Spark

Im actually having a blast with Spark, such fun skill to play with. Some sugggestions though cause the skill while beeing fun is not very effective at killing stuff even with a lot of investment.

First and foremost Spark NEEDS to be able to hit flying targets. Do no make it a flying projectile just remake it in a such way that it actually interacts with flying mobs (leapers, birds, SRS, etc). That alone can help a lot, since when facing opponents that cant be hit by the skill is really frustrating. (Seriously this is a very big issue with spark)

Duration feels ok if you invest on the tree, else its very low. I personally like it that you actually need to take at least one duration cluster and i wouldnt change the base duration. With both clusters its almost 3seconds long at the cost though of at least 6 skill points (if we take into account the path to the clusters the the points used are more than 10) and thats just to make the skill really viable.

Projectiles, now here things could be better. Currently for any spark build to work one of the following gems is ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY : lmp/gmp/fork/pierce. All of them have a damage penalty and with only one of them the skill is still somewhat inconsistent in its damage output (it simply doesnt hit regularly). If you choose to use a combination of two of the aforementioned supports then the dps is way too low plus you use two links just to make the skill hit regularly. It would be really nice if spark added projectiles with levels. To balance things out spark could start as a 2 projectile spell (so the description would read "1 additional projectile" at level 1). At level 20 the gem's description could be 4 or even 5 additional projectiles. If thats the case a 10-20% reduction in damage values could be reasonable.

So overall, spark is a very fun skill to use but very dissapointing when you think how much investement it needs to feel and actually be viable (too many skill points + too many supports). Of all the suggestions i made i truly believe that hiting flying targets is the most important one, since the other aspects of the skill could be augmented in some way. Please consider some of the buffs mentioned in the post as well as on the thread in general.

I would have edited my previous post but this one is going to be big too.

First of all, i would like to know (cause i forgot to ask yesterday), its often the case that spark clears mobs offscreen. Do i get the exp from monsters killed offscreen? I play only solo if that is of any assistance.

Playing (and having the fun of my life) with spark today my mind gave birth to an awesome rework idea. What about keeping the skill completely as it is now (some added projectiles wouldnt be bad though :P), but give it a short of homing and semi-flying ability. Give each spark projectile a search aoe, when for examble the projectile is 3 (could be 2 or 1 or whatever) radius away from a monster then it becomes flying projectile and seeks the aforementioned target. In any other way it will behave the same.

changes to Spark' mechanics in 2.1 were absolutely fantastic. it is both good while leveling (easily beating arc) and end game when 14 sparks (with echo) from one cast is enough to clear half the screen and move on

it has - as always - single target woes but that is necessary because it has absolutely no issues clearing non-boss content

great change, very fun skill (sadly people play meta and will miss it)

Agreed.

I'm currently lvl 50 in act 3 cruel, slowly speccing into crit and the extra projectiles are great.

I currently have it in a +1 wand, linked with fork and spell echo.

I think with the new projectiles, it will be better with pierce in the end, but I need to figure out how to approach 100% pierce as much as possible.

The chance to mana per level also help a lot with it's mana cost.

Single target is awfull in open areas, but can be really good if you can bring the enemy in to a corner, so it's fair enough. I'll probably add in a vaal storm call to help with that.

RIP dual totem Sporker.

Because what is the point in skill when You cant kill a lame boss ?!

Kaom. Tormented Necromancer. Tormented Mutilator.... whose summons never expire... and more.

Back in 1.06, sure, there wasn't much of this around, and the "flying" part was more for players. Now there's quite a bit of it, including a major boss, and spark just basically eats dirt for it.

It's time for spark to get the Righteous Fire / Glacial Cascade treatment and not have something in the game that it's absolutely helpless against, as well as being absolutely wrecked by random terrain pieces - pieces that are predominantly there for environmental flavour.

It's past time to fix the "bug" where casting into an object - you know, those random little bits of terrain you can't even see for all the effects on screen - causes it to "fizzle out" and just simply not work, when it would make far more sense for it to bounce off and behind you.

"Flying" monsters are nice, the idea of them is great, but spark being 'ground based' is a fallacy to have sparkers (I'm self-cast, so don't start on Vaal Spark, it being op is irrelevant anyway) wholly unable to affect an entire class of monsters and thus be literally helpless - especially when some of them never despawn, so you can't even kite them, you just have to flee.

It's RF vs Totems all over again. Balance around the OVERPOWER of being able to hit SRS, please.

There's no other skill in the game which ends up literally helpless against a monster. GGG PLS

It's not shocking ground, it's a ball of electricity rolling across the ground. End this madness.

At the very least, respond and tell us, "No, we want you to be wholly unable to affect a class of monsters, get over it and deal with it and move on with life to another skill b/c we don't care." That's a fair place for you to stand, fine, I'll play other skills that don't have random content that they simply cannot affect at all, but please, at least say that much, ideally in a manifesto with an explanation of your logic behind it, because I see none.

Well, from bad skill to insane OP skill, i think GGG need to change their priorities and start to test and balance gems.

I agree with TreeOfGod. Spark is in an ungodly state right now. I literally got bored on my sparker (not voltaxic) because it was strange playing the game in such an easy mode.

The damage is fine. It's the secondary things that are a problem. There is absolutely no reason to ever use spark without echo, even in voltaxic setup. Shooting out 14 projectiles in 1 go is absolute madness especially since "shotgunning" can occur if projectiles bounce off a wall in a small room. Nerf it down to 3 projectiles and thus 6 if paired with echo, or 8 if Ascendant, deadeye node is taken (95% chance it will be taken). Also the skill needs a projectile speed cap. My character has 295% increased projectile speed. Lets just say they move at lightning fast speed and distance.

The startling thing was also that it was low investment. Outside of a 6L e/ev chest which i bought for 2ex then chaos spammed. My wands were basic as hell. Atleast 50%(implicit + explicit) spell damage, 80+ spell crit and 20-40 projspeed. They didnt have crit multi or anything special like that on them. Yet even with that setup + call of the brotherhood ,the only thing that could kill my character was chaos damage (essence drain perandus guardians) because I was ES/EV based with ghostreaver as a counter reflect measure.

As earlier mentioned, the damage is fine, however the number of projectiles possible + no proj speed cap is madness.

Decided to play a spark scion in the 2 week perandu flashback race as i haven't used this skill for a couple of years. It is really powerful indoors where the sparks can bounce off walls. Not as powerful on those open spaced areas but it gets the job done there too.

Pros:

+ Can be used from the beginning to end.
+ Early acquisition.
+ Good to level with
+ Very powerful indoors. Bouncing off walls repeatedly.
+ Not as mana hungry as incinerate
+ Good quality bonus (40% proj speed at max)

Cons:

- Not as poweful in open areas
- Projectile speed based. Hard to get early on
- Not the most effective spell versus bosses outdoors but it works well enough
- Needs skill duration passives
- Reflect is a problem as the sparks won't stop until they expire.
- Requires vaal pact
- Cannot hit elevated monsters or monster who are flying like animated weapons or srs.

I give this spell a 4 out of 5 rating. Vaal pact seems to be mandatory in order not to die to reflect all the time. If it wasn't for that it would be a solid 5/5 spell.

My sparker was a non crit, dual wand scion. She ended up at lvl 86 with the following items.



I used the deadeye ascendancy for 100% piece chance.

Can someone explain to me the 2.3 spark changes?
If spark projectiles destroy themselves after travling a set distance of 150 units doesn't that render every projectile speed useless?
And what is that "in line with other projectile spells" supposed to be? I'm leveling with frost bolt which is a projectile spell and my bubbles travel miles compared to spark.