Does lightning strike need rebalance?

I swear to god everyone and their mother's character all have this skill as core for melee, whether its shadow or duelist or ranger who are melee....

It's because most people can't facetank large/hardhitting groups so we use LS as a ranged attack to clear mobs then personally I melee the rare while letting the lightning kill the mobs behind him.

There is also cleave, sweep, ground slamm leap slam.


What needs to be done is adding dexterity and intelligence based melee AoE attack gems...

in dexterity we have:

single target:
puncture, frenzy, viper strike, flicker strike, double strike, dual strike, elemental hit,

AoE:
whirling blades

in intelligence:
nothing

str:
Single target:
Heavy strike, dominating blow, infernal blow, glacial hammer, shield charge,

AoE:
Sweep, Cleave, Ground Slam, Lightning strike, and kinda infernal blow.

Now, what choice do sword/dagger/claw users have for AoE attacks?
Weak Cleave or strong Lightning Strike.


Imo - add new melee AoE dex gems for sword/dagger/claw users. Yes, there is Ethereal Knives, but it's a spell, not an attack.

Use Frenzy and Discharge together, plenty of AoE and CC.

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Zaviel wrote:

Use Frenzy and Discharge together, plenty of AoE and CC.

Discharge is a spell - There are no dex AoE attacks.

I always felt lightning strike felt too "End all be all" of melee builds myself. It seems like its required to do well in melee.
Of course, my experience with melee builds isn't nearly as high as ranged, because that is where I prefer to be. I could very easily be talking out of my ass.

There's nothing wrong with LS.
There's nothing wrong with GH.
There's nothing wrong with GS, heavy strike, double strike, dual strike, leap slam, sweep, cleave (although some.... unique difficulties with cleave)

They all have their uses. There is, however, something wrong with infernal blow. That attack just isn't very good, no matter how you look at it.

Elemental conversion builds use the only effective multi-target conversion attack? Who wudda thunk?

My context? I've run a good handful of melee characters to endgame, in hardcore, using almost every possible melee ability. My LS staff templar was actually a good bit slower at farming than some others. Safer, though. OFC now with shock changes, well, that's more a concern for champ, rare, and unique opponents. Not worth a LS nerf over the shocked fix.

GGG is trying so, so hard to encourage EE melee builds. I have a very difficult time believing LS will see the nerf hammer anytime soon.

My point on this: LS is a good spell but its fun and not really overpowered. So its no use in nerfing the skill to a point it doesnt do what it does anymore. Maybe I could see a small range nerf coming so it doesnt hit over the whole screen like it does not.

BUT its much more important to give characters other viable options to use so the builds get more diverse. (at the moment its almost only LS / Groundslam builds)

-> Why seems cleave underused? The spell itself is fine. I use it on my lvl 66 duelist and i can play quite well in maps up to level 64-65. The biggest problem here is it doesnt work for claws. Claws got buffed quite hard in the most recent patches but i am afraid they dont have enough good skills appointed to them. A claw beeing able to cleave would make great sense as well so i dont see why nobody wants to enable us to use another AoE meele skill with claws.

-> What makes LS so good? There are 2 points here. First, it covers insane AoE after using some multiple projectile support gems but it doesnt lack in damage either in lategame so its a great offensive tool. And second, Its a very safe to use skill as well because of its big range and its needed since mobs in lategame can hit very hard, so its better to kill everything before it can reach and harm you.

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Futtbucker wrote:

I swear to god everyone and their mother's character all have this skill as core for melee, whether its shadow or duelist or ranger who are melee....

Core for all melee...care to back up that assertion? Did LS get some massive buff in 9.12 that I'm not aware of?

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Zakaluka wrote:

They all have their uses. There is, however, something wrong with infernal blow. That attack just isn't very good, no matter how you look at it.

Actually Infernal Blow is one of the best single target/AoE attacks.

I have a 15% quality one, which gives me 15% increased area of effect.

This is how I use it:


Normally that chance to ignite wouldn't be that strong, but I've made a fire templar with maxed burning damage and elemental weakness curse.

I'll just say that I deal 2000-3000 fire damage with infernal blow so the burn it delivers is insane. Not only that, but it burns some minions around for 20% life they have.

Also combined with Detonate Dead totem


It's just really insane. Everything burns and blows up. It's basically a chain reaction, there is a pack of 20 monsters, I kill 3 of them, the rest is killed by burning damage and explosions from totem.

I also use it on my duelist:


On heavy strike i get 5500 DPS, on Infernal Blow 5400 DPS. Damage is almost the same, but utility is much greater - especially since with this build I also use elemental weakness.