I’m making a Primal Strike ranged build. I don’t care about AOE damage, I’m trying to max single-target damage for late-game. But I’m having trouble choosing if I should max Torrent, or just leave it at one point.
A few questions:
When attacking a single target, does Torrent also hit that target? The skill description in-game says it does, but this thread from 2017 says otherwise: Torrent for Primal Strike - #2 by MortalKombat
If YES on question 1; when attacking a single target, is the Torrent damage…
A) … added to the damage of Primal Strike, all in a single hit?
B) … a different source of damage that hits a seconds time? And does this mean devotions get a second chance to trigger?
I ran some tests with Homestead’s Training Dummy showing damage numbers, and I collected some statistics. I think I’ve got the answers. In case anyone else has the same questions in the future, here is what I found:
When attacking a single target with Primal Strike, Torrent also hits that single target.
The correct answer is B) Torrent is a different (smaller) source of damage. It does not increase the main source of damage from Primal Strike.
As for devotions: Yes! They do get a second chance to trigger due to Torrent being a second hit. Without Torrent, I observed Falcon Swoop triggering about 54% of the time (=51% chance on the devotion menu). With Torrent I observed it triggering about 70% of the time (in theory, the probability of it triggering at least once in two occurrences is 76%). So the math checks out.
And perhaps the most interesting of all: even when Primal Strike MISSES, Torrent STILL TRIGGERS and has a chance to trigger the devotion anyway!
So, in conclusion: I’m going to put only 1 skill point in Torrent on my build that focuses on single-target boss damage. I don’t care about the small AOE damage that Torrent does, and 1 point is enough to help with Devotions.