Shield Throw and Ethereal Knives

Is it only me thinking they are too much of same thing on mechanics?

OK one is a spell and other is an attack, but both launchs projectiles in a ring(assume you use ethereal knives jewel), on both cases these proj dont pierce or chain or fork alone and can be improved by proj speed, and on both cases pierce will be best thing to go with it.

Both are physical, but as many have discussed here on foruns, converting to elemental gives huge damage increases.

Some diferences, attack gets easier life leech and attack speed nodes, or on gear, and elemental pen on tree, that spell doesnt get.

If spectral Shield Throw flat damage goes to high on high level gem, we can call this a dead league for Ethereal Knives.

Its diversity for builds, yeah they are similar but as you point out, one is based on spell damage, the other is done via projectile, opposite sides of the tree, top/top left for majority of spell nodes around templar and witch, where as projectiles are all around the bottom and bottom right by duelist and ranger, but shield throw also allows for high crit based builds via a ES shield.

I have a feeling that the flat phys on a 20/20 shield throw wont be as high as what EK goes upto

I never could tell the difference between Captain America and Hawkeye either. They both use projectiles.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

I never could tell the difference between Captain America and Hawkeye either. They both use projectiles.

Never seen captain america shield breaking into projectiles. But i love how It chains around hitting like 5 guys and returning.

My point is ggg confirmed that chain is not good for it, and this skill had a real potential to be a good chain skill, not just another Pierce skill like so many others.

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awright wrote:

opposite sides of the tree, top/top left for majority of spell nodes around templar and witch, where as projectiles are all around the bottom and bottom right by duelist and ranger, but shield throw also allows for high crit based builds via a ES shield.

not necessarily, EK is a physical projectile spell which is often used with crit, most of its nodes are centred aound the shadow where shield throw are centred around the ranger to some extent but maybe even just as much around the shadow in some ways. It does have good representation down at the duelist too though for sure.

The templar area is more elemental damage scaling than pure spell, certainly not physical. Ek is a dex/int hybrid spell and certainly sits naturally in that area of the tree.


I dont rly think the gems share too much in common in terms of style tho, shield throw seems to have more in common with tornado shot than ek in a lot of ways. I dont think its clearspeed will be able to compete with ek or tornado though.

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HoockBr wrote:

My point is ggg confirmed that chain is not good for it, and this skill had a real potential to be a good chain skill, not just another Pierce skill like so many others.

Where? If you look at the video, you'll notice that it DOES chain.
GMP/ LMP and Pierce won't do anything for the actual shield throw, only for the splinters.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2089922

Check announcement forum, read post, be happy.

Chaining and forking works. Have fun.

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Vipermagi wrote:

I for one think cleave/earthquake/ice crash/ground slam/sweep/static strike are too similar, they're all AoE Melee Attacks that scale well with Phys->Ele Conversion, but unlike Cyclone none of them move you. I guess it's a dead league for all Melee skills except Cyclone.

:/

Many Skills use similar mechanics, and have similar scaling benefits. That alone doesn't make them similar. Builds for EK and Shield Throw are not plainly interchangable, and the playstyle is decidedly different.

Lul

#Rekt

But yeah, there is only so much design space GGG can cover. I honestly think they did a fucking amazing job with this skill and not because of it's visual mechanics or delivery of damage method but because of how that damage is derived or scaled.

Just like how i love how whispering ice scales or iron command, it makes you look entirely different at gear and passive tree's.

This skill accomplishes something similar in the item department and we need more of that.

Peace,

-Boem-

Shield Throw + Doryani's Fist