Impale

Increases attack damage but rapidly degrades the weapon.

Impale is a level 12 Amazon attack (Javelin and Spear tree, requires Jab; it unlocks Fend). It is one javelin or spear thrust that cannot miss, cannot be blocked and cannot be interrupted, at a price in weapon durability. The numbers that decide it are the damage, +775% at level 20, and the slow it leaves on the target, 63% at level 20 for 12 seconds.

The numbers

• Damage is calc1, ln12: Param1 is the baseline of 300 and Param2 adds 25 a level, so +300% at level 1, +400% at 5, +525% at 10, +650% at 15, +775% at 20, +1,025% at 30. The Basin's page writes it as 275 + 25 × slvl. The thrust carries 100% of weapon damage before that (SrcDam 128), and nothing is converted (calc4 0).
• Slows Enemies is dm78, the diminishing-returns calc from Param7 (0) toward Param8 (75): 11% at level 1, 37% at 5, 51% at 10, 58% at 15, 63% at 20, 68% at 30. The Basin's page writes it as min([75 × [(110 × slvl) ÷ (slvl + 6)] ÷ 100], 75) and marks it as the current game only.
• Chance of losing durability is calc2, par6 − dm34: Param6 is 50 and the curve from Param3 (0) toward Param4 (30) is taken off it, so 46% at level 1, 35% at 5, 30% at 10, 25% at 20, 23% at 30, never below 20. Each loss is 1 point (Param5, calc3).
• Mana is a flat 3 (mana 3, lvlmana 0); the column is dropped above because it never changes.
• The Basin's page lists a +% attack rating line for the 1.10–1.13 game; the current row has no ToHit column, and the skill always hits (alwayshit 1), so there is nothing for one to do.
• Param9 is 30, which the table comments as "Attack Speed %"; the Basin's page describes Impale as a slower attack than the ordinary thrust.

The damage, slow and durability lines all read lvl.

How it works

Impale is a melee attack that skips the Chance to Hit roll: the row sets alwayshit and the tooltip prints "always hits"; the Basin's page adds that it cannot be blocked, see Blocking. The hit deals weapon damage under Dealing Physical Damage with the bonus above, and it is the whole of the hit: the damage, the durability loss and the slow are all there is.

The slow is a state on the target (auratargetstate impale) lasting 300 frames, 12 seconds (auralencalc 300 ÷ 25), that cuts the target's velocity, attack rate and animation rate by the percentage above (aurastat1–3). By the Basin's page the 12 seconds are not refreshed by a second Impale; the slow can be applied again only when the first has run out, and it adds to the slowing of cold, Slows Target, Decrepify and Holy Freeze.

By the Basin's page, Critical Strike and Deadly Strike do not apply to Impale. The +775% is the whole multiplier; no doubling comes on top.

Durability is lost only on a hit, by the Basin's page, and a javelin stack loses a javelin instead of durability. At level 20 one thrust in four costs a point; an indestructible or self-repairing weapon ends the question.

The tooltip also prints "uninterruptable", and the Basin's page spells it out: blocking, casting, hit recovery, knockback and stun do not stop the thrust once it has begun. The speed of the attack is the Amazon's attack rate, see Attack Speed.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: the row has no SymPerCalc column, the skilldesc row has no dsc3 line, and no skill reads Impale's points. Every line reads lvl, so a +skill from an item is worth exactly a hard point; the Basin's page lists +5 to Impale on The Impaler war spear.

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 still cannot miss or be blocked. The Basin's page says nothing more about this skill against players.

Build notes

• Level 20: +775% weapon damage, every thrust lands, 63% slow for 12 seconds, one durability point lost on 25% of hits, 3 mana.
• The slow's curve is front-loaded (51% at level 10, 63% at 20) and the damage is linear at 25% a level, so +skills past 20 buy damage mostly.
• Without Critical Strike or Deadly Strike, the weapon's own damage and Enhanced Damage are the whole hit.
• The always-hit makes attack rating irrelevant to this one skill; Penetrate's bonus does nothing here.