The Impaler Keystone

Note: new testing changed my mind. Disregard feedback.

Now, this could be wrong, but it's the best conclusion I've come to with moderate testing.

The Impaler: When your Hits Impale Enemies, also Impale other Enemies near them
Inflict 4 additional Impales on Enemies you Impale
For 4 seconds after you Impale Enemies, they cannot be Impaled again, and Impales cannot be Called from them

I've been trying to figure out the wording to "The Impaler", and whether it will work without a "Call of Steel" build. My result is that it probably can't. The skill plays as a ticking time-bomb, only I don't think that's what we want out of the skill. We just want Impale options available through builds with limited Impale potential, like slow 2-handers, and now Spell Impale, maxing at about 50% Impale on devoted builds. The idea is to use these small infection rates to hit a strong spot and max impale potential quickly.

However, from the best of my testing, your Impales are worthless for the 4 seconds after it goes off, and then you get 1 Impale proccing hit (on 1 enemy) before all enemies shield up and get no Impale procs for another 4 seconds. That's not workable. There are only 2 options from here: use a 0% Impale skill after the delay, which is just slow and clunky, or you can use Call of Steel to proc all and time bomb. Okay, that's a thing I guess.

The issue is that we don't all want to boom-dead these things, and even if we did, the required skill (Call of Steel) is on skills that exclusively come with Impale chance. You add power to those Impales, you're bound to boast a very high Impale chance quite easily, which is completely against the spirit of having the "The Impaler" keystone in the first place. With all that has happened, Call of Steel is now a somewhat slow build, and other builds with "The Impaler" are just non-existent.

Overall, 5 Impales of 5 procs apiece is already 250% strike damage in AoE with 0% Impale Effect. Of course you have to hide that behind a timer. I think getting 9 Impale procs per application is easy enough, plus probably 100% Impale Effect, you're talking potential of 900% proc damage just by a small wait. Frankly, that's just not needed. My suggestion is to drop the Impales to 1-2, and make strikes proc 3-4 chunks off of an Impale per strike, keep the 4-second window where impales can't be applied, but they can still be procced. Slams will actually be able to use Impale, as well as skills that are more difficult to apply it. It may not be a 900% on-hit goliath, but you still have the option to get 180-360% in a 4-second window. That's still pretty good. Also, Call of Steel shouldn't feel good, in my opinion, on a skill that comes with Impale chance unless it's speed-proc based, not "The Impaler".

That's my two cents. I hope this ability can get out of the gutter soon. I'd also like to see Spell Impale become viable without limiting Chance so much, but first things first (Wink wink, the Champion Ascendency is a great place to start, since it's neck-deep in non-caster territory).

Edit: I think I can see Impale working as I expected it should. It seems it should be a little strong as is, but otherwise working as I described, with Impale procs available during the 4-second windows. It was difficult to tell. False alarm, sorry guys.

Impaler is a VERY situational keystone and in fact Ive found just ONE use for it.

~perma Vaal Ground Slam

Vaal Ground Slam deals like triple the regular damage, that means Impales are tripled as well

in fact these are so big (bigger if they crit) that you can proc them with 1L Ancestral Protector and still kill most T15 bosses before stacks run out

For this setup, Impaler works wonders and is what makes the build. Sadly, it means you have to be VERY careful to not inflict accidental impales. that means no counter attack skills, no gloves enchant (im not sure, but wanted to be on the safe side), no Herald of Purity (same story) and most important - no Leap Slam

it is effective but kinda taxing playstyle. but it works.



btw - Call of Steel DELIBERATELY does not work with Impaler, it is a dead end, for a reason

Yeah, my testing came up with other conclusions initially. Disregard most of the feedback, though I still have qualms with Spell Impale, and one other thing...

Can we please get better statistics for some of these factors? I can't find any way to judge whether Spell Impale is being effected by numerous things, like whether they receive 6 Impale stacks when you add Master of Metal, or what your Impale Effect is. I have 3/4 of my Impale Effect in limbo on my build because it's heavily into Aura Effect and using Dread Banner. While the wording implies that Impale effect is scaled into Spell Impale (though Impale Chance is not scaled), Path of Building is suggesting that both of these factors are attack-only. My scaling will have Dread Banner give 56% Impale Effect, according to PoB, but only to attacks, and I don't really see a reliable way to test it.

The Character Screen gives incomplete stats on Impale Effects, no info on Aura Effects if that stat isn't there directly, and I think Curse effects were also skipped. It'd be nice if these mechanics could be derived a little easier for the sake of the builds.