Is anyone actually using Vaal Gems?

Vaal sparc on invasion, linked with lmp and frost damage. 450 Bolts released, good for bursting exiles and those nasty invasion bosses. In caves this is a burner(killing both forms of Merville with 1 keystroke), on open ground not that strong.

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Llyrain wrote:

Vaal sparc on invasion, linked with lmp and frost damage. 450 Bolts released, good for bursting exiles and those nasty invasion bosses. In caves this is a burner(killing both forms of Merville with 1 keystroke), on open ground not that strong.

+1

Been using also Vaal Burning Arrow with LMP, pretty strong and low soul req

vaal rain of arrows is awesome. having a lot of fun with it.

vaal summon skeletons is also great. handy in case you get overrun by a crazy mob but I generally save it for the map boss.

Vaal Cold Snap to reduce attack speed by 30%.

I have the micro-transaction hand reskin and it usually gets a nice response from people who have not seen it before for the visual.

They are basically useless in their current state. Expect them to be retrofitted in... never.

GGG isn't in the business of fixing things. They can only introduce new broken shit.

some of these are very bad (ground slam, glacial hammer, det dead[due to IMMENSE cost] and few other)

but some - spectral throw, molten shell, arc, ice nova and few more - are very fun

i dont understand some comments here saying that these are just crap. these are not I WIN buttons but when setup properly and cast in correct circumstances - they are bordering it

vaal ice nova cast so it hits 3 mobs? waste

ice nova with inc aoe and high crit cast so it can hit 10+ mobs can clear few screens away.. add trap for MOAR DAMAGA and it is map clearer. but it is absolutely useless vs single mobs. i like this kind of dynamics

Vaal fireball has amazing potential if you can get the technique down.
You can move while it is going off and it fires in a spiral.
If you get the timing right you can run in a circle around a boss and hit them with a ton of fireballs in a short amount of time.
I did it almost perfectly on cruel fedelitas with my fire witch, it was awesome.
Her cast and move speed have since changed though, haven't quite gotten it since.
Plan to experiment more once she ends up in standard where I have more gear to play with.
My guess is there is an optimal move speed/cast speed ratio.

Vaal cyclone + cast on melee kill + detonate dead is a must try for every melee char.
Too much fun!

Vaal Skele's was a godsend on my now RIP char when encountering any boss/exile.

Howerver, on my new char, I am running bother Vaal Arc and Vaal Spark. Releasing both, back to back, can be amazing. Especially when already built for self-cast arc.

The only vaal gem I've actually gotten a ton of use out of was Vaal Molten Shell when I had a RF marauder. Everything synergized well, dmg from RF, +Fire dmg, increased AOE etc.. and I had space for it, even with a kaom's. I think Vaal MS is the best of the gems. You can get so much out of it, and it annihilated bosses/exiles etc. Pop in an Increased Duration and by the time it runs out you've built up a fair amount of souls again towards the next use.

If I can I try to squeeze Vaal MS into most of my chars now, but majority of the time there's no space, and not worth it.

I find them extremley powerful while leveling up. They seem like a tool used for leveling more so than end game specs.