Pierce Class: Amazon Required Level: 30 Skill Tree: Passive and Magic Skills Requires: Critical Strike, Penetrate Passive Grants a chance for your missile attacks to continue through its victim. Damage Type: Physical |
Pierce is an Amazon Skill in Diablo II.
Lore
After long hours of training, an Amazon warrior's bow arm can develop tremendous amounts of strength. With this strength, and some additional training, the Amazon is able to maximize the power of her bow, enabling her to penetrate multiple targets with a single arrow.
General Information
Synergies
- Gives synergy to: None
- Receives synergy from: None
This ability gives all missile attacks a Piercing trait, adding chance for any missile attacks to pass through foes into another target after striking. This ability is very useful for many ranged Amazon builds. Abilities used with the missile trigger with each enemy they hit. For example, Immolation Arrow leaves a small area of burning ground for each enemy it goes through with the help of Pierce. Piercing monsters is also incredibly good with weapon "procs" (such as the Chance to cast Amplify Damage on Witchwild String), as each monster pierced gives a separate opportunity to trigger the effect.
Pierce works with Bows, Crossbows, and ranged Javelins, but does not work with the Guided Arrow skill.
Pierce stacks additively with Razortail (Unique Sharkskin Belt), or bows that have inherent Piercing ability (such as Kuko Shakaku). With Razortail, a level 9 Pierce or more grants 100% of Arrows/Bolts/Javelins to pierce. Investing skill points in Pierce suffers from diminishing returns: the last five points only give an extra 3% to Pierce in total.
There is no limit how many enemies may be pierced per cast; each target will resolve an independent check, so in theory (and high chances) an attack may hit all enemies standing in line.
Skill Progression
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chance to pierce | 23% | 34% | 42% | 49% | 55% | 59% | 63% | 65% | 69% | 71% | 73% |
| Level | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chance to pierce | 75% | 77% | 79% | 80% | 82% | 82% | 83% | 84% | 85% | 87% |
Trivia
- In the .08 version of the expansion pack, this skill used to work on Guided Arrow as well, however, it quickly turned out that the Guided Arrow could pierce through the enemy, turn around, then hit that enemy again, potentially several times before the skill finally fails the percentage chance. At high levels, an Amazon could keep 5-10 Arrows in the air continually piercing the same target without even being on the same screen. This combination eventually made it's way to Diablo III as the Hungering Arrow skill and its synergies.
Bow and Crossbow Skills — Magic Arrow • Fire Arrow • Cold Arrow • Multiple Shot • Exploding Arrow • Ice Arrow • Guided Arrow • Strafe • Immolation Arrow • Freezing Arrow
Passive and Magic Skills — Inner Sight • Critical Strike • Dodge • Slow Missiles • Avoid • Penetrate • Decoy • Evade • Valkyrie • Pierce
Javelin and Spear Skills — Jab • Power Strike • Poison Javelin • Impale • Lightning Bolt • Charged Strike • Plague Javelin • Fend • Lightning Strike • Lightning Fury