Talk:Spear of Lightning

Most cheesy single attack ever? :) -- Bishop [ rap|con ] 04:52, 30 July 2006 (CDT)
 * Spam spear, wonderful spam. --Black Ark 05:14, 30 July 2006 (CDT)
 * Diversion, welcome back to the metagame. Ubermancer 00:31, 5 September 2006 (CDT)
 * This plus Conjure Lightning for a lot of armor-piercing pain. I loved this skill in the preview to build up adrenaline and damage warriors.193.61.111.50 11:37, 6 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Conjure isn't armor piercing. I don't get why it's that good.. I mean, 2 second recharge, I get, but that's nowhere as good as focused shot, which is completely armor ignore... I didn't get to play a paragon during the weekend, and I regret it. Silk Weaker 07:09, 19 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Focused shot deals 5 more bonus damage for corresponding weapon ranks. Your base attack damage, for any attack skill, doesn't ignore armor.  Only the bonus does.  --Fyren 07:13, 19 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Spear of Lightning's Bonus doesn't ignore armor though. I'm unsure whether 25% bonus applies to base damage, but I can only assume that it doesn't...? If it does, it really would be very good, but as far as I can tell, normal +damage is armor ignoring, while SoL's Lightning Damage is not... --Silk Weaker 07:17, 19 September 2006 (CDT)
 * The 25% penetration applies to the base damage. Every attack skill's bonus damage ignores armor.  --Fyren 07:18, 19 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Ah, okay then, I can see the point. Like 2 second recharge Penetrating Shots, but better. About lightning damage though... uhm, I was under the impression that elemental damage does not ignore armor? For example, Kindle Arrows and Conjure Fire do not ignore armor... Silk Weaker 07:20, 19 September 2006 (CDT)
 * There's dust trap noted on the anomalies page as dealing armor-ignoring yet earth damage. I suspect this is the same.  --Fyren 07:53, 19 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Ah, I see... I didn't get to test it and didn't know. This IS cheese then. I think it would make sense to make a note about it on the page, though, perhaps after nightfall has come out. Silk Weaker 07:57, 19 September 2006 (CDT)

NERFED. --Silk Weaker 09:41, 22 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Nerfed you say? Well, 6 second recharge with 25% armor pen is still way too leet :D UnexistNL

Damage Type
Oddly, unlike Kindle Arrows, this skill deals damage in a single packet, which means that, if the skill works as written, it would be the only skill that deals two types of damage in a single packet. I suspect it actually converts the damage type to lightning, adds 25% armor penetration and adds 8..18 damage, but this can only really be tested in Scrimmage with the aid of "Go For The Eyes!". -- Gordon Ecker 00:00, 5 October 2006 (CDT)
 * I tested this with Mark of Rodgort and a fiery spear, it does not trigger burning so it is not doing fire dmg anymore. --Heurist 01:11, 31 March 2007 (CDT)

Profession changers?
Why are professions changers listed under this skill? Shouldn't this be Skill Trainers? --Dfscott 13:31, 16 January 2007 (CST)
 * When you change professions, certain skills are unlocked for you. Since this is one of them, it's not even possible for a player to figure out which trainers really offer this skill.  --Fyren 13:33, 16 January 2007 (CST)
 * A fresh Paragon also starts out with this skill, so you *really* can't find out. ~Seef II [[Image:Weapon-spell-icon.png]] 03:31, 31 January 2007 (CST)
 * Should we remove the category for need nf trainer then? -- Xeon 04:16, 31 January 2007 (CST)

Number Crunching with GftE!
If using "Go for the Eyes!" (and getting a critical hit) and taking into account the sqr root of 2 (as seen under critical hit estimates) * the max damage of a spear 27 = 38 critical hit damage to AL 60 target + 18 lightning damage from skill (at rank 12) = 56 damage +25% AP = about 73 damage to a 60 AL target.

Not bad IMO (not to mention that it was probably also used to set the target on fire from Anthem of Flame or add bonus damage from Anthem of Envy too). Skill synergy here is key to make it worthwhile.

Here's some numbers for more armor:
 * 60AL = about 73 damage (89 w/successful sundering)
 * 70AL = about 64 damage (81 w/successful sundering)
 * 80AL = about 56 damage (74 w/successful sundering)
 * 100AL = about 43 damage (61 w/successful sundering)
 * 110AL = about 38 damage (56 w/successful sundering)

I used the guru calculator to help out with the figures but this way you can see how the crit + AP helps to make this a decent attack. Pretty sure these are fairly accurate numbers but they are not tested. Only based on the information we have about crits, AP, and so on already logged on the wiki.--  Vallen Frostweaver  14:25, 1 March 2007 (CST)


 * Well, you'll always have at least +20% from customization. With another 15% from a mod, your crit versus 60 AL is 53 damage.  AP doesn't apply to bonus damage, though.  Bonus damage on attacks just gets added on; it ignores armor, effectively.  But with +20% and +15%, a crit with spear of lightning at 12 spear versus 60 AL turns out to be 87 damage.  --Fyren 15:49, 1 March 2007 (CST)
 * I did not take into account the customization or a mod add on so that does push it up (thanks for pointing that out) but I was under the impression that this extra 18 damage from lightning spear was not armor ignoring damage since it was lightning damage and was added the same as Conjure Lightning damage might be (even though CL doesn't list the damage as "+" damage and instead lists it as "additional." Am I wrong in this?  I really don't see a point to having armor ignoring lightning damage myself. Hmm... maybe if an enemy has a weakness to it but then again, that would be armor related woudn't it? --[[Image:VallenIconwhitesmall.JPG]]  Vallen Frostweaver  07:42, 2 March 2007 (CST)
 * Bonus damage for attacks always ignore armor; I'm fairly certain there are no exceptions. In the past there have been other armor ignoring yet typed damages, though I don't know if they still work the same (for example, dust trap).  --Fyren 16:13, 2 March 2007 (CST)

armour ignoring
the way it is worded-this skill seems unique in that armour, and armour piercing may effect the bonus damage added on at the very least, this is one of the few skills specifying the "type" of bonus bonus damage-as most other skills don't mention a type for thier bonus damage-though derv skills will change the base damage type