by Charles Ensign

The question of how Balthazar's Spirit works came up today on IRC, and since no one really knew the answer we decided to figure out the details.

After a bit of testing between Lonedust, Silmor, and myself, here's how it all works.

Methods of Gaining Adrenaline
There are 3 ways to gain adrenaline:

1. From suffering damage normally (i.e., everything but DOTs)
2. From landing attacks
3. From getting hit while Balthazar's Spirit is up

Amounts of Adrenaline Gained
Attacking is the most common way of gaining adrenaline - you get 25 'points' of adrenaline for every blow you land. You also gain adrenaline from taking damage - you gain 1 point of adrenaline for every 1/100 of your health that you take in damage, for 100 net adrenaline points for being reduced from full health to zero.

Adrenaline Costs
The adrenaline costs in the skill descriptions are approximations, not actual values. We can convert strike costs into 'point' costs using the following list.

• 4 Strike Skills -- 80 adrenaline 'points' *
• 5 Strike Skills -- 120 adrenaline 'points'
• 6 Strike Skills -- 140 adrenaline 'points' **
• 7 Strike Skills -- 160 adrenaline 'points'
• 8 Strike Skills -- 200 adrenaline 'points'
• 10 Strike Skills -- 240 adrenaline 'points'

*Does not include sever artery and counter blow which both cost 100 'points' of adrenaline.
**Does not include hammer bash which costs 130 'points' of adrenaline.

If you're simply charging up with melee attacks you'll have charged your skills after the requisite number of hits, but if you're taking damage you'll charge up faster, in some cases faster than others. This is particularly obvious with most 4 strike skills, which charge up with 3 strikes (75 'points') and a token amount of damage taken (1/20th of your health).

Balthazar's Spirit
The only other wildcard is Balthazar's Spirit. With the discovery of the granularity of the system we can finally give an accurate skill description. The original description is:

Obviously this is rather ambiguous. With our new understanding of how adrenaline works we can use the concepts of adrenaline points and say that:

The break points on the adrenaline gain from Balthazar's Spirit are as follows:

• 3 smiting = 3 'points' of adrenaline per hit
• 8 smiting = 4 'points' of adrenaline per hit
• 13 smiting = 5 'points' of adrenaline per hit

Adrenaline Skill Chaining [with help from Silmor]
It is important to note that each adrenaline based skill has it's own "pool" of adrenaline. Using an adrenal skill depletes the adrenaline pool for that skill. In addition it takes 25 adrenaline 'points' (one strike) from all other pools. As a result you can't use "Fear Me!" and "Watch Yourself!" in succession. Triggering "Fear Me!" deplete the "Fear Me!" adrenaline pool and also takes one strike of adrenaline away from "Watch Yourself!".

For our visual learners the crude diagram below should make it obvious. Each skill is it's own "pool". Since both are 4 strike skills after 4 hits both the "Fear Me!" and the "Watch Yourself!" pool are full and ready for use (25 'points' of adrenaline per blow you land x 4 blows).

|_Fear Me (Full 80 'points')_| |_Watch Yourself (Full 80 'points'_||_Skill 3_||_Skill 4_||_Skill 5_||_Skill 6_||_Skill 7_||_Skill 8_|

Supposing we decide to use "Fear Me!" here's what the pools look like afterwards.

|_Fear Me (Empty 0 'points')_| |_Watch Yourself (55 'points'_||_Skill 3_||_Skill 4_||_Skill 5_||_Skill 6_||_Skill 7_||_Skill 8_|

What's interesting to note is that most adrenal skills are attack skills. As a result these skills include an attack in their execution, thus netting you one strike of adrenaline. This 1 strike adrenaline from using the skill replenishes the 1 strike of adrenlaine you loose for using an adrenal based skill. Therefore it is possible to "chain" adrenaline attack skills in succession for very high damage spikes.

Other Skills [contributed by Silmor]

Wary Stance

Wary Stance will actually give you one strike of adrenaline or 25 'points' each time you successfully block an attack skill.

"For Great Justice!"
Amplifies ALL adrenal gain by 150%, be it through taken damage, attacks, Balthazar's Spirit or anything else.

Battle Rage and Berserker's Stance
Boost only adrenaline gained through attacks

Peace,
-CxE

with contributions from Lonedust and Silmor

How much adrenaline do specific skills use?

-Taken from www.guildwiki.org

¹ 4 "strikes" on Cleave does not equal 4 "strikes" on
Sever Artery. The "Points needed" column increases linearly; the
"adrenaline strikes needed" in the skill descriptions are a
simplification. A "strike" of adrenaline in the skill description
equals 20-25 points. A real "strike" of adrenaline gives 25
points.

All paragon skills cost (25*strikes needed) 'points'.