Lancing Steel

Hi.

I'm playing Champion, with focus on Steel and impale mechanism. Pure physical damage, attack speed and sword/shield combo.

Supporting me i've got Herald of Purity, Dread Banner and Proj Weakness+Blasphemy.

Here's a thread i've done in general feedback with a few ideas on the steel skills and the impale mechanism: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2266800

Level 63 of this post Champion, Axe specialized bleed stacking/impale build. Pure Phys passives.

Aura/Heralds: Herald of Ash, Blasphemy:Vulnerability, Dread Banner
Using Fire elemental for added damage

Currently have Lancing Steel in a 4l with Chance to bleed, Vicious Proj, and Chain for trash, Slower Proj for boss.

So far I really like Lancing Steel. The other "steel" skill i wasn't a fan of this one is much better. Only issue is the skill is too W-I-D-E-!

Of the 5 projectiles that come out by default only 1-3 of them will hit unless you're firing into a big crowd, and even then you have to make sure to be clicking as far away from yourself as possible so you get the more focused spread.

In my opinion the total width of the skill could be reduced by 66% and it would be much better. Was hoping for a good boss-killing ability with this one, but it's too darn wide!

Level 95 Champion pure phys dual wielding swords, character named Odith in my profile.

Lancing Steel links: Lancing Steel, Vicious Projectile, Brutality, Maim, Chance to Bleed, and GMP for clear/Slower proj for bosses

Aura/Heralds: Herald of Purity, Haste, Dread Banner

used a duelist I already had in standard to try Lancing steel out. At first I tried going 2 handed with a Starforge, but it was terrible. Reworked the character to duel wield and it was better, but still felt off.

The key was to get Point Blank and go crit. I also had to change my mindset to think of the skill as a melee skill that can sometimes do damage from range. After that the skill worked much better for me and I was eventually able to kill Uber elder with it.

In my opinion the skill is not very intuitive at all. It needs to lose the different aim spread that depends on where you target and just do the narrow spread all the time. Also should gain some pierce with gem level, as currently the skill only feels good with GMP and some kind of pierce. The skill isn't good enough to stand on its own without some kind of utility built in.

On another note, this skill more then most others is very gear dependent. With ok gear it feels terrible, but with good/great gear it works very well. Currently the skill has no middle ground, which is why people are giving up on it so fast.

Positives are that Impale does help pure physical damage feel better, hope we get an Impale support in the future for other phys skills.

Played lancing steel on Champion close to 70 before benching it as it felt far worse in comparison to something like spectral throw. Needs so much investment (lioneyes armour with +pierce to supported gems), gmp, point blank, crit, etc in order to feel "good". This means that diversity is very limited and tunnels you into a very specific path. (if you intend to make use of the impale mechanic)

Then I re-rolled another character as Deadeye lvl 89 using lancing steel to trigger cast on crit (ice spear). This worked surprising well but the main problem is that lancing steel gets too 'wide'. With gmp and dying sun the increased number of projectiles dont help with shotgunning a target as well as I hoped (the skill just fires projectiles further off to the side.)

I understand that the projectiles are spread further out to prevent the skill from being too overpowered at single target (like barrage) but it is WAY too wide. I mean even with some medium sized bosses I would be lucky to hit it with half the projectiles with the addition of aiming on the edge of the screen to stop the skill from spreading the projectiles.
Not to mention the nightmare to hit skinny bosses (or betrayal syndicate mobs) that move around where lancing steel just feels SO BAD. I had to adapt to this by having wands in my weapon swap and gem swapping barrage just to more consistently trigger my cast on crit.

This skill clear works nicely with GMP but
1) the minimum spread is too large
2) feels a bit clunky when targets are close but you need to aim far away

The mouse distance spread mechanic is very very bad. It should be concentrated spread all the time. If we want to spread it out, we have supports for that, thats what they for.

Otherwise its a decent skill that works great to proc CoC.

"

jackal917 wrote:

The key was to get Point Blank and go crit. I also had to change my mindset to think of the skill as a melee skill that can sometimes do damage from range. After that the skill worked much better for me and I was eventually able to kill Uber elder with it.

..

On another note, this skill more then most others is very gear dependent. With ok gear it feels terrible, but with good/great gear it works very well. Currently the skill has no middle ground, which is why people are giving up on it so fast.

Positives are that Impale does help pure physical damage feel better, hope we get an Impale support in the future for other phys skills.

I do agree with what you said, super gear dependent and obviously crit is the way.. i was thinking about leaving that be, but it's impossible. I checked your tree and i made so many mistakes :\

On Impale: i think the "support" you are talking about is Dread Banner.. it gives 20% chance to Impale, and with the new Veil crafts, you can add it to your weapon, totalling a max of 40%. Maybe, if they completely rework how it works, it's going to be decent.

on a side note: on PoB it currently doesn't show the impale buff of champion, adding flat phys for every impale on enemies, so actual dps could be higher with bosses/encounters, where you stack impales.

"

jjf9 wrote:

I do agree with what you said, super gear dependent and obviously crit is the way.. i was thinking about leaving that be, but it's impossible. I checked your tree and i made so many mistakes :\

On Impale: i think the "support" you are talking about is Dread Banner.. it gives 20% chance to Impale, and with the new Veil crafts, you can add it to your weapon, totalling a max of 40%. Maybe, if they completely rework how it works, it's going to be decent.

on a side note: on PoB it currently doesn't show the impale buff of champion, adding flat phys for every impale on enemies, so actual dps could be higher with bosses/encounters, where you stack impales.

I was thinking of a more specific Impale support gem that gives higher then 20% chance to Impale. Not to big of an issue if the veiled modes go core I guess. There are not enough ways to scale physical damage without going up into the shadow area for crit. Impale and if they ever fix bleed would help alot with that.

Hello there!

First I want to say this skill is great for clearing and killing bosses. It also just feels FUN! Thanks GGG for this great new skill.

Now onto my current setup:

Level 90 HC Gladiator "Fooske"

Dual wield axes with Resolute Technique, Crimson Dance and Iron Grip. Lioneye's Vision armor with Lancing Steel linked to Brutality, Chance to Bleed, Maim, Vicious Projectiles, and Greater Multiple Projectiles.

That's the end game experience, which I will talk about in a moment. First I want to discuss the midgame/leveling experience.

I swapped from Sunder to Lancing Steel on a 4 link around level 70. My first impression was lackluster - having just come from a 4 linked Sunder which has the following features to measure up to:

Fantastic damage scaling
Pierce only limited by travel distance
Area of effect
Predictable skill animation
Melee Gem Supports

Immediately I needed to remove my Multistrike and Melee Physical Support Gems. This resulted in a huge loss of power and speed right away. To compensate, I removed my Hatred aura and switched to Haste. I linked Brutality, Chance to Bleed, and Vicious Projectiles. These are the initial features of the Lancing Steel skill

Attack skill supports
Mediocre damage scaling
Frontine damage only
Long range
Ramp up damage
Cool but somewhat unpredictable animation

This resulted in damage almost comparable to Sunder, but without any way to damage large packs of monsters. I swapped out Vicious Projectiles for Pierce and went on my way. These were now the skill features I'm working with:

Attack skill supports
Mediocre damage scaling
Limited pierce
Long range
Ramp up damage
Cool but somewhat unpredictable animation

I want to expand a bit here on the animation; it's difficult to tell when the projectile will travel through doorways or other small gaps. It feels like the area that I have to aim to get it through is very precise, and of course it's often only the main projectile goes through such small spaces. Compared to sunder, where if part of the area of effect moves through a space, that damage goes through. Part of it hitting a wall doesn't always stop it.

Regardless of the damage and animation issue I have stayed committed because I enjoy how the skill feels and the fun ranged play style it allows.

This leads me to my detailed feedback:

The damage scaling is a bit too low. I understand that GGG was understandably worried about the potential for impales and bleeds ranged getting out of hand, but at it's current iteration it does feel lacking. It requires two other items - such as Lioneye's Vision and The Nomad - besides a 6 link to be competitive with other gems such as Sunder running only on a 6 link.

The animation is also difficult to work with in small spaces. After using it for almost a week now, I still am unable to tell exactly how it will interact with tight passages and doorways. The spread when using greater multiple projectiles is incredible, it feels like a 120% arc in front of you. It should probably be a little less, in favor of having the base wideness be tighter.


Thanks for reading - please forgive any grammar or spell errors in my post.

Got one champion to 94 with lancing steel.

Besides any build you can come up with, it is hard to find any good point for the skill itself.

Pros:
It got range?
Well yes impale

Builtin "volley", that is a pro, but also doesnt have pierce or overlapping aoe, more on this later:

The things going against lancing steel are quite hard to ignore, these downsides are builtin and cannot be got around them:

- Arming time of projectiles is too long.
The feeling is like playing in timelapse or some kind of reverse slowmotion

- Firing cone at the sides of the character - Character needs to be totally in the open.
You can easily lose half of your damage by being close to any obstacle, not even corners but a simple rock.

- Projectiles themselves.. are also mildly slow.

- Impale ramp time + Champion taunt ramp time. Keeps adding to the clumsiness

Not every skill has lightning fast projectiles, but how is Lancing steel having the worst of both slow arming time and slow projectiles, bad cone plus ramp-up damage?

Other feedbacks:
Lancing Steel is a bit too much cookie cutter:
- The skill is locked into using Lioneye's fall chest for a free pierce (L15 = pierce 3 + some more dmg)
- Impale is locked into champion
- Impale = phys, but pure phys still has horrible scaling in game in a game where ele stacking gets you to multiple mils or some facetank builds get to more than 1mil with literally less than 10pts in offense

Not checking on one of the above means that you are better off with the everpresent ele stacking on a different char, and with ele stacking you are better off using ST or other skills, even go caster with Freezing pulse and Soul Rend