About various skills from a newbie

[system]

As I have some chars but none above level 37, I still have some questions about how skills work, could you clarify for me please?

Lethal assault - are the 4 seconds the duration of the debuff?
Phantasmal blade - how do you decide which of all the possible damagetypes you should focus on(boni from gear)?
Frenetic throw - I take it, most people use it, but how do the damage reductions affect the effectivenes of SP?
Summon Familiar - I used that one but the raven stays so close to me, it rarely does anything. I have to go face to face with enemys to trigger any action from it. Working as intended?
Savagery - What is affected by the 30-100%? Are the values in the skill description a base 100 percent where the 30-100% gets added as a bonus?

Generaly, what constitutes a default weapon attack? I thought it was a LMB klick with no skills atached to the LMB?

Would you take a mastery only because of a healing skill? I am still not sure how to make chars survivable withoud stuff like wendigo totem, blood of dreeg etc. Are there notably healing skills in the devotion tree which would make a healing skill from a mastery obsolete?

Thanks in advance.

[Ceno]

Lethal assault - are the 4 seconds the duration of the debuff?

…it’s the duration of the buff, not the debuff.

Phantasmal blade - how do you decide which of all the possible damagetypes you should focus on(boni from gear)?

It’s really up to you, but yeah, what gear you get may help. There’s also nothing saying you can’t focus on all of them…

Frenetic throw - I take it, most people use it, but how do the damage reductions affect the effectivenes of SP?

The up-front damage is harshly reduced but its damage is made more consistent over time with higher cast speed. I don’t really know what you’re asking with ‘SP’, though.

Summon Familiar - I used that one but the raven stays so close to me, it rarely does anything. I have to go face to face with enemys to trigger any action from it. Working as intended?

For the most part people use the Raven (if they ever use the Raven) for its heal, which it will trigger while near to you. The Raven’s offensive utility leaves much to be desired.

Savagery - What is affected by the 30-100%? Are the values in the skill description a base 100 percent where the 30-100% gets added as a bonus?

The flat damage values and the % Weapon Damage value are multiplied by the 30-100% multipliers. So Savagery is actually weaker than the basic attack for the first few hits, but when you begin to multiply it’s % Weapon Damage by more than a 100% multiplier it can be quite powerful.

Generaly, what constitutes a default weapon attack? I thought it was a LMB klick with no skills atached to the LMB?

Savagery, Fire Strike, Beronath’s Fury, and Troll Rage are all default weapon attacks.

Would you take a mastery only because of a healing skill? I am still not sure how to make chars survivable withoud stuff like wendigo totem, blood of dreeg etc. Are there notably healing skills in the devotion tree which would make a healing skill from a mastery obsolete?

Mastery heals are definitely the most potent, but you can sometimes get by with Behemoth, Chariot of the Dead, Dryad, and/or Tree of Life for healing.

[system]

The up-front damage is harshly reduced but its damage is made more consistent over time with higher cast speed. I don’t really know what you’re asking with ‘SP’, though.

that should have been PB for phantasmal blade.

The flat damage values and the % Weapon Damage value are multiplied by the 30-100% multipliers. So Savagery is actually weaker than the basic attack for the first few hits, but when you begin to multiply it’s % Weapon Damage by more than a 100% multiplier it can be quite powerful.

So, only the %wd is affected and not the flat damage bonus?

Savagery, Fire Strike, Beronath’s Fury, and Troll Rage are all default weapon attacks.

does that explicitly exclude the standart attack? And is there a reason that i.e. primal strike is not a default weapon attack? I thought you could boost ps with feral hunger or upheaval.
By your list, the soldier would have no default attack, despite having skills like markovians advantage. That seems quite odd.

Additionaly, for the energy costs of a skill, do i simply add up the original skills cost plus the energy cost of each modification skill?

[Slayerviper]

does that explicitly exclude the standart attack? And is there a reason that i.e. primal strike is not a default weapon attack? I thought you could boost ps with feral hunger or upheaval.
By your list, the soldier would have no default attack, despite having skills like markovians advantage. That seems quite odd.

Standard weapon attack could also be used, but it’s not recommended. Soldier can be mixed with other classes to allow those WPS procs. There is a relic and a component for weapons (both mentioned by Ceno) that give you a WPS proc ability that you can use.