Lightning Warp (and other conditionally targeted skills)

There are several skills in PoE2 that have targeting conditions, such as Lightning Warp's [Must be targetted on a cullable enemy]. I do not have experience using the others but I think my experience will probably be applicable to several other skills that require mouse targeting of specific targets to trigger.

The current version of Lightning Warp in PoE feels "bad". As it currently stands as of version 0.1.0b Lightning Warp currently (seems to) work as follows:

Lightning Warp is cast at the current location of the cursor:
*If there is a cullable enemy (or ball lightning projectile) in a small radius around the cursor the spell triggers as written.
*Else a small electric ring effect appears at the cursor, mana is consumed, and cooldowns are triggered if applicable.

My problem with the skill is that the "search radius" near the cursor seems to be very small and it often takes several attempts to get the hit to register on a valid target. In a pack in a middle of a fight it is difficult to target marked cullables, and there seems to be little in the way of "aim assist" to snap to my target.

I spend several seconds chasing a specific mob or ball lightning around my screen when I could be using to just spam more direct combat skills (or trying not to die). Rarely the skill seems to go on a spree and I'll find myself rapidly teleporting around a pack when I only meant to cast once (most likely because I was holding down the skill button trying to fish for my target). The skill in its currently form is too inconsistent to feel satisfying to use, and I have dropped it from my normal rotation as other skills are far more reliable.

Another issue I have with the skill is that it is practically impossible to use it with any support gems that add a cooldown to the skill. Since failed casts trigger cooldown, and the skill often fails to find its target on the first try, I more often than not have the skill misfire and go on cooldown.

Ideally I would like to be able to hold down the skill button to "prime" the cast and have the skill auto-target the nearest valid target to the cursor on release, with a generous search radius (maybe 5 in-game meters). If the skill fails to find a target I would like it to not consume cooldown (mana-cost I am indifferent on). I would accept a reasonable innate cooldown to the skill in exchange for increased ease-of-use.


PS the skill has strange interactions with any enemy that has a special "death animation" especially bosses. In cases where the enemy corpse should not be deleted, the skill should probably apply damage to 0 HP and return the player to their starting position.

Adding to this - the mana cost on failure makes this skill feel bad.

I'm playing Mind over Matter, and using Lightning Warp with the Life Drain support to top up life whenever something dips into my life pool.

I also plan to swap to Soul Drain when that's available to me (I'm still leveling through the campaign)

I'm playing as a spark sorc, and when I target an enemy often an extra spark will kill them before lightning warp can cast, I then spend mana on the failed cast on the corpse.

I think this skill would feel very good as a situational efficiency boost when enemies are cullable (the 4 second non-stacking recover for Life Drain / Soul Drain prevents it from being over powered), but the mana cost on failure tends to make it a net loss more often than not.

Suggestion - don't cast anything if there is no available target. Holding the skill's binding will keep the player in a constant state of attempting to cast until a cullable enemy is near the cursor. This would allow swiping the cursor around while holding the bind until a target is met (solving OP's issue) and prevent casting on empty corpses in my case.

Side note, the skill visual/audio effects are really cool and I'd almost want to use it for that, so it's extra frustrating that I'm prevented by the mana cost on failure making it usually a waste to use rather than throwing an arc or some more sparks at enemies.

I'm having the same issue. I'm speculating that it's actually caused by the spell name-locking a non-cullable mob, and refusing to target nearby cullable mobs or ball lightning projectiles. It seems to be better if you spam-press the lightning warp button to avoid name-locking a single mob for too long, but I haven't tested it much.

Also, if the devs are reading this, the cull indicator is very hard to distinguish from the Shocked effect on mobs, or the Conductivity curse icon used with Blasphemy, especially while teleporting at high speeds.