Spear of lightning bugged

[u/Waste-Elevator-3315]

The description states that this attack now hits all foes between you and your target.
The damage seems to be the basic spear damage, the additional from the skill is not applied. Anthem of flame only applies on last target hit. The foes inbetween are never critically hit.

Unlike barrage, no extra adrenaline is generated per target it.

[u/kaehvogel]

The damage seems to be the basic spear damage

Not quite. It deals the additional lightning damage. I assume you're at 12 Spear Mastery, so 18 damage.

Against AR 60: 25% penetration -> AR 45 -> modifier 1.297; 18*1.297=23.35=23.
Against AR 80: 25% penetration -> AR 60 -> modifier 1; 18*1=18.
Against AR 100: 25% penetration -> AR 75 -> modifier .771; 18*0.771=13.88=14.

And since it's not an attack against these, it can't crit and it doesn't trigger any anthems.

[u/Waste-Elevator-3315 → u/kaehvogel]

Thanks for explaining.
The wording on the attack is not appropriate no? It says "strike all foes inbetween", the javelin goes through all foes so even visually it's weird, it doesn't teleport to my foe and fires a lightning bolt inbetween both ends 🤔
I expect it to be like volley or barrage.
Also unlike barrage it does not build up adrenaline other than for the final hit.

[u/kaehvogel → u/Waste-Elevator-3315]

The wording is definitely a bit off, yes. Something like "deals damage to all foes inbetween" would've been more appropriate.

[u/not_a_relevant_name → u/kaehvogel]

I hope they update the skill to act more like the tooltip instead of updating the language. The skill would be a lot more useful if it triggered things like splinter weapon and could crit etc.

[u/zyygh → u/kaehvogel]

And since it's not an attack against these, it can't crit and it doesn't trigger any anthems.

Is this how skills like Barrage and Cyclone Axe work as well?

[u/kaehvogel → u/zyygh]

Both of them can crit (individually) on every target they hit. But they only trigger anthems on one of them. Not sure how it's decided which one of them triggers, though.

[u/TalentedJuli → u/zyygh]

No. Cyclone and Barrage actually hit all the targets. You are essentially attacking multiple targets all at once, landing full hits on all of them. Lightning Spear now behaves like Cleave. You attack one target, but deal skill damage to other targets.

[u/JustinePavlovich]

Yeah its just Lightning Javelin's spell mechanic attached to the Spear of Lightning attack skill. Except instead of 50 lightning spell damage its 20 lightning spell damage.

I noted it on the wiki last week,

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedback_talk:Game_updates/20260826#Spear_of_Lightning

[u/DogeArcanine → u/JustinePavlovich]

To be fair, I believe 2weeks are still figuring out things and this most likely was a "easy" solution to the intended behavior. They just need to adjust the damage formula.

[u/ftranschel]

Irrespective of whether it is working as expected, I think it is in a good place for what it does now. Very rewarding and still requires a bit of skill, if only in ALT-TAB...

[u/Venthorn → u/ftranschel]

It's not rewarding at all, the damage is ass.

[u/DogeArcanine → u/Venthorn]

It's ass, does not generate adrenaline and is awful considering how bad "hit in a line" effects are in GW1.

[u/Waste-Elevator-3315 → u/ftranschel]

I would prefer it being a piercing attack like an equivalent of barrage in a line, still tricky to do actual good damage given foes do not line up,yet would deal 60+ damage per target. Given paragon have meaningless damage and mighty throw is out of equation, it would be nice, imho.

[u/AcrobaticAmphibie]

Does it trigger splinter weapon on the targets in line?

[u/TalentedJuli → u/AcrobaticAmphibie]

No. The targets in the line are not really 'hit' they just take some damage. It's as though you've damaged them with a non-attack skill. They don't trigger on-hit effects, no bonus damage you have (e.g. conjure lightning, brutal weapon) applies to them, don't generate adrenaline, don't apply conditions with something like Anthem of Flame or Apply Poison, etc. I would assume the damage similarly does not interrupt dazed targets, though this is trickier to test.

[u/AcrobaticAmphibie → u/TalentedJuli]

What a bummer on the game mechanics, but thx for detailed clarification!

[u/DogeArcanine]

There's some difference mechanically between this and barrage for example.

Lightning Spear does function normally against your target, all targets in between are hit by the skill damage. (Pretty much like Cleave since it was updated)

Cyclone Axe (and Whirlwind Attack for that matter) are a single hit upon all adjacent enemies.

Triple Chop for example (or Barrage) hits each target individually.

You will notice the difference when affected by Empathy or Vigorous Spirit - Cyclone Axe (and Spear of Lightning) would trigger this only once, while Triple Chop does multiple times.

Unaffected are anthems, since they are consumed on the first hit.

[u/AresReddit]

Well, it's 2weeks, what did you expect?