Chain Hook

Looks like I'm the only one using this skill.
Currently using it with a dual wield Berserker blitz build.
It's a great skill that is held back by it's clunkiness. Right now it's biggest problem it's that it randomly attacks other mobs instead of the ones in front of you.
My ideas to fix this skill .
1-Make it always attack the closest target first
2-Allow it to use it's shockwave only part of the skill if the mobs are in the shockwave range, not only face-hugging you.

PD: Don't remove the animation delay of the hook, it would make it Flicker 2.0.

I'm a level 82 jugg with good AOE and attack speed scaling and the skill feels bad most of the time for numerous reasons.

1. the shockwave AOE is still pretty small
2. the chain repeats with multistrike if no monster is hit
3. the chain animation is still slow after investing in attack speed
4. the chain can attack barrels and trash before attacking monsters in that direction
5. the character can go to some very random places or monsters

Here are my suggestions:

1. Make the shockwave AOE behind the character the same size as the one in front.
2. More shockwave AOE
3. Reduce the chain animation per X attack speed %

And here is what I appreciate:
1. The rage mechanic is very good!
2. I use it with the new Berserk skill to melt bosses and rare monsters, it's very effective

It has a lot of potential! Thanks for creating it

Leveled using chain hook until about level 60 or so, its a really fun skill but its biggest downside is that it targets mobs randomly if you are trying to kill a tanky rare or a legion chest that is right in front of you, if that gets changed or fixed (seems like a targeting bug to me) I'd love to make a berserker using Chain Hook, but its targeting issues make it super annoying to play in legion content especially.

used while leveling on a gladiator with challenger charges, attack speed felt super good, rage generation felt very very good with the rage support gem linked also, with the berserk skill you can do some serious damage with this skill....if there are no other mobs on the screen anyways, if there are, be prepared to put on the best pinball cosplay you can imagine.

I tried to leaguestart with this skill (Dani_Hookah) but dropped it around lvl 70 because it just didn't feel good to play. I did test it again at lvl 90 to see if the clunkiness went away with character progression. Nope.


First the things I expected before playing the skill:

- I expected a circular AoE instead of a cone, since the gem description doesn't have any indication of the orientation of the shockwave (unlike ground or tecno slam).

- I expected the pull to take the same time as a shockwave-only attack (for a total of twice the attack time for pull + shockwave), since the gem doesn't have any indication of how the pull time is determined or how it scales.

The plan was to make an attack character with dual ichimonjis buffing berserk, using chain hook as the main skill to maximize rage generation and berserk uptime.


Now feedback:

- The pull time is horribly slow. It feels like using a separate leap slam setup to close towards enemies is faster than pulling with the skill, both on low and high levels.

- The pull time is horribly slow even at very close ranges. While shorter, if and enemy is just outside your attack range, the pull still takes too long and continually disrupts your gameplay. If you have any source of knockback, the skill will spend overall more time pulling than attacking your targets.

- The pull time is horribly slow even when you don't pull. If you accidentally target the ground you will have to sit through what feels like hours consisting of missed hook animation.

- On top of that, some bosses embedded in weird terrain (kitava, arakaali) make it impossible to attack without pulling, ruining your attack speed.

- The AoE consists mainly of a cone and a smaller circular component around the character. This AoE does feel great under the right conditions. However, while using the skill your character is in the wrong conditions most of the time because of...

- Bad targeting. Sometimes the skill will just target everything around you, going back and forth as long as there are enemies and murdering your effective attack speed. Other conic attacks let you efficiently use your AoE with good positioning. With chain hook, you can't control your positioning.

- Bad targeting and pull time again. If you fail to namelock an enemy in front of you, not only will you have to sit through the already mentioned days of missed pull animation, after that your character will not attack the enemy. Other conic attacks don't punish you as much under these circumstances, since the AoE damage can still happen.

"

09xx wrote:

2. the chain repeats with multistrike if no monster is hit

I'm not sure why you would put multistrike on this skill?

The skill felt a little clunky at first, but it is beginning to grow on me. you definitely have to be a little more accurate where you click with this skill. I just hit level 65 and it is starting to feel much smoother and faster. It promotes it's own rhythm of attack for sure.

Targeting could be better so that it tries to aim the nearest thing on your cursor or highlighted at with namelock.

Possibly a unique interaction to Attack In Place like Dash has where it'll always throw out the Chain even when at close range.

It would be nice if it was usable with unarmed.

I've been using this skill up to about lv70 now, on a dual wield Berzerker, here are my thoughts.

1) Should never target destructibles when enemies are near.
2) Chain and shockwave should be affected by attack speed in exactly the same way, there's no good reason for the chain to be as slow as it is and to not scale with your attack speed.
3) I don't personally mind the pingponging between enemies, it makes certain kinds of encounters safer. However, if the chain hook animations aren't going to scale with attack speed then this functionality should be removed so your overall attack speed doesn't get gimped.
4) Fighting kitava and arakali you only ever use the chain portion due to minimum distance for shockwave never being met, this needs to be fixed.
5) The chain hook target locking radius should be increased, and if no targets are found, the skill should only ever use the shockwave portion of the skill, not throw out random hooks.
6) Pie in the sky wish for this skill is that shift-attacking should pull the enemy towards you instead, since shift clicking does nothing useful currently.
7) What's with the weapon restriction? This skill should be usable with any weapon combination except a shield, realistically.
8) Targeting a specific enemy should pull you directly to that enemy. You should not get stopped by other enemies in your path when being pulled to the enemy you targeted.

Dual wield slayer lvl 80
2 x varunastra

Currently starting yellow maps with this skill and it feels good and powerful for pack clearing. It lacks in single target damage and I feel I must invest in another skill just for that purpose.

If shift click either shot out the chain did some damage and came back without pulling you OR made the shock wave wherever you were standing it would feel much better I believe. The interaction with dash and shift dash work really well and compliments this skill greatly. I also use flicker strike just to keep moving while dash is on cooldown. I use shockwave support to make the skill hit better, but it feels wrong. Chain hook should not need that support gem.

Suggestions
1)give it some kind of distance traveled damage multiplier (like shield charge) this would help with boss fighting.
2)Let the shockwave activate anytime by shift clicking
3)Let it work with claws. I mean really, this really looks and plays like a claw skill, there is absolutely no reason for this to not work on claws.