Ground Slam -- Anyone use this endgame?

Hey, I recently posted a question regarding Glacial Hammer and I want to explore other options for maces. There really aren't many mace-specific skill options and personally I don't find Ground Slam that interesting. I still want to give it a shot though.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Ground Slam? Good/bad experiences?

Also if you know anything about the following:

- Is there a good way of hitting melee range mobs? I've heard it's tough because Ground Slam is shaped like a cone.
- Does Increased Area of Effect work with Ground Slam? I did a little testing and couldn't see a difference in skill animation / hit range when using 20/20 Inc AoE.
- Is Ground Slam desync-prone? I'm considering using Multistrike.


Just as a note, I'm planning to make a high crit Ground Slam (or Glacial Hammer, it depends). Thanks for any help!

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hissnail wrote:

Hey, I recently posted a question regarding Glacial Hammer and I want to explore other options for maces. There really aren't many mace-specific skill options and personally I don't find Ground Slam that interesting. I still want to give it a shot though.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Ground Slam? Good/bad experiences?

Also if you know anything about the following:

- Is there a good way of hitting melee range mobs? I've heard it's tough because Ground Slam is shaped like a cone.
- Does Increased Area of Effect work with Ground Slam? I did a little testing and couldn't see a difference in skill animation / hit range when using 20/20 Inc AoE.
- Is Ground Slam desync-prone? I'm considering using Multistrike.


Just as a note, I'm planning to make a high crit Ground Slam (or Glacial Hammer, it depends). Thanks for any help!

Try shift+groundslam rather than actually targeting a mob.

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Robert_Paulson wrote:

Try shift+groundslam rather than actually targeting a mob.

Is this to help with desync? I hear that the new Ground Slam (as of Sept 2013 or so) isn't very good against fast moving monsters, since the attack wave can't be increased by attack speed.

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hissnail wrote:

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Robert_Paulson wrote:

Try shift+groundslam rather than actually targeting a mob.

Is this to help with desync? I hear that the new Ground Slam (as of Sept 2013 or so) isn't very good against fast moving monsters, since the attack wave can't be increased by attack speed.

This is so you don't actually have to be in melee contact.

I've never used it, but have partied with (rl) friends that mained groundslam as an attack into mapping stages of the game.

So wait for other advice, I could be wrong.

[edit] Groundslam has the "AoE" type to the gem, so increased AoE works. My friend used Marohi Erqi for that.

Usually when I see people using Ground Slam, I see them using it to perma-stun mobs. Get bucketloads of increased attack speed (enough that your attack time is ~0.3 seconds), and aim for a really high reduced stun threshold (through gear and passives). How much depends on how much damage you're doing, but I've seen people stunlock rare mobs pretty handily.

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gilrad wrote:

Usually when I see people using Ground Slam, I see them using it to perma-stun mobs. Get bucketloads of increased attack speed (enough that your attack time is ~0.3 seconds), and aim for a really high reduced stun threshold (through gear and passives). How much depends on how much damage you're doing, but I've seen people stunlock rare mobs pretty handily.

Yeah I'm going crit with Endurance Charge on Melee Stun, which also reduces enemy stun threshold.

Ive used it recently in maps, been a long while since Ive slammed. Was doing a spec throw mace build for some weapons i found




i bought the second kongors for spec throw, ended up just using groundslam 95% of the time because it just destroys everything. I dont bother with stun, its just taking up a gem slot, everything dies fairly quickly, the doublestrike dps is about 23k at lvl83 so worst comes to worst you just tear an elite down in a few seconds with that. Stun just becomes irrelevant but then Im running in a party of 2, not 6, so maybe for 6 player hp u want stun I dunno (still doubt it tbh if you crit with hatred). The groundslam was about 13.5k, it can go higher with these weapons, a lot higher if I conc it but I like its current range and being able to run a phys reflect map and attack a phys reflect mob without killing myself, and still wipe out a whole white pack in a lvl73 map with a quick burst.

I knock the slam now and then but its an alright skill, its quite fun, its fast and effective. Ive played with friends using a marohi and they just nuke themselves on phys reflect. The 1 hander I found is pretty useless compared to the kongors but that one you got looks pretty sick with that crit chance. Given ur using a rip head with it I would suggest maybe staying clear of any more crit multi and just go all out crit chance and attack speed to keep youself reflect safe and go for it. Glacial hammer is really clunky to use imo, Id go slam.


You just got to work the mobs with it, Im used to double strike/multistrike/melee splash combo where you just jump into the center of a pack and thrash your way out from within. With slam you got to kite the edge of the pack and keep everything on one side of you so you dont get caught multistrike slamming either side of yourself. For me, like most melee skills, it seems viable at any level as long a su got spec throw tucked away somewhere for things like Maze map where you dont want to be getting anywhere near that boss with sync the way it is.

My slammer is lvl83 atm, 0 deaths, done maps up to about 74 without breaking sweat running off mana from 2% leech on a ring, blood magic low level clarity running off life, hatred and determination running off mana, I have the 3 reduced mana reserve nodes in sovereignty cluster and a 40% mana regen node. Thats all u need to run it without stuttering, 4 nodes, I wouldn't bother with blood magic gem or blood magic keystone, waste of a gem slot or aura potential. Id use slam, melee phys, multistrike, faster attacks, poc and crit strikes in a 6 link, but if you play in big parties maybe u want the stun stuff. With hatred and crit everything will freeze, doesnt really matter if its frozen AND stunned, I wouldnt go less crit/attack speed for more stun.

Melee splash double strike is still an option if slam and hammer dont do it for you, I do it with crit daggers and its sickeningly effective. With less dps than that mace on my daggers I get around 22k dps from my ranger, if I put on my abysuss its over 45k and Id kill myself on reflect, the damage goes into space. Even at 22k you walk up to a large pack in a lvl75 map, hold the left mouse, a second or 2 later the whole pack shatters into ice cubes. Stunned? Frozen? whatever, theyre dead.

I found GS pretty boring but bizarrely, once I was mapping etc and had a decent amount of atk spd, it became mega fun. Would recommend and am tempted to make another myself after the last one RIP'd to afk~monia.

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hissnail wrote:

- Is there a good way of hitting melee range mobs? I've heard it's tough because Ground Slam is shaped like a cone.
- Does Increased Area of Effect work with Ground Slam? I did a little testing and couldn't see a difference in skill animation / hit range when using 20/20 Inc AoE.
- Is Ground Slam desync-prone? I'm considering using Multistrike.

-Yes, it's cone shaped and it hits crowds from a pretty long distance, nice AOE.
-Yes, it does. That's why ground slammers use marohi.
-Yes, it is. You will desync a lot, especially with multistrike.

Groundslam is used in permastun mace builds. It's extremely effective.

@hissnail

If you use crit you won't be able to permastun bosses at all. Missing at all is unreliable. You'd also want to use a 2 hand build if focusing on stun.