Detonate

[You]

How does Detonate work? 
 

My pet just put the bomb on the exact spot where it is standing and blow itself off. I tried it with a few different pet sets and they are do the same thing. 

Does a pet always have to die I order for the power to work?

 

Do I have to stand in melee to get the most of it?

 

Thanks!

Edited November 10, 2019 by You

[Kommon]

Detonator is designed to sacrifice the pet that it's used on.  So yes, they die 100% of the time.  If it is used on Bots or Zombies (and maybe other non-human pets), the pet will detonate immediately.  Since Detonator grants the pet that's cast on the bomb power, the the bomb power will inherit whatever is slotted into the ability that summoned the pet.  I tested this during Live and on Homecoming.  Acc and Dam enhancements in Detonator have no affect on the bomb power that the pet will use, so DO NOT slot Damage or Accuracy enhancements into Detonator unless it is to mule set bonuses.

 

On another note, Detonator does more damage depending on the tier of pet you use it on, with your tier 3 pet doing the most damage.  If you make a bind that feeds your tier 3 pet a bunch of damage inspirations and then use the GoTo command to send the pet into a large mob before pressing the button, it can function as a poor-mastermind's nuke.

[You]

It would seems that using Lich would benefit the most as i) it is a boss pet for maximum detonation and ii) it is getting a better Soul Extraction pet afterwards 

[Kommon]

I wanted to make sure that I wasn't giving you out of date information, so I tested a few things today on my Bots/Traps and a Thugs/Traps I made on test server.   I tested once again slotting enhancements in to the detonator power itself, and I once again confirmed in my own testing that it had no affect after casting the power on a henchman.  This time, I went a bit deeper into how the power actually works (without going into the source code and all that).

This is what I gathered from my testing:

 

Human henchmen--

The planted bomb will not explode immediately.  Once detonator is cast on the henchman, they will be granted an auto power that does that following:

• Spawns a pseudo-pet Time Bomb that has a two second fuse.  The time bomb will deal a high amount of lethal and fire damage upon detonation.
• Grant the henchman a high magnitude afraid effect to itself so they attempt to run away.
• Knock itself back 2.13 seconds after initial power activation.
• Kill itself .12 seconds after the knockback affect.

Also of note for the planted bomb power, it has a higher damage scale than the bomb power that non-human henchmen are bestowed.

 

Non-human henchmen--

The Henchman will explode immediately.  Once detonator is cast on the henchman, they will be granted an auto power that will immediately deal a moderate amount of lethal and fire damage along with a high magnitude knockback to itself and any enemy within 25 feet, and then kill itself if the initial explosion doesn't kill it outright.

 

The significant difference between the two types of bombs are in how they are executed...

 

• For human henchmen, after the detonator power is used and after the henchman summons the time bomb pseudo pet, the time bomb will explode after two seconds, dealing high lethal and fire damage.  Accuracy, Damage, and Knockback Enhancements will still pass down from the original henchman summoning power all the way to the time bomb power that the henchmen plants.  Since the time bomb is a summoned pseudo pet and not one of the henchmen's actual powers, the bomb will use the Pet Melee damage modifier to adjust its damage, which is a scale 1.0.

• For non-human henchmen, once the bomb power is bestowed to them, the bomb auto power will use the Accuracy, Damage, and Knockback enhancements in the henchman's summoning power to modify the damage, and then immediately explode dealing high lethal and fire damage.  However, seeing as how the bomb power is now being executed by the henchman, the bomb's damage will be adjusted using the Henchman Melee damage modifier for whichever tier of henchman you used it on (Scales are 0.450 for Tier 1, 0.550 for Tier 2, and 0.650 for Tier 3).  This will result in significantly lower damage for this non-human henchman's bomb than the time bomb that the human henchman plant.

 

This probably balances out in some way...  Two ways to look at it:

• Non-human henchmen can give you instant damage to large mobs, but the damage won't be a large amount.  With 95% damage enhancement in the henchman summoning power and 25% from supremacy, it will deal slightly more damage than one trip mine with 95% damage enhancement.  If the henchman were damage capped prior to casting detonator on it, the bomb's explosion would not deal enough damage to kill an even-con lieutenant.

• Human henchmen can deal a greater amount of damage (almost 70% more damage), but are delayed in doing so, giving the enemy mobs time to respond and potentially kill or, at least, knock them back.  If the henchman were damage capped, the time bomb's explosive damage would be on the scale of a blaster hitting buildup and then using their tier 9 nuke ability with 95% damage enhancement.

 

 

Hopefully this information helps /traps users in taking/skipping/slotting this power from a practical, non-theme standpoint, and for everyone, helps understand how this power works.

 

Sigh... and here I am, doing all this research and testing for a power most people don't take anyway when I could be doing something useful around my home.  Procrastination.... IT'S A HELL OF A DRUG. 

 

[plainguy]

I tried it for a bit even getting the cool down to 5 minutes I found it just not worth having. 

I just was not overly impressed with it. 

For a 5 minute cool down it better killing everything in the room.  It has to be an insta-I-win button for the 5 minute cool down.

 

 

 

 

[Kommon]

While testing detonator, I discovered that procs do not work in certain pseudo-pet powers.  Trip Mine and Seeker drones are two those powers.  It's likely due to the way the pseudo pets execute their primary power.  With trip mine, the pseudo pet detects an enemy nearby, kills itself, and then automatically executes it's bomb power, whichcan only execute while dead.  Seeker drones behave a similar way in that the debuff and stun from flash pulse is executed only after the pet has died.

 

If anyone else can test this, please do.  I was looking forward to procing out those two powers...

[You]

Thanks all!!