state of slams - is Earthbreaker the only saving grace?

so.. 3.15 removed Seismic Cry from the game (yep, it truly did) and cut Fist of War in third despite it not being a regular 'more damage multiplier' support

Ive been revisiting some of my old builds and out of all, the slammers aged the worst.

I know someone will come here and claim that it is all fine but to preempt this ill just say this:
- slams 'work'. aka you CAN make them work but.. there is nothing 'slammy' about that. you use the same tools as with i.e.: Sweep. Stack Multistrike, get fast weapon and go to town. It is not 'slam'. It is slam's parody.
- slams 'work' if you lower your bar (aka 'im doing 600k dps and it is all fine!') OR you cover it with exalts ('my slammer works great, here is my 100ex cluster collection, 25ex staff and chest you cannot even buy because Rog gave it to me')
- slams have some mechanical advantages/features that make them unique. sadly.. these advantages (Warcry rotation, Fist of War, scaling ailments from big hits etc) were ALL nuked from orbit
- there are many slammers on poe.ninja. yep, but now filter out the Earthbreakers and count again.


Problems I see center around identity and pure effectiveness.

Ground Slam + Multistrike + 1.8aps 1h mace kinda does not match the slam as advertised by GGG. So I take the liberty and remove such builds from the equation.

The hit-once-kill-everything playstyle is hardly possible now. Mainly due to Slams not dealing any significant damage when played this way. The 'exerted' %increased damage bonus is a farce. You can get 4(6) Intimidating Cry's double hits but.. GGG nerfed Second Wind gutting any form of aggressive Warcry management. Same with Fist of War. This one really makes no sense, the numbers are REALLY bad now, most slam builds attack at least TWICE between 'uber slams'. In theory you can time Ruthless procs to stack but in practice it isnt reliable.

Is there anyone with a successful classic (slow, one-hit) slam build that wants to share his/her experience and some tips? How do you scale you damage?

Im asking mainly because one of the chars i wanted to 'modernize' was a quite old Consecrated Path Chieftain using two Nebuloh maces.

gear/links are total mess, spent most of the time in POB and had serious issues getting it over 1m dps and no matter what i did 'live', i couldnt find a way to play it as 'slam'. Fist of War makes no sense here, the basic AOE is tiny, so the extra AOE from FoW is irrelevant etc etc.



anyone with recent experience with slams (non-totem ones!) that is willing to share their opinion?

IMO: Slams were too easy, and that got nerfed. Sadly the collateral kinda damaged the very identity and purpose/playstyle of slams. It was already very flimsy: made with ONE support (nerfed), two warcries (one removed, both made FAR LESS spammy) and passives of questionable power (once you understand just how bad the warcry cadence nerfs were)

what is your take?

I didn't try it this league, but as soon as I read the changes I knew Slams were pretty much dead.

As u said, the slow one hit killer fantasy, that GGG wanted Slams to be doesn't work anymore and therefor I don't see any reason to play those skills.
Earthbreaker totem really works well and is much safer for obvious reasons... u don't have to stand around for 1 second until ur slam finishes, u don't have to piano 3 warcries and hit 4 times until the 5th suddenly 1shots a boss.

It's much more fun imo and they should really revisit the whole Slam fantasy right now.

Like I said I didn't try it and maybe we're missing something, but I doubt it.

Slams were extremely exhausting to play. In the long run playing the slam fatasy was just not fun for me.
Also i felt like the forced cooldown slow gameplay did not fit in the game gameplay wise.
Most streamers and players i saw played it for being very easy on scaling without gear options so mostly in SSF thats why slams saw barely play in SC Trade.

And yes slams were gutted out of existance in 3.15 not that melee needed any more nerfs to be the worst choice.

I would welcome a slam overhaul combined with a whole melee overhaul un 3.17.
According to the Interview with Ghazzy GGG devs are aware that melee is underperforming in relation to other options.

My tectonic slam character is able to clear vaaled T-16's safely and quickly...

"Slams Dead?"

Ahh. Often times I forget that hyperbole is the native language of the internet.

"

Sabranic_SilverDeth wrote:

My tectonic slam character is able to clear vaaled T-16's safely and quickly...

"Slams Dead?"

Ahh. Often times I forget that hyperbole is the native language of the internet.

Thanks for your effort but that kind of post got covered by the OP pretty well explaining his reasoning.

"

Sabranic_SilverDeth wrote:

My tectonic slam character is able to clear vaaled T-16's safely and quickly...

"Slams Dead?"

Ahh. Often times I forget that hyperbole is the native language of the internet.

I don't mean to be an ass, but the OP clearly wants to seek for knowledge on how to make his slam characters working again.

If u made such a good slammer, why not share ur knowledge instead of "slamming" on other opinions? (pun intended) :)

"

Sadaukar wrote:

I don't mean to be an ass, but the OP clearly wants to seek for knowledge on how to make his slam characters working again.

If u made such a good slammer, why not share ur knowledge instead of "slamming" on other opinions? (pun intended) :)

My reply was aimed at this comment in particular:

"

Sadaukar wrote:

I didn't try it this league, but as soon as I read the changes I knew Slams were pretty much dead.

This is not true.

My tectonic slam character is pretty much "the standard" - you can find about six variations of his spec on the build sites, most of which still work just fine.

Cost-wise, I am on the cheap end of the spectrum. The only really valuable things he has are two legacy abyss jewels, which give him about 50 more fire damage than you can get these days - i.e. not by any means a deal breaker or a deal maker.

I'm playing tectonic slam chieftain in expedition league. It's actually quite good for clear and fun. Not the highest dps vs single target though.

I think i am dealing about 2 mil dps or so if most realistic buffs and stuff are active.

I used to have abyssus as helm which boosted dps greatly but i just can't level up with that thing. I was level 90 for a week without making any progress to level 91 so i replaced that helm and look i am level 91 now :)

Pob here: https://pastebin.com/FnsDBUc0

Not sure if you guys would classify tectonic slam as a real slam skill. I am guessing you mean these slam once, kill all type of builds but i thought i would post my progress anyway in case anyone is interested.

Maybe this still works for the one shot playstyle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSfN5DZeKD8

"

Sabranic_SilverDeth wrote:

This is not true.

My tectonic slam character is pretty much "the standard" - you can find about six variations of his spec on the build sites, most of which still work just fine.

Cost-wise, I am on the cheap end of the spectrum. The only really valuable things he has are two legacy abyss jewels, which give him about 50 more fire damage than you can get these days - i.e. not by any means a deal breaker or a deal maker.

Well as I said I didn't play it this league and I'm not invested enough in the topic to research any build sites, just to proof a point.
But if it's not a 1 slam, kill all build, then that's not what the OP is talking about.
If u build around attack speed ect., then that's not what slams are supposed to be according to GGG. (build fantasy)

No doubt u can make them work, but not how it used to be with Warcry stacking for big one shots.

Like I said, there's a high chance of being wrong, I just can't see it.
Anyway last post here.

"

kompaniet wrote:

I'm playing tectonic slam chieftain in expedition league. It's actually quite good for clear and fun. Not the highest dps vs single target though.

I think i am dealing about 2 mil dps or so if most realistic buffs and stuff are active.

I used to have abyssus as helm which boosted dps greatly but i just can't level up with that thing. I was level 90 for a week without making any progress to level 91 so i replaced that helm and look i am level 91 now :)

Pob here: https://pastebin.com/FnsDBUc0

Not sure if you guys would classify tectonic slam as a real slam skill. I am guessing you mean these slam once, kill all type of builds but i thought i would post my progress anyway in case anyone is interested.

Maybe this still works for the one shot playstyle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSfN5DZeKD8

thanks for the link and build. It kinda isnt what I'm looking for - your Tectonic Slam is precisely what i call 'non-slam' - aka attack speed based build. you use precisely ZERO 'slam related' mechanics. but it is a very nice build in its own right, thank you.


Tectonic Slam actually is pretty good slam skill and my char (Juggernaut + Tidebreaker + 9 endurance charges) actually plays 'ok' as slammer - i think the factor is the AOE. you REALLY feel the impact of Fist of War if your starting AOE is substantial.

maybe the problem is with Consecrated Path. its default AOE is pitiful and 50% increased of 'small' is still small. I couldnt find any old builds on YT with CPath played as 'slammer'. maybe ive simply found a one-trick-pony skill AGAIN?