Spell Procs - weird behavior between Eldritch Aura and Lightning Strike

[Pretty Good Old One]

I was messing around with Chaosmancer builds, trying to find some useful synergy with the multi class caster level boost for a flavor build, and I tried a Wild Mage/Warlock/Stormsinger. I went CS for the cold pact damage to trigger Lightning Strike on Stormsinger and cause wild magic surges. I went ES for Eldritch Aura, so the whole thing could be passive. I left it at warlock level 2 so that the aura damage was low, and I could get an idea how useful the lightning and surges were…

I just ran around areas letting the aura trigger things. Initially I was getting a lot of lightning bolts and surges (I was using the Wild Magic Action Boost some). Overall effectiveness was nothing special, but it was amusing just standing there, getting hit, triggering lightning, and then randomly getting healed by unicorns and regeneration…. But not enough to matter.

I logged out and tried it again the next day. After 20 minutes, not a single lightning bolt triggered. I toggled the aura and pact off and on, and that did not help. Wild surges were still happening, but no lightning.

Is there a known problem with the behavior of Eldritch Aura changing (probably counting as cold spell and not counting as cold - as wild surges still happened). Is there a way to fix it? If it hadn’t worked the first time, I’d write it off to not working at all, but it is weird that it worked for a while, and then went away completely (about 100 aura triggers or more on different monsters without a single lightning bolt). Has anyone made the aura work with Lightning Strike?

TL;DR - trying to figure out why Eldritch Aura stopped working with Lightning Strike after logging out and back in.

 

[rabidfox]

I just ran around areas letting the aura trigger things. Initially I was getting a lot of lightning bolts

Were you melee attacking things then too?

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

Were you melee attacking things then too?

Good question. Generally no, but I did test getting a higher level shadow blade and hit at least one or two monsters with it beforehand. I also cast 1-2 color spray with the chaos damage add on.

I wasn’t actively attacking during the aura tests, though.

 

[rabidfox]

As far as I'm aware warlock blasts (including aura) only count as generic spells for proc purposes regardless of pact type. SSG did special coding for EDs to proc based off specific pacts. So I would've assumed it never would proc the lightning via cold.

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

Based on the later behavior, that is what I would have guessed. But the first tests were causing a lot of lightning bolts.

No equipement, no spell casting except for the previously mentioned color spray and some cure light wounds. It doesn’t makes much sense how it worked for a while. I’ll see if I can recreate it.

 

[SpartanKiller13]

Based on the later behavior, that is what I would have guessed. But the first tests were causing a lot of lightning bolts.

No equipement, no spell casting except for the previously mentioned color spray and some cure light wounds. It doesn’t makes much sense how it worked for a while. I’ll see if I can recreate it.

Respec enhancements and try again? Maybe there's some flag being set that is lost on logging out?

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

I’ll give it a try this evening.

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

Ok, I think I can describe what is going on, but it is strange, and I must have melee attacked more than I thought I was, but here is what seems to be happening:

If I just stand there with the Eldritch Aura on, nothing happens. I added in Electrocution from the StormSinger tree, and it never triggers when Eldritch Aura fires.

But, if I melee attack (in this case completely unarmed), Electrocution starts to trigger when the aura fires. Moreover, I start getting fairly frequent Lightning triggers as well. If I block, I never see either Electrocution or Lightning trigger. If I start melee attacking again, I start seeing Electrocution and Lightning triggering again. This is the only way I can make it happen right now (I think).

I do not have Stormsinger's Inspiration on this character, and the proc rate is much higher than I have seen that give. If I am swinging (melee), it seems like I get Electrocution more than 50% of the time, and Lightning seems to be firing around 20%. No hard stats, so take that with a grain of salt. I have not been able to get Electrocution to trigger without making melee attacks.

It really looks like something about making melee attacks is letting Eldritch Aura count as a cold spell. Does that seem at all possible?

 

[Mindos]

something about making melee attacks

So do you actually have to hit, or just attack the air, or do glancing blows count too, etc?

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

Good question. I have always been actively attacking a target when it works, but I don’t know if it only fires after a successful attack. I’ll see if I can make it work just attacking air.

 

[rabidfox]

Auralocks are weird at times (well, buggy). For example, if you're multi-classed: casting a spell right after an aura tick can sometimes make the spell cast at CL of warlock levels instead of CL of class that the spell belongs too (ie- a 1 warlock/ 19 cleric may cast heal spells occasionally at lvl 1 instead of 19 effectiveness). So it having equally weird wonk related to melee attacks/aura pulses triggering things isn't outside the realm of expectations. Enjoy the fun. haha

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

So it looks like you don't have to make a valid attack (i.e. actually see a roll in the combat log), you just have to be swinging a weapon (or fist).
I did the following:
Stood next to a monster and let it attack me - result, no electrocution bonus or lighting strike.
Stood with my back to a monster and swung my fists at the air - result, electrocution eventually maxed out at 5 stacks, sometimes lightning would strike.
Stopped swinging and stood next to new monsters - result, no electrocution and no lightning strikes.
Stood away from any monsters and swung - result, no electrocution.

Repeated each a few times, and always got the same result. Not conclusive, but the pattern is consistent so far.

So for some reason, the trigger for the aura to count as a cold spell seems to be hitting the button to attack, not actually attacking. I confirmed in the log that I could make lighting strike and electrocution happen without a melee roll ever occurring, but I had to swing at air to make it happen. It also worked when I did attack a real target.

Not sure if ranged attacks or spell casting would work the same way.

Really strange behavior...

 

[Terranigma]

I've been playing with a character that has a bit of warlock recently as well and noticed the following:

• While attacking in melee, my active Imbue (which was Elemental Soul: Acid when I tested things) would also trigger on my Eldritch Aura.
• While throwing a shuriken, my active Imbue would also trigger on my Eldritch Aura. It would not trigger while reloading.
• While casting offensive spells (in this case Ki Bolt), my active Imbue would also trigger on my Eldritch Aura.
• While casting beneficial spells (such as Lesser Restoration, Cure Moderate Wounds, Reconstruction, etc), my active Imbue would NOT trigger on my Eldritch Aura.
• Using a wand would NOT cause Eldritch Aura's pulse to work if it happened while I was activating the wand. Also, equipping the wand would remove all spellpower bonuses from my Eldritch Aura and I would have to equip a weapon and attack to reset my Aura's spellpower back to normal. I did not have Wand and Scroll Mastery, so that might be the spellpower that takes over if I had it.
• Because I was using a Melee Power scaling Imbue, I believe when the Aura triggered the Imbue it was multiplying both the Aura's Spellpower and Imbue's Melee Power (my normal hits in melee were around 80 damage of imbue damage, while the Aura was closer to 250 damage of imbue damage at ~200 spellpower).

Seems like as long as you are doing an offensive action, you can get some added effects to also trigger on the Eldritch Aura. Eldritch Aura also seems to behave interestingly with elemental typing. I was able to trigger Fire, Light, Cold, Lightning, Sonic, Acid, Piercing, and Poison damage types from the Primal Avatar Epic Destiny (so I was able to trigger all of the related offensive types from Heart, Sky, or Thorn even though I was on Fey Pact), but only when I was actively doing an offensive action.

 

[SpartanKiller13]

I've been playing with a character that has a bit of warlock recently as well and noticed the following:

• While attacking in melee, my active Imbue (which was Elemental Soul: Acid when I tested things) would also trigger on my Eldritch Aura.
• While throwing a shuriken, my active Imbue would also trigger on my Eldritch Aura. It would not trigger while reloading.
• Because I was using a Melee Power scaling Imbue, I believe when the Aura triggered the Imbue it was multiplying both the Aura's Spellpower and Imbue's Melee Power (my normal hits in melee were around 80 damage of imbue damage, while the Aura was closer to 250 damage of imbue damage at ~200 spellpower).

Seems like as long as you are doing an offensive action, you can get some added effects to also trigger on the Eldritch Aura. Eldritch Aura also seems to behave interestingly with elemental typing. I was able to trigger Fire, Light, Cold, Lightning, Sonic, Acid, Piercing, and Poison damage types from the Primal Avatar Epic Destiny (so I was able to trigger all of the related offensive types from Heart, Sky, or Thorn), but only when I was actively doing an offensive action.

Huh. Sooooooo
You want a MP/RP scaling imbue that you don't reload a lot with. Presuming you don't want Inquis for reload requirements or Poison because it feelsbad you're down to: DL, KotC, or SF. Wanting 18 Warlock (for 2s auras) pops DL right off the list, so KotC (favored) or SF (wraps). Since SF is Light (until T4) KotC it is!

Obviously some Elf variant for AA dice. Anyway, time for some ballpark math!
18/2 Warlock/Pally

• 32 AA (+8 Imbue)
• 31 ES (2s Aura, +3 Imbue)
• 14 Elf (AA)
• 8 KotC (Divine Might, Imbue base)
• 7 Feydark (Cha-to-H/D)
• 3 VKF (Rapid Slash)

This is 95 AP (variants: drop 7 from KotC and 4 from FI, or drop 10 from AA and go T5 ES, or go VKF, etc etc whatever this is memes)

Imbue:

• 11 Enhancements (ES C5, AA T5)
• 6 Feats (Embodiment, Scion, Enh Ele Dice)
• 9 Destiny (we're making bad decisions here)
• 4 Gear (3 set bonus, 1 augment)
• 10 Filigree (Reverb 2, Snowpeaks 2, Elec 3, Snake 3, Beast 4)

40d6? Avg 140, before MP and SP scaling. Probs like 220 MP and 800 SP idk

• 140 (40d6 avg)
• 756 (200% x 220 MP)
• 6804 (800 SP)

I presume Inquis is just better, 15/4/1 sorta splits just running Warlock 1 and getting AoE proc every 5s?

• 165 (30d10 avg)
• 1320 (350 RP)
• 9240 (600 SP)

10k AoE every 5s? Would take some playing around to get used to, and doesn't even really seem worth the hassle unless you're new (and thus probs not this deep into some whack splits lol, let alone the investment required to support it).

I'm not convinced this is going anywhere wild, but was pretty funny lol.

 

[ChickenMobile]

Auralocks are weird at times (well, buggy). For example, if you're multi-classed: casting a spell right after an aura tick can sometimes make the spell cast at CL of warlock levels instead of CL of class that the spell belongs too (ie- a 1 warlock/ 19 cleric may cast heal spells occasionally at lvl 1 instead of 19 effectiveness). So it having equally weird wonk related to melee attacks/aura pulses triggering things isn't outside the realm of expectations. Enjoy the fun. haha

This actually can be beneficial. A 2 druid/18 warlock I played once often had their Lesser Vigor heal for over 100 positive each tick and was still useful in epics. It is supposed to have a max caster level of 6. Have no idea what it was doing XD

But, if I melee attack (in this case completely unarmed), Electrocution starts to trigger when the aura fires. Moreover, I start getting fairly frequent Lightning triggers as well. If I block, I never see either Electrocution or Lightning trigger. If I start melee attacking again, I start seeing Electrocution and Lightning triggering again. This is the only way I can make it happen right now (I think).

I can't really explain this behaviour. Sometimes effects cannot be triggered without being in 'combat' so perhaps hitting with a weapon triggers it and Eldritch Aura is just funky and doesn't.
E.g. Exalted Angel offensive aura will disappear and appear depending if in combat or not.

Eldritch Blast is unique in the way it counts as casting a spell but also counts as casting an elemental spell based on your pact when it is turned on. For example: Celestial* Pact is electric, so it counts as casting an electric spell. Make sure your pact toggle is on.

I am curious to know if default Eldritch Blast stance acts the same way .

 

[Pretty Good Old One]

I had a little time to test a few more things. I tried several different Imbues to see how well they worked:

Warchanter's Ice Imbue did not work with the Eldritch Aura, whether I was melee attacking or not.
Heishin Mystic Acid Imbue did work with Eldritch Aura, but only when melee attacking.
Ninja Spy Poison Imbue did not work with Eldritch Aura.
Paladin Light Imbue did not work with Eldritch Aura.
Sacred Fist Fire Imbue did not work with Eldritch Aura.

I suspect the HM Imbue works because it already works with HM spells.

I'll try a few more tomorrow, but it is looking like there are only a few useful interactions with the Aura.

 

[Tilomere]

That's also why they didn't link HeM and DD together, to stop the cross synergy imbues. So I guess that means the way to build a DD is to splash SF for imbue, and max imbue die. Then your spell DCs don't matter, they are DPS abilities.

If you were to pick up SF imbue + Ki 300% spells for draconic scaling, and combo it with DD abilities and healing ki, and even it all out with wild mage caster levels, you should have some sort of combo scaling build that works.

 

[ChickenMobile]

Heishin Mystic Acid Imbue did work with Eldritch Aura, but only when melee attacking.

This is even stranger!
I wonder if the Warlock light imbue applies to Ki Spells.

 

[Catholicon]

I wonder how much of this is what's supposed to happen (but aren't working consistently because of bugs), and what parts are happening when they shouldn't be, because of bugs?

 

[Tilomere]

None of it is bugged. The game works on snapshots, and ES warlock is designed to proc all on-spell hit effects.
5 DD T5, 4 WM T4, 11 SF T4?

I wonder how light of glory works with DD spells as well.