WHAT IS PIERCING?

Piercing is just one of those rare and interesting attributes that always favors a particular class, namely the Amazons. Combined with the Amazon Spells in conclusion can lead to an incredibly entertaining and often powerful build. But how exactly Piercing works? Is it necessary to strive for 100% pierce and do you know the benefits of it? Why do players usually hesitate to determine whether or not a 100% Pierce does anything more, especially at Cows? Let’s analyze several stuff!

Piercing happens when a Ranged Physical Attack includes a chance to penetrate through enemies and obviously, it only happens in a straight line similar to the projectile travels. Under normal conditions, a projectile stop when it meets its first target. Piercing provides you with a chance that the attack continues to the following target. The Piercing attribute has effects on only Ranged Physical Attacks and doesn't have an effect on Melee Attacks or with Spells. To avoid confusion, Piercing is generally referred to as Piercing Attack or a Chance to Pierce. Both of these titles should be the same. For example, a +33% Piercing Attack given in the Razortail is only the same as using a 33% opportunity to pierce.

WHAT IS PIERCING WORK?

Piercing works with:

Bows

Crossbows

Javelins

Throwing Axes

Throwing Knives

Piercing can go through a maximum of 4 targets so that you can press up to 5 targets as a whole. A higher % of Piercing will provide you with a higher opportunity to pierce through enemies however the chance pertains to each monster separately. If you have 80% Pierce it doesn’t imply that you are hitting five monsters 8 from 10 times. Every time that you simply hit a monster the sport will see if your projectile will travel to another monster. If the check is successful the sport will make the same check once it reaches the following target. Eventually, the 80% Pierce could be misleading because it’s way less when calculating hitting all 5 targets.

Let’s check a predicament with 80% Pierce.

Target 1: The projectile has an 80% opportunity for Pierce. The chance to pierce is 80%.

Target 2: The projectile has once more 80% to Pierce which is 20% under the 1st target. Chance to pierce 64%.

Target 3: The projectile has once more 80% to Pierce which is 20% under the 2nd target. Chance to pierce 51%.

Target 4: The projectile has once more 80% to Pierce which is 20% under the 3rd target. Chance to pierce 41%.

Target 5: If the check works on target 4, Pierce can finish on target 5.

As you can observe high Piercing doesn’t guarantee you Piercing that usually through all of the applicable targets. If the projectile doesn’t go through the first target, the Piercing ends. If the projectile doesn’t go through the second concentrate on the Piercing ends once more and so on. On top of that, you need to take your opportunity to hit into account. Piercing is only going to occur whenever a hit works. Every time a projectile travels there’s a cheque for it hitting and then there’s a cheque for it to Pierce. If the attack is unsuccessful no piercing will occur. Given also the fact that the attack hitting is capped at 95% it drastically reduces your opportunity to Pierce through 4 enemies despite as high Pierce as 90%-95%. So basically, the above-mentioned example would simply be valid with skills that never miss like the Lighting Fury. This is why 100% Pierce constitutes a huge difference because it guarantees to Pierce through all your targets so long as the hit works reducing the big difference that can occur with almost perfect Pierce. With a 95% opportunity to hit and 100% Pierce, you're still near 82% to Pierce through all enemies because there’s always the opportunity that a projectile will ultimately miss among the 5 targets.

If you want to skip farming or leveling, you can take a quick look at our D2R Ladder Items and d2 resurrected runes for sale!