Discussion on Tectonics

MXL V2.5
Tectonics:
Maximum Base Level is now 10, up from 5
Level 1 value is now 170% EWD per 1% proc chance, down from 200%

MXL V2.90
Tectonics: has received a major overhaul
Removed scaling chance to proc Shower of Rocks
Shower of Rocks proc is now always 100%, with a reduced duration, as long as you have enough Power
Power is gained based on your total Strength and Weapon Physical Damage bonuses
When maxed, grants 1 power per 100 Strength and 1 power per 10% Weapon Physical Damage bonuses
If you have less than 60 power then the skill has no effect
With 60 power: trigger a Shower of Rocks with 12% of the original duration on every Earthquake
With 140 power: trigger a Shower of Rocks with 25% of the original duration on every Earthquake
Tectonics procs will now spawn in front of your character instead of on top of them for better coverage
Fixed a bug where sometimes the skill would do no damage or have no visuals

MXL V2.93
Tectonics:
- Now scales to 3 rock waves, up from 2
- This requires 200 Power

Hello and welcome to this discussion on the merits of the Tectonics skill for the Barbarian Earthshaker subclass. Does anybody know what this skill actually does? I will be looking into some of the basic stats as written in the patch notes in an attempt to ascertain what this skill actually does, if anything...

Grants 170% EWD per 1% proc chance (v2.5)
Proc chance increased to 100% (v2.90) which would grant 17,000% EWD automatically, but that isn't happening...
Grants 1 "Power" per 100 Strength (v2.90)
Requires a minimum of 60 "Power" to proc Shower of Rocks (with each hit supposedly) (v2.90), which is a Strength Req of 6,000
The max ability of this skill requires 200 "Power" to proc SoR 3x (v2.93), which is a Strength Req of 20,000

First, from reading this, without being close enough to 6K strength to even test this skill, it seems to increase EWD (debatable) and proc SoR on every hit (or attempt?) 1-3x depending on how much you invested in the skill. If true, this would be a substantial added bonus to Earthquake but begs several questions in an of itself:

Does the proc'd SoR use your level SoR or a different skill entirely?
Does the proc'd SoR stack, or is it just basically duration extension?
If the latter, how does that work when 2 or 3 waves of SoR are being dropped?

So my toon currently has slightly over 5K strength. I am thinking if I farm for the remaining 200-Sigs I need and drop +Str on every piece of Equipt I can that I can surpass 6K strength, but I will NEVER be able to to hit 14,000 even if I slot mad KO runes and MAX STR on every charms. I mean I could... if I used shit gear that is not LAB worthy. Who even came up with this skill anyway? Using a realistic toon with lab ready gear, it's almost impossible to hit the stats needed on this skill, especially if SSF! To me, that says everything you need to know about this skill. Regardless, my next pondering is, if I have to make great sacrifices in MO space and vital Gems or Jewels that grant +max resists to hit these benchmarks, is the added damage just so much more impressive that it's essential and necessary to get Tectonics for endgame ubers? Because if not, why would anyone invest so heavily if it meant gimping their toon into a glass cannon? The ONLY conclusions I can draw is I am misunderstanding this skill... ELI5 here guys! TY!! Peace and love!

First of all, check the tooltip again, Power of Tectonics also scales with your Weapon Physical Damage bonuses (Enhanced W. Damage on the second page of your character screen), not just Strength. You can easily get 600%+ from the Wolf Stance alone, which translates to 60 power. 1-1.5k WPD is very easy to do on an endgame phys attacker, that's 100-150 Tectonics power for you. 1 Power per 10% WPD with Tectonics Maxed.

Taem wrote:
As a general overview, my understanding of the skill based on the above text in the patch notes is that Tectonics:
Grants 170% EWD per 1% proc chance (v2.5)

It used to do that in 2.5, yes, but it has nothing to do with reworked Tectonics of 2.9. New Tectonics does NOT do that.

Taem wrote:
Does the proc'd SoR use your level SoR or a different skill entirely?
Does the proc'd SoR stack, or is it just basically duration extension?
If the latter, how does that work when 2 or 3 waves of SoR are being dropped?

1. Proc'ed SoR is a slightly different version to your skill tree SoR - it has shorter duration. It will however benefit from your Aftermath SoR passive.
2 & 3. EQ SoR procs exist independently. So you spam EQ vs a boss -> SoRs keep stacking on top of him, each lasting 0.25/0.5/0.75 seconds based on the Power of your Tectonics.

Vanarchy wrote:First of all, check the tooltip again, Power of Tectonics also scales with your Weapon Physical Damage bonuses (Enhanced W. Damage on the second page of your character screen), not just Strength. You can easily get 600%+ from the Wolf Stance alone, which translates to 60 power. 1-1.5k WPD is very easy to do on an endgame phys attacker, that's 100-150 Tectonics power for you. 1 Power per 10% WPD with Tectonics Maxed.

Taem wrote:
As a general overview, my understanding of the skill based on the above text in the patch notes is that Tectonics:
Grants 170% EWD per 1% proc chance (v2.5)

It used to do that in 2.5, yes, but it has nothing to do with reworked Tectonics of 2.9. New Tectonics does NOT do that.

Taem wrote:
Does the proc'd SoR use your level SoR or a different skill entirely?
Does the proc'd SoR stack, or is it just basically duration extension?
If the latter, how does that work when 2 or 3 waves of SoR are being dropped?

1. Proc'ed SoR is a slightly different version to your skill tree SoR - it has shorter duration. It will however benefit from your Aftermath SoR passive.
2 & 3. EQ SoR procs exist independently. So you spam EQ vs a boss -> SoRs keep stacking on top of him, each lasting 0.25/0.5/0.75 seconds based on the Power of your Tectonics.

Thank you. I will have to check again, but last I checked, I had 10pnts into Tectonics, sMaxed Wolf Stance (basically following Aerials guide) 4.2K str, the Earthshaker set and Sword, and was at low 40's "power" which seemed to mimic STR and not weapon damage at all. I will have to test it further, but based on my initial observations, I don't recall seeing wpn dmg having any effect on "power".

In RE to #2, so I assume that means you can also still use your own SoR skill while proc'ing from Tectonics and they should stack damage independently since they are "different" skills?

Taem wrote:I will have to test it further, but based on my initial observations, I don't recall seeing wpn dmg having any effect on "power".

Just test it while naked. Turn on Wolf Stance and it should immediately affect Power. Add gear back piece by piece to monitor if something causes a conflict / breaks WPD you're getting.

Taem wrote:In RE to #2, so I assume that means you can also still use your own SoR skill while proc'ing from Tectonics and they should stack damage independently since they are "different" skills?

Yes, you sure can

I wouldn't bother though most of the time, if you get your character to 200 Power you can just keep Earthquaking

Van, it is working as you said. IDK why it seemed it wasn't before, but it certainly is now! Thank you for the input. HUGE QOL skill!

going from 2 SoR to 3 SoR is a decent power spike especially in terms of single target, playing EQ barb in NON ladder but i am completely stomping everything, EQ really got a huge power spike this season and i really find it great, it isnt broken at all, but with GG gear you can clear every content in the game, and with the right gear i mean playing around claw of the spirit wolf, it is such a insane scaling with this reworked sword, i killed sam with eq barb in 1:30 minute with my barb WITH Earthquake using 200 power, so i think this means something,
still reaching 200 power is really hard and as u mentioned u would need atleast 6000 strength + to consider reaching it with EWD,