Clarifying Puncture

Arg -.- I really don't like bumping but I need the dev to speak before I make the core char in torment =/

Fix Puncture please i cant solo Piety

Yes, PLEASE, we need feedback from GGG. Lots of us are stuck, waiting for GGG to comment, while saving up skill points to possibly invest in the Bloodletting cluster, or wondering whether we should go looking for a different skill entirely. We just want to KNOW more than anything else- were the patch notes a mistake, or is the current state of Puncture a mistake?!?!

Maybe developpers should take a minute or two to reflect on what they call balancing.

Balancing is supposed to be adjusting things with FINESSE.

But I guess it's too much asking from people proposing a hack&slash game, after all.

It's psychological nonsense to destroy all top-performing builds at every major patch, only to push forwards a few new builds.
Game diversity at its lowest level ever, fun factor down the drain...

+1 some answers would be nice.

considering how much it was used last league, and how it was showcased as easily soloing the hardest bosses in the game with a 4l and a 300 dps weapon.

it does not surprise me that it was nerfed.... but even I did not expect the nerf to be this drastic.


they should have left some progression on the on move dot. or not touch the standing dot

but being capped at 10% / 50% does not make up for its lack of synergy with any of the traditional scalers such as the heralds or hatred.

I want clarification before making it in torment :_;

Bump, want a GGG member to clarify if its a bug or intentional, thats all.

fuck just PM Mark or email one of the guys. I'm sure they are too busy to be reading Feedback forum that often lol.

GGG, the patch notes said that the DoT and the extra DoT from movement would be nerfed, but that the base damage scaling (initial hit) would be raised. This created a trade-off of power in the skill, causing DoT nodes to do less for Puncture but allowing physical nodes to do more for Puncture.

So far, so good. This works in principle.

What DOESN'T work is the part where you lied about the second bit, and did not adjust Puncture's damage scaling. As everyone else in this thread has said, Puncture is pretty much not viable anymore.

I can barely make it work as well as a 3-linked Burning Arrow with my 20/23 and 21/20 6L setup with 400 dps Harbinger/Drillneck/100% pierce chance with perfect crit to support it, along with a legacy crit amulet and 231% Phys dmg w/ bows/20% phys dmg/45% increased DoT/96% crit multiplier/71% crit chance w/o charges/69% increased trap damage from tree.

For anyone who is asking about doing Puncture in new leagues: Stay the hell away from it. It's pure trash for anyone on a budget, and mediocre for anyone who can throw Glyph Mark equivalents at it.

GGG. You've released two patches since 1.3, and I've yet to see any resolution of this glaring discrepancy between what you said you'd do and what is in the game. Please confirm: Is this intended to be the new Puncture? Because if so, it is clearly underpowered. Yes, the old Puncture was OP as hell. Yes, it needed a nerf if I could 7-shot Atziri with it. But it didn't need to get THIS bad. It is consistently outperformed by similar bow skills.

If this is a result of unintentional PvP balance infringing on PvE balance, do the following:
-Adjust PvE gem to higher damage scaling, as you said in the patch notes.
-Adjust PvP damage formula for Puncture.

The exact details are tricky, but in principle, this solves the problem.
PvE whiners stop whining, PvP whiners stop dying, people are forced to use skills other than puncture, and to use puncture as an anti-squish measure.