Vaal Skills: Why Increased Duration Instead of using a Second Gem?

So if I'm running a duration-based vaal gem (Molten Shell, any of the Auras, etc) why would I support that gem with an Increased Duration support gem instead of just running another identical Vaal Gem right beside it?

For example, if I have socketed:

Vaal Molten Shell
Increased Duration
Increased Area of Effect
Fire Penetration

Why wouldn't I replace the Increased Duration with a second Vaal Moleten Shell? That way as soon as the first one drops I can activate the second, for what is in effect 100% more skill duration.

Am I missing something critical about how Vaal skills work?

You can't gain souls to all skills at once. Each kill provides a soul to exactly 1 vaal skill, randomly chosen among those currently socketed in your gear. So bringing a bunch of vaal gems into a map isn't a bad idea, but you want to have increased duration linked to them anyway, and just swap them out when they get "full".

I bring 2 vaal hastes, 2 vaal disciplines, and a vaal summon skeletons with me everywhere I go. But only 2 are in my gear at any given time.

If you have more than 1 vaal skill, souls distribute randomly between them. Essentially it takes twice the time to be able to use the skill after entering the area or using both copies at once.

Running multiple Vaal Skills is almost always a waste, though, since it's usually quite hard to reliably fill one up, let alone lots of them. If you only use them for "Boss Instant-Murder" though, it may be okay.

As an example, Vaal Glacial Hammer (creates an arena) + Vaal Spark (creates a fuckton of sparks that bounce around) will kill any single stage boss in the game with little extra effort, support gems, or tree investment.

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pneuma wrote:

It's not a random distribution.

It attempts to fill up Vaal Skills in a deterministic order, depending on which gear pierce it's in and which socket of that gear pierce it's in. It will always try to fill up the first skill before continuing to the next skill, and so on.

... did I not just clearly state that I run 2 vaal skills at all times? I don't know why they let people like you be alpha members when you clearly aren't knowledgeable enough about the game mechanics to be a useful tester. They need to replace you with Vipermagi, stat.


Here are soul totals after killing packs of monsters sequentially, on vaal summon skeletons and vaal haste (respectively), both of which are in my gear at the same time:
9/6
23/19
26/19
33/32


WOW THAT SURE SEEMS DETERMINISTIC, HUH?


And anyway, yes, I only use my vaal skills for map bosses. Palace Dominus, the courtyard bosses, and the alluring abyss. I use all 5 of the vaal skills against uber atziri.


Edit: on another instance of the same zone (I'm using the merciless sceptre of god to test, btw),
5/10
9/13
21/19
(same order for the two skills)

Even if there was a really complex determinism function, it would have to be consistent within the same area, right? It _isn't deterministic_.

Oh cool, they changed it. Thanks.

---

Also +1 Vipermagi to alpha. :P

I've been trying to get him in ever since he took over GH and Skill Feedback where I used to roam. Oh well.

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pneuma wrote:

Oh cool, they changed it. Thanks. :)

DON'T SPREAD MISINFORMATION WHILE YOU HAVE THE TITLE OF ALPHA MEMBER BELOW YOUR NAME

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pneuma wrote:

Oh cool, they changed it. Thanks. :)

DON'T SPREAD MISINFORMATION WHILE YOU HAVE THE TITLE OF ALPHA MEMBER BELOW YOUR NAME

Jesus dude, people make mistakes.
It's not like I have the source code on hand -- only mountains of black-box testing and dev comments over the span of literally years.

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pneuma wrote:

Oh cool, they changed it. Thanks. :)

DON'T SPREAD MISINFORMATION WHILE YOU HAVE THE TITLE OF ALPHA MEMBER BELOW YOUR NAME

Drink a cool-aid hikaruyami.

Clearly Pneuma's intentions where to contribute and not distort information. As his history clearly shows and indicates.

Alpha testers don't get a secret tutorial or a "PoE's guide to wreaclast" send to there home.

No clue why you would lash out like that, unlike you. I will assume you did not drink your coffee yet or something.

Peace,

-Boem-