The definitive SPARK thread: yes, it does help HellFires.

[instant karma]

I've seen a lot of confusion and misinformation about Spark!
I'll try to fix that!

To understand Spark, you need to understand two hidden stats that every gun has: Tech Pool and Tech Pool Active Regen Rate.

Let's look at what these are!

[TECH POOL AND ACTIVE REGEN RATE]

All guns have tech pools, even if they aren't elemental weapons. All elemental weapons have a Tech Level determined by its parts.

Speculation: this tech level also determines the multiplier you see:

x1: 1-8 tech level.
x2: 9-11 tech level.
x3: 12-14 tech level.
x4: 15+ tech level.

Tech level also seems to correlate to how often a gun procs. End speculation!

The tech pool of a gun is equal to 4 * its tech level.

Whenever an elemental weapon procs, a bit of its tech pool is depleted. The amount depleted depends on the gun (for repeaters, for example, the number is fairly low, while it is higher in SMGs) and on the strength of the proc (for snipers and revolvers, as they seem to be the only weapons capable of varying proc strengths). When the pool is completely depleted, or does not have enough for a proc, a gun will not proc.

Tech Pool Active Regen Rate is how fast this tech pool regens. As long as the weapon is out, it will regen, unless it is full. It will begin regenerating IMMEDIATELY after a proc. If you switch out guns, it will not regen, and its pool will stay at what it was when the gun was switched. If you put the gun in your inventory, its pool will reset to 0.

Note that for every weapon I've seen, the Active Regen Rate is 4.0.

[KINDA CONFUSED, GUY]

Let's look at an example! Pretend you have a sicknasty x2 Corrosive Combat Rifle, with a tech level of 9, a pool of 36, and each proc depletes the pool by 15.

- A three-shot burst that procs once will leave you with a pool of 21.
- A three-shot burst that procs on the first two bullets will leave you with a pool of 6, making it IMPOSSIBLE for the third bullet to proc, as there needs to be at least 15 in the pool for it to proc.
- You shoot a three-shot burst which procs twice, killing that skag, and leaving your pool at 6. You then adjust your aim for another skag, giving your gun time to recharge its pool a bit. At the time of the first shot in your next three-shot burst, your pool is 14 - it cannot proc. However, by the second shot of the burst, the pool is 15, and the shot can proc. For the sake of this example, though, it doesn't. The third shot, now with a pool of 16, procs! Your pool is now one.
- You're now out of combat rifle ammo. You switch to your shotty, kill the last two skags, and loot 96 combat rifle ammo.
- Badmutha Skag! You switch back to your combat rifle, which now has ammo, and just unload. After an entire clip, your gun never procs, because its pool was at 1 when you brought it out.
- By the time you've reloaded, the pool is adequately filled and you can start procing again. TOO BAD YOU DIE BEFORE YOU CAN SHOOT.

[THIS TOPIC IS ABOUT SPARK I THOUGHT]

Now that you know these two terms, you can understand what Spark does.

Your tech pool increases by 2% with all weapons and your active regen rate increases by 0.22 with all weapons per point of spark. At 5/5 spark, this means that your weapons now have a 10% larger tech pool, that regens at 5.1 points per second (a 27.5% increase over the base of 4.0).

Here are some numbers from some example weapons for those of you who like numbers:

          L E V E L      O F      S P A R K
        |0    |1    |2    |3    |4    |5  
x1 Pool |32.00|32.64|33.28|33.92|34.56|35.20
x2 Pool |36.00|36.72|37.44|38.16|38.88|39.60
x3 Pool |56.00|57.12|58.24|59.36|60.48|61.60

        L E V E L   O F   S P A R K
      |0   |1   |2   |3   |4   |5  
Regen |4.00|4.22|4.44|4.66|4.88|5.10

[WHAT THIS MEANS]

Spark gives your weapons a higher pool to work with, as well as faster regen, meaning your pool takes considerably longer to deplete. Once depleted, though, just like with 0/5 spark, the gun will not proc.

Also, Spark is actually more effective with guns with higher tech levels, since pool increase is %-based.

More speculation: As spark does not increase tech level, it does not actually increase the chance to proc of an individual bullet fired from a gun with a full tech pool.

[CLASS MODS]

I know this thread is about spark, but this fits in this thread nicely. You've surely noticed that some class mods increase elemental effect chance. This is misleading too! First of all, each mod only increases the elemental effect chance for guns of the element it modifies. This means that a Tempest Mod will only affect shock guns, a Firefly mod will only affect incendiary guns, and a Plaguebearer mod will only affect corrosive guns. Now that that's out of the way, let's look at what they do.

Which is relatively simple. +30% elemental effect chance increases your Active Regen Rate by 30% for guns of the matching element. This modification takes place before Spark, meaning it only modifies the base regen rate of 4.0.

Examples! I have a +30% elemental effect chance Tempest mod. It is equipped, and it is pretty sweet.

- With 0/5 Spark, my x3 Incendiary Repeater has an Active Regen Rate of 4.0.
(This is the default.)
- With 5/5 Spark, my x3 Incendiary Repeater has an Active Regen Rate of 5.1.
(This is 4.0 + 1.1.)
- With 0/5 Spark, my x3 Shock Repeater has an Active Regen Rate of 5.2.
(This is 130% of 4.0: 4.0 * 1.3 = 5.2.)
- With 5/5 Spark, my x3 Shock Repeater has an Active Regen Rate of 6.3.
(This is 4.0, +30%, +1.1 from 5/5 Spark. 4.0 * 1.3 + 1.1 = 6.3.)

[YOU SAID SPARK AFFECTED HELLFIRE]
it's the only reason i clicked this thread

It does, it does. HellFires have a fairly high tech level - 20ish or so. As everyone knows, every HellFire shot procs fire. As not everyone knows, however, each HellFire shot has a chance to proc for slightly more damage than the rest of its bullets. These extra-damage procs deplete the HellFire's tech pool, and when its pool is 0, it will not shoot these extra-damage procs.

Before everyone immediately switches to 5/5 Spark, though, consider this: one of my HellFires does 133 bullet damage vs. the crystals in the Lost Cave and Tetanus Warrens. Each shot also procs a fire explosion that does 213 damage. The "extra-damage" procs mentioned above do 319 damage. It's up to you whether this extra 150% proc damage (which - speculation - does not affect DoT damage) is worth the five points.

[BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT]

Try it out for yourselves. If you're on the PC, add this in your WillowConfig.ini, under the rest of the bindings (making sure to back up WillowConfig.ini, as if you do it wrong it could delete your bindings)

Bindings=(Name="F1",Command="dbm_ToggleShowDebug",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Then in game, open up your inventory once, and press F1 to see the debug console.

If you're not on the PC, try it out in game. Take an elemental SMG (lightning works well, since procs make a really loud noise) and empty a clip (the bigger, the better) into the ground. You'll notice a few procs near the beginning, then nothing for a while. Wait a minute, then unload again, shooting one bullet a second or so. You'll see more procs because the pool has more time to recharge.

[dkjestrup]

THANKYOU!!! *respecs out of radiance*

It's the same for Pestilent Defiler etc right?

[instant karma]

I unfortunately have not found a Pestilent Defiler - it's near the top of my wish list - but I assume it is. Revolvers (and snipers) have a chance to proc for extra damage depending on tech level - for example, a x4 corrosive revolver (like the pestilent defiler) can proc for 1.4x corrosive damage (which it will most of the time; this does not drain the pool), 2.1x, or 2.8x damage (these will drain the pool; higher damage drains more, and these procs won't occur without enough tech pool). Unless Pestilent Defilers act differently, which is entirely possible, I assume it's the same.

Also, this might just be me, but I like Radiance. Phoenix does nothing to shields, and Radiance tears them up. Up to you, though!

[mooosicle]

Nicely written post

Does the "special" higher damage pool draining proc replace the normal 1.4 corrosive proc (and the normal hellfire fire), or can you double proc with the normal AND the pool draining proc?

I tried aiming my pestilence at a mob, and with all the DoT numbers flying everywhere, I can't see anything

EDIT: Ignore post. I am reading your very thorough Elements, Multipliers and YOU

[dkjestrup]

Yeah. It is pretty insignificant either way, though lol. I tear everything up extremely quickly, except Super Bad technicians. But with a level 6 corrosive artifact + 3 transfusion grenades, if their shield lasts more than 3 seconds, I've screwed up.

Are you on PS3? I have a pestilent defiler that I rarely use (it's a fairly crappy 360 damage one, you can get 700+) that I'd let you borrow.

[instant karma]

Nope, PC, thanks though! I know someone who has one, I just haven't gotten around to borrowing it.

@moosicle: Yes, it does replace the proc. You can see the effect more clearly if you attack the crystals in Lost Cave and Tetanus Warrens.

You can also tell the higher level procs from the lower ones because the explosions are larger.

[MoKKaL]

interesting! - may i ask, how u come to this conclusion?
dont get me wrong, i believe u
just want to know

[instant karma]

interesting! - may i ask, how u come to this conclusion?

Lots and lots of testing and looking at numbers in the debug console, which has numbers listed for Tech Pool (called Pool_Tech), among other things.

To see these numbers, if you're on the PC, add this in your WillowConfig.ini, under the rest of the bindings:

Bindings=(Name="F1",Command="dbm_ToggleShowDebug",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

By the way, is this guide clear? Sometimes when I post I get too rambley; I'm hoping this is pretty clear and understandable, even if it's a bit complicated.

Edit: Here's a sample debug screen. This isn't an elemental weapon, unfortunately, but you can see its tech pool (Pool_Tech: the bottom line on the top batch of green words), Active Regen Rate (on the same line as Pool_Tech, 5 values over), and tech level (right next to the yellow boxed rarity level).
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9...lethanatos.jpg

[MoKKaL]

looks a bit complicated to me ^^
but great finding!

By the way, is this guide clear?

my english isnt that good - and it was clear to me

[Ven0m]

Awesome job once again instant karma.