Charged Strike

Adds lightning damage to javelin and spear class weapons and releases charged bolts upon impact.

Charged Strike is a level 18 Amazon attack (Javelin and Spear tree, requires Power Strike and Lightning Bolt; it unlocks Lightning Strike). One javelin or spear thrust carries a lightning charge and, on impact, releases a fan of charged bolts that each carry the same charge. The numbers that decide it are the charge, 1–322 at level 20 before synergies, and the bolt count, 7 at level 20.

The numbers

• Lightning Damage has a minimum fixed at 1 (EMin 1, every EMinLev column 0). The maximum is EMax 30 at level 1 and grows in the brackets of the EMaxLev columns: +12 a level to level 8, +16 to 16, +20 to 22, +24 to 28, +28 past that: 78 at level 5, 146 at 10, 226 at 15, 322 at 20, 434 at 25, 562 at 30. The Basin's page writes the same brackets.
• Bolts are calc1, Param1 3 plus one per Param2 5 levels: 3 at level 1, 4 at 5, 5 at 10, 6 at 15, 7 at 20, 9 at 30. The Basin's page writes it as 3 + [slvl ÷ 5].
• Mana is 4 at level 1 (mana 16 with manashift 6) and rises 0.25 a level (lvlmana 1): 8.75 at level 20.
• The row has no ToHit column, so the thrust has no attack-rating bonus of its own; the Basin's page gives the weapon damage as 100%, and nothing is converted (calc4 0). The row allows the spear item type (itypea1 spea), javelins and spears.

The damage and bolt lines read lvl; the synergy reads blvl.

How it works

Charged Strike is a melee attack with one Chance to Hit roll for the thrust; by the Basin's page the weapon damage is applied only by a successful attack, while the bolts (the row's chargedstrikebolt missiles) cannot be blocked. The thrust deals the weapon's physical damage under Dealing Physical Damage plus the lightning charge, and each bolt deals the same lightning charge again, all of it against Lightning Resist under Dealing Elemental Damage. The lightning is skill damage, so Lightning Skill Damage on items raises it.

The bolts are destroyed on impact and do not pierce, by the Basin's page, but several can strike one target: normally none hit a single size 1 target, all of them hit a single size 3 target, and how many hit a size 2 target depends on the count and where the Amazon stands. It is a single-target skill in practice, whatever the bolts' range.

The same page notes that every charged bolt triggers a Chilling Armor bolt in return, which matters against Izual and Baal of the Pandemonium Event, and that the synergies raise the maximum only; the minimum stays at 1.

The Basin's page lists the skill as a charged suffix on spears and gloves.

Synergies and +skills

Three synergy lines, each +14% lightning damage per level: Power Strike, Lightning Bolt and Lightning Strike (EDmgSymPerCalc, Param8 14, all read as hard points). The Basin's page records a fourth, Lightning Fury, at 10% each in the 1.10–1.13 game; the current row names only three. Charged Strike's own hard points feed Power Strike, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Strike and Lightning Fury in turn. +skills from items raise the maximum and the bolt count, not the synergy terms.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player; the thrust and each bolt are separate hits, each cut on its own and each then meeting the other player's lightning resistance. The Basin's page says nothing more about this skill against players.

Build notes

• Level 20: 1–322 lightning on the thrust and on each of 7 bolts, full weapon damage on the thrust, 8.75 mana.
• The synergies are worth 42% a level combined against the bracket's 24–28 a level, so hard points in Lightning Strike and Power Strike raise it more than its own points past 20; its own points feed four skills back.
• The bolt count rises one per 5 levels, so +skills past 20 buy a bolt at 25 and another at 30.
• The thrust needs attack rating and the skill gives none: Penetrate and the weapon's own bonus carry it.