Puncture: Question for mark_ggg

Hello Mr Skill maker.

Does puncture ever become worth while as aoe dps?

My ranger currently lvl 56 using and some +bow dps passives deals very little damage with puncture. The bleed effect while a target moving is less damage than an default attack from my bow. ( This is with a mob moving from the far end of the screen to the center.

Are there any plans to buff puncture so it is usable in builds?

Or what is the skill meant to do? Is it supposed to be single target only?

In my build I am attempting, I am trying to get max amount of knock back to push mob's to make them bleed and take more damage while trying to get to me, a tug-of-war you could say.

But the damage output is so low from the bleed that it does not seem worth it at all.

Puncture is amazing. You just have to get the right support gems.

If I was to make a puncture build, I'd make it something like this: Build

I imagine Physical damage and Crit Chance/Multiplier would be key, as would Vulnerability (+phys damage and DoT damage) and either Projectile Weakness for slow mobs (and more damage) or Temporal Chains for faster mobs (and longer DoT). Hmm, Pierce socketed with at least Crit chance, crit damage, and faster projectiles for single targets, and maybe stick with Rain of Arrows for AoE unless I had a separate puncture gem with the crit supports and LMP/GMP and fork or something.

(Damnit, now I want to make this build...)

Knockback didn't seem to do a whole lot when I tried it. What does your build look like?

Edit: Hmm, looking at the skill, I thought puncture only worked based on physical damage. I don't think I'd change anything though.

Edit: Poison arrow would also be amazing. Yes. Puncture, then poison. But Projectile Weakness or Critical Weakness? A couple of key uniques and I could put all the curses on them!

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIABH4FLQW1BfkIiQuRFfAY2xrbIWAj9ifVLIUyATWGNZI6WDqzPs9AoEp9TshRR1b6WhpaSFuvYEth62egdO108XfUelN674bOhxmHdo19jb-TJZcGmvGbJp2qnrmjiqfUqn-quK_rsTCyGbTFuc295sRYxKLPet0N5-ruDu_w-TP5Vvlj_MX-yA==

Current build, going to get king of the hill and some crit nodes, debating on getting pointblank shot

I was also thinking of using chin sol with the build for knock back + point blank stacking, would almost be like a shotgun

Also thought about using flee so the mobs run away and bleed out but flee only effects white mobs with a slim chance for it to work on magic mobs.

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Nithryok wrote:

Hello Mr Skill maker. Does puncture ever become worth while as aoe dps

Puncture isn't AoE, it's single target.

Puncture +lmp+fork is a fun one in densely packed fast moving mobs. Western forest, for instance.

I was thinking using Puncture with LMP,Chain/Fork, and Chance to Flee. Then run Temp Chains so they are always running away but cant move fast enough to get out of range.

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Tyronsi3 wrote:

I was thinking using Puncture with LMP,Chain/Fork, and Chance to Flee. Then run Temp Chains so they are always running away but cant move fast enough to get out of range.

May work if flee effected anything other than white mobs well.

After playing around with puncture some more this is what I think, the damage *would* be good on it if, it's duration of bleed was lowered and the bleed damage was increased equaly so the total damage stays the same, the effect just finishes faster.

Heading out to sleep, hope to see a response from you in the morning mark.

imo, you would be much better off using poison/lightning/explosive arrows instead. the damage reduction caused by support gems hurts puncture's dps more than those others for large amount of mobs.

so yea, puncture works much better for kiting single target stuff like bosses, especially on crits. arguably comparable to viper strike, but ranged.