Lightning Pierce / Dark Strike

[Fuz]

So... noob question.
Which one is better?
I have Lightning Pierce in stealth even if I don't spec on it and the damage specced into it or not looks the same... so Dark Strike seems like an obvious choice.
Can anyone explain me how those are supposed to work?

[Keichi]

Lightning Pierce (Dark Strike 3rd tree) is a critical proc of Heart Stab. Lightning Crash is a proc of Heart Stab. That's the difference. The first one deals more but costs 1 focus, the second deals less but give you one focus back. I don't like Lightnight Pierce as it cost 1 focus. Even if it deals more damage than Lightning Crash, for each critical hit you do on Heart Stab, you will use 1 more focus, so you won't be able to spam in Stealth.

[Shadovvv]

57 minutes ago, Keichi said:

Lightning Pierce (Dark Strike 3rd tree) is a critical proc of Heart Stab. Lightning Crash is a proc of Heart Stab. That's the difference. The first one deals more but costs 1 focus, the second deals less but give you one focus back. I don't like Lightnight Pierce as it cost 1 focus. Even if it deals more damage than Lightning Crash, for each critical hit you do on Heart Stab, you will use 1 more focus, so you won't be able to spam in Stealth.

On the other hand, Lightning Pierce also reduces the cooldown of Lightning Rod (4), which if specced for Tier 3 Stage 3 it gives focus back. Plus with average crit rate you're generally alternating between Pierce and Crash, so you're getting some focus back as well. Even the weapon can restore 100% focus. Once we get Hongmoon Heart Stab which gives 1 focus back on crit, we virtually shouldn't be having no focus.

 

Anyway, both skills are critical to their respective builds:

• Dark Strike is much stronger, and additionally has bonus damage on enemies with 5x poison stacks. Dark build is overall more versatile since it's not over-reliant on stealth. However, until you manage to get Venom Slash (3, Shadow Slash Tier 5 Stage 4) and later Hongmoon Mist Slash Tier 5 Stage 2 (Venom Pierce available on crit), you don't have any reliable ways of keeping up 5 poison stacks, so don't use Dark Strike right now, and there's almost no situation in a Lightning stealth build where you're using Dark Strike anyway.
• Lightning Pierce is huge extra damage and reduces the cooldown of Lightning Rod in a Lightning stealth build. Lightning Rod Tier 3 Stage 3 has a 6 second cooldown but no area of effect arc, doesn't put you out of stealth, gives back some focus, and deals extra damage especially on poisoned enemies.

[Fuz]

Thanks guys. Much clearer now.