The piercing with ice spear?

Hi,

Skill gem mention "pierce through enemies"

So i was wondering does anomalous ice spear is a dead mod since it mention that it always pierce?

20% (projectile pierce 2 additional target).

During the beginning of it's flight it will not pierce. During the other part it always pierces.

As long as you don't cast right next to the enemy, you don't need to worry about having pierce.

Also it gets a damage boost on the second phase.

So it is always better to cast it from a distance.

All of this information is location on the gem and wiki link here:

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Ice_Spear

Anomalous ice spear is actually most expensive among alternate qualities, because of how it can be used with CoC cyclone. If you have a spare one, I'll glady take a "dead mod" off your hands :)

It can be a pain when clearing if you are in the middle of a large pack, and ice spear is not piercing or chaining. Optimally you always cast from a distance yes but it doesnt always work.

It isn't for mapping, it is for shotgunning bosses with all extra projectile mods you can get. Mapping can work too if you cyclone around the edge of packs, not into them. Casting ice spear at range is a waste because most projectiles will miss, which is why getting pierce at first flight stage is so important.