Skull Crack, Bolt of Power

[Israphil]

Hiya,Anyone got rank8 skull crack and/or bolt of power I could get screenshots of? Not real sure what I'm planning to do with it...but i'm curious. Thanks in advance.<div></div>

[DwarvesR]

<P>I have the rank 8 Bolt of Power.  The only difference between it and the rank 1 is that it's a 40% chance to proc vs a 5% chance.  Pretty useful when soloing against caster mobs with a fast weapon + fana up.  Grizzlefazzle's Mace is 0.6 delay for me with fana.  Means I generally proc an interupt about every 2 seconds, and most caster mobs have at least a 2s cast time.</P> <P>Doesn't really add much otherwise.  In a group I'm usually healing and debuffing. I might be adding some dps with a 2h depending on the mobs, but even the Spirit-Gorged Flail with fana is a 1.6 second delay, and if I'm using the Blackscale Maul. . . uh, no... no point to the Bolt of Power there.</P> <P>In raids, I'm usually casting from the back.  Bolt of Power utterly useless there.</P> <P>Waaaaaay back in the day when I only had a few aa's I had the Skull Crack to rank 8 as it made it a decent damage attack for melee.  Since getting enough aa's to max out the melee dps and crits though, it's less useful, especially since I usually use a 2-hander.  I really only went with the STR line becuz I'm a high elf, so my base str at level 70 is 16, and most of my gear didn't have STR on it, so the str aa's adding 8 points each is/was a tremendous boon.</P>

[juz]

<P>I agree with Dwarves. Skull Crack is not very good. I rather put 8 in Strength that 8 in Skull Crack. Bolt of Power is OK, you will see it proc a lot at 40%. Not sure what else you're thining of but Hammer Smite > Skull Crack and Severe Judgement > Battle Fervor > Bolt of Power.</P> <P>But that's just DPS talk...If you wanna be a good healer then you must go with heal crits and INT line for casting speed (spell crits are nice too).</P>

[Bayler_x]

I keep forgetting to post the screenshot you asked for.  Hopefully I'll remember tonight.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Personally, I love Skull Crack.  The debuff is a single-target attack skills reducer - like Forced Whatever.  It reduces crushing, peircing, slashing (and some offensive casting skills) by 32 at rank 8, level 70.  (Forced Whatever is 28 for Master II).One of its advantages is that it's quick.  On dangerous pulls, it's nice to be able to get off a debuf quickly.  Another advantage is that, since it's a melee strike, it often lands on mobs that are resistant to spells.  It's certainly not a replacement for Forced, but it's a useful addition.  You can pile extra debufs on the toughest member of an encounter if you want; or if you get an add, you can spread it around.Personally, I feel our debufs are a very import part of our job.  I can tell when they wear off just by how much the tank is getting hit.  Having more debuf options is, in my opinion, more important than a plain old damage + stun that can only be used once a minute.<div></div>

[TheSpin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Bayler_xev wrote:<BR>I keep forgetting to post the screenshot you asked for.  Hopefully I'll remember tonight.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR><BR>Personally, I love Skull Crack.  The debuff is a single-target attack skills reducer - like Forced Whatever.  It reduces crushing, peircing, slashing (and some offensive casting skills) by 32 at rank 8, level 70.  (Forced Whatever is 28 for Master II).<BR><BR>One of its advantages is that it's quick.  On dangerous pulls, it's nice to be able to get off a debuf quickly.  Another advantage is that, since it's a melee strike, it often lands on mobs that are resistant to spells.  It's certainly not a replacement for Forced, but it's a useful addition.  You can pile extra debufs on the toughest member of an encounter if you want; or if you get an add, you can spread it around.<BR><BR>Personally, I feel our debufs are a very import part of our job.  I can tell when they wear off just by how much the tank is getting hit.  Having more debuf options is, in my opinion, more important than a plain old damage + stun that can only be used once a minute.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I agree with this.  Now with EoF debuffing weapon and spell casting skills means a pretty decent decrease in their chance to hit with attacks and spells.  Rather than a 2.5 second stun every 45 seconds, I'd rather lower their chance of landing the spell once it's cast.</P> <P>I'm a battle/melee inquisitor and I only have 4 points in this, but if I had points to max a teir 2 skill from the kos tree, it would be this one. </P> <P> I have 8 ranks in the T3 str skill, the damage proc.  For soloing it's dang nice.  Since we are one of the few (only maybe, dunno) priests classes that can buff haste, putting a 40% proc on your autoattack can have a real impact on your dps.<BR></P>

[Israphil]

<div></div><div></div><div><blockquote><hr>TheSpin wrote:<div></div> <blockquote> <hr> Bayler_xev wrote:I keep forgetting to post the screenshot you asked for.  Hopefully I'll remember tonight.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Personally, I love Skull Crack.  The debuff is a single-target attack skills reducer - like Forced Whatever.  It reduces crushing, peircing, slashing (and some offensive casting skills) by 32 at rank 8, level 70.  (Forced Whatever is 28 for Master II).One of its advantages is that it's quick.  On dangerous pulls, it's nice to be able to get off a debuf quickly.  Another advantage is that, since it's a melee strike, it often lands on mobs that are resistant to spells.  It's certainly not a replacement for Forced, but it's a useful addition.  You can pile extra debufs on the toughest member of an encounter if you want; or if you get an add, you can spread it around.Personally, I feel our debufs are a very import part of our job.  I can tell when they wear off just by how much the tank is getting hit.  Having more debuf options is, in my opinion, more important than a plain old damage + stun that can only be used once a minute. <div></div> <hr> </blockquote> <p>I agree with this.  Now with EoF debuffing weapon and spell casting skills means a pretty decent decrease in their chance to hit with attacks and spells.  Rather than a 2.5 second stun every 45 seconds, I'd rather lower their chance of landing the spell once it's cast.</p> <p>I'm a battle/melee inquisitor and I only have 4 points in this, but if I had points to max a teir 2 skill from the kos tree, it would be this one. </p> <p> I have 8 ranks in the T3 str skill, the damage proc.  For soloing it's dang nice.  Since we are one of the few (only maybe, dunno) priests classes that can buff haste, putting a 40% proc on your autoattack can have a real impact on your dps.</p><hr></blockquote>Yeah, I'm considering respeccing to go str 4 8 8 5 and sta 4 4 8 8, just to see how it works. I'd lose 28% spell crit (not a big deal, I'm CAs now anyway), and 14.4% spell haste (rough, but a quarter of a second on most of my heals and spells is not so bad; I think I'll be able to deal, especially with the armor set giving me 33% casting haste when I pick up the next 2 pieces...that'll more than make up for it). In exchange for losing the spell crit and spell haste, an inq can pick up skull crack for a 32 point offensive skill debuff with a 20 sec duration and a 27 second recast, and a 40% chance to proc 107-187 damage on every hit?? Honestly, the only part I really care about is the debuff, but going 4 8 makes it impossible to get my spell haste back to where I'd want it to be, so I figured I might as well just nix the whole line and go with the extra dps thing, and the +focus/disruption.Thoughts? I really feel like being able to debuff offensive skills by 59 single-handedly is going to be more than slightly awesome. It may be slightly annoying swapping a 2hander out for a 1hander to skull crack with, but honestly it's just one more hotkey to set next to it, and I've got a nice Cudgel of Pain already adorned and ready to do the job with.</div><p>Message Edited by rckmer on <span class=date_text>12-15-2006</span> <span class=time_text>07:55 PM</span>

[Bayler_x]

Here's that screenshot of Skull Crack.  This is at level 70, rank 8.  (The casting time is slightly reduced because I also have the fast-casting achievement.)<img src="http://eq2images.station.sony.com/000/001/419/469.JPG"><div></div>

[Avirodar]

<P>Ok, I just wanted to check up on something here, based on what some people have been saying...</P> <P>Do the rules of proc rates, that apply to everything else, not apply to bolt of power?</P> <P>The 40% rate is not "per swing", there are extra "conditions".  The stated 40% is based on a "standard weapon delay". If your actual weapon delay is slower, your chance of a proc is higher. If your weapon delay is faster, your chance of a proc is lower. In short : Haste mods do not increase the chance of, or number of procs. Either way, a base proc chance of 40% before modifiers is high. Just do not look to attack speed buffs to increase your procs per minute from bolt of power for most cases.</P> <P>As I don't play a scout, I have not made a point of remembering the finer details of the equation that determines proc rates. If anyone reading knows, feel free to post the figures so that people reading this thread can see.</P>

[Israphil]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div><blockquote><hr>Trinral wrote:<div></div> <p>Ok, I just wanted to check up on something here, based on what some people have been saying...</p> <p>Do the rules of proc rates, that apply to everything else, not apply to bolt of power?</p> <p>The 40% rate is not "per swing", there are extra "conditions".  The stated 40% is based on a "standard weapon delay". If your actual weapon delay is slower, your chance of a proc is higher. If your weapon delay is faster, your chance of a proc is lower. In short : Haste mods do not increase the chance of, or number of procs. Either way, a base proc chance of 40% before modifiers is high. Just do not look to attack speed buffs to increase your procs per minute from bolt of power for most cases.</p> <p>As I don't play a scout, I have not made a point of remembering the finer details of the equation that determines proc rates. If anyone reading knows, feel free to post the figures so that people reading this thread can see.</p><hr></blockquote>I believe this got changed, and the proc chance checks as per the weapon delay <u>prior</u> to haste being applied. So even with 100% haste, a weapon with base delay of 3.0 will have a proc rate of 40% with this ability, even if it's swinging every 1.5sec. The new ppm numbers on items are merely a numerical value of the standard 9% proc rate (1.7ppm), 5% proc rate (1ppm), etc, and they are affected by haste as well now. That's my impression, but I'm not positive about that. I'm wondering more whether anyone else thinks that with the mob offensive skill revamp, going with skull crack is a viable raid aa setup. Bolt of Power is just gravy, albeit great gravy considering our dps attacks are CAs now, which gives us more procs to work with.</div><p>Message Edited by rckmer on <span class=date_text>12-16-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:40 AM</span>

[juz]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <HR> <DIV>I believe this got changed, and the proc chance checks as per the weapon delay <U>prior</U> to haste being applied. So even with 100% haste, a weapon with base delay of 3.0 will have a proc rate of 40% with this ability, even if it's swinging every 1.5sec. The new ppm numbers on items are merely a numerical value of the standard 9% proc rate (1.7ppm), 5% proc rate (1ppm), etc, and they are affected by haste as well now. That's my impression, but I'm not positive about that. I'm wondering more whether anyone else thinks that with the mob offensive skill revamp, going with skull crack is a viable raid aa setup. Bolt of Power is just gravy, albeit great gravy considering our dps attacks are CAs now, which gives us more procs to work with.<BR></DIV> <P>Message Edited by rckmer on <SPAN class=date_text>12-16-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>09:40 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Correct, Haste doesn't figure when calculating normalized procs. So, you will proc more because you will swing more, the % of procs per swing doesn't change however.