Testing: Best Chase Trigger skill – Nova vs Death Breath vs Spell Disintegration
Chase Triggering Skills – Comparing Nova, Death Breath, and Spell Disintegration
This guide covers both the damage and Chase trigger potential of Toxin Nova, Death Breath, and Spell Disintegration.
It’s meant for players building crit-based Chase mages (like Empress Wu) who are trying to decide which single trigger skill to use — especially since we’re forced into Fighting Master until Fu Fei is maxed for crowd control immunity.
⚡ Chase
Chase deals 225% damage rate to all enemies when triggered and has a 30% chance to trigger on every magical critical hit made by the immortal that has Chase equipped.
So, what we’re looking for are skills that cause many frequent magical hits that can crit, since every magical crit gives us a roll to trigger Chase. More magical crits = more Chase activations.
Skill Breakdown and DPS Analysis
All damage calculations below assume there are 4 living enemies (to reflect Death Breath’s full AoE value).
Toxin Nova (or Fire Nova)
For Fire builds, you should always use Toxin Nova, not Fire Nova, since Fire Dragon’s Burn already occupies the burn debuff slot and cannot stack. (For other elements, they’re identical in output.)
- Trigger Chance: 50% every 6 seconds.
- Effect: 175% magical damage to 3 random enemies + DoT for 6 seconds (75% every 3 seconds, 2 ticks total).
- Damage per trigger: (175 + 75 + 75) × 3 = 975% total damage per trigger.
- DPS per trigger: 975 ÷ 6 = 162.5% DPS.
- Effective DPS (50% proc chance): 81.25% DPS.
Death Breath
For Death Breath, we have a 100% trigger chance every 6 seconds, hitting all 4 enemies for 75% magical + 75% physical damage.
Damage per trigger (magical only): 75 × 4 = 300% magical damage per trigger.
DPS per trigger: 300 ÷ 6 = 50% DPS.
Final Effective DPS: 50%.
Note: In addition to this, Death Breath also deals 4 instances of 75% physical damage, which we’re not including in this calculation since we’re focusing on magical damage dealers (who have very low physical stats). You’ll still see slightly higher total damage than the 50% figure — particularly in early-game or low-stat environments where physical damage scales better.
Spell Disintegration
- Trigger Chance: 50% every 3 seconds.
- Effect: 125% magical damage to 3 enemies.
- Damage per trigger: 125 × 3 = 375% total damage per trigger.
- DPS per trigger: 375 ÷ 3 = 125% DPS.
- Effective DPS (50% proc rate): 62.5%.
Quick Summary (4 Targets)
| Skill | Trigger Chance | Cooldown | Magical Targets | Avg DPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toxin Nova | 50% | 6s | 3 | 81.25% |
| Death Breath | 100% | 6s | 4 | 50% |
| Spell Disintegration | 50% | 3s | 3 | 62.5% |
So, in terms of average DPS output, Nova remains highest, followed by Spell Disintegration, with Death Breath being the lowest — but the most consistent (since it always triggers).
⚔️ Chase Triggering Comparison
Chase triggers on magical critical hits, not just magical hits. Each magical crit gives one 30% chance to activate Chase.
So we care about how many magical damage instances each skill creates over time, and how consistent those hits are.
12-Second Window
- Death Breath: 100% trigger chance, activates twice (6s and 12s), hitting 4 magical instances each time = 8 total magical hits.
- Toxin Nova: 50% chance to trigger at 6s and 12s. Each activation hits 3 times instantly, plus 3 DoT ticks at 9s and 3 more at 12s if triggered. Average ~6 total hits.
- Spell Disintegration: 50% chance every 3s, for 4 triggers in 12s, 3 hits each = 12 max, 6 average.
Result: Death Breath provides the most consistent total hits (8 guaranteed). Nova and Spell Disintegration have similar averages but depend on RNG.
15-Second Window
- Death Breath: 8 total magical hits (4 hits × 2 triggers).
- Toxin Nova: 50% chance × (3 instant + 6 DoT) = ~7.5 average hits.
- Spell Disintegration: ~7.5 average hits.
They’re very close, but Death Breath maintains guaranteed uptime every 6s.
33-Second Example (4 Targets Alive)
| Skill | Max Hits | Avg Hits |
|---|---|---|
| Nova | 42 | 21 |
| Death Breath | 20 | 20 |
| Spell Disintegration | 30 | 15 |
In theory (assuming all 4 enemies remain alive), Nova averages 21 magical hits per fight, Death Breath guarantees 20, and Spell Disintegration averages around 15.
In reality, because enemies die at different times, Death Breath often loses total effective hits as the fight goes on, while Nova and Spell Disintegration continue hitting full value longer.
| Skill trigger timers | Timer (seconds) | Nova hits max | Nova hits avg | DB hits | Spell Disintegrator max hits | Spell Disintegrator Avg |
| Spell dis | 3s | – | – | – | 3 | 1.5 |
| Nova, spell, db | 6s | 3 | 1.5 | 4 | 3 | 1.5 |
| spell dis, nova dot | 9s | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | 1.5 | |
| Nova, nova dot, spell, db | 12s | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.5 |
| spell dis, nova dot | 15s | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | 1.5 | |
| Nova, nova dot, spell, db | 18s | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.5 |
| spell dis, nova dot | 21s | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | 1.5 | |
| Nova, nova dot, spell, db | 24s | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.5 |
| spell dis, nova dot | 27s | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | 1.5 | |
| Nova, nova dot, spell, db | 30s | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.5 |
| 33s | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | 1.5 | ||
| Total hits | 42 | 21 | 20 | 30 | 15 |
🧪 Testing Results – Nova vs Death Breath
Now let us move beyond the theoretical combat and try some testing. I played my fire march main to see which skill in reality gets more hits.
| Duration | Nova Magical Hits | DB Magical Hits |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | 25 | 17 |
| 15 | 9 | 5 |
| 41 | 21 | 13 |
| 16 | 12 | 7 |
| 38 | 12 | 15 |
| 91 | 12 | 17 |
| 35 | 14 | 10 |
| 31 | 13 | 12.5 |
| 29 | 13 | 12 |
| 16 | 10 | 5 |
| Total | 141 | 101 |
Nova produced roughly 40% more magical hits than Death Breath overall. This happens because DB’s AoE loses targets as enemies die, while Nova still hits its full 3.
🧪 Testing Results – Nova vs Spell Disintegration
Now let us test Spell Disintegration against the Nova which scored the best as purely trigger skill.
| Duration | Nova Magical Damage Instances | Spell Disintegration |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | 9 | 8 |
| 36 | 9 | 12 |
| 17 | 4 | 9 |
| 20 | 11 | 10 |
| 43 | 7 | 9 |
| 26 | 18 | 8 |
| 46 | 26 | 12 |
| 35 | 11 | 11 |
| 16 | 7 | 2 |
| 23 | 8 | 14 |
| 23 | 8 | 4 |
| 26 | 12 | 11 |
| 52 | 6 | 15 |
| 102 | 37 | 24 |
| Total | 173 | 149 |
Nova still leads with about 20% more magical hits per fight, but the difference is not huge.
Spell Disintegration averaged 10.6 magical hits per fight, compared to Death Breath’s 10.1 in the first test — very close.
🧩 Interpretation
The above shows that Spell Disintegration is actually a slightly better trigger skill than Death Breath on average, though DB wins in early fight consistency.
In real fights, the first seconds are the most important, and we can safely assume that Death Breath will land more hits than Spell Disintegration early on, before one enemy immortal dies. Once an enemy falls, Spell Disintegration tends to catch up and then overtake DB in total magical hits as the fight continues.
Spell Disintegration also provides a strong magical defense debuff, increasing the effectiveness of your team’s overall damage — especially for ultimates and Chase hits.
So while Nova remains the best overall trigger, Spell Disintegration deserves real respect — it’s both efficient and supportive, and not far behind Nova in raw hit frequency.
⚖️ Which Should You Use?
If you’re running high crit (90%+):
→ Run Toxin Nova.
You’ll get the most Chase procs possible since nearly every magical hit crits, and Nova produces the most total damage instances overall. But you are exposed to RNG.
If you’re running mid crit (50–60% range):
→ Run Spell Disintegration.
You’ll get consistent trigger opportunities and the magic defense debuff, which helps your ultimates hit harder. If you are building around your ultimate ability being the absolute most important factor, you should do Spell Disintegration – although, in that case a concentration build is better for you than a chase one.
For example, a Water Chase build would prefer Spell Disintegration, since it doesn’t have the high crit rates of Fire builds.
If you’re running Death Breath:
→ Remember that while it’s not the best trigger in the long run, its 100% reliability is a huge advantage. If you dislike RNG, Death Breath is your friend.
Also, the more fragile (squishy) your build is, the more valuable DB and Spell Disintegration become — DB for reliability, and Spell Disintegration for its fast potential triggers at 3 seconds.
If your team can sustain longer and extend the “deciding” part of the fight beyond the first 12–20 seconds, then Nova becomes stronger as a trigger because it benefits from time smoothing out its RNG and can accumulate higher total activations (despite its slower 6-second cycle compared to Spell Disintegration’s 3s).
🧠 Final Thoughts
- Nova = Best overall trigger; more total magical hits and higher DPS, but RNG-based and slower cycling (6s).
- Spell Disintegration = Great balance; very close in hits to Nova, faster cycling (3s), and brings a valuable debuff.
- Death Breath = Most consistent; 100% uptime, no RNG, and extra physical side damage early game.
If you want reliability and early pressure, go with Death Breath.
If you want balanced utility and sustained power, use Spell Disintegration.
If you want maximum burst potential and have the crit rate to back it up, Toxin Nova is still the #1 pick.
All three are viable — the choice depends on your crit rate, team durability, and comfort with RNG.
If you want to go deeper into the combat math or see full testing logs, feel free to tag me in the official IK Discord — always happy to go through the data. 😊
Published: 30-10-2025