How much does perception really increase drop rates?

[AH-1 Cobra]

I was curious so I backed up my legit save, and used a save editor to put 200 perception skill on my character, and kill Garcolossus a few times. I was expecting it to rain unique and set items, and to my surprise after 3 kills, Garcolossus didn't drop a single unique or set item. I had increase chance to find treasure on a few items on top of 206 (with relics) perception skill, and didn't find jack ♥♥♥♥.

I'm starting to wonder if the skill isn't working for some reason? If it's actually possible to kill Garcolossus 3x and not see a set or unique item with those MF stats, then what's the point of pumping that skill to 200?

Barganing @ 200 actually works. I see almost entirely yellow quality items from the merchants.

[AH-1 Cobra]

I'm also trying to find a good balance between CD time and damage. Like if I got a 2.2s C/D skill that can oneshot a group of regular mobs, is that pretty decent for level 30?

I'm also confused as ♥♥♥♥ about the skill modifications. The discriptions are really misleading. For example, for glacial thorns. I got a choice between more thorns and more damage. I initially went for more thorns. It added like 5 more thorns to the spell. I used the save editor to test the rest of the stuff out, and the increased frost damage one literally doubles the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ damage of the skill? Like 5 more thorns when you already got 80+ thorns is a REAL good choice, when the other option buffs the damage of the skill from 250-480. Yeah.

So the game makes me choose between double damage, and 5 more thorns? While not giving enough information about the impact of the choices before I made a decision? AND doesn't allow you to respec later on if you make a mistake? Like choosing 5 more thorns over double damage because you're not sure, and assume the choices are balanced? ♥♥♥♥ like this really pisses me off in games. That's complete fail. If there was ever a justification for a save editor in any game, Sacred 2 is it.

Glacial thorns with frost + crit + pierce is an absolutely devastating spell, btw. The shotgun effect makes it a great single target/close range spell. That combined with the frost resist debuff on crystal skin, you should see how bad it reks Garcolossus!