Doubt it’s gonna’ happen, but seeing that this is a niche Talent and even more of a niche build, I’ll just politely ask I guess.
With maximum Power Vs plus Enhanced Power the ability one-taps Chaos Warriors to the head.
I’ve tried a lot of weird stuff, like stacking a bit of Power Vs Skaven to be able to push them and building extra 10% off of Barrage to still kachink Chaos Warriors, but either way whatever I do I bump against the neccesity of Enhanced Power.
Not sure how exactly Power stacks, but in relatively simplistic terms an increase of even +10% Power would make my world a better place.
Never played Waystalker before Piercing Shot, never will if it’s gone. It does overlap with Victor a bit, but doesn’t have stagger, and everyone and their mother plays her for her aimbot volley or Hagbane, I don’t really know. So, pretty please?
Sorry this is a little off topic, but would be interested to hear what more experienced players’ experience with piercing shot is. I once ran into a headshot god WS that butchered Nurgloth on Legend with it, but I see it so rarely I have little idea how strong it really is. Tried it on modded once to see how quick it could murder a rat ogre with nothing but head shots and I remember being distinctly unimpressed by it, but I didn’t set up a build for it or anything.
In essence yeah, but it would open up some space to toy with any of the properties since it requires max stacking to reach the breakpoint. But being able to utilize the stagger damage Talent is my primary gripe.
It’s not as much skill as it is muscle memory, you just get used to the way animations play out and adjust to enemies bobbing their heads, kneeling and making other adjustments that would usually make you whiff your Piercing Shot.
I generally like it just because it is proactive and changes the dynamic of the Waystalker, I doubt it is actually much stronger overall than her sustain autoaiming volley, but if you’re a headshot god you could probably do some serious work.
I sucked with it real bad at first, but now I don’t whiff as much, yet still use it conservatively. If an enemy is walking in a straight line, they’re done. If the horde is narrow or thick enough, you can chuck several shots at the general head level to thin it out, including wiping occasional monks and whatnot within. Otherwise it’s alright on Bosses, but you can’t bring your own crowd control, so it’s best used when you can dodge-lock a Boss and that nobody messes with them for a bit. Works best on Trolls, alright on Stormfiends, can work on Chaos Spawn if you have a bit of room and get used to their jiggle, and a random Grail Knight, Bounty Hunter, Battle Wizard/etc doesn’t decide to yeet them out of your line of fire.
Works well when things go awry and you want to assuredly wipe an incoming Packmaster within a horde, or deal with Ratlings/Warpthrowers since they become stationary upon firing, without switching from melee for as long.
Basically,10% chaos and 10% armor on charm+EP to oneshot headshot Cata CWs,can kill a Troll and Stormfiend very fast without needing a pot,good hordeclear in chokepoints,and obviously one of the best Nurgloth dpser.Its base damage isnt super impressive on bosses(other than on Troll,Stormfiend and Nurgloth) but it has some insane crit modifier.A crit Piercing just chunks anything it hits,even teammates(around 80 or so damage).
Afaik it actually is the highest CWs dps in the game. Only thing that compares is Huntsmen with:
Longbow with the One in the Eye talent
20% vs Chaos & 20% vs Armour
STR pot and Hunter active
During ult + plus WHC tag
Which lets the longbow light arrow one shot headshot CWs. After 10s though it’s no longer comparable dps.
Double-Shotted might compare if an entire patrol of CWs are lined up single file.
Bolt Staff Battle Wizard can do similar things but the charge time is higher so it’s not as high dps (absurd bodyshot damage though, very consistent).
According to the breakpoint calc Piercing shot is also one of the very few things (I don’t even know if there are others) that does more damage to a Stormfiend’s armoured head than it does to the controller.
It’s basically a massive tradeoff. You lose the fast-reaction ability of WS, but gain an absolute beast anti-boss DPS tool. Setting aside the skill requirement and assuming headshot god status, you’re basically turning WS into a Shade.
It’s a good enough build, but honestly if I’m picking WS it’s for rock solid special coverage and rapid melee/range gameplay. Going for piercing shot makes it a different class entirely so I never pick. It is very effective though.
It’s amazing. There was a time when I deliberately ran Cata Enchanter’s Lair with it just to onephase Nurgloth to feel powerful. Or Halescourge or Rasknitt. It’s crazy how consistent its boss dps is as long as no one flings your target around.
I had some people call me out for cheating when I deleted Halescourge once because apparently they didn’t know that this talent was a thing.
Against elites, especially CWs, it’s super strong once you’ve learned all the animation windows in which you can take a safe shot. You don’t necessarily have to twoshot CWs, though. It turned out to be way more effective and resourceful to go for one headshot and then finish it off with one melee headshot, it’s an easy kill. I’d rather stack power vs. for some special breakpoints.
The most annoying thing that works against you with Piercing Shot are your team mates. After BBB 2.0 I felt like that it would be worthwile thinking about a Sure Shot mechanic only for Piercing Shot. Just to ease its reliability and provide some safety against (really) frustrating player interference so that you don’t lose dps uptime only because an IB with active Gromril walked into Troll puke…
It’s really one of the very few talents in the game that entirely change the feel and play of a career. If you don’t need autoaim ults to kill specials, etc., Piercing Shot adds so much fun.
Haha this is my experience with Riposte on WHC almost constantly unless I play on modded with Deathwish (and even then bosses still get knocked around). I’m not sure if it’s an issue with stagger being too easy and accessible or team communication.
Taking the stagger into consideration and still landing the headshot though is pretty awesome when it does happen.