Piercing Shotz and Serpent Stang

[Damasscus]

h'okay so I know reapplying your serpent sting when your 2-set bonus is tits, but isn't the idea to have a huge crit right after so your piercing shots ticks harder, or does it not matter will the next crit over write the former if you didn't hit a crit with Chimera/Aimed? Also the other day I did 11k on Koralon the flame dude and I usually do more but I was having a problem that I've never seen before, something new methinks....usually whenever I reapply serpent sting no matter the circumstance it just fires off and goes on my target, but it was giving me a "A more powerful spell is active" message which kinda confused me because I had just proc'd 2-set t10...how could any other buff trump 15% more damage? Is this a new "thing"?

[Lysah]

If your current serpent sting had more AP when you applied it than your current AP level, it won't let you reapply it. This can be fixed by either replacing it with viper/scorpid sting or firing a chimera shot to update your serpent sting.

Piercing shots will add the damage from all crits performed onto the target, given that he doesn't die while a bleed is still active, they don't really "override" each other, merely add up and drop off.

[Fahtrim]

h'okay so I know reapplying your serpent sting when your 2-set bonus is tits, but isn't the idea to have a huge crit right after so your piercing shots ticks harder, or does it not matter will the next crit over write the former if you didn't hit a crit with Chimera/Aimed? Also the other day I did 11k on Koralon the flame dude and I usually do more but I was having a problem that I've never seen before, something new methinks....usually whenever I reapply serpent sting no matter the circumstance it just fires off and goes on my target, but it was giving me a "A more powerful spell is active" message which kinda confused me because I had just proc'd 2-set t10...how could any other buff trump 15% more damage? Is this a new "thing"?

1. Piercing shots has very little to do with Serpent sting, 3% more damage when sting applied from talents, nothing to do with reapplying etc.
2. Iceydevil answered the other question.

[Gnious]

Piercing shots will add the damage from all crits performed onto the target, given that he doesn't die while a bleed is still active, they don't really "override" each other, merely add up and drop off.

Been wondering about this for a bit...

If you keep critting, and not letting your Piercing Shots fall out, will the keep stacking without any limit?

[Drijen]

Been wondering about this for a bit...

If you keep critting, and not letting your Piercing Shots fall out, will the keep stacking without any limit?

Sure, but it really doesn't matter if it falls off the target or not. "Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 30% of the damage dealt over 8 sec" means that, no matter the current state of the piercing shot dot, a crit from one of these abilities will do the damage in the specified time. A constant string of crits will make PS tick for higher and higher amounts of damage because it will add the new component to the current and remove old ones as the time runs out.

So while it is a great ego/confidence boost to see those massive PS ticks it makes no difference in the long run if the damage is stacked or subsequent.

[Damasscus]

And just to re-verify, proc'ing 2-set doesn't make Piercing Shots tick harder, it just makes it so your serpent sting stays at 15% additional damage (as long as you can keep it up)...right?

[Drijen]

And just to re-verify, proc'ing 2-set doesn't make Piercing Shots tick harder, it just makes it so your serpent sting stays at 15% additional damage (as long as you can keep it up)...right?

Piercing Shots isn't going to be influenced by the state of your Serpent Sting at all since I believe, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, it is only the first part of Chimera Shot that triggers PS. A bone-simple test for this would be to check PS damage using serpent sting on a target versus using scorpid or viper.

Two separate systems at work here:
1) ChimShot will maintain whatever %dmg or crit-increasing buff state the Serpent Sting had when it was applied and this will continue indefinitely until it falls off. So re-applying SS with the 15%dmg buff will make a stronger SS that persists as long as you care to let it through ChimShot refreshes.
2)ChimShot part 1 will trigger Piercing Shots which will in turn deal 30% of the damage the first component of CS dealt and which 'stacks'/is additive with any other application of Piercing Shot that coexists within its 8 seconds lifespan.

The t102P would make PS do more damage, but only because (30% of shotdmg*115%)>(30 of shotdmg). The increase comes from the general increase in shot damage and not through some other interaction.

[Lysah]

Been wondering about this for a bit...

If you keep critting, and not letting your Piercing Shots fall out, will the keep stacking without any limit?

Piercing shots works like this...
Suppose every crit causes 6 ticks (I can't be bothered to find out the real number) of piercing shots.

If you crit for 10k, you will get 3k/6 = 500 damage ticks for 6 seconds.
So;
1s = 500
2s = 500 (say you crit again for 10k here)
3s = 1000
4s = 1000
5s = 1000
6s = 1000 (first crit falls off
7s = 500
8s = 500 (second crit falls off)
9s = no piercing shots, crit better!

The game manages to add them together and have bits of it fall off when it's run its full duration. Therefore, suffice to say that all piercing shots really does is make our crits hit 30% harder, except that it's a bleed over time, and therefore if you crit right before the boss dies, you won't actually see extra damage from piercing shots. That's not a big deal, though.

[Skybluesky]

Therefore, suffice to say that all piercing shots really does is make our crits hit 30% harder, except that it's a bleed over time, and therefore if you crit right before the boss dies, you won't actually see extra damage from piercing shots.

That piercing shots is a bleed DoT also means that its damage can be increased by things like mangle or trauma.

[Lysah]

That piercing shots is a bleed DoT also means that its damage can be increased by things like mangle or trauma.

I feel like I remembered seeing patch notes where they had removed the ability for piercing shots to be buffed. I can't seem to find it now though, so it may have been something else.

[Kalti]

I feel like I remembered seeing patch notes where they had removed the ability for piercing shots to be buffed. I can't seem to find it now though, so it may have been something else.

I was always under the impression it was buffed by bleed buffs.

[Vulcanreborn]

it is buffed by mangle/trauma/the rhino 1, blizzard was fixed it a couple patches back

[Rhinni]

it is buffed by mangle/trauma/the rhino 1, blizzard was fixed it a couple patches back

fixed as in: now does or now doesn't?