u/EncodedNybble

Says that defensive skills’ cooldown(s) should tick at double the rate, split between all of their cooldowns when fortified.

I tried with just bulwark on cooldown, fully fortified, and seemed to tick down at the same rate as normal. Was expecting, half the normal cooldown (effectively).

Did I misunderstand the mechanic?

tl;dr - It's bad. The "by up to 40 hits of Hurricane" limit makes it worse than a legendary ring with a more useful aspect.

Conclusion: The damage done by the explosion only takes into consideration the first 40 damage ticks that Hurricane does. This is the same as a "straight" damage multiplier of the listed percentage if you hit less than 40 enemies and the explosion hits. If you hit more than 40 enemies per cast, then the ring does less damage than the listed percentage due to the 40 hits cap. There are legendary aspects out there that will give you better damage.

Also, since it is the first 40 ticks, the "Rapid Intensification" (damage increases every second) variant will most likely end up with a lower damage than the ring's listed percentage.

Additionally the fact that it is an "echo" of damage versus straight damage means that it may be useful for speed farming (when explosion can clear a whole pack on its on or severely damage an elite), but detrimental if the explosion misses.

Discussion:

So I wanted to see if I could make a "hurricane" build this season. I got a "Hunter's Zenith" ring. The ring states:

• When Hurricane ends or after it lasts 10 seconds, an explosion occurs dealing x [40 - 60%] of the total damage by up to 40 hits of Hurricane.

I did some tests. All tests done on training dummy(ies) with damage variance off and all items except for my weapon removed.

Test 1

Single test dummy. Hurricane variant which you just toggle on and off. Each tick of hurricane comes out every ~0.5 seconds, so, 20 ticks total using this variant (explosion happens after 10 seconds). Noted each tick was ~1.2k damage, noticed that the explosion was ~10.5k (~8-9x the damage of each tick).

• 10.5k additional damage on top of the ~24k damage = ~43% damage buff = The 40% listed on the item.
• Just the same as a "straight" damage buff.

Test 2

5 test dummies. Hurricane variant which you just toggle on and off. Noted each tick was ~1.2k damage, noticed that the explosion was ~21.2k worth of damage (~18x the damage of each tick).

• 21.2k additional damage on top of ~120k damage = ~17.6% damage buffer.
• Worse than a "straight" damage buff

Test 3

5 test dummies. Hurricane variant that increases damage per second. Started Hurricane in middle of pack. Then started Hurricane outside of pack, then moved into middle of pack roughly ~2 seconds later. Noted that damage was higher in second test than first test.

• Explosion only uses first 40 ticks of damage. Not as useful with "Rapid Intensification" variant.

Test 4

Using "Twin Storms" variant to see if Hurricane stacks. Casted two charges at same spot, roughly 1 second after each other. Noticing 2 damage ticks instead of 1, so the normal Hurricane damage stacks. Noticed a single explosion when first Hurricane expired that did way more damage than usual. Noticed second explosion after second Hurricane expired, dealing less damage.

• Hurricane ticks stack.
• If multiple Hurricanes are active at a time, the damage of all Hurricanes is combined for the explosion damage.
• Explosion damage occurs on the character even if you cast the Hurricane farther away.

I was hoping this ring would be more useful, unfortunately the "40 hits" cap kills it in most scenarios. An aspect like "Edge Master's" or "Conceited" will probably be better in most regular play.