The new Powerful Precision (Ranger Ascendancy) mechanics

Would like to know more about how this will work with various projectile attacks. The wording is:

"Attack Projectiles Return to You after hitting targets."

Frost Blades seems like if you're just hitting a single target out in the open, nothing will come back because the initial hit isn't a projectile. But what about walls and other terrain? Do walls count as targets for Frost Blades?

How about Molten Strike? The secondary part of the attack is 'attack' 'projectile'. Since they do their damage upon hitting the ground, would those return to you? And even if they did, would they do any damage on the way back? Because the player character isn't a target (I think), and the projectiles don't do anything on the way out while they're in the air.

Another question: how will PP work with pierce? Do your projectiles still go their full distance, then return? Or do you effectively lose your pierce effect the second you hit a target because your arrows are returning?

Hope GGG can clarify because I loved that bow in the descent races that let your projectiles return, and would build around Powerful Precision in a heartbeat if I had more info on how the mechanics work. If not I suppose I can roll something else to start Prophecy and wait for someone to make a youtube vid about it.

One would assume that the projectile only returns when it doesn't pierce, same as fork, chain, or secondary explosions/debuffs.
Given that "projectile returns" is likely the same kind of status check, and pierce doesn't penetrate walls, one further has to assume that projectiles will not return upon hitting walls.
I think Molten Strike Projectiles don't actually hit targets, they hit the ground, then trigger their AOE and disappear; so it is unlikely they are actually able to come back.

I think GGG put in this change to give players a reasonable motivation to use this Ascendancy Keynode without 100% pierce as a 100% crit node.

I'd be interested in it's interaction with tornado shot, however.

Well the fact that it's on a node that also gives pierce chance...if it doesn't then work with Pierce that seems ridiculous :o

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UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

One would assume that the projectile only returns when it doesn't pierce, same as fork, chain, or secondary explosions/debuffs.

Exactly

We had that mod for a while and it isn't exactly a community favorite, with it you ideally want to pierce the first line of enemies and not pierce the last line, that was doable with tornado shot, but getting 100% pierce on it instead gave higher clear speed. Powerful precision is pretty much tailor made for the mod, but I still haven't heard of anyone getting good mileage out of it, maybe there were successful stories I haven't heard of, no idea.

Frost blades would probably be a good option, as first row is hit with a melee attack, not a projectile and you're usually scaling them. Molten strike won't work at all, right, those projectiles hit only ground.

Frost wall might be an abusable case again.

Edit - I wrote the wrong words.

The info is also on the wiki, with a link to the dev response about it:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Projectile#Return

Right, but as it says on the wiki that the guy above linked: 'the same target can not be hit again by the returning projectile' so....hm.

Ya its best with some pierce but not total. Ive played with it a lot on half pierce coc barrage builds.

the wiki thing about not hitting the same dude again, Im not sure if thats true or not. One would presume so I guess? He says the projectile returns to the firer, that doesnt really paint an accurate picture of that bit. Essentially it seems like it shoots the projectile back at you from the mob/barrel etc its failed to pierce. It cant clip you so it shoots past you and keeps flying off in that direction. It never actually returns in the way spec throw returns to you and disappears.

I might be able to record a video of it in action if u want, it might be a half baked thrown together spec but ull get the idea.

http://plays.tv/video/57478ed9dc01467879/cocrtrn


I still have this wand from back when there was a poverty of prefixes u could do for a spell damage wand, u had 1% leech, spell damage and proj return basically. I use chain now from the ascendancy butIve taken that point out as it also over rides return i think.

Ive just taken the spells out of the setup so its just the barrage that triggers them, Im just firing it at monsters so you can see how often its returning and how much it pierces at various ranges etc. With barrage its very much u fire forward in a very tight stream and it comes back the same. When you do it with a bow that fans out a wedge of projectiles like split arrow or a gmp skill they come back in a V and then fan out again behind you. I dont have a bow with the mod on still though, sold it sadly.

Thanks for posting the video!

It seems like it is mostly useful for killing enemies behind you and infront of you at the same time.