Macing talents¶
Macing is a per-weapon, offensive-only tree that works with any BaseBashing weapon - club, mace, maul, war hammer, smith's hammer, the lot. It feeds off Crush, the PvM special baked into every mace strike: a 10% on-hit proc against creatures.
No defensive lane
Macing / Swords / Fencing trees ship as offensive-only. See Melee Defensive for shared survivability nodes.
The Crush baseline¶
Every Macing-skill weapon hit against a creature has a 10% chance to proc Crush:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Proc chance (baseline) | 10% per hit |
| Damage multiplier on proc | 1.5x (×1.5) |
| EAV-0 bonus | If target's VirtualArmor + VirtualArmorMod ≤ 0 when the proc fires, the multiplier stacks to 2.25x (1.5 × 1.5) |
| Effective Armor reduction | -25 to VirtualArmorMod while crushed |
| Crush duration | 8 s on the fastest maces, scaling up to 16 s on the slowest |
The bigger the maul, the longer the armor stays shattered.
Offensive path¶
T1 - Crushing Blow¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
| Max ranks | 5 |
| Cost / rank | 1 pt |
| Effect / rank | +5% macing damage vs creatures |
| Rank | Total bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | +5% |
| 2 | +10% |
| 3 | +15% |
| 4 | +20% |
| 5 | +25% |
T2 - Bone Shatter¶
Prereq: Crushing Blow.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
| Max ranks | 5 |
| Cost / rank | 1 pt |
| Effect / rank | +4% Crush proc chance AND +2% flat macing damage |
| Rank | Crush proc | Flat damage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14% | +2% |
| 2 | 18% | +4% |
| 3 | 22% | +6% |
| 4 | 26% | +8% |
| 5 | 30% | +10% |
T3 - Skull Smash¶
Prereq: Bone Shatter.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive (consumed follow-up) |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 2 pt |
| Trigger | Crush proc lands |
| Effect | Your next macing strike on the same target deals +50% damage AND sends a 1-tile shockwave splashing 30% of that damage to every adjacent creature. Mark window: 6 seconds. |
Tuned 2026-05-25: added the 1-tile shockwave (30% splash). The follow-up now spills into surrounding creatures - Cleave-style AoE on a tighter radius (1 tile vs Cleave's 2).
T4A - Stunning Strike¶
Prereq: Skull Smash. Branch-exclusive with Earthen Hammer.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Active (primed) |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 2 pt |
| Cooldown | 30 s (starts on consume) |
| Prime window | 15 s |
| Effect | Primes your next macing hit. On consume: +50% damage AND stuns the target (Frozen + Paralyzed) for 3 seconds. |
| Hotbar verb | stunningstrike |
Cooldown timing (updated 2026-05-25): the 30 s cooldown starts when the primed strike actually lands damage, not when you prime. Let the 15 s window lapse without a hit and you've spent nothing - re-prime immediately. Re-firing the verb mid-prime does nothing; the window can't be extended.
T4B - Earthen Hammer¶
Prereq: Skull Smash. Branch-exclusive with Stunning Strike.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive (on crit) |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 2 pt |
| Effect | Macing critical strikes deal +25% damage and briefly stun the target for 1.5 seconds. Stun won't fire on an already-stunned creature (no chain-lock), but the damage bonus always applies. |
Tuned 2026-05-25: added the +25% damage component; stun extended 1 s → 1.5 s. It was stun-only utility before - now it stands alongside Headsman / Pirouette as a real offensive T4B.
T5 - Titan's Crush¶
Prereq: Stunning Strike OR Earthen Hammer. Capstone.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Active |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 3 pt |
| Cooldown | 60 s (starts on consume) |
| Effect | Primes your next macing strike (15-second window). The primed hit detonates a concussive smash dealing 500% of your weapon's max damage AND stunning the target for 2 seconds, PLUS a 3-tile shockwave dealing 50% of that damage to surrounding creatures and stunning them for 1 second. |
| Hotbar verb | titanscrush |
How to use: fire titanscrush from the hotbar (or chat command) to prime the strike. Your next clean swing with a macing weapon inside the 15-second window consumes the prime and unleashes the full smash plus shockwave - the 60 s cooldown begins at that moment, not at prime. Window expires without a hit? You've paid nothing; re-prime at will. Re-firing mid-prime is a no-op.
Swap to a non-macing weapon during the prime window and the prime holds - the consume only fires while a macing weapon is wielded, so swapping back in time is fine.
Tuned 2026-05-20: damage 200% → 500%, cooldown 120s → 60s. A true capstone hit on a 60s cycle.
Tuned 2026-05-25: added the 3-tile shockwave AoE (50% damage + 1 s stun on splash targets). This is the "wow that capstone" moment, like Bladestorm and Eviscerate - Titan's Crush now levels the whole pull, not just the focused target.
Refactored 2026-05-25: switched from target-cursor-fires-now to a primed-next-strike delivery (matching Stunning Strike). Kills the awkward "click talent → click monster" two-step for a more fluid melee feel.
Build notes¶
- Crushing Blow 5/5 + Bone Shatter 5/5 + Skull Smash is the canonical 12-point opener: +35% direct damage, 30% Crush chance, +50% guaranteed follow-up after every Crush.
- Stunning Strike vs Earthen Hammer comes down to your targets. Take Stunning Strike against large, hard-to-interrupt elites - a 3-second stun on demand. Take Earthen Hammer if you crit a lot and want passive lock-down at fight pace.
- Titan's Crush scales off the weapon's MaxDamage stat, not your skill - swing the highest-tier weapon you can carry for the biggest hit.
Naming history¶
- 2026-05-25 - the baseline PvM special was renamed Pierce → Crush to fit the blunt-weapon flavor (piercing never read right for a maul). Mechanics unchanged: same 10% on-hit chance, same -25 EAV debuff, same 8-16 s duration, same +50% damage multiplier with the EAV-0 stack. Skull Smash, Bone Shatter scaling, and the Titan's Crush capstone all stayed put - only the in-game messaging and tooltip text say "Crush" now.