Explosive Arrow

Can't be more agree ! I play a witch with EA and it's so much more fun now. Great change !

It seems that the combination EA + Pierce is now broken. The arrows do no longer apply fuses to pierced enemies.

I think I've also noticed a bug, with multiple projectiles sticking to single targets, at least with LMP. I cannot confirm this, as I operate at a barely manageable frame rate, and 3 attacks per second is difficult for me to track. Also the only thing I'm basing this on is how fast single targets die; it may well just be the disparity between average and high damage rolls at my level (mid 20s) causing the occasional faster kill, as Quill Rain is still quite capable of slaying foes by raw physical dps at the moment. But still, might be worth someone else checking out to see if there is indeed a bug with the new EA behavior interacting with LMP.

Also, I feel like a giddy school girl going to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show by reposting this.. But the updated EA is so freakin fun! I bought all of the gear to try it out at the end of 0.9.11, and was ready to sell the gear to try something else.. Now, with the update, I've abandoned my first toon and map runs to solely level my new EA Templar.. So freakin fun! Great job GGG :D

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TrueColor wrote:

It seems that the combination EA + Pierce is now broken. The arrows do no longer apply fuses to pierced enemies.

It supposed to be that way now, see the patch note. Only one fuse per arrow, pierce apply only to your first hit.

On the other side, i still feel that enemies with fuse on them won't explode when killed by minion.

Damn, haven't tested since last patch, but that remove lot of fun of EA + pierce + multiple projectiles. Was great on my ranger against enemies packs :/ I think I will stop using this skill now. Will perhaps try the new ice arrow / breath ice.

I dont like most of new EA changes at all!

- Exploding on wall is usefull in dungeons with narrow hallways but doesnt matter in normal lvls. If u are in such a "narrow hallway level", it is better to miss now then to hit the monsters because fuses explode faster on the wall

- The new effects and animations are nice, but they overload the screen a bit exspecially in multiplayer mode...
(and sometimes the arrows dont disappear after exploding -> probably a bug)

- Pierce is now totally useless for most EA-builds. EA was really really good killing big groups (with pierce -> lots of AoE) but was pretty bad fighting against small groups or singletarget.
-> Now it feels that I get punished for everything using EA:
- 1 sec delay to deal dmg
- 5 fuse cap makes really high attackspeed useless
- 5 fuse cap makes singletarget dmg really low...
- pierce doesnt really work with EA
- insane high mana cost (I need ~250 mana per sec with only 2 support gems and reduced mana cost gem

With other skills like eg. poison arrow, I profit from max IAS, I can oneshot almost every normal monster in singleplayer, I have a really good singletarget DPS, pierce works and I can leech...


The only advantage left is that EA doesnt depend much on your weapon -> good skill for your first char.
But in lategame (with a good bow), every other skill deals much more dmg than EA.
In multiplayer, my party members often killed a whole group even before my fuses explode, so I dont do dmg at all^^
With the new pierce nerf now it is totally useless playing multiplayer...

After playing with this some more, I wanted to comment on one complaint/suggestion a lot of players have after using EA:

I can understand why EA doesn't automatically detonate after the fifth fuse is added. Firing a sixth shot to bypass the fuse cap/timer would lead to utterly broken IAS builds (as it stands you can (if I remember correctly) approach 6 shots per second with Quill Rain). This skill deals massive amounts of damage without requiring weapon damage as a component, which makes it a lot easier to build for. The 1 second timer is, imo, a balancing mechanic.

I can also understand the frustration with resetting the fuse timer despite having already stacked 5 fuses on a monster. But, as the above paragraph explains, I do not believe auto-detonation is the solution; I think there is a nice middle ground, if any changes are needed at all.

Only reset the timer when a fuse is added to a monster, rather than on hit. In this way you still have the 1 second timer to account for, but dont have to stop firing altogether.

By modifying the behavior of EA in this way, this can also add another layer to the build by bringing pierce back into the equation: When an EA projectile would pierce a monster with max fuses, it instead applies the fuse to the next monster hit. I can also see why the piercing mechanic was removed, as this build could literally murder a pack of 20 (I'm guessing if you really wanted to, even 100) monsters in 2 seconds. This again, would be a fair compromise rather than completely removing the support gem's viability.

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Vipermagi wrote:

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azraelb wrote:

With other skills like eg. poison arrow, I profit from max IAS,[...]

Well, technically you do, but that now utterly murders your mana bulb too, similar to EA.

The five-fuse cap doesn't make IAS useless. If you can stack five charges faster, they detonate sooner, meaning the monsters die sooner. That's why Quill Rain is a solid option for EA; stacking the five charges is super quick.

Well perhaps "useless" is the wrong word here, but EA doesnt profit from IAS as much as other skills because of the following 2 reasons (And reason 2 is the one that makes very high attackspeed almost useless):
1) With more IAS, you have the same mana cost like other skills but much less DPS because of diminishing return effects caused by the 1 sec delay and the 5 fuse cap.
2) Other than normal skills you only reach max DPS possible if you stop shooting just in time (right after 5 fuses) and this is not possible for a human being after a cetain amount of attacks per second. You simply cannot stop exactly after e.g. 0.75 sec and so, you will loose a lot of DPS!

An example:
If you double your attacks per sec while using a normal skill your DPS will double. But not with EA:

Lets say a fuse deals 300 dmg (-> Max dmg possible till reaching the cap = 5*300 = 1500 dmg) and you do 2 attacks per sec.
=> You'll need 2.5 sec for stacking the 5 charges and 1 sec till they explode => you need 3.5 sec for the 1500 dmg
=> 1500/3.5 = 428,57 DPS

Now you double your attacks per sec (4 att/sec):
=> Now you only need 2.25 sec for the 1500 dmg
=> 1500/2.25 = 666.67 DPS

==> Double att/sec doesnt double EA's DPS -> the more attacks/sec u have the less DPS increase u got from IAS -> diminishing return
==> Because of the dimishing return reducing the DPS but not the mana cost, EA is (one of) the most expensive skill while having a lot of IAS
==> EA dosnt seem so at first, but it is one of the most difficult skill to handle and something I call a "noob-skill"
(It isnt a bad skill, it is very good for the beginning using crappy gear, because it doesnt depend on weapon/gear very much, but as soon as you find a really nice endgame bow, you definately want to use a normal skill/build...)

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CanHasPants wrote:

After playing with this some more, I wanted to comment on one complaint/suggestion a lot of players have after using EA:

I can understand why EA doesn't automatically detonate after the fifth fuse is added. Firing a sixth shot to bypass the fuse cap/timer would lead to utterly broken IAS builds (as it stands you can (if I remember correctly) approach 6 shots per second with Quill Rain). This skill deals massive amounts of damage without requiring weapon damage as a component, which makes it a lot easier to build for. The 1 second timer is, imo, a balancing mechanic.

I totally agree, this skill needs the delay. But I think that this skill has way too much disadvantages in addition to the delay and it is really hard to handle in comparison to other skills:

As I said before in multiplayer (endgame) my mates usually kill normal and sometimes even blue monsters faster than my fuses can explode (using quillrain with 5+ attacks/s and 81% chance to hit).
(before patch and now with the pierce nerf it is even worse)
In singleplayer you dont notice these disadvantages, but when playing with friends you really see how badly this skill/build sucks...

I don't know about the multi, i only play solo. Reading your comments it feels like a race.

Honestly if that build isn't that good in multi it shine in solo ( and imo, it a good things to have builds better for solo or multi ).
Ok DPS wise you can argue it's not that good compare to other skills, but the mechanics here are very different, more enemies means more DPS ( and now even with walls ).

I don't understand the disappointment for removing pierce mechanics, did you try guys ? It's insane how fast you kill stuff with that skill. I don't know if the increased area of effect node are that good ( i take quite some ) but i don't even need pierce, everything is blowing up in one sec.

I would even think it's completely OP right now, i'm playing a summoner/EA with detonate dead totem support, and right now i still cast minions and totem but just for the look of it, EA can do all the work ( except for some with reflect ele dmg ). Maybe it will change in the very end game ( LVL 60 right now with 4/5 points unallocated ) and i did some 62 maps with no problem at all i'm pretty sure i can handle higher lvl, so i really don't understand.