Why is ember bolt so good?

[jamesddd]

Just from looking around I get the consensus that ember bolt is one of the best arcane skills for the alchemist. Why is this? The damage is much lower compared to pretty much every other spell

[Photeus]

Not very learned on this subject, but I've been reading up on it myself.

I think it's because it gets the 50% boost from Magic stat and that after level 2, it gets 20% of the weapon's damage. Makes it scale-well in the long term.
Also, it's straightforward of a skill, cheap, and fires 2 shots (so basically can deal double what it lists).

[SHABBADABBA]

The damage listed for Ember Bolt is for each individual bolt. If something gets hit by two bolts, you get twice the damage. The Knockback effect is really great for keeping nasties away from your prissy little Alchemist.

Hmmm...The Alchemist calculator mentions three bolts, but I've only seen two. Don't think I've ran that skill past the first level, though.

Similarly, the damage listed for Ember Lance is damage per second. It looks low, but it's not. You can fry most anything in a couple of seconds.

Right now, the big drawback to Ember Lance is that sometimes it just won't fire when you click.

[Finraziel]

It's been a while but I'm pretty sure it fires at least 4 bolts, maybe 5, when leveled enough.
I still prefer skills that do area damage though, and the low damage per bolt makes it extra susceptible to resistances... but then all alch skills kinda suffer from this, the class is really underpowered compared to the other 2 if you don't care for summons.

[hippo9]

Maybe this would shed some light ...
From runicgamefansite.com - http://en.runicgamesfansite.com/rgwiki/index.php?title=Game_Mechanics_Interactions

Ember Bolt

Innate Weapon Damage
Torchlight 1.14: Has the 20% effect you'd expect, but note that multiple damage types DO stack, so if you have a weapon with 100 Fire damage and 100 Poison damage, Ember Bolt gets 40 damage added to it, not 20. This is not how most people thought it worked. When dual wielding, only the highest damage appears to be used (this is per-hit damage, not DPS). They do not appear to be averaged, added, or alternated; the damage is consistent.

Weapon Speed
Torchlight 1.14: No effect; the 20% bonus appears to be based on effect damage, not on the listed DPS.

Damage Bonus Gem On Weapon OR Armor
Torchlight 1.14: Has complete, 100% effect. If you add a +100 Fire Damage mod to your weapon, Ember Bolt does 100 more damage. If you add a +100 Poison gem to your boots, that adds another 100 to Ember Bolt. This is almost certainly a BUG. Sure explains why Ember Bolt got so popular after Ember Lance was tuned down.

Percent Damage Bonus On Weapon OR Armor
Torchlight 1.14: Has complete, 100% effect if the element matches. "Magical" does nothing, but "ALL" (see text notes above) has 100% effect.

Knock Back Bonus On Weapon OR Armor
Torchlight 1.14: Enemy is knocked back.