Spiral Knights - Observations about Virulent Quills

Observations about Virulent Quills

14 replies [Last post]

Thu, 09/19/2013 - 11:20

Wolfe-Knight

Virulent Quills are a bit confusing and some people do not understand what they do exactly. I recently got them and decided to do some testing to see exactly how they work.

-Each quill has a chance to explode and cause poison to all surrounding enemies (though this chance is so small I dont think it matters). The chance to explode from the initial firing only appears after 4 quills have hit a single target (so the 5th quill and on). [note: I have only seen this twice so it might be a bug which causes them to go off]

-Once a quill is on a enemy then broken it has a much higher chance to explode. The explosion looks and acts like a Fiery Vaporizer with knockback (the mist only lasts for 0.5-0.75 seconds). There is also damage from the explosion hurting everything in the blast.

-Shock ticks break quills and also cause the explosion so pairing the quills with Electron Vortex will provide the best poison coverage for a group.

-The poison caused by the blast seems to be High poison (it lasted as long as my DVS poison).

This has just been my very limited testing, if anyone has found my info to be wrong please tell me right away.

Fri, 09/20/2013 - 17:09

Skyguarder

I wish I could try to help you, but I don't really know much about Virulent Quills. All I know is that a quill has a chance to cause a poisonous explosion.

Fri, 09/20/2013 - 18:59

Wolfe-Knight

Hmm

No problem, this was more so people know what the ultimate does so they can choose which ult suits them best.

I have found that out of 4 quills at least 1 will explode into a poison mist. Those odds are very nice for what it does, even if the blast is small (no really, the blast is as big as a 2* mist).

Fri, 09/20/2013 - 21:18

Zeddy

I am interested in this topic. Could you attack Vanaduke with a normal or elemental damage weapon with and without quills and tell me the difference? Something strong per hit, such as Nitronome, would be ideal. Alternatively, Blitz Needle on the mask will work too.

Using that, I should be able to tell you how strong the poison on Virulent are.

Are you certain about Virulent's explosions leaving hazes? And the size? I didn't observe any of that when testing with Enfeebler.

Fri, 09/20/2013 - 21:37

Wolfe-Knight

Hmm

I may need help with testing on Vana as I do not have the arsenal required for good tests (all my data was gained from the guild training hall). If you would like to help with my project that would be more than welcome.

I just tried it with a friend and he said he didnt see the mist, so it might be host only. Here is 2 shots of what it looks like (I tried to get better shots but the mist doesnt last long)
quills 1
quills 2

Sat, 09/21/2013 - 01:27

Zeddy

Fascinating, though that size is nowhere near 2* bombs. It's more like a Valiance charge.

Does it really act as a haze? Have you seen enemies wander into it post-explosion? Seems a bit pointless if it's so short.

Sat, 09/21/2013 - 08:07

Wolfe-Knight

Hmm

It acts like a haze as long as something touches it (I got a slag to jump through it once and it worked) even if the time is short. I used the Fiery Vaporizer as that is the closest look I could get (I never really stayed at 2* with those bombs so I though that was the size). The length and size of it makes it not useful if you use it alone, but paired with a vortex bomb it will poison a horde of mobs easily.

Tue, 09/24/2013 - 10:15

Orbwanter

Sudaruska's first swing (DMG Ultra) does 326 to Vanaduke's body, 348 after regular quill poison, and 352 after a Virulent Quills explosion.

Tue, 09/24/2013 - 13:31

Zeddy

It appears Vanaduke has 5 poison resistance, not unlike most undead. The defence reduction (compared to 180 normal defence, I've mistakenly stated this to be 200 before, but I confused it with the mask's 200 defence against piercing and elemental damage) indicates regular quills to have 1 or 1.5 poison strength and virulent ramps it up to 4 (Strong poison, as found on Plague Needle and DVS).

You can see the appropriate defence reductions that results in on this chart. (-3.5 and -1)

Thanks for the Virulent numbers, Zeddy. Could you reproduce them on a training bag for me when you have the opportunity?

Tue, 09/24/2013 - 14:35

Batabii

Argh. Enemies have status resistance now too? Not just all or nothing? Why do they gotta make it so complicated and unpredictable?

Tue, 09/24/2013 - 23:44

#10

Orbwanter

309 first swing, 330 basic quills, 333 virulent poison on a training bag with the same gear. Interestingly, sometimes the stronger poison wouldn't be applied to the training bags after the explosion, which I've never seen happen in the wild.

I'm wondering if the Virulent Quills ultimate applies the otherwise nonfunctional poison upgrade to the explosion similar to how picking an Angelic Aura ult extends the duration.

Wed, 09/25/2013 - 00:29

#11

Zeddy

@Batabii
It's been known for a while. Darkfire Vana, for instance, is immune to Shivermist but not moderate and strong freeze. Status slimes are similarly immune to minor stun. Plus Ash of Agni deals six differents amounts of damage per depth depending on enemy.

@Zeddy
Basic quills might be +2 poison. I've been unable to find a difference between moderate poison and that on Vengeful Quills in GTH. Been kind of assuming +1.5 due to Drakon's statuses being 3 and 1.5 on Firebolt and Firestorm. Makes me wonder what the intended growth of the poison is.

On the other hand, +2 seems a bit high for those Vana numbers. Poison is kind of a pain to measure. Maybe my poison chart is just wrong.

Thu, 09/26/2013 - 15:43

#12

Zeddy

I got some more numbers

Triglav, first swing on Vana
clean: 326
venom: 346 (11.11%)
biohazard: 349 (12.78%)
masky: 348 (12.22%)
plague: 352 (14.44%)
vial: 354 (15.56%)

Nova, charge attack on mask
clean: 354
venom: 377 (11.5%, -5)
biohazard: 380 (13%, -3)
masky: 380 (13%, -3, quite possibly -3.5 but 12.63% is not distinct enough from 13%)
plague: 383 (14.5%, -1)
vial: 386 (16%, +1)

We also tested Nova's charge on vana himself, though not with poison. It appears Vana does indeed have 200 elemental defence, but 180 normal. So confusing...

I also don't know what's up with Maskeraith's poison. Sometimes looks like 1.5, others like 2.

Both the mask and Vanaduke have 5 resistance to poison, it seems.

Sat, 09/28/2013 - 05:43

#13

Geosmin

What are those percentages? I was assuming they were differences, the multipliers from "clean" values to Poison-boosted, less 1, but your comment on quill-boosted Nova caused me to see if 354 * 1.13 is something that rounds naturally to 380 and found that it's just a hair over 400. If not bonus due to Poison, what are they?

Sat, 09/28/2013 - 07:38

#14

Zeddy

@Geosmin

Reduction in enemy defence. Vanaduke has 180 normal defence and 200 elemental.

So 13% reduction in elemental defence represents an increase of 26 damage.

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Observations about Virulent Quills