FAQs about Clashing Spiral a.k.a. Spiral Pierce
Introduction
Since heritage patch lots of changes have been made to the game play. And lots of new things have been implemented. And there is very little known knowledge about skills of Transcendent Class. You sure can look up and read at ROEMPIRE.Com and likewise, but there is nothing sort of FAQs/Guide for the inRO.
No big introductions are needed for this one because if you are reading this FAQs, you probably know very much about Spiral Pierce.
Spiral Pierce (a.k.a. Clashing Spiral) is a skill of Lord Knight job class. It ignores both stat based DEF as well as armor based DEF. It can be a one-shot killer for low VIT characters. It is very effective skill to use in WoE (War of Emperium). It is quite spammable (but not easily chain able )which makes it a premiere skill for a LK. The spamming ability has led to term Spiral wh0res which refers to LKs who spam Spiral Pierce. There have been many rumours and misconceptions regarding the damage of Spiral Pierce. Hence We are writing this document.
Enough of introduction, i guess. >_<
Main Contributors : Vikram Ravi, Ramraj Harikanth, Manu
First lets see the basic data about Spiral Pierce
Basic data about Spiral Pierce | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Skill Level | Damage Modifier | Casting Time | Skill Delay | SP Cost |
1 | 150% | 0.3 Second | 1.2 Second | 18 |
2 | 200% | 0.5 Second | 1.4 Second | 21 |
3 | 250% | 0.7 Second | 1.6 Second | 24 |
4 | 300% | 0.9 Second | 1.8 Second | 27 |
5 | 350% | 1.0 Second | 2.0 Second | 30 |
FAQs about Spiral Pierce
Question : What is the most appropriate choice of weapon for Spiral Pierce?
Answer : It is unarguably Pole Axe[1] due to three facts :
- It is heaviest spear around with 380 weight.
- It is slotted [1].
- It is one handed hence allowing use of Shield.
- Second best can be Hallberd [2] but Its not recommended as it is 2 handed spear, which means no shield and moreover its weight is lower than the Pole Axe [1]. The other two-handed spears which may prove useful against certain elements or situations are as follows:-
- Brionac (Ultimate Weapon's Quest) Property : Holy Weight : 300
- HellFire (Mjolnir Seal's Quest / Evil Snake Lord (MvP)) Property : Fire Weight : 350 .
- Longinus's Spear (Ultimate Weapon's Quest) Property : Shadow Weight : 250
- Crescent Scythe (Baphomet) Property : Neutral Weight : 250
Many people have wrong notion that Pole Axe [1] is a level 4 weapon which it is not. It is a Level 3 One handed Spear. Its dropped by Baphomet (Event) (5.5%), Bloody Knight (0.02%), Gryphon (0.01%), Lord of the Dead (0.05%), Turtle General (0.09%)
Question :What are the factors influencing the damage of Spiral Pierce? or My friend with 80 STR does almost same damage as my LK with 120 STR. !
Answer : Spiral Pierce damage is NOT dependant on STR. It is mainly based on STR bonus ( STR/10^2) and weight of the spear. So there is not much difference between a SP by a 110 STR LK and a 120 STR LK or even a 60 STR LK. Moreover the damage is not influenced by DEX at all. So even with low DEX, the damage by Spiral Pierce is always constant.
Question: Which buffs increase Spiral Pierce damage?
Answer : Since its dependant on STR bonus and weight of spear, Out of priest skills only skill which enhances the damage is Bless. Also weapon endowments like Asperio could enhance the damage against the opposing property.
Provoke, Impostio Manus, Aura Blade, Spear Dynamo/Concentration does not work with it.
Buffs/ Skills/ Items which augment Spiral Pierce | Description |
---|---|
Bless | Adds damage |
Paladin's +20 Buff | Adds damage |
Lex Aeterna | Doubles damage |
Poem of Bragi | Faster casting, reduced after cast delay |
Suffragrim | Faster casting |
Masquerade | 3% more damage1 |
Enchantment like Asperio, Enchant Poison etc, | Bypasses Immune garment2 |
Question: What skills/buffs/equipment reduce damage from Spiral Pierce?
Answer : It is a attack which ignores the DEF hence only racial/property damage reducers like Poo Poo hat, Thara Frog card reduce its damage. Immune garment or Ghost ring card can also decrease its damage if the weapon property is neutral. All skills/cards (Defending Aura, Pneuma, Energy Coat, Assumptio, Auto-Guard, Horn carded Shield, Alligator Card etc) that affect ranged physical attacks come into picture here.
Question :What are other benefits of Spiral Pierce?
**Answer : It locks its target in the place for 1 second after hit , which makes it very useful in WoE. The target can still attack but it is rooted at once place like its caught in trap. All this skill reduces the HP of the target considerably in a short span of time and hence when performed while the target is being nuked it could be lethal.
A miss, due to lack of accuracy (not Pneuma/Kyrie Elison), is represented by low damage being done to the target[3]. Due to this a Lord Knight can actually keep a target locked by using spiral pierce.
Question: Does weapon penalty for target size apply to Spiral Pierce?
Answer : Yes, weapon penalty does apply but works very different when compared to other skills. For spiral pierce there are two sets of penalties against sizes which are as follows:
- PvP/WoE
- Small - 75%
- Medium - 100%
- Large - 100% (Assumption since cannot replicate large size in PvP/WoE)
- PvM[list]
- Small - 125%
- Medium - 100%
- Large - 75%
Formula for the calculation of damage from Spiral Pierce
Since there is no official words on the game mechanics, we have come up with this formula after loads of testing through inRO and some *cough* *cough* ROs. Its not 100% accurate though, but its as accurate as it can be.

Strength Comparative Analysis
A table depicting the effect of STR on final damage done by Spiral Pierce.
Target attributes:
- Size: Medium
- Race: Demi-human
- Weapon: +5 Bloody Pole Axe [1]
STR | Raw Damage | PooPoo Hat + Thara Frog Card4 | PooPoo Hat + Thara Frog Card + Raydric Card | PooPoo Hat + Thara Frog Card + Raydric Card5 |
---|---|---|---|---|
40 | 6510 | 4101 | 3281 | - |
50 | 6564 | 4135 | 3308 | - |
60 | 6630 | 4177 | 3342 | - |
70 | 6708 | 4226 | 3381 | - |
80 | 6798 | 4283 | 3426 | - |
90 | 6900 | 4347 | 3478 | - |
100 | 7014 | 4419 | 3535 | - |
110 | 7140 | 4498 | 3599 | - |
120 | 7278 | 4585 | 3668 | - |
130 | 7428 | 4680 | 3744 | - |
140 | 7590 | 4782 | 3825 | - |
150 | 7764 | 4891 | 3913 | - |
160 | 7950 | 5009 | 4007 | - |
Dexterity Comparative Analysis6
DEX | Casting Time | Hit Rate | No. of Spiral Pierce per Minute |
---|---|---|---|
10 | 0.94 | 159 | 20.4 |
20 | 0.87 | 169 | 20.9 |
30 | 0.8 | 179 | 21.4 |
40 | 0.73 | 189 | 22.0 |
50 | 0.67 | 199 | 22.5 |
60 | 0.6 | 209 | 23.1 |
70 | 0.53 | 219 | 23.7 |
80 | 0.47 | 229 | 24.3 |
90 | 0.4 | 239 | 25.0 |
100 | 0.33 | 249 | 25.8 |
Uncertain Things/ Known Issues / Pending testings
- Concentration/ Spear Dynamo works or may not work with Spiral Pierce. It's not tested properly.
- Still have to test Frosted weapon damage in Deluge area.
- Still have to test the formula for miss which happens due to lack of HIT
- Still have to test the flinch lock provided by Spiral Pierce
- The damage formula is not 100% accurate, but its most accurate. Expect a damage difference of around 10-18 per hit.
- I don't know what is the formula of reduction by Energy Coat, so someone kindly provide that – Manu.
- Still have to test whether enchantment on Spear bypasses Raydric card.
Credits/ Acknowledgements
- ROEMPIRE.COM for giving valuable database system.
- LUG for providing game like inRO.
- Community of inRO for allowing us to test
- Special mention of Mama /Romeantique for providing us with regular supply of Baby characters in the PvP for testing.