[BUG] Arcanist Tentacular Dread's +33% Not Applying When Inspired Scholarship Generates A Crux

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Edited to correct the title, and here is the tldr from my detailed analysis commented below:

SO IN CONCLUSION, it is my belief that Inspired Scholarship is working as intended, and that the problem is that Tentacular Dread's +33% damage for each crux consumed is failing to be factored in specifically when you have no Crux, have Inspired Scholarship active with it's proc ready, and you cast Tentacular Dread.

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Outdated/Original Speculation & Rant:

While Tome-Bearer's Inspiration is active and the pulse proc is off cooldown, I tested the following:

1. If I use Runeblades, while in combat and having no crux, I only get a single crux from the Runeblades generating the crux, even though the pulse proc did activate/deal damage, meaning I should have two crux.
2. If I use Tentacular Dread morph of the Abyssal Impact, while in combat and having no crux, I get the pulse proc to activate/deal damage, but I generated no crux and the Tentacular Dread ability did NOT consume any crux because the damage it dealt did not increase by 33%.

I feel like this ruins the ability to use Tentacular Dread morph over the Fatecarver playstyle, and only a damage tick from Fatecarver or the DoT ability are the only class abilities that can generate a crux using Tome-Bearer's Inspiration ability.. It feels so limiting, and that lack of build diversity makes Arcanist feel boring to play mid-late game, it's so frustrating.. Sorry for my rant.. T_T
@ZOS_GinaBruno

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Below is a combat metrics combat log for a fight with a Clannfear where all I did was buff with Inspired Scholarship and spam press Tentacular Dread (no light attacks, no CP, and the chill status affect does not apply brittle since I am using a lightning destro staff, also no damage buff from lightning staff because Ancient Knowledge passive is not leveled) for the rest of the fight:

Analysis of this data would suggest:

Every ~3 seconds, or every other cast of Tentacular Dread, the damage from Inspired Scholarship did apply as intended.

The order of combat operations when hitting the enemy appears to be:

1. Inspired Scholarship's damage
2. Tentacular Dread ability damage
3. Status effect damage

Assuming each ability's corresponding effects are applied at the same time as damage, that would mean:

1. @0.000s, Inspired Scholarship: 3614 damage
2. @0.001s, Tentacular Dread: 5272 damage, +5% damage debuff applied
3. @0.001s, Overcharged & Bloodthorn Touch Set Both Trigger Harnessed Quintessence (2/2): +5% weapon and spell damage buff

So I then confirmed the weapon and spell damage calculations were correct, for the moment before Tentacular Dread hits the second time since start of combat @1.802s, to rule that out:

• 2162 base weapon/spell damage * (1.20 for major sorcery/brutality buff + 1.05 for Harnessed Quintessence buff) = 2703 weapon/spell damage for the second Tentacular Dread calculation.

Then I noticed the class passive Fated Fortune (2/2) had been proc'd from the first attack, but it can only activate if a Crux was generated or consumed. So the most likely conclusion to me is that Inspired Scholarship's proc @0.000s did generate a Crux that was consumed immediately @0.001s when Tentacular Dread's damage and effects were applied.

I'm leaning towards this being the case because if I compare the damage from the first Tentacular Dread calculation and the second Tentacular Dread, I find...

• 5641 / 5272 = 1.06999

Meaning the second hit is almost exactly 7% more than the first, and Tentacular Dread's abyssal ink debuff is 5% with no crux and increases by 2% for each crux, and what's 5% + 2%, 7%!

SO IN CONCLUSION, it is my belief that Inspired Scholarship is working as intended, and that the problem is that Tentacular Dread's +33% damage for each crux consumed is failing to be factored in specifically when you have no Crux, have Inspired Scholarship active with it's proc ready, and you cast Tentacular Dread.

@ZOS_GinaBruno please, I spent several hours testing and writing this up, I beg you to pass this information on to the development team, I'm almost 99% sure this is the problem and the fix should be fairly simple, like adding an if statement. T_T

randconfig

Good news! This appears to have been patched even though it's not mentioned in the patch notes.

Tentacular Dread now correctly benefits from the crux Inspired Scholarship generates, as the damage does get boosted by 33%.