Point Blank + Lightning Strike doesn't seem to work

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Mark_GGG wrote:

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Emphasy wrote:

Well Lightning Strike is actually primarly used by marauders, which have a long way to go to reach point blank. Although it is only 5 Points from IR, which is also something a lot of people want.

It's also a support gem.

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Emphasy wrote:

I'm more concerned about Shadows. They can use Point Blank to boost their projectile-damage, which would make some nasty spells.

No. Point Blank will affect Projectile Attacks. It will continue to have no effect on spells.

I know the support-gem, but well... there are a lot of support-gems that give you a good damage-increase already, but sure, it makes one gem more to use with lightning-strike.

And again the shadow would need something like this, since this would differ him from a witch, sense she has a long way to go for point blank and the shadow could become a close-combat caster.

If I'm not mistaken Lightning-Strike is the only new attack for point blank at this point? (Ground-Slam is no projectile is it?)

Correct Emphasy, LS is the only melee attack that also has projectiles.

Point Blank (the support) will be a 50% more damage support with no mana cost multiplier, to say nothing of its quality bonus. The malus does go away at higher levels.

LS+PBS is a cool trade-off to make (to force people away from using LS as a ranged-only skill), but I'm worried the numbers will need some heavy manipulation.

This is why I said I don't know how to balance it. It's most closely related to Ground Slam in usage (melee->short range, used against smallish clusters of enemies) but this makes it an absolute single target beast (far and away above Heavy Strike or other single targets in the game) at a very, very low cost.



Actually, I need clarification. Does LS shotgun a single target? If not, then this may be fine as is. If so (and I vaguely remember reading that it does), it should be changed to not do so.

People asking for PB to effect spells: You don't want this. As it is, it's quite easy to get ridiculous damage on a spell like Ethereal Knives or Freezing Pulse (something that is already forced to be close ranged). Point Blank will further make these skills too strong.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Within PoE, "Ranged" specifically refers to weapons. A "ranged attack" is any attack made with a ranged weapon (bow or wand). LS is not a ranged attack, it is a melee one. It can't be both.

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Shippal wrote:

By the Lightning Strike skill description, lightning "is released from the weapon as projectiles as you strike". By all accounts, this is considered ranged damage (as noted by the fact that you can use Lesser Multiple Projectiles on it).

No, that shows it's projectile damage - damage dealt by a projectile, not that it's "ranged" in the terminology of the game.

However, as of 0.9.12 and the projectile refactor, Point Blank is changing to specifically affect projectile attacks, rather than ranged attacks, so will affect LS.

Thank you very much for addressing this issue. :) Regardless of the fact that I did not understand the full context of the skill here, I'm glad that this change is being made.

So... with that in mind... my LS Shadow is going to kick some ass next patch. >:D

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pneuma wrote:

Actually, I need clarification. Does LS shotgun a single target? If not, then this may be fine as is. If so (and I vaguely remember reading that it does), it should be changed to not do so.

It doesn't. Only one projectile can hit a certain target. I guess this is true for all attacks, only spells can score multiple hits.

You sometimes even notice this. Normally the middle projectile hits the target you are attacking and the two others fly away to hit other things. If you attack a large target one of the outer projectiles hits the target and the middle projectiles flies right through it.

If you don't believe me, I guess there is a statement about the shotgun-behavior in the Thread about the new arrow-behavior, stating that attacks behave different than spells.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

No. there was discussion of this, but for balance reasons and to help make attacks more distinguished from spells, multiple wand projectiles or arrows from the same attack cannot "shotgun" the same target, but most spells can.

I just found it. I guess this is also true for lightning-strike although bow and wand-skills are mentioned.

I just want to use this to thank Mark too, he gives a lot of clarification on certain topics and is really helpful, since actually some things aren't that bad, we just not know how to use them correctly, which makes them feel bad.