There's no Damage over Time outside the Shadow area

One thing I don't like about the new tree is how there are now only two damage over time clusters, and they're both deep in Shadow territory. For instance, there used to be a DOT/regen cluster near Mind over Matter, but it's disappeared, and Entropy has moved closer to Shadow and further away from Witch/Scion. If you want to make a physical/chaos DOT build, you're now pretty much forced to play as a Shadow or travel to the Shadow area. (Generic physical/chaos damage also works, but that's mostly found in or near the Shadow area as well.) Meanwhile it's kind of overkill for the Shadow, as between all the physical, chaos and DOT nodes he has more than he needs (especially as he's likely to want to invest heavily in daggers as well).

This is particularly disappointing with melee Puncture and the new Viper Strike, both of which have been made significantly weaker for melee Duelists by the removal of the Growth and Decay cluster.

Viper Strike will scale fine off of raw +% weapon damage. Yes DoT double dips it, but really 90% of your damage is coming from the initial hit, give or take some DPS.

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Autocthon wrote:

Viper Strike will scale fine off of raw +% weapon damage. Yes DoT double dips it, but really 90% of your damage is coming from the initial hit, give or take some DPS.

If the bulk of your damage is coming from the initial hit, then you're better off using another skill that does more damage upfront. DOT builds are all about that extra multiplier.

90% of your damage is determined by the initial hit. Depending on AS the remainder of your damage is up for debate as soemwhere between 30 and 50% being from actual hits.

The passive tree is about compromising or else there is little point to classes.Every class will have a hard time with a particular type of build.If you choose a build that's not ideal for your class then you have to compromise or think out of the box to get it to work.Shadow for instance has no 2H nodes (think +2 Melee,6L) that a duelist does get.

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Kavlor wrote:

The passive tree is about compromising or else there is little point to classes.Every class will have a hard time with a particular type of build.If you choose a build that's not ideal for your class then you have to compromise or think out of the box to get it to work.Shadow for instance has no 2H nodes (think +2 Melee,6L) that a duelist does get.

To be honest I can't think of many cases where +2 melee gem levels will make a significant effect on your final damage such that a 2H is actually worth using.

On the other hand daggers for days, and claws for when you want a solid weapon option.

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Autocthon wrote:

To be honest I can't think of many cases where +2 melee gem levels will make a significant effect on your final damage such that a 2H is actually worth using.

On the other hand daggers for days, and claws for when you want a solid weapon option.

Also, the Shadow has very general damage (physical/elemental/projectile) and crit nodes, as well as generic attack speed. These make him at least OK with just about any weapon or spell.

I think the new Shadow start is good (and fits the theme of the Shadow being the most offensively-oriented class), but it highlights some of the deficiencies in other starting areas. For instance the Marauder, Templar and Duelist all have these mediocre physical weapon pathways that lack both power and flexibility, with nodes like '10% physical damage with 1-handed melee weapons'.