Archer question [Mind + Sekhmet]

[Hyperion²]

I did some testing, and the results were as following:
- paths @ lvl 100, max kyudo, mental strike, center power
- sekmeth @ lvl 40, max skilled shot, bow mastery, power shot

mental strike did more dmg than skilled shot; tested on legendary on boars outside the forest.

I removed 75 points in bow mastery and didn't seem dmg from mental strike was affected: same solid dmg as before.
So I realized that bow mastery is a passive increasing for skilled and power shot only, and it doesn't take into the dmg calculation if i use other skill, such as mental strike. Correct me if i'm wrong.

So, if bow mastery and skilled shot are useless if i use mind as an archer, what other skills do remain? Only a few, and not core ones.
IE: power shot: yes it's very powerfull, but it has a very long initial cast time (I really appreciate you inserted this: it seems so realistic!! thanx for the attention to details), so in the meanwhile you fire 1 power shot, you can fire 2 or more mental strike and do more damage.

So I selected khloros, and the ias increased was really huge, more dps, and more options to an archer than sekmeth did: pets, huge oe spell (that perfectly matches with psychic ward: cast psychic ward and pale wind in open space, the second one damages and attracts many foes, that come to you, you recast the ward again, and no one is left...).

So i started mind + khloros, i picked up the second path only later in the game, and the run speed was no more a penalty but a bonus thanks to fury of beasts.
My intention is to finish lilith normal, and then starts legendary.

[ShadowLAnce]

I don't see why Bow Mastery wouldn't apply to all attacks, but if that's the case then its a problem with the titan quest engine and sad

[Hyperion²]

Because bow mastery is not a passive skill like kyudo in mind's path; it's a sinergy for skilled and power shot.
A passive mastery is unlinked with other active skills (see kyudo), while a sinergy is linked, and its boni are granted only while you use the linked active skill (see bow mastery and its visual link to power and skilled shot).
Test i have done confirms this: otherwise, 75 skill points in bow mastery would have a clear effect on mental strike, and it didn't.

[ShadowLAnce]

There's no actual link there. I manually added the UI connecter, it's just graphical

[Hyperion²]

Well, so the graphical connector is wrong.
I'll redo some other testing.

[ShadowLAnce]

Many of the graphical connecters in the mod connect things like multiple active abilities (not possible to synergize). Often this is because they are prerequisites but sometimes it's just organization. I changed some of that when I removed the links between stances, but some still remains.

[ShadowLAnce]

Alright decided to do some testing.

Starting out with a basic bow, no prefix or suffix, no skills, with an average damage of 313. I shot some satyrs and that # was accurate.

Next I added in Mental Strike with max Center Power. No increased damage on the character screen of course. Should be getting +64% total damage. 313 * .64 = 202.32 + 313 = 515.32 average damage. When I test-fired, my hits ranged from 460 to 625, so that's accurate.

Next I added in 75 points of Bow Mastery. This increased my displayed average damage to 642. I did some test firing and my hits ranged from 449 to 775. So that's accurate. Next I used Mental Strike, which should give me 642 * .64 = 410.88 + 642 = 1052.88 average damage. My hits ranged from 870 to 1230, so that's accurate.

Next I tested Skilled Shot for the hell of it, to see how it compares. The math is more complicated but we have the Mental Strike numbers to compare it to. My hits ranged from 830 to 950. A drop, as I predicted, but not a terrible one considering all of the debuffs it applies. Whereas Mental Strike has stronger consecutive hits because of the resistance debuff.

Then for the hell of it I tried out Power Shot. My hits ranged from 3478 to 6130. That's roughly 5 Mental Strike hits at once (WITH bow mastery). The animation is slow, but it's roughly the length of 2 regular shots. Can also punch through multiple enemies. And yes powershot goes faster with more attack speed, so it will always be the same speed ratio to regular attacks.

As a last note, and this is particularly sad because I didn't catch it until just now... Stance of Calm in Mind lists -100% total damage, but it really doesn't. It reduces your damage heavily, but I can't tell exactly how much. That messes up my balancing of that particular skill--so it's overpowered.

Anyways, had fun testing. Lots of flying satyrs

[Hyperion²]

I tested quite a bit, and yes, bow mastery increases dmg with mental strike: 4k mean dmg on boars and spiders out of the forest in lilith mod, with +50% pierce dmg from sekmeth stance with the 2nd shot from mental strike.
Repeated with khloros, and i found this mastery a better one for a pure archer, by far.
Maxed earthen skin passives and poison affinity, and found 4k+ dmg on 2nd shot from mental strike, but it was simply faster due to the huge attack speed bonuses.
Consider also that:
- you need 75 skill points to max bow mastery, many points more than the all the ones required by khloros mastery
- +dmg do not get increased from neither str or dex or pierce or total dmg: since my gear was really crappy (only bow shopped at the merchant, and nothing of interest), the dmg output from bow mastery would be mitigated with a better gear
- +ias increasing from khloros is simply a huge bonus; mean numbers can't describe this, but you simply kill mobs faster
- moviment increasing is quite a good bonus for an archer
- better and more skills in the khloros mastery than the only the 3-4 ones you can choose from sekmeth mastery