Is anyone actually using Vaal Gems?

I'm using vaal summon skeleton. Save it mostly for tough encounters vs exiles or bosses or for clearing shrines. I see other people doing the same thing. That's the only vaal gem i have been using.

Vaal cold snap looks really nice too. Aoe freeze ftw. Haven't tried it or any others though.

hmm I bet vaal cold snap - increased duration for an RF character would be sweet when bosses hit too hard. It'd freeze lock and set off EE. I'd imagine.

"summon a skeleton army on demand" gem is indeed very good.

The utility of getting so many meat shields against any boss, invader, rogue, etc. is just unlimited. If you can meet the int requirement there is no reason not to run it on every build you have.

When playing around with a self-cast fireball user, I found Vaal Fireball to be very useful. While I usually didn't find that it was necessary, it was still very nice to have. Going against Fire-Resist Curse Immune Rares is the worst, and having a button to kill them in less than 5 min is greatly appreciated. Additionally, killing Brutus/Kole in about two seconds is always nice.

I imagine Vaal Skills as being more-or-less an "Oh Shit!" button. I like that concept, as PoE is a game that has its fair share of "Oh Shit!" moments. The problem I see isn't the soul costs (I could get Vaal Fireball 2-3 times a map), but more-so that so many of the Vaal skills just seem to suck. The spells seem to be alright, but certain things I see no use for.

In addition to Fireball, I've been using Rain of Arrows on my Ranger. Immobilizing enemies is always nice. I've also tried out Ground Slam (which could have passed as a non-Vaal skill), and Glacial Hammer (which also could have passed as a normal ability). I've also heard good things about Vaal Summon Skeletons.

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bluefalcon74 wrote:

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

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Arc and Vaal Arc have had their damage increased by 60%. Arc and Vaal Arc can now no longer chain back to the same target immediately, but must now bounce one more time. Arc now increases in chain counts as the gem increases in level.
Poison Arrow's damage has been increased by 8% at level 1, scaling up to an increase of 75% at level 15 of the gem.
Reduced Cleave penalty from -30% to -20%.
Shockwave Totem's pulses have been sped up from 0.75 seconds to 0.60 seconds each.
Arctic Breath's damage has been increased by 42% at level 1, up to an increase of 95% at level 15.
Flesh Offering now grants 30% attack, movement and cast speed at level 1, up to 40% at level 21 of the gem.
Glacial Hammer now has specific PvP raw scaling, so that it does 30% less damage in PvP situations. This is on top of existing PvP scaling.
Smoke Mine no longer teleports your minions with you when detonated.

YEAH RIGHT BRO

Vaal cyclone is insanely good for clearing speeds. Using it 3-5 times per map is quite common and can almost double clearing speeds.

Vaal skellies is a great "oh shit" button. You don't need to be a summoner to effectively use it. It will still do tons of damage if supported and provides countless meatshields.

I use Vaal Burning Arrow linked with a Pierce gem. Vaal Burning Arrow explodes every time it pierces an enemy, so you end up with 2-3 explosions per use. Very fun to use.

I was using Vaal Rain of Arrows but the damage was lacking a lot so I stopped using it.

Tried several of these (note, none of the cheap souls for 3 charges ones) in a few different builds and they were great for levelling through normal/cruel. Several of them I can see the potential of with the right supports and synergy with build, and I like that it becomes another option for the gear that doesn't hold your main skills, as an alternative to triggers or utility spells. I had great fun at times using Vaal fireball when surrounded by a dangerous pack, or vaal cold snap to slow everything down for various fire-caster purposes, or vaal arc to just kill everything in a given enclosed space.

Once I hit merciless, it all went out the window. Demand for your 8 skill slots and for supports on your utilities goes up, demand on performance of main attack is higher, and the soul cost is so high that you cant even rely on it as a panic button because it's almost always uncharged. I ditched each of them during early merciless as I realised I just wasn't using them and probably wouldn't again - it became not even worth the effort to check if they were charged.

I'm using Vaal Glacial Hammer and having a blast with it.
The skill is almost completely useless for fighting monsters but it's awesome for trolling teammates. Cast it on top of a nice, phat lewt drop to prevent them from running over and grabbing it before the tiny Short Allocation timer wears off.

Such win!