I just want to give my thoughts and some feedback on Targo’s Hammer. I know it is getting close to the launch of Forgotten Gods but hopefully there is still some time for some changes to be made.
Targo’s Hammer is a really fun skill to have, especially as i normally gravitate towards sword and board characters, encouraging me to want to max out my block chance and recovery time so i can get as many swirling around me as possible!
I believe it has been talked about before on the forum but the +% Internal Trauma doesn’t really make much sense. At max it gives +370% internal trauma damage and has 43% weapon damage. Builds that focus on internal trauma are most likely going to be a % weapon damage build using skills like cadence, savagery, fire strike etc.
If you are not using cadence then if you have no increase to +% internal trauma trauma Targo’s Hammer is just stronger than the rest. However as soon as you get as little as +105% Internal Trauma damage a 12/12 Fire Strike will do more internal trauma than Targo’s Hammer. Realistically, the internal trauma damage of Targo’s Hammer will never see the light of day as it will be eclipsed by all the other skills. I have attached a little image to show you what i mean.
This is all because when looking at DoTs and weapon damage, the highest weapon damage dealing blow deals the DoT. So if cadence hits for 420% weapon damage at 16/16, a maxed out Targo’s Hammer will never get a chance to do it’s DoT to the target you’re hitting.
What i am advocating here is changing the +x% internal trauma damage to flat internal trauma so the skill can be it’s own source of DoT.
I understand that Targo’s Hammer will receive a x% of Retaliation Damage added to attack bonus when forgotten gods comes out as well. This and the change i am suggesting would put Targo’s Hammer in a good place and i do not think it would be too strong.
I hope that people can see what i am getting at here and can use the image linked to make sense of things.
My highest character is a tank that uses shield boosters (skills from soldier and devotions) and my attacks are Internal Trauma attacks part of Forcewave and Blitz. And retaliations. So I like the IT on Targos Anvil. I don’t mind your idea of change in principle though.
Think of the %IT as a bonus for builds that already stack a bunch of IT trauma.
As a weapon dmg skill it already deals plenty. If you imagine the +%IT as a small bonus, and conceptualize the skill as “good even without it”, it no longer will mentally feel lacking to you. My Octavius build uses it for IT.
That being said, flat IT would be a buff and if you think it’s performing as underpowered then this would definitely help.
I still would prefer to have flat internal trauma damage as it would help with build diversity. Suddenly this can then be converted to other damage types and be more attractive to conversion builds that are shield orientated. Currently if your character has no internal trauma, or does but converts it to another damage type for example then the +x% internal trauma becomes meaningless.
It would be interesting to know how many people use Targo’s Hammer on non physical characters.
Most likely the expansion will bring some changes to Targo, Wolverine, Messenger of War, Obelisk of Menhir and Vire, in order to adjust to the Oathkeeper’s specific mechanics. Let’s hope that it will put these constellations on the map, and we’ll see more of them in various builds.
Do I understand it right that if skill or proc has flat Internal trauma damage it stack with other Internal traumas sources (from skills and procs).
If the skill or proc has weapon dmg tag it scale your “auto attack” internal trauma if it has any and only highest source of weapon dmg dot can be in effect at the same time. (so even if two different skill has weapon dmg your internal trauma will take effect only from highest one)
But what if the skill has weapon dmg tag and also flat dot dmg? Will flat number dot stack and weapon dmg dot take effect only if it is highest value?