So...Purifying Fire. Anyone figure how it works yet?

rubytrue

So I've been playing around with Purifying Fire, and I am getting some really, really random results. As you might figure, it behaves quite differently than what the tooltip would suggest. For one, when it procs, it is doing a lot more damage than what you might expect; it seems to be interacting with different buffs, but I haven't really sorted it out yet. Also, it seems to proc at really random times; some times it will proc right after an encounter, and other times that same encounter won't allow it to proc. The tooltip suggests that the encounters cancel the effect, but I can't figure out the timing. I've tried testing to see if there was some type of internal cooldown to explain why encounter powers seem to randomly proc it or block it, but I can't discern any regular pattern. (For clarification, I understand that it is actually at-wills that proc Purifying Fire, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to what gives it a "go." In other words, I can at-will x5 (proccing Purifying Fire on each hit); use an encounter to cancel/reset the purifying fire effect, and it seems to be totally random as to whether or not it resets. FWIW, it seems to be a real doozy with radiant strike.

Any clarification is greatly appreciated.

rubytrue

So, playing around with it some, it seems to behave somewhat similarly to AoC in that it looks to scale off of power, some debuffs, and Feytouched.

I still can't find any rhyme or reason as to what allows at-wills to proc it.

The tooltip says it lasts for 60 seconds, but sometimes I can get it to proc (5x at wills) several times within a 60 second time frame , and other times I can't. Even stranger, on test dummies, radiant strike will proc purifying fire on some dummies, but not others, then it will proc on the other dummies, but not some of the dummies that were recently hit by purifying fire. However, there is no consistency in how that works.

Thoughts?

armadeonx

I haven't done any testing but anecdotally I can say that it does appear to do a lot more damage than the tooltip suggests.

junius

A paladin on the facebook group did some testing on PF. It scales with power, some buffs and debuffs and Feytouched. It behaves more like a debuff; your at-wills apply 1 PF and it does x% weapon damage, then it does nothing for 60 seconds until you apply another PF. Once it stacks 5x; you cannot apply another stack and further hits with at-wills do not apply any more stacks of PF. You must rinse off the stacks with an encounter. We found out that some encounters do not remove the debuff. here is the rundown:
Blinding Light: No
Sacred Weapon: No
Smite: Only on the smited target
Bane: Only on the Baned targer
Templar's Wrath: Yes
Binding Oath: Yes
Cleansing Touch: No
Banishment: Yes, but Zero damage until banishment ends, however, when it does end, damage starts at current stack
Divine Touch: Yes
Vow of Enmity: Only on Vowed target
Absolution: No
Relentless Avenger: Yes
Circle of Power: No

rubytrue

junius#6073 said:

A paladin on the facebook group did some testing on PF. It scales with power, some buffs and debuffs and Feytouched. It behaves more like a debuff; your at-wills apply 1 PF and it does x% weapon damage, then it does nothing for 60 seconds until you apply another PF. Once it stacks 5x; you cannot apply another stack and further hits with at-wills do not apply any more stacks of PF. You must rinse off the stacks with an encounter. We found out that some encounters do not remove the debuff. here is the rundown:
Blinding Light: No
Sacred Weapon: No
Smite: Only on the smited target
Bane: Only on the Baned targer
Templar's Wrath: Yes
Binding Oath: Yes
Cleansing Touch: No
Banishment: Yes, but Zero damage until banishment ends, however, when it does end, damage starts at current stack
Divine Touch: Yes
Vow of Enmity: Only on Vowed target
Absolution: No
Relentless Avenger: Yes
Circle of Power: No

Thanks for posting that here; I didn't get around to copying it over here since I had to go to bed for an early day today. (I was the Pally who posted those results on Facebook. Shout out to Joon for the initial testing showing that BL didn't refresh PF.) I can't really play the game for a couple of days as I have spotty internet where I am at, so I am doing a bit more testing since the Trade of Blades isn't too resource intensive.

Anyway, here are some more findings:
*Judge increases PF damage.
*Bane increases PF damage (but it doesn't refresh it, or conversely, cancel out PF if you cast it before you start attacking with at-wills).
*CoP also increases PF damage as does Vow
*Encounters and feats/features (such as Judge) stack; so you can get CoP, Judge, and/or Bane (or Vow or any combination) to stack, but you have to activate those powers before you start your at-wills; limitations on number of targets (see Bane and Vow above) are still applicable. To refresh PF, you must activate an encounter listed above that is denoted as refreshing PF.

*At 5 points in PF and 5 stacks, Radiant Strike becomes a pretty formidable AoE At-Will; typically, at 5 stacks PF is doing over 300% of the damage that Radiant Strike is doing.
*FWIW, with 5 points in PF and 5 stacks, PF does more damage than any At-Will available to Paladins.

It looks like, at least for a ProtOP, PF should always be picked over Prism from a purely damage dealing perspective due to the limited proc rates from BG/HW.

dupeks

I haven't done extensive testing, but I've been running a purifying fire as one of my main sources of solo trash damage for as long as I can remember.

As far as I understand, At-Will procs deal damage and also apply as an effect that stacks up to 5 times, increasing damage with each stack. At 5 stacks, it prevents any more damage procs until cleared.

You clear it with damaging targeted encounters. You can clear it prematurely (before 5 stacks), but this resets the damage.

And yeah it makes radiant strike fantastic for wiping trash while soloing. Combined with AoC it's usually enough to kill junk mobs without needing to clear stacks (within 5 hits).

rubytrue

I have a question regarding the Shielding Strike mainhand artifact power: Do you need to use three strikes of Shielding Strikes to apply the Shield, or will other at-wills both create and refresh the Shield. If I am understanding the tool-tip correctly, other at-wills will only refresh the Shield...but you never know with Neverwinter tool tips. If other at-wills will both create and refresh the Shield, Radiant Strike would pretty much put you in immortal mode since it refreshes the Shield 50% of the time.....

And dupeks is correct about trash mob clearing; outside something like a Tyrannosaur, mobs wouldn't last the full five strikes.....

junius

ASFAIK.... you have to get shield with SS first, then you can refresh it another at-will

aday

You guys think this Purifying Fire feat is best to invest 5/5 points on it, or rather split it putting 3/5 on Prism, and then taking, maybe, Burning Guidance boon in order to grant some damage on healing?

ambulates

@rubytrue you need to apply the 3 shields first then use the second at will like valorious strike or oath strike to keep the stacks applied

artifleur

I never understood why some people insist on taking prism instead of purifying fire for their prot op loadout.