Storm Burst

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a_z0_9 wrote:

I'm kinda disappointed. 0.4sec tick rate and 1.2 sec base duration makes duration scaling so straight bad. Each 'duration scaling' chunk should be at least 35% or it's a waste of skillpoints. And we have only 10-10-25 x2 clusters.
Things just do not fit together. Maybe you plan to rework duration on the tree, someday 3 leagues later, but nowadays the skill feels like a newbtrap with shitty base damage and clunky scaling.

You can scale it with cast speed to get more orbs out at the same time.

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Zerber wrote:

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a_z0_9 wrote:

I'm kinda disappointed. 0.4sec tick rate and 1.2 sec base duration makes duration scaling so straight bad. Each 'duration scaling' chunk should be at least 35% or it's a waste of skillpoints. And we have only 10-10-25 x2 clusters.
Things just do not fit together. Maybe you plan to rework duration on the tree, someday 3 leagues later, but nowadays the skill feels like a newbtrap with shitty base damage and clunky scaling.

You can scale it with cast speed to get more orbs out at the same time.

Exactly, or you can you inc duration gem, timetwist or rare mods (boots iirc) to also stack duration in addition to or as a replacement for the skill duration nodes.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2467981

It seems like storm burst is bugged where the first orb does not explode;
to quote from the bug report:

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When using storm burst, a 1 stack storm burst will not cause any explosion, and any further orbs will explode (orbs- 1) times, i.e. 2 orbs cause 1 explosion, 3 orbs cause 2 explosions. The tooltip mentions, "All remaining orbs explode", which does not seem to correspond with how it currently functions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVrKmO_SrZE
In the video I initially do several Storm Bursts with only 1 orb, which cause no explosions, and some Storm Bursts with 2 orbs, which cause only 1 explosion.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2467981

It seems like storm burst is bugged where the first orb does not explode;
to quote from the bug report:

"

When using storm burst, a 1 stack storm burst will not cause any explosion, and any further orbs will explode (orbs- 1) times, i.e. 2 orbs cause 1 explosion, 3 orbs cause 2 explosions. The tooltip mentions, "All remaining orbs explode", which does not seem to correspond with how it currently functions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVrKmO_SrZE
In the video I initially do several Storm Bursts with only 1 orb, which cause no explosions, and some Storm Bursts with 2 orbs, which cause only 1 explosion.

For some quickly-moving bosses, you can not track them and waste a lot of damage because this is not a "NAME-LOCK" skill. Plz consider to fix it.

I had a lot of fun with this gem and a Scion build. My play is nowhere "end game" (never had a T13 map , I completed the Uberlab only once ever).

The fun with this skill it its ability to shoot around corners.
And half the damage is physical. What is a great thing early on considering every boss and his stephmom got elemental resistances.

With the Scion I made a hit-and-run approach quickly, by picking the duration nodes and then faster cast. Ascensions: Trickster + Elementalist.
https://poeplanner.com/ABAAAPEAEBAAAHUIZ1fh-WUhw5DWLKY3ZjQK6roNfFfJKPqCxx2-M4cD7rQMW_R5oYuZuW9GcYMJytO-ipMnoS9TNVBCjDZVS2HiJpUWv3_GMFuslx2DbAsi9G0ZCPRqQ7zqLJzr7jLRRUfAZgSzogCu_9Wmgpv56EGHtz7-Cti9NZK18m6qSsg_JypNR-Ii4qQ5X5hZbc8yHNyPGriTpwiPRsgTM7AlX1WuRKuPpoIQ37C40No6sQUvnRbzJjzYJIVt1YEk2BBYdhGboRhqeC9YB3zly38gaPKO73w8BZf0UlM9X7FbpjIDBBp64q0J2cpGIFkAAAAAAA==

I was lucky to roll a hat with Innervate / Area Support. My "6L" is
Storm Burst > Fire Damage Support > Physical to Lightning >
Lightning Peletration > (Innervate + Area Support)

Tooltip reads 15k once I got my charges and Innervate going.
7 casts per second, 2.28 sec duration. Click - move - BUME!

^ the post above is mine as well.

I had fun with this new hit-and-run-skill, so I went on to improve my character.
The keys are faster cast and duration. Merely adding flat damage does not work well.

Full out lightning damage with ~190 penetration. My best character so far, running T10, Uberlab, Atziri without a sweat.
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/blooglet/characters?characterName=Chaonike

Hello, Storm Burst (the old one) was by far my most favorite non-melee skill.
The satisfying booms and clearing rooms doesnt exist anymore.
Would it be possible to bring the old skill back?

I think this needs a buff. The main way to scale seems to be to increase duration and cast speed, but if it takes you a few seconds to build up stacks, the entire skill is kind of lackluster. It pretty much exemplifies why channeling skills aren't used for real damage, you just can't afford to stand still or you die.

I like the idea of where it's trying to do, but maybe reduce the cast time or increase the AOE of each orb.

Storm Burst is not in a good place.

On paper the skill has some good things going for it.

1: Fairly high dps. Level 20 is (((114+171)/2)/0.25)*(1.2/0.4)= 1710 dps for comparison level 20 Fire Ball is ((1095+1643)/2)/0.75 = 1825 dps.

2: Base physical converted to lightning damage allows for additional opportunities to scale damage compared to many other spells. Things like herald of purity and influenced mods like percent of physical gained as lightning.
This allows players to reasonably gain out 20-50% more damage when compared to a purely elemental ability.

3: It scales with increased duration. It is fairly simple to path by one of the increased skill duration clusters and anoint the other 25% notable to gain 70% increased duration. This pushes us past the 67% breakpoint to gain 2 additional explosions for a 67% increase in damage.

4: It has lots of tags Physical, Lightning, AOE, Duration, Channeling, and Spell. This helps slightly with gearing both plus one to all physical or lightning spells works giving more options for suitable gear.

Now so far it sounds pretty good we have a solid base dps from the skill with extra gearing options to help get us going and additional avenues to scale the ability into the endgame.


However, it is time to address the skills challenges. First I think it is good for a skill to have "problems" that the player needs overcome but, the number or severity of these issues should be on par with the skills strengths.

1: Damage ramp, after the first instance of damage we do not reach the skills top line dps until the first orb has expired. Depending on increases to skill duration the ability does not reach peak dps for a minimum of 1.2 seconds and towards endgame this delay can easily reach or exceed 2.0 seconds.

2: Limited clear speed, given the long damage ramp and a modest area of effect zoom zoom is pretty much impossible even with extreme investment.

3: Must see monsters to hit monsters. It's not a projectile or a huge aoe so there is no potential for off screen kills.

4: It's a channeling skill. Standing still is really really bad for a characters life expectancy and when looking at issues 1 and 2 standing still for extended periods of time is a complete necessity.


The change I'd like to see most is to address issue one. Give the skill an additional explosion that occurs immediately after casting no more 0.4 second delay.
If this is too much work then a proportional and significant reduction to the explosion's frequency and orb duration (IE 0.20 second frequency and a 0.60 second base duration) would help mitigate the skills most extreme down sides. option two should be a simple numeric chance.