Barrage - TERRIBLE! Or am I missing something?

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Zealflare wrote:

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shroudb wrote:

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Zealflare wrote:

That's what everyone is saying. It has potential for CoC focused build.

But as a stand-alone skill it just does not compete with the likes of Frenzy/Power Siphon for single target physical attacks. Having mechanics (spread in a small cone vs fire in a straight line) that limits its effective range does not help, either.

I have a physical point blank ranger and RoA acts as a much more effective single target than Barrage is. That is pretty darn sad.

while it has limitations it seems like GGG's policy (and for a good reason imo) to not let multihit attacks have the same efficiency and single heavy hitters.

don't forget that 4 projectiles as "base" means 4x lgoh one shot triple shock stacking, multi knockbacking, multi fear, multiple chances for blind and etc proc effects.

a singel "hit" from barrage is 216hp from just a lgoh gem.

the thing that saddens me though is that it's a dex skill when it should have been dex/int to fit with the whole wand thingy

Nope, a lvl 20/20 LGOH gem with barrage would only get you (44*0.4)*4 = 88~ hp per cast (assuming that ALL arrows hit). LGOH gem scales off the damage effectiveness, and each shot is 40% effectiveness, not 100%.

Using the same support gems (faster attacks/increased crit damage/phy projectile attack dmg), I can fire off 13-14 frenzy shots in 5 seconds (WITHOUT frenzy charges), or about 8 sets of barrage.

Each shot of Frenzy deals 110% physical damage. Each shot of barrage does 40% damage.

13*110 = 1430% phy damage in 5 seconds
8*4*40 = 1280% phy damage in 5 seconds

When you factor in things like frenzy charges (some builds can get up to 7-8+), you start to see a even larger gap between the two skills.

And your part on multi-hit is not true. Look at Double Strike + Multistrike. Considered one of the strongest melee DPS set up in the game (aside from Dual Strike, since it only applies to dual wielding). Literally everyone uses it. Significantly better than heavy strike due to the lack of knockback. Skills like Heavy Strike still have a place, however, in places like PVP since most players have a lot more armor than monsters do, and Double strike+multistrike does literally no damage to those high armored players.

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sidtherat wrote:

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raics wrote:

Yeah I remember, they fixed it in a couple of days but the shitstorm continued for some time.

Complaints were pretty colorful too :)
- it's much worse than my good ol' cleave in every aspect... of which I won't specify any
- increase timer duration so I never run out of stacks but leave damage as it is
- make it strike with both hands at once when DW, this is lame
- damage is too low (this one just might be the biggest BS of them all)
- aaaargh, I keep losing my stacks when I run out of mana and switch to default attack
- (after they fixed the previous) aaaargh, I can't use normal attack to leech mana when I run out of it, all skills let me do it, only reave doesn't and I absolutely need that speck of mana my normal attack leeches. IT COULD SAVE MY LIFE DAMMIT!
...

youve made up most of these (except losing stacks after OOM - but guess what, it was a valid complaint as GGG fixed that)

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sidtherat wrote:

youve made up most of these (except losing stacks after OOM - but guess what, it was a valid complaint as GGG fixed that)

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dudiobugtron wrote:

It's for things like on hit effects obviously. It is better for those, so clearly shouldn't *also* be better for pure dps, right? Otherwise it would be stupid. I don't see what everyone's problem is.

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Also, it has the aesthetic benefit of looking like it is attacking really fast too. Anyone who doesn't want to try out quill rain + barrage + GMP + faster attacks is boring IMO.

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Delirii wrote:

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LightningWarp1 wrote:

Would that be CoC? I can't see it being better then other options if you are actually planning on doing direct damage with it

Nope. Chin Sol + Point Blank. Melee Bosses/Rares can't reach me due to constant Knockback and they take quite a huge amount of damage.

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Covertghost wrote:

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Delirii wrote:

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LightningWarp1 wrote:

Would that be CoC? I can't see it being better then other options if you are actually planning on doing direct damage with it

Nope. Chin Sol + Point Blank. Melee Bosses/Rares can't reach me due to constant Knockback and they take quite a huge amount of damage.

Very interesting build, I'll have to try this!