Skill Gems: Thoughts?
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There are a number of useless gems, not including Vaal Gems, that are almost never used in end game builds. Here's a list of the gems I've never seen in an end game build:
1. Searing Bond. This totem has no life and takes too long to cast to keep up with a party. 2. Viper Strike. Good to level with and I personally love this, but deals miniscule damage in end game maps. This barely whittles away the life of a regenerating rare. 3. Decoy Totem. The more allies you have in a group, the more useless this is. It only attempts to attract attention once every second or so, and does not really keep an enemy's attention. Even then, it only attracts the attention of a few enemies and dies shortly after. I've found Rejuvenation Totem to be better in all situations, as it not only heals itself but all nearby party members. 4. Elemental Hit. This skill does very little damage at a very high mana cost. It also cannot effectively be used without all three of the elemental penetration gems, which leaves very little room for Life Leech, Mana Leech, Melee Splash, and other support gems. The only advantage it could have is Elemental Equilibrium, but that only has a 66% chance of increasing your damage. Besides this, rare weapons are always superior. These are the skills I never see used. I do see Searing Bond used in some end game content, but the party member(s) that use it lag behind and end up not using it until tough rares or bosses, and even then it barely helps. The other three I never see except before the end of act 3 merciless. There would be an even longer list of things I see but not much more than any of the above. GGG should look into making some of their underused, if not overlooked, skills worthwhile. I'd especially like to see a change in Vaal Gems and Viper Strike. Just my two orbs. This thread has been automatically archived. Replies are disabled.
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A lot of the totem issues would be solved if the Minion Life support gem was changed to Minion and Totem Life. It wouldn't be a free boost, as it would cost a support slot, but you could make more durable totems if you chose.
A similar thing with Increased Burning Damage; changing this to Increased Damage Over Time wouldn't make it any less effective of a support for burning builds, but would open up options for builds such as Viper Strike and Puncture. I think Increased Area of Effect should provide a lot more area boost than it does now, so much so that a damage penalty would be justified. Something along the lines of 20% less damage, but 50% to 70% more area of effect. Not only would you see Increased Area of Effect more used as a support gem for generous coverage, but it would become a much stronger support for Decoy Totem. I don't think your worries about Elemental Hit are well-founded. It's been the center of powerful builds in the past (most of them involving criticals, wands, and/or Ranged Attack Totem). It also allows WED support, which is pretty important. When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
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" Huh? I thought this totem was in fashion now, or is that just for levelling purposes? " Like ScrotieMcB said, it needs more support options. At the moment, you have to take Melee Splash and Concentrated Effect, but then you're stuck. Chaos penetration support would be a wet dream for Poison Arrow/VS users, but I doubt we will see it any time soon. " I think it's mainly designed for solo play - not so much need for distractions in a big party, as at least one player will be good at tanking. The main thing it needs is increased life I think. Alternatively, ditch the skill and instead have a mobile decoy minion that looks like you (so it could fool players in PvP) and runs around aggroing the enemy. " If Elemental Hit converted all your elemental damage to a single element (chosen randomly), then you could do great things with the Elemental Hit + EE combo. As it is, EE is impractical for attack builds as you give up too much in terms of gear and auras. There are still ways to make EH work for you though, as ScrotieMcB said. Chin Sol is another good option here. |
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Spoiler
" Chin Sol would be okay, but it would prevent the use of EE. As to Decoy Totem, I've found that Rejuvenation Totem does the same amount of work while still helping me. A skeletotem is also many times better than both of them at distracting enemies and acting as a buffer that is especially useful for non-melee users. |
