Why I do not care for the Lightning arrow nerf (video in description) + New comparison video

Thanks for the info about overlapping aoe there, hammer.

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TehHammer wrote:

That said, a large pack of 9+ mobs all tight could result in a 9-9-9-9 hit pattern. 36 hits at the cost of 70% less damage = 10.8x base damage, on level 1/2 LA. Level 7 adds 3 additional hits per phase (14.4x). o.O

If you are right, 48 hits * 70% damage (30% less from lmp) * 60% damage (40% less from chain) * 160% damage (30% combined additive increase): 32 times weapon damage, plus a large number of shock debuffs.

It's not 70% less damage; it's [1 - (1 - 40%) * (1 - 30%)] less = 58% less, and a 60% increase (which cannot cancel out the penalty, ever).

Now compare to a high-pierce level 15 LA that intersects 6 times: 6 * 5 = 30 hits against a tightly clustered group. 30 hits = 30 times weapon damage, for less than half the mana cost. But you only get to fire LA at tightly packed groups, or a line of archers in a neat row (which is actually quite easy to arrange).

Compare to a split arrow: 5 arrows * 4 hits per arrow (from chain) * 60% damage (40% less) * 130% (30% additive increase) * 80% base physical damage: 12.5 times weapon damage. I don't see MP supports being a valuable choice in this case. You get 40% more damage from 2 additional projectiles; 30% increase, 30% less damage from the gem; very slight dps gain for a significant mana cost. The 30% less and 40% more very nearly cancel out, so you're left with just a 30% additive increase for 1.5x mana. Probably a poor investment unless you have mana/life to burn.

Of course you have to account for other increases, too, but that depends on context. The way I've done it here makes the additive increases look larger than they are. For a truly fair comparison, too, you have to calculate the odds of applying shocks in each phase, and figure how much that boosts the damage of the next phase.

Split is just far less picky about requiring a tightly clumped pack to fire into, making it more universal. Both have abusable geometry.

Yes, realized I borked the math, fixed it. I was keeping things rather simple, not accounting for additive bonuses. It's silly to do so as, with my build, those additive bonuses are negligible with all of my other additive bonuses.

Loving EB templar with LA and chain atm.

I dont think that LA needs a nerf, I even think it is a bad idea:

Without gems LA is pretty balanced imho. Chain (and multiple projectiles) is the thing that boosts the killspeed so much. The killspeed not the dmg! The dmg is fine imho even with these support gems. It is the AoE part wich makes this OP -> These support gems have to be nerfed.

Another reason to nerf these is the imbalance between melee and ranged builds.
As ranged char you almost always have a much higher killspeed (not dmg!) because (most) melee skills have much smaller AOE (size and dmg) and dont have such amazing support gems wich even give a additional huge boost to AOE


but perhaps you shouldnt nerf anything but buff the other skills. The endgame (with proper equipment) should imho look like the videos posted here. It really looks like the good old days in d2... greetings to my javelin amazone^^

i think LA feels so good the way the targetting is like im using it at low levels and it doesnt feel op it just feels NICE. i cant explain it but i hope they change their mind and keep the same FEEL to the hits (sound effects visual effects ect) and hopefully the same targetting even if they feel like it needs to be nerfed. which i vote no :D