Spark

Ok, now that you severely reduced Spark's duration -why, by the way?-, could you please undo the change that made it unable to pierce a target unless at least a second has passed since it last pierced one? Or at least make the restriction much shorter?

It restricts build diversity, since you're kinda forcing people to take Fork with it.

Is it just me or does this skill just seem not up to snuff when compared to other lightning based builds such as Lightning Strike and Lightning Arrow? I feel the random nature of it, as well as the low end damage is a major thing against it because it isn't based off of weapon damage. Plus it was just nerfed I hear?

Playing dual totem spark/fork after the patch, this build is clearly essentially worthless as far as DPS goes.

I realize the intention to nerf sporkers, but something seems off to the point of (possibly) bugged.

Just posted some ideas about this skill in "Suggestions" thread:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/601612

So I was trying to make a self cast sparker, now that spork totem is garbage.

Spark + Faster Casting + Lightning Penetration + Elemental Proliferation

Mana cost of level 20 spark - 29 (according to wiki)
Multipliers:
FC - 120%
LP - 150%
EP - 140%
So the total multiplier will be - 252% (is that correct?)
The mana cost of just one cast will be 73 mana.

It's 73 mana to cast a pretty mediocre 4L spell. But that's not all.

It's a very fast spell, 0.65 base cast time.
With Faster Casting and some cast speed passives you can easily get 2.5+ casts per second.
So the final cost will be 182 mana/second.
182 mana/second to cast a 4L spell.
93 mana/second without any cast speed modifiers.

I guess it was balanced around spell totem but now you made it awful.
Is it that good so people have to make an EB character with insane mana regen to use it?
Maybe my math isn't correct? Maybe it's that OP and I just don't see it?

Also I don't see how it can be good without Lightning Penetration or Elemental Proliferation, for self cast anyway, so there isn't much to cut really.

Your math is correct, multipliers stack multiplicatively with each other.

You may be able to take static blows and replace Elemental Proliferation with Mana Leech, then drop static blows later when your chance to crit exceeds 20%.

If I were you I would just wait for them to rebalance the skill though, since it's pretty terrible after the nerfs.

I swapped my self cast spark mage to EK after 1.0. The real advantages spark had was it's ability to hit things out of LOS, and to rapidly apply shock. The sad part is the duration nurf really doesn't effect totems, since you just drop another one at point blank range anyway, but self casters are basically using an electric version of EK, with 1/2 the dmg, lower crit, and it requires more supports to make it viable (faster proj, increased duration, some form of pirece).

As darkest pointed out, way too much work for subpar results. Even Arc looks good compared to spark now, and arc has always been pretty terrible. Sadly it doesn't bode well for the new lightning skill (which looks awesome btw) as it will undoubtedly have 50% damage effectiveness, 4% crit, and stupid high mana cost.

Also, with the mana regen from the scions area, and one other cluster (e.g. withes's 40%) you can basically run anything, as well as max AA without EB.

Spark has a ridiculous mana cost. I am running EB + level 15 Clarity, 80% regen from tree and Atziri's Foible with 1200 base mana (level 59), and I can't even sustain my 5L Spark > Fork > Life Leech > Lightpen > Faster Casting properly. I was hoping to go MoM but with Spark that ain't gonna happen. The DPS is fairly nice though when selfcast, and it's a nice early game singletarget if you use it to shotgun.

Probably going to respec into Storm Call.

As far as I can tell this skill is inferior in every way to Storm Call.

The crit chance is so low it's not worth itemizing for unless you have insane gear, the mana cost is insane compared to storm call, and you can't use things like Concentrated Effect with spark.

I've been leveling a new character for awhile, and I've always had spark in my offhand so I can test it at various levels, and it's always underwhelming compared to Storm Call totems. The 5l I run Storm call with is Spell Totem, Faster Casting, Increased AoE, and Conc effect. The 5l for Spark is the traditional Spell Totem, Faster Casting, Lightning penetration, Fork.

Spark doesn't even do enough damage to shock stack enemies without massive crit chance and multiplier, Storm Call can shock stack just on its base damages and Static Blows, and it hits a ton with Dual Totems. And even were you to build crit chance/multi, I think Storm call would out perform spark since it's the same base crit on a higher damage base with a better quality bonus.

Unless I'm missing something? Spark also costs an insane amount of mana in totems, storm call costs barely anything. Makes me kind of sad since I bought the Spark Spiders transaction and it's not getting any use since I can't reach even half the damage I do with Storm Call.

"

Virulity wrote:

As far as I can tell this skill is inferior in every way to Storm Call.



Unless I'm missing something? Spark also costs an insane amount of mana in totems, storm call costs barely anything. Makes me kind of sad since I bought the Spark Spiders transaction and it's not getting any use since I can't reach even half the damage I do with Storm Call.

ding ding ding

here is your answer, most people that are buying MTX bought spark MTX so they nerfed it to the arc levels, as in not usable anymore, and reason for that is that you buy some other MTX of next OP spell or some new shit they introduce in game. Unfortunately this will be neverending cycle in this game, when money from MTX stops pouring in, they will nerf that skill and focus on other skill.My prediction is that spark will stay shit for A LONG TIME :)

When you have question for yourself about something you dont understand, trust me, answer in 95% scenarios is MONEY.