Spectal Throw is not in line with melee

I'd argue Point Blank doesn't make much sense with Spectral Throw anyway, but I have trouble making much sense of the skill anyway.

The 'stationary' spinning thing is interesting. I wonder if it was an intentional move to ensure it did 'max' damage at range, or if it's just a case of how they coded the trajectory of the weapon's boomerang nature.

Also, WHY does a spectral version of the weapon need to return to you anyway? it's not as if it's the actual weapon, is it? It could just as well 'cease to be' at the end of its path.

The stupid continues. :(

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Charan wrote:

I'd argue Point Blank doesn't make much sense with Spectral Throw anyway, but I have trouble making much sense of the skill anyway.

The 'stationary' spinning thing is interesting. I wonder if it was an intentional move to ensure it did 'max' damage at range, or if it's just a case of how they coded the trajectory of the weapon's boomerang nature.

Also, WHY does a spectral version of the weapon need to return to you anyway? it's not as if it's the actual weapon, is it? It could just as well 'cease to be' at the end of its path.

The stupid continues. :(

Heh. That would have actually balanced the skill out from the git-go.

It's rare that I choose the word nerf, because I much prefer rebalancing, but the ubiquity of ST right now demands a nerf.

Oh, it'll piss people off, but they're just like babies outgrowing their pacifiers. Gotta stop sucking the teet sooner or later.

The important thing is it probably won't piss off the true supporters of the game, who should recognise that any one skill dominating level 1-50 is a bad, bad thing; conversely, bullshit like the current ST, the ridiculously bad implementation of Cast on Crit and other such indicators that GGG may have lost their way...these *are* pissing off the real supporters, because they're all signs that the game we supported, the vision we bought into, may not be as well realised as we'd hoped it would be.

I'm honestly at the point where I don't believe Carl can balance everything. A moving target is a lot harder to hit with 5k variables effecting the shot.

I still see searing bond and flame blast as a bigger issue right now. The recent change to ST dmg. While leveling was pretty decent.

First and foremost, I want snapshotting gone.

Or how about...

1) Spectral Throw does not automatically pierce. Projectiles disappear on contact, unless player specced into "% to pierce" nodes/curses/items.

2) Spectral Throw does not return to user. The projectiles will continue onwards, just like how 99.99% of the other projectile skills fucking function in this game.

The auto-piercing boomerang effect just makes Spectral Throw beyond overpowered.

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peachii wrote:

I've used spectral throw a good bit, I enjoy it a lot and absolutely do not want to see it removed or changed.

I've gotten both MTXs for it so removing it hopefully will never happen. Nerf it into the ground and I want my points back. :) Granted I only started using it because the MTXs look really good for it but then I discovered I really liked the skill - after level 20 or so.

Rare to see you so...subjective.

I agree.

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peachii wrote:

I've used spectral throw a good bit, I enjoy it a lot and absolutely do not want to see it removed or changed.

I've gotten both MTXs for it so removing it hopefully will never happen. Nerf it into the ground and I want my points back. :) Granted I only started using it because the MTXs look really good for it but then I discovered I really liked the skill - after level 20 or so.

This is part of the reason why I'm actually upset the OP change the title of this thread. The original was, in my opinion, far better feedback; the current title is a diagnosis, not a description of a player feeling.

I think it would be a huge mistake to simply remove Spectral Throw from the game. You'd have errant gems running around, you'd have the MTXs, you'd have a small legion of people who love their ST builds and couldn't remake them... it would be a disaster.

What I do still believe is that it should be made into a 4-second cooldown skill with a frenzy charge bypass. This means there would still be builds which can spam Spectral Throw, in much the same way there are currently builds which spam Cold Snap. The difference would be one of specialization; you'd need a particular itemization and/or skillset in order to spam the skill.

In exchange, the damage of the skill would definitely need to be buffed. The idea would be that specialized ST builds would still be strong enough to see competitive play, and that even builds which do not specialize in it would consider running the skill despite its cooldown. There is simply no way this would actually happen under the current damage effectiveness, so it would have to be buffed... probably as much of a buff as possible without making Oro's Sacrifice or Terminus Est ST builds OP.

If done right, it wouldn't be a case of ST disappearing. Instead, it would be a case of melee builds actually using melee range from time to time. Maybe they still use ST, so they do the occasional snipe at a distance to soften up targets before risking close combat, but at some point they'd have to get close unless they want the battle to take forever. That would be considerably more balanced.

A reader with good critical thinking skills might ask at this point: Scrotie, aren't you yourself offering a diagnosis and a treatment? Perhaps I am. But in an attempt to strip that away, what I'm trying to get at here is that I don't feel the problem is the skill itself, but the ability to use it with impunity as an alternative to close-range fighting while using otherwise melee equipment. There should be some kind of real disincentive, something which requires you to build around it in order to make it stand-alone viable. Perhaps cooldown isn't the right answer, and instead a better answer is... I don't know, a really high mana cost. Or something. But please, let's make it so that equipping a melee weapon once against usually means whacking things at a close distance.