torments reach can actually proc the bash and IF it crits then you proc the Veil, I opted for pale elf max Dex but perhaps it might better with orlan and on top of that priest buff. In the end however I can see that perhaps rogue might profit most from this build due to his hit to crit abilities etc.

 

On a sidenote:

Bash + Shattered Veil: If both lightning strikes(shock) and iron turning wheel(fire) are up then they seem to replace the fire lash effect from the chanter. If no lightning strikes is active then the chanter's fire lash ticks as usual.

 

Lightning strikes + Iron turning wheel + chanter lash: they all stack for your main weapon attack. (They don't stack with bash though not sure if it's a bug)

Edited November 13, 2015 by Vorad

[Boeroer]

You mean Turning Wheel? That's the same bug as pre 2.02, when lighning strikes would override Turning Wheel all the time. Maybe this bash thing slipped through when they fixed that issue.

 

Thanks for testing. Maybe this shield is more fun when you don't use it on PotD - not enough crits there if you aren't a rogue (+hearth orlan).

Or you have to stack a lot of ACC with Zealous Focus, Inspiring Radiance and Gauntlets of Accuracy and so on.

Maybe I'll try a build after my current playthrough.

 

@Kasajal: I tried a six rogues party once and with it a tanky rogue build with riposte. I have to say it's a wasted talent - at least on PotD. Your deflection is never high enough to let most enemies miss a lot  - and this whole riposte stuff happens only when they miss. Instead they graze a lot and that gives you nothing. Ripostes are rare and do nothing special. To make it worthwhile it should happen more often (like 50%, not 20%) or it also should work with grazes. Whatever - it's not worth the skill point.  

[Vorad]

You mean Turning Wheel? That's the same bug as pre 2.02, when lighning strikes would override Turning Wheel all the time. Maybe this bash thing slipped through when they fixed that issue.

 

Thanks for testing. Maybe this shield is more fun when you don't use it on PotD - not enough crits there if you aren't a rogue (+hearth orlan).

Or you have to stack a lot of ACC with Zealous Focus, Inspiring Radiance and Gauntlets of Accuracy and so on.

Maybe I'll try a build after my current playthrough.

 

@Kasajal: I tried a six rogues party once and with it a tanky rogue build with riposte. I have to say it's a wasted talent - at least on PotD. Your deflection is never high enough to let most enemies miss a lot  - and this whole riposte stuff happens only when they miss. Instead they graze a lot and that gives you nothing. Ripostes are rare and do nothing special. To make it worthwhile it should happen more often (like 50%, not 20%) or it also should work with grazes. Whatever - it's not worth the skill point.  

Yes my bad I don't know what I was thinking "iron" wheel haha hilarious I just noticed. Yes I was referring to Turning wheel I don't know whether it's working as intended or buged though. It's not just lightning strikes overriding chanter's lash when it comes to bash but also Turning wheel not triggering with bash if chanter's lash is on and only triggering when lightning strikes is on but overriding the chater's lash and I haven't tried with lash weapon on top of that. This is a bit off topic but since I happen to notice it durring the playtest I thought it's best to mention it nonetheless.

 

On the shield itself it's an interesting functionality but I am also not sure if it would profit from two weapon fighting in order to increase the frequency of bash procs. However watching as the build doesn't really profit from aoe it seems perhaps this shield can be utilized with a light armored rogue for some extra bursty single target damage mixed with single target interrupts. I was thinking of a rogue build armed with We Toki + Badgradrs, stun on crit with extra damage + crush damage missile + interrupt... perhaps someone else can think of a more creative approach I hope.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Vorad

[AndreaColombo]

IIRC last I checked Two Weapon Fighting wasn't really working with Bash. That was before 2.0 though, so it might warrant testing again.

[Boeroer]

Another thing with this shield: it has a 10% chance of reflecting ranged attacks - and the description says it also works against spells. With durgan steel you can add another 10% of reflection. That's quite good. If it works against spells like necrotic lance and so on it would be very funny to see these stupid skeletal wizards nuke themselves from time to time.