quick review of 'new and reworked' skills (excluding minions)

all the bad things happening right now aside, we got 4 new gems and quite a few reworked ones. here are my few cents after trying them out

New:

- Lightning Conduit. for me? 0/10. This skill cannot work alone so it is either triggered as a combo or requires one-two gameplay. all automatic shock sources are so weak that i rule them out as Shock Nova is then outright better while playing the same. GGG made sure to give it ABSURD numbers to make sure it sees use regardless. hint: melee skills also could be given GOOD numbers, just a hint.

- Galvanic Field. yet another 0/10. It is Orb of Storms but version 0.8. It looks nice and the mechanic seems interesting. This one is so clunky that despite lower potential numbers Orb of Storms just outpaces it. in theory you could stack both (and Storm Brand etc) but then.. what about main skill? Orb of Storms and this overlap so much that i wont be surprised by a 'rework' to OoS soon. What kills it is it hard cap of 2 casts/second vs single target.

- Overcharge support. Quite one-dimensional, requires a very focused build to make any sense. And it seems to be prone to abusing edge-case with 100%+ shock cap when it becomes the only 50%+ more damage support in the game. Math on it is simply very risky and similar to Archmage of old when you got EXTREME payoff for playing a certain build. Expect a nerf or cap on shock% in 3.20

- Concoction Mark. 2/10. I understand reason to nerf/split Sniper's Mark but the end result is.. sooo specific and funnelled. but alas, it is a nice % more damage to ignite/poison builds (much higher for ignites due to how poison builds work) and thats it. I cannot imagine toying with this vs big bosses for flask uptime but hey, maybe its just me.


Reworks:

- Cleave. 0/10. Just lol. Give it 'fortify on hit'. Threshold jewels were a failed idea but Cleave's one actually made sense and gave something unique to this skill. Bake fortify generation into this skill. I can assure you - no caster is going to abuse it, this skill is so bad that even 'free' fortify wont be enough. +2 radius actually IS noticeable but it is like hitting a tiger with a slightly longer wet noodle.

- Decoy / Devouring / Rejuvenation Totems. More totem life is good. They seem to stay for longer now. But in T16 Ritual they still fall over in a non-totem build. Thus - are unreliable. Rejuvenation totem has FAR TOO LOW regeneration, even after the buff. ~320 on lvl20 compare is far too low for the hassle and opportunity cost of a different totem. Devouring Totem is far stronger but does nothing vs bosses so is DOA. Ive used Rejuvenation on a Pious Path Inquis and 350 life+ES regen is cool but then the totem dies.
Oh and ALL of them have FAR TOO SHORT duration, it is surprising how quickly they despawn.

- Sunder. 10/10. It feels great now. Successful 'numerical rework'. We seriously need more of this.

- Arctic Armour. 8/10. -2 for removal of helmet enchant. Otherwise it is a GREAT defensive tool, easily competing with Determination/Grace in many cases. Cannot be Frozen is great utility

- Scorching Ray, Soulrend, Blazing Salvo and other spells - ok, I guess. Scorching Ray suffers because of that slight delay it has and it should apply Scorch so it can stack with exposure.

- Shock Nova - it is sleeper strong now, yet another 'numbers' change that might make this skill played more (if people stop parroting Conduit builds). 10/10

- Crackling Lance - and again, tiny change to already very strong numerically skill. It feels SOOO MUCH BETTER thanks to this tiny 'width' change.

- Artilery Balista - it did not need this change. What it needs is shorter 'deployment time' as it is seriously annoying when clearing. But damage was never a problem, it slaps when built properly (but then you cannot see screen anyway).

- Haste - i understand why they are soooo cautious about it, it scales crazy good with %aura effect but the numbers right now are really good and might warrant use on some builds


In general - few good changes, few 'excel changes' when someone just moved the slider by 10 or 20% and few complete duds (Cleave, Totems, Firestorm - it changed nothing about this skill)

I'm using galvanic field at the moment on a doryani fist build and I'd agree with all points, the skill feels redundant, anemic and awkward to use. It just doesn't seem like it's doing that much even with my consistent 50% shocks, and the most annoying thing about it is probably that you can't control where it spawns so when you have a lot of coverage it can appear on the other side of the room on something you killed so it will just stay there.

It isn't just that it competes with orb of storms, I'd say it's losing to hydrosphere too, and probably more directly because hydro is also a skill that works with shock. However, you get to choose where it's placed and can move it around, it hits more often, applies exposure to help with your main skill dps and doesn't care about the shock amount.

I'll praise the visuals, though, very subdued and I kinda appreciate seeing things in PoE these days.

Dunno what would be a quick fix, maybe reattach the effect to something else if the target is killed but then it feels like a brand, maybe just give it a bigger AoE. Definitely scale it more aggressively with shock amount, that's the part that gives it identity.

yep, Galvanic Field is really random with application. And due to that - with damage, too. Shock depends on damage taken and mob HP. if of all mobs in a pack you hit the rare - then the resulting shock multiplier is low. Couple that with lightning damage huuuge range and you end up with a field of tickles if you are unlucky.

On the other hand - you actually WANT to hit rare to achieve the 'moving damage field' effect this skill promises.

Then there is the cooldown per-mob. It kills chains scaling. Orb of Storms with +3 chains can hit the same mob twice (IIRC it has to be like a->b->c->a, so two mobs inbetween), Galvanic cannot - due to the cooldown.



In general besides the animation everything about this skill is real bad and i simply wonder why it is in the game. Lightning archetype is imo the best developed one - has a spell/skill for every situation, has great passives, AMAZING masteries, the tree builds itself and the shock is abusrdly strong mechanic now. Why need for a dud skill?