This could be my problem. I am new to the game (not to ARPGs though). I tried searching for other ways to inflict possessed but found none.
Possesed is unique to Hungering Soul, but there are ways to trigger Hungering Soul without manually casting it.
On example would be Death Seal’s Devouring Release Node.
In a MP environment you could also have one of your party members inflict it.
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Party play, Minions that cast Hungering Souls, other skills that auto-cast it.
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Not sure why the person who was trying to “help” the OP is being so pedantic. He’s missing the point entirely: the skill is horribly designed.
It seems to be correct that:
- You cast hungering souls and it gives you a buff for 8 seconds.
- If that hungering souls happens to hit and possess a mob for 1.5 seconds…
- Your other dots will deal extra damage on the possessed mob only, as long as you still have the 8 second buff.
Of course, you’re never not going to have the 8 second buff up. It’s redundant and confusing because you expect it to do something within itself. Not also interacting with possess.
In reality, the skill should have been designed as:
- Possess also increases the damage of all other dots by X%
Simple as that.
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This is one of those you read things how you want to read things moments, both Heavy and Bronco explained the node as thoroughly as possible, multiple times.
The node reads fine to me, but I am also not well versed in the the possessed ailment. If casting hungering souls is the only way to inflict the ailment, perhaps I would agree with you, but again like I said, I do not know if there are other potential sources.
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Casting hungering souls and having it connect with a single mob is the only way to trigger possessed.
The talent is so technical that most people assume it’s simply wrong or vague.
The second problem is that you have a buff to watch for 8 seconds that is simply pointless. You want to watch the possessed debuff on the boss. But guess what? Possessed does not show up as a debuff under enemy’s health bars.
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Thank you for the clarification! In that case, I dont see how changing the wording would harm anything, if op was confused by it than I am sure others were as well. Nothing wrong with making things easier to understand.
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TLDR: Inspired Hunger’s buff only takes effect for 1.5 seconds against possessed enemies not 8 seconds.
I’m currently using a DoT Lich (No Reaper and Death Seal) and am using Hungering Souls with an Inspired Hunger node. I read the entire thread and I can say that GNIHT has a point here.
I tested my Aura of Decay, Spirit Plague, and Wandering Spirits in the Arena dummy, and the increase in damage for DoT only applies when you hit enemies and get possessed for 1.5 seconds.
It seems that the skill node is not described well since the 8 seconds buff only applies when the enemy is possessed which again only applies for 1.5 seconds.
The buff will not increase your DoT when your target is not possessed so it doesn’t matter if you have a damage buff for 8 seconds from Inspired Hunger because in order to maintain the increased damage, you also need to continuously cast Hungering Souls.
At max stacks, my Aura of Decay deals 7k to 8k damage per second. If I use Hungering Souls, it gets boosted to 17k to 19k per second and reverts its damage to normal after only 1.5 seconds, not the entire 8 seconds buff.
There are ways to work with the 8 second buff without the need to directly cast Hungering Souls every 1.5 seconds.
Either you find a way to get enemies possessed without directly casting Hungering Souls and only use it every 8 seconds to keep this buff up or you use it as main skill anyway and don’t need to worry about it at all.
I am still not sure why or what is unclear about the behavior of this node.
But it might come from fact, that there are only very few ways to apply possessed.
Maybe we will get more sources of possessed in the future through new skills or items and then this node might be a little bit more clear.
Yeah, that’ll be why. Unless you’re getting Hungering Souls cast by some other route/mechanic, you’d need to keep casting Hungering Souls every 1.5s…
I haven’t seen any other skill that grants the “Possess” status on enemies aside from Hungering Souls.
I’m looking forward to this.
Hungering Souls is the only skill that can apply Possessed, but the 8second buff has a directly cast condition.
There are ways to trigger Hungering Souls, which would apply Possessed, but you only needing to directly cast it every 8 seconds.
Aa both Heavy and I have said, you can get Hungering Souls cast for you by other skills, notably Death Seal & Skellie Mages (Death Knights).
I think the confusion (which I shared at first glance) comes from the fact that the buff looks dumb. You cast a spell that buffs you for 8s but inflicts the necessary ailment required by that buff for only 1.5s. That just feels weird. Means you need to need to find another way to Posses or you have to spam Souls, at least every 1.5s, which makes the 8s duration of the buff seem a bit pointless. (Yes I know players will likely use Death Seal to auto-cast Souls, but at first reading it seems weird).
My first reaction was to scan the Souls skill tree looking for the associated node that extends Posses time, but there isn’t one.
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