After extensive use I’d estimate that the BLADE ability Impale Spirit/Exhume Spirit has about a 35-40% (a little less than half) fail rate of transforming from Impale Spirit to Exhume Spirit after initially being cast when cast from the correct range and on a successful hit (not a glance or a miss), PARTICULARLY (almost 2-out-of-3 fail rate) if used as the opening move in a fight or while not casting any other abilities. The second part of the ability is significantly more likely to proc if the ability is activated while casting a channelled ability (e.g. Tsunami) and with ability queuing turned on, but the chance of failure is still close to around 1-in-3. There’s nothing in the ability description that suggests that this chance of failure is intended, so I can only assume it must be a bug.
I just tested this out on a dummy in Agartha, taking two parses with and without the passive and I could not replicate what you imply happens when you use it. I know a few e17 folks who use that ability for their off-hand to bring expose. If it didn’t work, something would have been mentioned or said long before now. The only explanation that could be is that you are experiencing ability lag or desynch. Since you have to hit the button again rather quickly to make the second part of the ability work, you may be missing it.
I don’t use Tsunami or this power in my dps build. If this power is giving you issues, you should swap it out for a power that gives you better returns on your dps.
I actually use Impale/Exhume Spirit in e17 to bring Expose myself, and while performance seems to have improved ~noticeably~ these past two weeks, it is still randomly failing for no discernable reason. I don’t experience much noticeable ability lag in any other regards, and it’s not that I’m missing it: it’s that while standing in melee range, with no ‘weird’ effects going on that would prevent ability casting or any stuns or any shields in play to prevent attacks from landing (on bosses from Klein to Ur-Draug, fights where you can more or less stand-still and just dps), sometimes, seemingly at random, immediately after using Impale Spirit (and the ability doing damage) the ability then goes on immediate cooldown WITHOUT transforming into Exhale Spirit. Just instantaneously. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to it beyond what I’ve already mentioned: if I’m already IN combat, particularly if using a channelled ability (Tsunami), most of the time after I use Impale Spirit it will successfully transform to Exhale Spirit so that I can cast it again and provide Expose for the group. But SOMETIMES. . . nothing. Impale Spirit does damage and then immediately goes on cooldown without transforming into Exhale Spirit. If I’m NOT yet in combat, or if this is the first ability I use after running away from a boss aoe (say: HE 6) and then attacking again, it’s failure rate is MUCH higher.
Now, I agree. I would have expected people to report it before now if it was bugged, but I really don’t see ALL THAT MANY people other than myself who bring blade in E17 (even as an offhand), so maybe it’s JUST me, or maybe other people aren’t noticing the failures or are chalking them up to ‘huh, maybe I was SLIGHTLY out of range?’ / ‘Weird, did the boss have a shield up?’ – which were my initial thoughts when I first picked up the ability and started using it regularly a couple of months back. But again, after extensive use (running e17 dungeons and raids, oodles of lairs and regionals, and even just solo-play) I’m CONVINCED it’s actually bugging out and failing a substantial amount of time.
Now, I haven’t tested it on Agartha dummies much. I don’t know if the problem exists there. But try taking it into e17 and let me know if you encounter any problems? If you continue not to experience any difficulties with the ability, I’ll record one of my runs, post it on my Youtube channel, and then share it here.