Hi all
Having a huge amount of trouble finding answers to this so any info would be greatly appreciated.
The patch notes mention smiter profile attacks ignoring stagger but unfortunately no more info is given. I’m assuming smiter attacks are things like executioner sword heavy attack.
So what does ignoring stagger mean? Do these attacks always get +20% damage? 40% damage? Does this make the smiter talent useless on these attacks? Does this make mainstay excellent on these attacks?
While we’re at it is there a list anywhere of what weapons/attacks are smiter profile?
Gotta say I actually really like most of the combat changes, but how FS thinks they can drop stuff like this in the patch notes without confusing the hell out of people is completely beyond me. This info is so crucial to picking your stagger talent for some weapons it’s absurd to be this in the dark.
Okay, so Smiter works like this;
Enemies have 3 levels of stagger - 0, 1, and 2. Normally this correlates to 0%-20%-40% damage bonus. Smiter makes it so that you get a 20% damage bonus against the first enemy hit even if they are at 0 stagger level. If they are at 1 stagger level, Smiter does nothing, and you get the default 20% bonus, so no increase. At level 2 of Stagger, you get the 40% stagger bonus, as per normal.
However, this 20% stagger bonus at level 0 does NOT apply to enemies you hit beyond the first. So if you have a Two-Handed Hammer, and hit five rats who have a stagger level of 0 when you hit them, you get that 20% bonus only against the first one, and 0% against the rest. I believe that it does not prevent you from benefitting from the damage bonus of higher stagger stages against those secondary targets, but I’m not sure.
So essentially:
Against first target: 20%-20%-40% at stages 0, 1, and 2.
Against secondary targets: 0%-20%-40% at stages 0, 1, and 2 (I think, I believe this is how it works, but I am not 100% sure).
I hope that helps some.
No I don’t mean that. Sorry I realise now I’m confusing a beta patch note with the more recent: * Introduced an ignore stagger reduction to light smiter attacks (1h axe, axe-shield, elf 1h axe, and various 1h swords/falchion combo finishers). Note that dual wields are exempt from this. Should help with staggering foes across difficulties more easily.
Looking again this is more clear than I’d thought. I remember a patch note in one of the previous betas saying smiter profile attacks (eg exec sword heavy) always get the stagger damage bonus. Guess they must have changed that cause I can’t find it in the 2.0 patch notes. Pity, it made a lot of sense to me to keep single target attacks relevant.