Lightning Strike: Chain vs Pierce
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Crit Dagger Lightning Strike Build. Hatred + Herald of Ash are included.6 Frenzy Charges with Blood Rage as well. 400% Crit Multiplier or so?
Assuming Lightning Strike is linked to Multistrike, Added Fire Damage, and Physical Projectile Attack Damage, which would be better overall? 1) Chain and Pierce are both level 20, 0% Quality. 100% Piercing Chance. 2) Chain is still level 20, but there's no Pierce. Replacing Pierce will be.. Faster Attacks/ICS/WED? Whichever sounds the most suitable. So, [LS + MS + AFD + PPAD + x] 80% Piercing Chance. 3) Same as #2, but instead with a 6 Link. So, Chain + 1 Skill Gem vs. 2 Skill Gems. I could add more details if needed. I'm not really getting a clear answer on which to use though, so I just thought I'd make a thread to see which are the strengths of each. |
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if you have 100% pierce, then that is better, then just use GMP.
chain further reduces the damage of projectiles and the melee hit. personally i like fork, because i like kiting/herding mobs. I need more purple titles
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It really blows my mind why people use things like Chain with LS. lS already has in-built pierce, you can get close to 100% pierce without needing the Pierce gem - especially since you are building on the crit side where there are pierce nodes.
If you really need help with pierce you can use things like Lioneye's Vision (very good chest) or Projectile Weakness CWDT/COH - excellent damage boost for LS projectiles. Sacrificing a gem slot for Chain etc. just makes no sense to me, when you can use that slot for a high damage gem like WED/ICD/P2L/ICC. Especially if you want to use projectiles vs. bosses. On top of that LS now has 7 projectiles and can clear extremely fast. Chain/LMP/GMP/Fork etc. I just don't see the value they add for the extra gem slot for a LS-dedicated build unless you need them for CoC or some shenanigans. Last edited by Ceryneian#3541 on Dec 17, 2015, 1:25:46 AM
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" You make good points. I originally was using Pierce but I read somewhere that Chain actually helps the DPS since it could chain with itself so I wasn't quite sure which was superior. I assume this is probably unlikely? I'll probably just stick with Pierce. Thanks for the answer! |
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" What you saw was probably in relation to Pierce vs Chain in general: i.e. for Split Arrow, which basically requires either Pierce OR Chain for AOE, of which no one really agrees on which is better. There was a BIG argument on Ranger forum about whether chain or pierce is better. But for a skill that already has in-built pierce? There really is no value in using Chain. |
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The thing is: A projectile can only chain as long as it doesn't pierce. So in case 1, chain acts as a "less damage" gem. (Always piercing means never chaining)
Even with less than 100% chance to pierce, say at 80%, your projectiles only chain 20% of the time. (So multiply any damage gain you'd expect from chain by 0.2) See the wiki for an excellent example. Edit: Chain might have the small benefit of allowing your projectile to (sometimes) do kind of a "U-turn" within the monster pack (and thus hitting the same monsters again), but I doubt it's worth the gem slot compared to a gem that would directly increase your damage. Crit happens. Last edited by Inarion1986#5829 on Dec 17, 2015, 10:54:15 AM
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