Spark

"
Merwise wrote:
If spark projectiles destroy themselves after travling a set distance of 150 units doesn't that render every projectile speed useless?
They don't explode after travelling 150 units. They explode once they're 150 units from the caster. They can travel as long as they like, bouncing back and forth, within that radius.
"
Merwise wrote:
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.
150 units is the maximum projectile travel distance. Spark previously got around this because it does lots of individual short movements. It no longer does, and thus has the same effective killing distance as other projectiles.
"
Mark_GGG wrote:
"
Merwise wrote:
If spark projectiles destroy themselves after travling a set distance of 150 units doesn't that render every projectile speed useless?
They don't explode after travelling 150 units. They explode once they're 150 units from the caster. They can travel as long as they like, bouncing back and forth, within that radius.
"
Merwise wrote:
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.
150 units is the maximum projectile travel distance. Spark previously got around this because it does lots of individual short movements. It no longer does, and thus has the same effective killing distance as other projectiles.


Why do bow attacks outrange spark then? We tested this in Sarn arena. The other player observed that the spark projectiles were visibly reaching them but not actually hitting or dealing damage. I stood at that distance spamming spark and they took 0 damage, meanwhile they could hit me with their bow. As soon as I moved a little closer they died instantly from the sparks, but based on testing so far bow skills like lightning arrow are outranging spark.

Never underestimate what the mod community can do for PoE if you sell an offline client.
The "rearm" time is the time after which they change direction again?

Well, all you needed to do that nerf to Vaal spark, interested of selfcast spark.
insane clear speed was coming from Vaal spark, not from normal spak.
people was ultra fast clear maps with Vaal spark and some jewels for extra soul on killing soo they just keep moving and keep using vaal spark non-stop.

soo that was quite overwepored with Vaal spark, since you don't stop, just keep moving and killing and collecting 24/7 souls without stop for cast. you can notice now nobody playing selfcast spark or they are small group of people where just don't know its alot bad.

my suggestion is to keep Vaal spark in this situation or nerf it a bit more and reverse old spark soo it can be good as other spells.

Vaal spark was the problem, not selfcast spark, since you need to stand on place and casting rather than moving 24/7 and killing.

also consider just buff a bit Spark but don't Vaal spark.

Vaal spark is broken spells by default, because if you find way to get more souls with this jewels for extra souls, you just keep spamming that spells and it realise way too much projectle.

idea is to just keep broken vaal spark nerfed and buff a bit spark, see how it goes, since now spark is just not that good as some other gem/spells
well i play spark ( vaal spark ) since 1-2 years, but with the recent patch ( atlas )


it would be great, when u can change the hitbox from spark..... so you can attack "flying targets" like animated weapon


currently i can't run quite a few maps on the atlas, because

either i got from a sextant "living weapons"
or the boss is a flying target "arsenal"
or they summon flying weapons ( T10 Death and taxes ) or Overgrown Ruin Map



and that's just the map which i knows for sure



i dont ask for a "buff" or nerf, just let me run the maps which i like :( with the skill i love the most
30 Shores with Double Pack / Breach / Max Sextants https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2006424/page/1
First Selfmade Build as Sparker ( MF ) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1637690
1 Million Tool Tip Dps Sparker https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1761162

Time to beat the dead horse a bit..
I really think sparks range should be buffed a bit, 200-250 units shouldn't be too op imo.
To add a drawback, maybe threshold jewels? 25 per jewel or something? There aren't any for any lightning gems iirc, and this would be awesome.
Is there an official reason why Spark can't hits flying targets ? I'm planning to make a Spark Build for 2.6 since i've never played it yet, but being unable to kill some targets is probably going to be very annoying.
"
Gya wrote:
Is there an official reason why Spark can't hits flying targets ? I'm planning to make a Spark Build for 2.6 since i've never played it yet, but being unable to kill some targets is probably going to be very annoying.


Sparks are ground projectiles. They travel along the ground to their target, and cannot jump up to hit anything.
"
Fatto wrote:
"
Gya wrote:
Is there an official reason why Spark can't hits flying targets ? I'm planning to make a Spark Build for 2.6 since i've never played it yet, but being unable to kill some targets is probably going to be very annoying.


Sparks are ground projectiles. They travel along the ground to their target, and cannot jump up to hit anything.


Yea.... but earthquake *can* hit flying enemies. I would think shaking ground would be far less effective against something flying than extremely high voltage electricity that could easily arc. I'm not sure who made this design decision on spark, but it's not consistent in the game, and really should be changed. There's no reason for it - or make other abilities thematic as well, like above ground projectiles not able to hit short enemies like arrows will fly over crabs unless they impact with the ground at the crab.

To clarify, I don't have a problem with abilities having thematic mechanical weaknesses. My problem is that extremely few abilities (in fact spark is the only one I can think of) which suffers from this. My problem is not that it exists, but that it's not consistent.

As a seasoned sparker - I can say this is more than an inconvenience. It's usually not animated weapons that's the problem (though they certainly can be as previously mentioned), instead it's SRS I find. Any sort of enemy (Kaom, arena, grandmasters, Tzteosh) that spams SRS is a very different fight than any other ability because you can't do anything about the raging spirits, you have to train them around and they can easily and quickly wreck you if you let them. Even Haku's mission where it mass spams SRS - If you take a wrong turn, you have no recourse, you can't try to clear a path through, you have to juke. So this isn't a minor annoyance at times, it does actively effect the gameplay with a mechanic that's not consistent and only spark suffers.
Last edited by VapidActions#1355 on Feb 12, 2017, 6:28:48 AM
"
VapidActions wrote:
To clarify, I don't have a problem with abilities having thematic mechanical weaknesses. My problem is that extremely few abilities (in fact spark is the only one I can think of) which suffers from this. My problem is not that it exists, but that it's not consistent.

Arctic Breath, Lightning Strike.

It is internally consistent. Earthquake is not a ground-based projectile, it's just an AoE. AoE does not differentiate between ground-based and hovering AoE - the animation is entirely unrelated to the area that is hit. Another example thereof is Rain of Arrows: a monster doesn't have to be hit by any of the "arrows"; as long as it's in the AoE, it takes damage. Similarly, a monster cannot take damage multiple times from one use even if multiple "arrows" landed on it.

On the other hand, ground-based Projectiles are mechanically distinct from hovering projectiles. Small debris on the ground will stop a ground-based Projectile like it would your character, whereas an arrow or fireball will simply pass right over. The animations of Spark and Lightning Strike do show this difference by being emitted from the base of your character model, as opposed to the center like a Fireball would be.


Somewhat unrelated but perhaps interesting to note: You're not alone with SRS woes. Raging Spirits are entirely untargetable enemies, which can be quite an issue for Totem users. Gets em every time. As a hardcaster, you at least have the option of running a backup Skill.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info