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), and none who use Impale/Exhume Spirit, so maybe it’s JUST ME who’s having the problem, or maybe other people don’t run with it often and 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.
Like, I just did an early morning (US) Megaboss with Agnito a few moments ago, and verified it in the combat log. My first attack (to open the fight, with Expose) with Impale Spirit hits successfully (and crits), but then IMMEDIATELY goes on cooldown without transforming into Exhume Spirit first, or giving me any opportunity to cast Exhume Spirit. Exhume Spirit (obviously) does not show up in the combat log, so it’s not that I’m double-tapping too fast and just missing it. It just isn’t available. Then, 20 seconds later, when the ability comes back off cooldown, I cast it again, another crit hit, and then it SUCCESSFULLY transforms into Exhume Spirit, with the little yellow timer bar that lasts for five seconds and gives me plenty of time to tap it again and cast Exhume Spirit. I do this, it successfully hits and crits, and applies Expose.
The very next Megaboss, I successfully cast both Impale + Exhume Spirit four times over the course of the fight without it failing.
Third Megaboss, it again fails immediately on the initial cast, starting my attack on the boss (standing in melee range), with Impale landing and doing a crit hit but failing to transform into Exhume, but the following two casts that same fight are successful.
Fourth Megaboss, fails on the initial cast, succeeds on the following three.
Fifth MB, ability SUCCEEDS on transforming during initial attack, even while still running in to attack, FAILS to transform into Exhume on second cast (standing still directly in front of boss), SUCCEEDS on the third.
This is all pretty typical of my experiences. Most of the time (but not always), if already in-combat (and especially while using a channelled attack like Tsunami) Impale successfully transforms into Exhume upon cast. But most of the time it FAILS as a combat-opener, or if there’s a lot of movement during a fight and you stop attacking the boss for a moment to dodge an AOE or reposition, if used again immediately afterwards (even if not moving while casting) it often fails on first cast, then succeeds on subsequent casts.
For the record, I am using Tsunami, so each of the subsequent casts are initiated while Tsunami is channelling and are ability queued for a half a second or so before activating.
It’s not an UNMANAGEABLE problem (especially these past two weeks, wherein performance seems to have substantially improved), but it is an annoying one. It would be nice to be able to reliably apply Expose while everyone else in a five-person e17 is casting their beginning-of-fight buffs (OS, Draw Sword, Draw Blood, etc.)
I’ve had that problem a couple of times when playing with it main hand, but never with my AR/Blade offhand build.
What actives, passives, and weapons are you using? Never know, it could have something to do with it
I exclusively run Blade main-hand. Blade/Chaos, Blade/Ele both experience the same bug. I use three different Third Age Brand weapons (still levelling the Seventh Son Havoc blade I finally got) in different contexts (Energy, Havoc, Restoration) and they all have the same problem. It does not seem to matter what abilities (active or passive) I use, as I switch back and forth between very different builds regularly for soloing, e17 dungeoning, MBs, tanking, etc.
I never run any other weapons main hand on this character, so I don’t have any experience using Blade off-hand. It may be that the bug is confined solely to main-hand use (bugs are weird like that.)
Thanks for chiming in, though, I have often wondered whether it was just me. As Illesdan says, after six years, you’d think someone else would have noticed it, right? But after months and months of running the ability in a variety of contexts and noticing it fail over and over again, well…
Good to know I’m not the only one who has noticed it.