Can we have a moment of silence in memory of molten strike

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1453R wrote:

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Baharoth15 wrote:

I honestly don't understand all this whining about Molten Strike.

Allow me to try and explain, then.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

I never had a Meta build so i don't know what kind of clear speed some of you might be used to

It's not about clearspeed. Not unless you're I_NO or a streamer.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

but as a casual player with mostly selffound gear i can only say that MS still feels ridiculously powerful, even after 2 nerfs. It's still far above all the other skills i've tried so far. When mapping i literally just jump from mob to mob, click once or twice and everythings dead. Only some rares and map bosses require a few more clicks. Redtier Elder went down in no time as well.

You can clear the game with anything. It was the foundation of the "Melee Is Fine" platform before 3.7; damage has never been an issue if you know how to build for damage.

Molten Strike was a smooth, delightful skill to use because it was flexible. Generating a shotgun spread of projectiles with every strike allowed you to engage more fluidly, without dealing with janky pre-3.7 melee namelock targeting, and those projectiles having their own hit chances smoothed out accuracy issues. The introduction of Ancestral Call allowed Molten Strike to become a far-reaching skill equivalent to Tectonic Slam or high-level Ground Slam, attacking a significant portion of the screen all at once. People enjoyed combining it with life-on-hit mechanics because LGoH is absolutely pointless save when it's overwhelmingly overpowered, and Molten Strike made LGoH actually good instead of a waste of time.

The new Molten Strike accomplishes exactly none of that. You are required to hit with the primary melee swing now, which makes Molten Strike no better than Heavy Strike, Literally The Worst Skill In Path of Exile History Forever, for targeting and engagement. The secondary projectiles may as well not exist - because unless you connect with that extremely weak, slow, and janky carrier strike, they don't. This eliminates Ancestral Call as a source of extra damage (which admittedly needed to happen anyways), but also eliminates Ancestral Call as a clearing tool because the ancestral ghosts do not, I believe, generate molten projectiles anymore. The initial melee strike needs to hit for MS to generate projectiles, and ancestral ghosts are not you delivering the initial melee hit.

Multistrike being turned into a weird combo gem with essentially no attack speed (and which DOESN'T WORK every other hotfix) also removes much of the LGoH synergy which allowed Molten Strike builds to sustain themselves. The secondary projectiles from Molten Strike do not benefit from Multistrike's combo multiplier thingus even when that combo multiplier thingus works, and the secondary projectiles' damage is the only component of a Molten Strike build that people care about. That damage was drastically sliced, is more difficult to build for, and is also not guaranteed because you need to hit with the carrier melee attack to get those projectiles now and the carrier melee attack is useless.

Molten Strike is still functional, yes. The issue is that there's no longer any real reason to use Molten Strike over other skills. If you want a big, punchy fire conversion skill that clears well, use Tectonic Slam. It doesn't rely on a janky carrier hit to generate its damage and it doesn't need Multistrike to work decently. If you're looking for a fast, smooth mobslaughter build with tons of projectiles everywhere, Frost Blades lets you shoot from half a screen away and fire homing missiles at everything the long-range melee strike doesn't hit. If you want something that lets you concentrate a bunch of heavy damage sources on a boss, any other melee skill in the game is now a better choice than Molten Strike.

Nobody is really whining about the skill being nerfed. Folks are simply sad that the Molten Strike 'adjustments' were far more severe than the Winter Orb adjustments and essentially relegated the skill to the forgotten tomes of history.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

People always complain that this game is just a walk in the park simulator and it still is even with a nerfed moltenstrike just a tiny bit slower but everyone immediately goes crying and moves on to the next most busted thing to have their walks in the park as fast as possible? Isn't that a little contradicting?

Molten strike is significantly slower and enormously less reliable. It's no longer great for on-hit triggers, and it doesn't flow the way it used to. It simply doesn't feel great to play anymore, regardless of its actual performance.

When Molten Strike cannot outperform bloody Heavy Strike, it is indeed time for a moment of silence.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

Tbh to me your whole explanation sounds like people just don't want to play melee. They want to kill stuff from at least half a screen away with old MS, Frostblades, Tectonic Slam etc. I don't understand why the latter two even have a melee tag when they aren't melee skills at all. Melee, for me, means go face to face and punch right into it. And when you play like that MS is literally the same as it was before, just with a little less damage. I leap slam into a bunch of monsters and press MS. I don't have to look where i click or even target something. When i am surrounded by monsters i am bound to hit at least 2 or 3 with my attack animation no matter what i do.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

I am also 99% sure that your statement about ancestral call is partially false. I use AC for cleaning and literally the entire screen explodes in projectiles when i use it, even at far away targets. It's true that my initial attack needs to hit for the phantoms to hit as well, but if it does (and as mentioned it always does) they attack too and generate projectiles just as always.

PS: Just tested it regarding Ancestral call, aparently your statement is entirely false. Even when my main attack doesn't hit, the phantoms still attack if something is in range (important to note is that they have a minimum range if something is standing right next to you they won't attack) AND they create molten balls as they should. I was literally punching a wall with monsters behind me and the monsters died.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

I can't really say much about the LOH part because my Chieftain as so many lifesources with LOH, Leech and high regen that my life goes back to full in seconds even when i am not attacking. But with all the projectiles flying around (my own hit creates 7 + the ones from phantomes) there should still be plenty of sustain from LOH.