Curse

Aigred · May 09, 2006, 03:04 AM // 03:04

For those of you not familiar with it, here is the description of Vengeful Weapon:

5 energy, 1/4 sec cast, 3 sec recharge

Weapon Spell. For 8 seconds, the next time target ally takes damage from a foe, that ally steals up to 15..47 Health from that foe.

At 13 Restoration, it steals 50 health, and at 16 restoration, it steals 58 health.

I did a bunch of tests to figure out how Vengeful Weapon (VW) works in more detail.

When does Vengeful Weapon steal life?

VW steals health BEFORE you take damage.

For example, if you are at 20 HP, and you have a 13 Restoration VW on you (50 lifesteal), if you are hit for 40 damage, you will not die. You will end up with 20 + 50 - 40 = 30 HP.

The curious thing about the lifesteal-before-damage aspect is that if the foe who hit you dies as a result of the lifesteal, he still does damage to you even if his attack was melee.

Does Vengeful Weapon work with Emissary's Armor (+15 AL while under a Weapon Spell)?

Yes, even though VW disappears when you take damage, it counts as you being affected by a Weapon Spell at the moment that you are struck.

For example, with a max damage 15-22 sword, 13 Sword spec, and 13 Strength, Wild Blow hits an AL 60 target for 44, and an AL 75 target for 35. If you are wearing armor that grants +15 AL while under a Weapon Spell, and you are wielding VW, and you get struck on that armor by a 13 Sword, 13 Strength Wild Blow, you will steal health, then take 35 damage, then VW ends.

What does it mean to "steal up to X Health"?

VW will always do its listed lifesteal amount. If you are at full health and you take damage, a 13 Restoration VW will steal 50 HP from your foe. What the description means is simply that your current health does not go over your maximum, but you will still see the cyan +50 pop up over your head and the caster of VW will still see a yellow -50 float over the foe's head.

What kinds of damage will trigger Vengeful Weapon?

All attacks and Attack Skills will trigger the lifesteal.

Most Spells that do direct damage will trigger VW. It might even be true that all direct-damage spells will trigger VW, but I did not test every single one of them since there are hundreds.
Examples of spells that will trigger the lifesteal are:
Flare, Chaos Storm, Enervating Charge, Lightning Orb, Lightning Strike, Obsidian Flame, Energy Burn, Incendiary Bonds (after 3 seconds), Mind Shock, Remorse, Shatter Delusions, Images of Remorse, Scourge Healing, and Balthazar's Aura.
Also, Dust Trap will trigger VW.

What kinds of damage will NOT trigger Vengeful Weapon?

Generally, hexes that cause you to take damage in response to an action will not trigger the VW lifesteal.
Examples of Spells that do not trigger VW are:
Empathy, Wastrel's Worry, Mind Wrack, Clumsiness, Backfire, Mark of Subversion, Holy Wrath, Retribution, Shield of Judgement.

Most traps will not trigger VW. Barbed Trap and Flame Trap do not. It is interesting to note that unlike Dust Trap, which does trigger VW, these traps do not show the trapper any yellow damage numbers when they go off.

How does Vengeful Weapon interact with Reversal of Fortune?

Cryptic answer: it doesn't.

Both spells behave the same way regardless of whether the other one is active.
VW will lifesteal if you take damage, even if the damage is 0. RoF will mitigate its normal amount of damage regardless of how much life you steal as a result of VW.

Thanks to ArenaNet for the awesome Guild Scrimmage mode which enabled me to run my tests.

galkraft · May 10, 2006, 10:16 PM // 22:16

very nice. Before reading this I probably would've never taken the skill seriously. I would still rate Reversal of Fortune higher, especially with help from Divine Favor, but admit that there are times when Vengeful Weapon would be more effective.