TLDR: Considering skill point investment, CD (which means debuff uptime is very low), damage, and targetting are all not worth it for PVP when you could put those points into Soar and/or Tooth instead. PVE-wise, the ~15-20% damage increase is definitely worth it for party-play/supporting and minmaxing your burst/glassmole build. For PVE soloing, you’ll lose DPS trying to include it in your rotation.
Skill info: https://tos.neet.tv/skills/11403
##Observations
~15-20% damage increase. Definitely needs more test to determine the exact value.
Fake multihit effect makes your attacks tick twice (7 hits on Serpentine appears as 14 hits). It doubles the total number of damage ticks but the overall damage dealt only gets the said increase above (so not doubled). Doesn’t seem to trigger Blessing and Concentrate’s bonus damages visually but they’re probably added already in the numbers.
Consider 2 seconds (if you’re Cata3 on Trot; ~2-3s if you’re sprinting on foot) of the debuff useless. There’s no targetting reticle and it’s a fixed distance between you and where the spear lands which means it’s tricky to execute especially against a highly mobile target. You also need to pick up the spear or your damage will be halved until you do so (or it returns automatically after 30s[?]). All this means that 2-3 seconds of the debuff is spent you going to where spear landed to pick it up.
As you can see in my video below, I lose a significant amount of DPS stopping attacks just to land the skill.
##Skill Level Considerations
lv.1 = 5.5 seconds which means ~3 seconds to execute other skills right after debuff. Usually enough for Serpentine + Dragon Soar, Serpentine + lv.5 Dragoon Tooth (if you’re fast enough) OR Serpentine + 1 Dethrone. I’m not sure if it can keep up with a lv.6+ Dragoon Tooth’s casting time. Getting the skill up to lv.5 for the attributes then using skill reset potion to return it to lv.1 also works.
lv.5 = 7.5 seconds which means ~5 seconds to execute Serp + 2 Dethrones, Serp + Soar + lv.5 Tooth (if you’re fast enough), or Serp + Soar + 1 Dethrone.
It’s important to consider that the skill has a 30s cooldown so almost half of the time you won’t be able to use it in your Goon skills rotation.
If you’re Hop3 and like to minmax wanting to throw Spear Lunge in the rotation then you’ll probably want at least lv.5 for Gae Bulg (more if you like to include more skills in the rotation). You keep Soar at lv.1 just for the Shock debuff and a filler skill in your rotation to spend more points in Tooth to maximize pierce damage output.
While it has its use in dungeons/missions, I wouldn’t recommend using it in WB especially when there are a lot of other players around since you lose DPS moving back to try and land the skill then moving in again unless you’re not the main DPS in your party (e.g. if you have a Fencer member). Great for supporting DPS swordie members nonetheless especially Dopels since they’re the ones that are more likely to reach damage caps (the fake multihit effect allows them to deal damage beyond the cap).
I don’t think it’s worth it beyond lv.5 as the debuff duration increase per level (0.5) isn’t comparable to what you get with more levels in Soar or Tooth in all-around use except maybe for solo minmax burst Hop3 builds.
##Suggestions for Improvement
Remove the fixed throw distance and give it a targetting reticle. I don’t mind the few bounces the spear makes as soon as it lands.
Increase the duration increase per level. From 0.5 to 0.75 would be nice. That’s from 7.5 to 8.75 seconds for lv.5. Enough to fit 1 more skill or two in the rotation making it viable for soloing.
##Your Call
So, what do you think? Is at least 1 point in Gae Bulg worth it or nah in its current state?
- Lv.0 skill’s not worth having in the rotation
- Lv.1 is enough (includes those who went lv.5 and skill reseted to lv.1 just for the attributes)
- Lv.5 is the sweet spot
- Lv.6+ because reasons
0 voters
##Raw Math & Test Notes
[details=Click to see details]- These are all from my own tests. If you think I missed anything or would like to add something, please feel free to let me know.
- I had Sacrament and Blessing buff on when I did the numbers which means that without them the damage increase could be slightly higher than what I’ve observed (~15-20%)
- I was in the “Attack Zone” so that’s 2% more damage already included in the total damage increase % (~15-20%).
- nc (x) = non-crit (value_if_crit)
- crit is computed as non-crit value * 1.5
In the raw computation I did below (I confirmed this by counterchecking with the boss’ hp loss), I’m using the Serpentine skill right after the Gae Bulg debuff.
###w/ debuff
//pierce (10 ticks)
1339 nc (2008)
2145 nc (3217)
6364
4751
6840
4265
5040
6210
5825
3751 nc (5626)
subtotal = 46530 (50146 if all crit)
//slash (4 ticks)
6853
5333
3107 nc (4660)
4113
subtotal = 19406 (20959 if all crit)
GRAND TOTAL = 65938 (71105 if all crit)
//—//—//—//—//
###no debuff
//pierce (5 ticks)
3030 nc (4545)
6548
10123
9866
10114
subtotal = 39681 (41196 if all crit)
//slash (2 ticks)
6291
9921
subtotal = 16212
GRAND TOTAL = 55893 (57408 if all crit)
//—//—//—//—//
computing for damage increase with debuff
[1 - (no_debuff / with_debuff)]*100
= 15.23% (19.26% if all crit)[/details]
Sounds fun! I’ll try that when I can.
