Help with Split Shot

starcher

I think someone in a Zone chat said that split shot can hit one enemy multiple times if it charges long enough for the arrow spread to be narrow enough for a single target. I'm a new player and confused on how this would be practical due to taking at least 3 second to be narrow enough to hit all arrows from decent range. I spend a ridiculous amount of time lining up these shots in PVE and in PVP I'm dazed/proned before I even finish charging it. Wouldn't it be better to be just constantly hitting with Rapid Shot for single target dps? I have a Rogue as well and with Duelist's Fury it seems like I'm pumping out much more damage in 3-4 seconds than one narrow enough Split Shot. Is it worth it to even use Split Shot for single target? I'm level 15.

elminster

kay first off whoever told you fully charging Split Shot to single target gives you multiple hits was full of HAMSTER. All it does is reduce it to a precision point instead of sweeping a zone. Ideally you'll only charge for about half a second (half charged bar) for optimal damage with decent spread and rate of fire.

Second, if you do what I just said about only half-charging split you'll notice you do at least twice as much damage as rapid. Now this is where it gets tricky and where you as a player need to decide what's best for your play style. Long explanation from here, read if you dare

You essentially have three working skills to choose from in archery stance for your at-will skills: Split Shot, Rapid Fire, and Aimed Shot. Split should always be on your bar, as this is probably our single most powerful skill overall and the one you'll use the most. So that leaves a choice between Rapid or Aimed. Both are single target, but Aimed takes approximately 4 seconds to cast and is the hardest single hitting skill on your list, while Rapid you can fire twice per second and hits for a fraction of the damage of Aimed in the same amount of time. No brainer right? Wrong.

With archery tree you have access to a feat called Prime Critical that allows you to reduce the cooldowns of your encounter powers by 0.5 seconds every time you land a critical. This means that while Rapid might only do 2.5k damage per hit versus Aimed Shot which hits critical well over 30k, it's making up for that damage by giving you access to your encounters faster. Faster encounters means faster damage but doesn't always mean more damage, so it comes down to you to decide which is going to yield more damage overall.

Just a tip: Pay attention to your party structure. Control Wizard has a daily called Singularity that draws all targets in the area to a single point and holds them there for about 3 seconds. If you time your Rain of Arrows to launch on top of that skill you'll also be hitting those same targets at the same time, multiplying the effectiveness of both skills many times over. On the other hand if you have a tank and you're focused on bringing the boss down, then max damage is the key and faster encounters won't help you much.

elusiveonen7

Excellent post elminster, I agree with all of it.

tickdoff

I think that part of the misconception with Split Shot is a lag/latency issue. Occasionally I will see SS fire 2 times (real fast) with just one use of the power, but I do not think that it is doing damage both times, it is just a graphical glitch possibly caused by lag. If that is what is happening then it would account for the misconception that split shot is firing twice. I have seen several people say that SS hits 2 times, so it is not an unusual thing to see.

angrysprite

EDIT to add: Elminster's description is nicely pithy and spot-on.

The narrowing of the Split-Shot "field-of-fire" is a power-charge. Yes, it *appears* to be sending five arrows into a single target when at it's narrowest on release. At least the "arrow animation" appears to be thicker than tan the animated arrow in Rapid or Aimed shot. -shrugs-

Regardless of what is actually happening: it is a FACT that the narrower the field of fire the more powerful the damage from the shot. If you fully "charge" it up to its narrowest you will deal massive damage to the target, not quite as much of what Aimed Shot does (maybe 50-60%?)

Split Shot is at its weakest when you fire the moment the field of fire appears (but allows you to spam it) - you hit up to 5 target but each target is hit with the weakest damage. If you can narrow split shot so the field of fire just covers your group of targets it will deal more damage.

Obviously this is not feasible in PvP and perhaps even in PvE in most cases. But in Solo play, the first shot at a mob: target the elite and go full power (narrowest field of fire, longest charge) for the biggest damage off that one shot. As for whether five "arrows" are being slung? I'm not sure. It *looks* like five arrows are being slung (and wouldn't be surprised if this were the case) - but the damage increase is a FACT. I've tested, retested and re-retested countless times. I always go with as much charge as I'm able on Split Shot.

So to the OP: It does't matter if there are actually five model arrows being sent to the encounter, what matters is that there really is a damage "scale" based on how narrow the aiming reticule is: the narrower the more powerful the damage hit on the encounter.