Thought of a claw buff

So,i mostly lurk on forums (post count >_>...yeah) and i've seen both here and in-game how claws are simply inferior to other weapon choices,with their gimmick being leeching(?).And then an idea came,when i saw the "Claws of the Magpie" node.

Since claws are all about stealing,how about a node that's like a mini-Headhunter's?Something like : "When you kill a rare monster with claws 20% chance to gain one of his mods for 10 seconds".

But,i kinda suck at this so i don't know how balanced it'd be,just thinking of something to make claws more interesting i guess.

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Erecpyle wrote:

So,i mostly lurk on forums (post count >_>...yeah) and i've seen both here and in-game how claws are simply inferior to other weapon choices,with their gimmick being leeching(?).And then an idea came,when i saw the "Claws of the Magpie" node.

Since claws are all about stealing,how about a node that's like a mini-Headhunter's?Something like : "When you kill a rare monster with claws 20% chance to gain one of his mods for 10 seconds".

But,i kinda suck at this so i don't know how balanced it'd be,just thinking of something to make claws more interesting i guess.

I think it would help a great deal already when physical leech is changed to general leech. Physical leech doesn't make any sense at all, especially considering that the leech nodes at the bottom of tree are generic leech for all weapons and are therefore infinitely superior.

On the other hand, leech causes lots of balancing issues.

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I think it would help a great deal already when physical leech is changed to general leech. Physical leech doesn't make any sense at all, especially considering that the leech nodes at the bottom of tree are generic leech for all weapons and are therefore infinitely superior.

On the other hand, leech causes lots of balancing issues.

Yeah,i noticed that physical leech problem too.I was just thinking of a way to make claws stand out as a weapon like,you can get culling on maces or onslaught from axes from the tree,so that makes them feel different than other weapon while all claws have going for them is leech.

Having most claw nodes buff attack damage and not physical attack damage would be a good start.

I have an old elemental claw frost blade build, and I didn't even bother taking the claws nodes ...

Or at least some clusters to benefit elemental damages.
Some innate resistances ( since even tho claw has the same attack range as other melee weapons, attacking with claw should probably almost like being bare handed range wise => so more into melee ) because close melees would be a nice thing too ( Now that would make spec throw a problem with claws :/ ).

Some interesting stuff here and there, and yeah, changing phys leech to general leech will help, and making claw nodes increase any dmg dealt with claws also sounds good. I like this.

But, thruth be told, what I really want to see are claw exclusive skills that are fun and rewarding to use. Giving claws a visual identity in terms of skills would be farily significant in my opinion, because right now, claws are basically nothing more than dull daggers, if we ignore the scourge, which has niche uses for sure, but that's only because it generally boosts damage.

What about there being some claws that give ES on hit? It could be a unique way to build for hybrid characters who want life and ES leech.

I'm all for generic attack damage, especially since on hit claws seem to be focused on ele anyway.

What about changing the steal charges trait to simply generate frenzy charges? It would be a pretty big QoL improvement to passively generate frenzy charges without ascendancy or bloodrage; especially for CI characters.

The only other unique trait I can think of is bleed or maim, but neither of those would be tremendously useful (bleed basically useless, while maim just *ok*)

@Kroughfire

You can get ES on hit on jewels already, though it's not a lot. Let alone that the ES on hit would make it so you can't have leech, because both would be implicit mods, and you can only have one of those unless you dual wield.

Just generating charges from out of nowhere would be an improvement, though I think it would be kind of dull, because QOL is not what is going to get claws out of the gutter. A build that goes for frenzy charges will have so much duration by way of passives, that I think it's not going to make claw more attractive.

Bloodrage and CI are a different matter though, that one I can agree with.

I think you actually underrate bleed. If you scale bleed with a few passive nodes, and slap on a vulnerability curse, you can get really nice dmg over time, because of how vulnerability triple-dips with bleed.

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Sure_K4y wrote:

You can get ES on hit on jewels already, though it's not a lot. Let alone that the ES on hit would make it so you can't have leech, because both would be implicit mods, and you can only have one of those unless you dual wield.

Just generating charges from out of nowhere would be an improvement, though I think it would be kind of dull, because QOL is not what is going to get claws out of the gutter. A build that goes for frenzy charges will have so much duration by way of passives, that I think it's not going to make claw more attractive.

Bloodrage and CI are a different matter though, that one I can agree with.

I think you actually underrate bleed. If you scale bleed with a few passive nodes, and slap on a vulnerability curse, you can get really nice dmg over time, because of how vulnerability triple-dips with bleed.

Well,as you said,frenzy charges are easy to get and maintain in that part of the tree so i agree on that.

And while bleed can be effective i think it already steps on the Sword nodes (since there are many that help with bleeding when you use swords).I was just trying to think of ways that would make claws not only interesting/more powerful but also give them some specialty (like how axes can get onslaught or maces culling) and since it seems their "theme" is all about stealing (life/mana/charges) why not mods from rares?

Of course i suck at this so i don't know how balanced it could be but it'd be better than how they are now.

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Erecpyle wrote:

And while bleed can be effective i think it already steps on the Sword nodes (since there are many that help with bleeding when you use swords).I was just trying to think of ways that would make claws not only interesting/more powerful but also give them some specialty (like how axes can get onslaught or maces culling) and since it seems their "theme" is all about stealing (life/mana/charges) why not mods from rares?

Yeah, bleed is kinda sword themed because of the maraketh bases.

Stealing mods from rares is pretty situational, though. I'm not wanting to shoot your ideas down, just thinking this through in written format:

So, rares are not necessarily that common to begin with, it would be like 1/100 monsters or something. Which doesn't make the idea of stealing mods for a period of time much more than a toy, of sorts. And it only applies to rares, so it's not a general buff either, at least not in the sense that you have something to rely on. I mean, I could see some utility there, if you actually remove the mod from the rare, instead of copying it, like, that would be interesting here and there, but I don't think it solves the issues claws have by default.

In general claws don't have the passive nodes to make them good. Like, that's the biggest issue of them all. Claws are pretty fast, but you just don't get the damage that you'd need to take advantage of that either. Ele-Buzzsaw builds have been about the most successful builds with claws, by stacking flat ele damage onto a fast weapon. But when you look at the points you need to invest in comparison to what you get out of them, it's just not good enough.

Better passive nodes, weapon exclusive skills, and a bit more flavour, that's what's needed in my point of view.

For instance a keystone or noteable related to claws, that makes enemies take more damage the more often you hit them with a claw would be nice. That would go well with the attack speed of claws, it wouldn't be very frontloaded, and it sure needs to be balanced properly to not make it OP as hell or just "meh", but that is something I could see myself building around. Especially since claws come with leech or life/mana gain by default, it would be OK not to be as frontloaded to begin with. Let alone that this would be a mechanic exclusive to claws, giving them some identity along with making them more attractive to use and experiment with. Just a random idea...

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Stealing mods from rares is pretty situational, though. I'm not wanting to shoot your ideas down, just thinking this through in written format:

So, rares are not necessarily that common to begin with, it would be like 1/100 monsters or something. Which doesn't make the idea of stealing mods for a period of time much more than a toy, of sorts. And it only applies to rares, so it's not a general buff either, at least not in the sense that you have something to rely on. I mean, I could see some utility there, if you actually remove the mod from the rare, instead of copying it, like, that would be interesting here and there, but I don't think it solves the issues claws have by default.

Well,i made this thread after a long talk on Headhunter's and it seemed to me that it fit with the claw theme (and again,it's about how it'd be balanced.Maybe a longer duration of the mods you take or stealing more than 1 mods or something).Also,it's not like the charge stealing we have now (Magpie node) isn't situational,you'd need to roll a map with charges on mobs,get lucky with what mobs spawn and it's rarely (if ever) useful on bosses.

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In general claws don't have the passive nodes to make them good. Like, that's the biggest issue of them all. Claws are pretty fast, but you just don't get the damage that you'd need to take advantage of that either. Ele-Buzzsaw builds have been about the most successful builds with claws, by stacking flat ele damage onto a fast weapon. But when you look at the points you need to invest in comparison to what you get out of them, it's just not good enough.

Better passive nodes, weapon exclusive skills, and a bit more flavour, that's what's needed in my point of view.

Completely agree here.Claws just feel so...vanilla i guess?They desperately need some skills around them (maybe one of the new channeling ones but i won't hold my breath)

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For instance a keystone or noteable related to claws, that makes enemies take more damage the more often you hit them with a claw would be nice. That would go well with the attack speed of claws, it wouldn't be very frontloaded, and it sure needs to be balanced properly to not make it OP as hell or just "meh", but that is something I could see myself building around. Especially since claws come with leech or life/mana gain by default, it would be OK not to be as frontloaded to begin with. Let alone that this would be a mechanic exclusive to claws, giving them some identity along with making them more attractive to use and experiment with. Just a random idea...

Like Piety's fire-phase attack that stacks that debuff on you?I could see that work,yeah (and also doesn't she use claws when she transforms to that form?Talk about irony...)