The Curious Case of Savage Melee

[KelvinKole]

Accurate information about Savage Melee is hard to come by. I don't know the history of the set, but it honestly feels like a beta version that was pushed live. 

 

Let's start with the description:

 

"Tear at your foes with deadly animalistic attacks that primarily inflict Lethal damage and cause additional damage over time. Savage Strike, Maiming Slash, Vicious Slash and Savage Leap all grant stacks of Blood Frenzy. Each stack of this buff grants a small damage buff and endurance cost discount. You may have up to 5 stacks of Blood Frenzy active at a time. Blood Frenzy can be maintained, or it can be consumed to empower Shred, Rending Flurry, Blood Thirst and Hemorrhage. Using one of these consumers while you have 5 stacks of Blood Frenzy offers an additional benefit to these powers, but will also leave you Exhausted for a short time. While Exhausted you cannot build Blood Frenzy."

 

A couple things here are not true, or not working correctly. Shred does not consume Blood Frenzy, and neither does Blood Thirst. Shred grants 1 stack of Blood Frenzy and Blood Thirst grants 5 stacks of Blood Frenzy. It probably should read:

 

Savage Strike, Maiming Slash, Shred, Vicious Slash and Savage Leap all grant stacks of Blood Frenzy..........Blood Frenzy can be maintained, or it can be consumed to empower Shred, Rending Flurry, Blood Thirst and Hemorrhage.

 

Additionally, each stack of Blood Frenzy does not grant a small damage buff. Instead, it grants a +recharge buff and the endurance cost discount. You get 4% recharge per stack and 5.65% endurance discount per stack, no damage bonus:

But the power details says it gives a 6% endurance discount. Damn rounding.

What's the bug? You decide.

 

There's also just a bunch of missing information. Like the damage for Rending Flurry and Savage Leap:

 

And Blood Thirst only applies a +10% tohit +33% damage buff. Perhaps it was paired down from the typical +20% tohit and +80% damage of normal Build Up because of the +damage component of the 5 stacks of Blood Frenzy that it grants.....but we already mentioned how Blood Frenzy doesn't grant +damage....At least it lasts for 15 seconds instead of 10, though.

Edited February 18, 2020 by KelvinKole

[StrykerGaming]

I was talking with my gaming partner who runs his brute with Savage Melee. He read this thread then checked on his toon. He confirmed the OP's post as accurate as to exactly what it does IAW this post.

[Trickshooter]

I believe the description just describes the original design of Savage Melee, and either it was already mostly changed in the game files that Leandro got, or it was rebalanced by SCoRE during the dark times. So the bug is just that the main description has never been updated.

 

As for the damage entries for Savage Leap and Rending Flurry, they're missing because both of these powers aren't completely straightforward in how they work. Savage Leap's damage is actually done by a pseudopet and Rending Flurry redirects to other powers (or maybe pseudopets) depending on stacks of Blood Frenzy.

 

I assume Blood Thirst is the way it is because in addition to the ToHit and Damage, it's also essentially granting you +20% Recharge and +28%-ish Endurance Discount with the Blood Frenzy stacks.

[KelvinKole]

1 hour ago, Trickshooter said:

I believe the description just describes the original design of Savage Melee, and either it was already mostly changed in the game files that Leandro got, or it was rebalanced by SCoRE during the dark times. So the bug is just that the main description has never been updated.

 

As for the damage entries for Savage Leap and Rending Flurry, they're missing because both of these powers aren't completely straightforward in how they work. Savage Leap's damage is actually done by a pseudopet and Rending Flurry redirects to other powers (or maybe pseudopets) depending on stacks of Blood Frenzy.

 

I assume Blood Thirst is the way it is because in addition to the ToHit and Damage, it's also essentially granting you +20% Recharge and +28%-ish Endurance Discount with the Blood Frenzy stacks.

Agreed, the description probably just needs updating. 

 

I'm not actually sure Savage Leap is a pseudopet. It is a direct PBAoE attack that requires a target, like fireball, that happens to also teleport you. It's not ground targeted like other teleattacks that are pseudopet, and procs in a predictable way like a normal attack. Its damage is somehow dependent on the distance away from target, which adds some complexity but I would think can be quantified. Rending Flurry should actually be more straightforward, I think. it's just a PBAoE attack with bonus damage based on stacks of Blood Frenzy and a larger radius if you have 5 stacks. 

 

I probably agree with you on blood thirst, but if blood frenzy ever did do +damage then the value makes some sense; you'd net out at +53% damage for 15 seconds. When/If blood frenzy was changed to provide +recharge, that value may not have been adjusted. 33% seems low, or I'm just biased and want it to be higher. 

Edited February 18, 2020 by KelvinKole

[Trickshooter]

28 minutes ago, KelvinKole said:

I probably agree with you on blood thirst, but if blood frenzy ever did do +damage then the value makes some sense; you'd net out at +53% damage for 15 seconds. When/If blood frenzy was changed to provide +recharge, that value may not have been adjusted. 33% seems low, or I'm just biased and want it to be higher. 

The thing is, Blood Thirst didn't originally have +Damage that would be offset by the +Damage from Blood Frenzy; it was a self heal and HoT. Before Savage Melee was rebalanced, it had no source of +Damage at all except Blood Frenzy stacks.

[KelvinKole]

10 minutes ago, Trickshooter said:

The thing is, Blood Thirst didn't originally have +Damage that would be offset by the +Damage from Blood Frenzy; it was a self heal and HoT. Before Savage Melee was rebalanced, it had no source of +Damage at all except Blood Frenzy stacks.

Ah, okay. That's the history I didn't have. Thanks.