Great Cannon

Description

 * "An advanced form of Magick Cannon that conjures sphere of magickal power, and fires more rounds of spellshot at foes."

Great Cannon conjures a magickal floating orb or sigil, which when struck by a wide variety of attacks, including both friendly and enemy attacks, emits balls of magic that target and seek out enemies and damaging them.

The Great Cannon sigil takes on the enchantment of the equipped sword or mace - if the weapon was temporarily enchanted the sigil will take an appearance appropriate to the relative Archmagick.

A Great Cannon sigil persists for 18 seconds, 50% longer than Magick Cannon.

Damage

 * Great Cannon deals both physical and magickal damage, each calculated differently:
 * The physical portion always deals Blunt (regardless of using a sword or mace) damage equal to 50% of the weapon's Strength stat, not scaling off the caster's base Strength.
 * The magick portion deals Elemental (with temporary or permanently enchanted weapons) or neutral (with pure physical weapons) magick damage. The amount is roughly equal to 38.5 base damage, plus 50% of the weapon's Magick stat, plus 150% of the caster's base Magick stat.


 * Due to Great Cannon's mixed damage it can strike any enemy in Gransys, from ghosts to golems. Thus when targeting magick-resistant objects such as Metal Golem discs only weapons with high physical stats will cause damage; Obliteratrix may do no damage at all to those discs via the Cannon sigil, even if used by a high-level, powerful Arisen.

Each single strike of the sigil produces three orbs. Skills with multiple strikes will produce multiple sets of orbs. For example, a single blow of Onslaught produces one set of three orbs; Downcrack two sets, one from the inward strike, and one from the outward; Full Moon Slash produces five sets from a single use.

Orb power from a sigil struck with the weapon used to incant it is independent of the skill used - thus the key factor in damage is the number of strikes during the sigil's existence. For Onslaught, 24 strikes can be made before the sigil dissipates, while with Full Moon Slash 9 uses can produce 45 sets of orbs, nearly twice as many. The tactical take-away from this information is that Full Moon Slash uses significantly more stamina to gain higher DPS, while Onslaught's lesser DPS output conserves stamina while continuing to keep the Mystic Knight's DPS in play.

Range and Targeting

 * The Cannon orbs have good range, similar to standard shots from bows or longbows. Unlike arrows, and like most spells, damage is constant over distance. The range limit is over one Drake length from head to tail tip, but not as great as the same measure of the Ur-Dragon.


 * A Great Cannon bolt can target foes that are too far away for them to reach. The orb will travel along the trajectory towards its target, but fade before striking - and thus do no damage.


 * If multiple Great Cannon sigils are set, bolts from the nearest cannon may be absorbed into the second, negating the advantage from multiple sigils; chained cannons can, however, single-fire in sequence around corners, target the other side of a large enemy, or be used to extend overall range.


 * The orbs generally produced in a spread around the path from the weapon wielder through the sigil. Each orb will target the nearest object along its own path; if nothing is in view they can make sharp turns to target other foes.


 * Orbs may not target certain things until struck by a genuine physical attack; an example is Metal Golem discs.

Tactics
Up to three cannon sigils can be summoned at one time - summoning and firing two spheres in conjunction with each other is the most effective use of this spell. One sphere often does lesser damage, whilst the time to place three means that by the time a third is placed on the field, the first sphere is likely about to fade. If a fourth sigil is cast the earliest existing sigil will vanish.

Activating the Sigil
In addition to the Arisen striking the Sigil, using any physical skill or attack, the cannons can be trigger in many ways.
 * The Cannon can also be combined with Perilous Sigil or Ruinous Sigil. When an enemy strikes the sigil, it will trigger the cannon to fire in that direction and deal additional damage.
 * Many 'friendly' attacks can trigger the cannon sigil, including:
 * A Pawn's Magick Agent
 * A Pawn Sorcerer's electric field from Fulmination, as well as the conjured elements of Bolide, Maelstrom, Gicel, Miasma and so on.
 * Ruinous Sigils fired by an enemy presence.
 * Beacons lit within Bitterblack Isle
 * Shield attacks, including Perfect Blocking enemy attacks within the sigil. This is especially effective if the magic shield has been previously charged with a riposte such as Blessed Riposte.
 * Some enemy attacks will fire the sigil, generally heavy physical attacks such as a Dragon's charge. Enemy spells do not generally fire the sigil, even when the equivalent spell would (e.g., Miasma)

Other

 * Use with Holy enchantment for long range damage plus healing.
 * The sigils and orbs can also transmit debilitations from the weapon used to strike it, such as Silence from Golden Weapons or Torpor and Poison from Rusted Weapons.
 * Melee pawns with a Utilitarian inclination are likely to shoot or strike a Cannon sigil with physical attacks and fire it.
 * Overlapping the area of effect from two spaced-out Ruinous Sigils and then placing a Great Cannon sigil in that overlap increases damage output of these spells by tripping all three even if an enemy only crosses the border of one Ruinous Sigil. This allows the Mystic Knight to control or choke off a greater area of the battlefield.