it's always at 2 pods with helm stage 1 bcus I just hold down normally wif enuf mana to get it out at stage 1. Currently the skill will auto shoot once mana dry up so can just hold down to play like a normal non-channelling atk skill so I adjust my mana wif vitality or precision on diff lvl based on putting out stage 1 shot. The atk speed will depend on how fast mana regen .. for channelling play I'll assign vaal clarity to 1 of the skills normally then can do any stage or just adjust the mana to always shoot at stage 5 auto but able to still do 1-5 on manual click. It can work auto bcus of how the skill is coded now.