Exploding Arrow

Enchants an arrow or bolt that explodes on contact, damaging all nearby enemies.

Exploding Arrow is a level 12 Amazon skill (Bow and Crossbow tree, requires Fire Arrow and Multiple Shot; it unlocks Immolation Arrow). The arrow is a full-damage physical missile that bursts into a small fireball on impact. The numbers that decide it are the explosion's fire range, 199–226 at level 20, and the +14% per hard point in Fire Arrow.

The numbers

• Fire damage is 5–13 at level 1 (EMin 5, EMax 13). The minimum grows +6 a level to level 8, +12 to 16, +14 to 22, +16 to 28 and +20 past that (EMinLev1–5); the maximum +7, +13, +15, +18 and +23 (EMaxLev1–5). That is 199–226 at level 20 and 363–410 at level 30. The Basin's page records lower brackets for the 1.10–1.13 game; the current table's are the ones its D2R formulas describe.
• Attack Rating is ToHit 20 plus LevToHit 9 a level: +191% at level 20.
• Mana is 5 at level 1 (mana 20 in quarters, manashift 6) and +0.25 a level (lvlmana 1): 9.75 at level 20.
• The radius is not in the row; the Basin's page gives it as 3 1/3 yards.

The damage and attack-rating lines read lvl, so +skills from items count; the synergy reads blvl.

How it works

The arrow itself is a missile that needs the attack-rating check (Chance to Hit) and carries 100% of weapon damage (SrcDam 128), at the normal attack's rate (Attack Speed). The explosion is different: the Basin's page says it goes off on impact or on expiry whether or not the hit check succeeded, applies the skill's fire damage to everything in its radius, and cannot be blocked. The hit check still matters for Piercing Attack: an arrow that hits and pierces explodes again at each target it passes through, so the Basin's page describes a single arrow at 100% pierce exploding up to five times on a tight pack.

The skill's own fire damage is applied only by the explosion; the arrow brings the weapon's damage. Fire damage on the weapon, including Enchant's and Holy Fire's, is added to both the arrow and the explosion. Fire Skill Damage from items raises the skill damage only. The fire is reduced by the target's Fire Resist as in Dealing Elemental Damage.

The explosion does not need a hit, but the pierce does: against a high-defense target, missed arrows still burn once, and only hits burn again.

Synergies and +skills

One synergy line: Fire Arrow, +14% fire damage per level, from EDmgSymPerCalc = skill('Fire Arrow'.blvl) × par8 with Param8 = 14, hard points only. Exploding Arrow feeds Fire Arrow (+12% fire damage per hard point) and Immolation Arrow (+10% fire damage per hard point). The Basin's page notes that bows with Fires Explosive Arrows or Bolts fire this skill on the normal attack, and an Amazon's hard points in Fire Arrow apply their synergy to those explosions too.

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 Basin's page says nothing more about this skill against players.

Build notes

• Level 20: 199–226 fire a burst, +191% attack rating, 9.75 mana.
• Fire Arrow's 14% per hard point is the larger multiplier in the pair; 20 points there nearly quadruple the burst.
• +skills past 20 add 20–23 fire a level, the steepest bracket, and the mana only rises 0.25 a level.
• Because the burst ignores blocking and only needs a hit to pierce, attack rating buys extra explosions rather than the first one.