Crackling Lance

Build: Inquisitor(top right, down right) Crit Crackling Lance
currently lvl 88, lvl 19 gem with +2 from wand and shield.
Zealotry + Herald of Ice, also tested it out with Inpulsa(5 link).
Helmet Enchant: Crackling Lance has 24% increased arc angle

The good: visuals, theoretical values on damage, new play style with intensify/intensity being built in and changes skill behavior.

Crackling Lance looks good, sometimes feels amazing to play, and looks to fill in the gaps of lightning skills.

the bad:
(1)disparity between visuals and mechanics (where dmg is dealt vs which monster have a blue "arc" going over them)
this is tested with conc effect and without
(2) Seems to "miss"/graze targets that are either moving or in an animation
(3) Seems to miss or just graze targets that are close (like really close, under your arm close)

I use the word graze, because I don't know whether or not it's the Herald of Ice or Inpulsa which is hitting them for a small amount of dmg or if it is actually the Crackling Lance hitting them, but only doing 5% of the "normal" damage.
Granted I am playing crit inquisitor, there is always going to be disparity between a crit and a non crit on the dmg numbers - but a non crit should not deal 5% of a white or blue mob (normal or magic). When in the same map, a non crit will still kill a white mob (or pack) which is hit.

There are several instances where a rare or unique mob is in an animation, and the skill barely does any dmg, 1-5% of their health, once their done with that animation the skill will either outright kill them or deal a substantial more dmg. Examples where this is easy to replicate: Hunter snake (Tunnel Asp) will have an animation before(and during) spitting(attack), while the animation is taking place it seems like Crackling Lance will not hit or just graze, once the animation is over - after the attack - you deal the remaining 80% of his hp on 1 cast, while the 4-5 casts before only did in total 20%, even when you were at 3-4 intensity stacks on those 4-5 casts.
Other times this is easy to replicate is Unique bosses that cyclone, such at the map boss in marches, while he is spinning you will deal almost zilch, once he stops 1-2 casts and he's dead.
The unqiues in Alva timed room scenario will be hit during their casting animation, and I know these guys have a dmg reduction during casting. the wierd thing is that - with Crackling Lance, these uniques usually die before the rare that you are also hitting with the same casts, because the rare monster was walking towards you (thus only getting grazed), while the unique was in casting animation (but still getting hit). So it doesn't always seems to be a global problem with animations, but maybe movement.



The skill ends up feeling the same as Bladestorm when it was introduced, Feels like the skill ends up missing or grazing the target(s) sometimes, even when it shouldn't. Hope this is a bug and not a feature, like Bladestorm - If not, Crackling Lance just ends up feeling really bad for clearing, leaving 1-4 mobs alive from a pack or two. Certain times it feels useless against bosses because their in a certain animation which makes CL miss them.

I will continue to test it out against awakener, shaper etc. Just not gotten there yet this league. But currently my 2 cents on the skill is this: I hope the mechanics of the skill can be tuned in such a way where, if I cast a skill that creates a beam/arc over (on top of) a monster, the skill will deal damage.

The fact that totems don't benefit from the in-built intensify just makes it even worse.

Heirophant, mana stacking archmage. I leveled with this as a starter and it was a struggle. Well to be fair I'd say my 2 link orb of storms did most of the work and the 4 link Crackling was there for show.

Considering this has a 90% added damage effectiveness I would have though archmage with this skill would have been effective, but even with a mana cost of 750 I was struggling, only at 4 intensity was it "okay". On a 6-link with a mana cost of around 1000 it started to perform but this was only in T1 maps (which should have been overkill but it wasn't). It wouldn't supprise me if the mana cost of archmage was working but not the damage increase.

I leveled this skill as archmage heirohpant. it was awful and clunky to level and by far my worst league starting build ever. (almost 200 deaths by maps)

in previous leagues I have made it to maps much quicker and much less deaths.

I ended up switching to inquisitor because it needs cast speed to become viable

Its damage and scale-ability are good but it's 0.7 second cast time just makes it so clunky and unusable, especially when you start getting into the later acts of campaign. namely acts 6-10, especially with all the pantheon bosses and how easily they punish the use of this skill or how unusable they make it.

it also sucks that intensity can only be built up once per cast. neither spell echo or unleash help get it up to four stacks any faster.

It is just far to slow for a self-cast spell without any cast speed

I'm playing Crackling Lance as an Eldrich Battery crit self caster with heavy investment in cast speed.

Now what I really like about Crackling Lance is the visual effect. Good job on that!
It also crates awesome synergy with Orb Of Storm if you invest into regular cast speed over repeated casting.

But crackling Lance definitely needs more damage or something.
In the current state it feels almost mandatory to grab +1 Intensity stack and use all the juicy support gems like Intensity and Conc Effect to get some decent damage.
But there are so many drawbacks especially high risk related to damage rump up playstyle which doesn't feel rewarded enough. I've died soo many times while leveling!
Standing still is such a big deal - you're exposed to big damage numbers, stuns, ailments... and for what? Why should I undergo this instead of using Arc which gives me better clear and similar single target damage? (considering that you need to avoid boss attack every now and then)

Hello

I play an Inquisitor, level 75, low tier maps so far.
Hybrid Life/ES, 4-linked Chestpiece with; Crackling Lance - Spell Echo - Increased Critical Strikes - Added Lightning Damage

Secondary skill (Gloves); Orb of Storms - Added Lightning Damage - Power Charge on Critical - Arcane Surge. But i plan to use Arcane Surge with Flame Dash later and use another 4. Support Gem.

Until i get the last Lab, i also use Storm Brand with
Hextouch - Conductivity, because alot of mobs have Lightning or Elemental Resistances.
(Without the curse your damage can feel weak against them)

Crackling Lance is fun and works fine for me, because i go full crit, lots of castspeed but most importantly, I combine it with Sigil of Power (gets nice radius from your aoe) + Conductivity.

On top of that i use Frost Shield because it fits perfectly.
So basically all 3 skills are stationary and synergize well.

I am even able to move around in my Sigil (large Radius) and avoid stuff. However against strong and/or fast Rare/Unique mobs, some repositioning of the Character and Sigil is necessary,
but not a big deal.

So far I am melting Stuff, including Bosses, all Events and Heist (except for those Oneshot-Mechas, don't know what's going on there).
The only issue is maybe, that we don't get 2 Intensity with Spell Echo, which would further improve repositioning.

Lets see how it will feel with the last Ascendancy and in higher maps.
And of course i do not compare it with fotm skills/builds, that would be pointless.

League is fun aswell, keep it up!

Build: Crackling Lance Crit Inquisitor
Level 92 with a 6Link(inpulsa) level 23 Crackling Lance (+1 from weapon and shield) using Sigil of Power, Void Sphere and Frost Shield. No Lab enchantment. 75% Block, 46% spellblock.
If you want more details about the character it´s "LaurelCrackLance" on my profile or take the PoB "https://pastebin.com/Zj6Jhi6G".


Pro´s:

- Looks amazing

- Damage with 4 Intensify stacks is just nuts

- It´s an awesome playstyle in my opinion, not too zoom zoom speed and not too
slow; really good balance

- You need to keep a good positioning/plan in mind to get the most out of the
skill (mostly for single target/bosses who are not oneshot)



Con´s:

- Damage on stage 1 and 2 on Intensify feels really bad, an unlinked
(increased crit and power charge on crit) Orb of Storms + Inpulsa explosions
doing more, at least from the feeling

- The animation of the beam with 3/4 Intensify stacks is sometimes extremly
weird aka. you dont hit the mob right infront of you

- Sometimes you don´t hit mobs when you are f.e. standing on stairs and the
mobs are slightly higher/lower than you. Vise versa as well.


I played with Crackling Lance as soon as i got it at Level 28 and the level experience through the story was pretty smooth on a 3/4 link. As soon as i got to maps, the struggle began because the first 2 Intensify stages on Crackling Lance (like i mentioned before) feel really bad damage wise(even in early map content). Don´t get me wrong, it was kinda fun to keep thinking of solutions to fix whatever problem i encountered so i could progress further. On level 92 with the first Sirus killed and a /played of 1 Day and 10 hours, i think i have a good feeling for the Skill and can provide some good feedback.

The damage on 3/4 Intensify stacks (+1 from the tree) is ridicoulus. It feels really good but the first 2 stages kinda feel like they´re non existent. The game currently is kinda like "you stand still -> you die" so most of the time you don´t get to the 4 stacks/can´t keep em up for more than 1 or maybe 2 shots. On white/yellow maps/bosses this was easy to counter by simply hiding in the Frost Shield which took care of the survival but in red maps/bosses that´s not an option you can get 1 or 2 lances with max stacks off but after that you continue/end the fight with 2/3 stack hits and it feels really bad. A suggestion to this is that you crank the numbers a bit so that the stages 1 and 2 dont feel like non existent but do some decent damage but crank down the numbers from a fully 4 stack hit to compensate or just keep the numbers on the big hit cause you rarely can use it anyways.
Abother solution would be, you want spell echo support, to let the spell echo give Intensify stacks as well. Currently you shoot a 1stage beam, the echo shoots the 1 stage beam as well, you shoot a 2 stage beam and the echo shoots a 2 stack beam as well and so on.

There are surely better skills out there right now but overall it´s a great and fun skill but some adjustments are in need in my opinion.

The skill has issues and should definitely see tweaks, but there are some things that help it shine. I personally feel it works best with the Assassin class. The skill demands hitting a massive amount of cast speed shorten the time required to hit 4 intensity, and as such, benefits most from heavy crit rate + crit damage.

Furthermore, there are ways of mitigating intensity loss while still being able to dodge. Namely "Dash" (Flame Dash to a lesser degree) due to its speed and range. You also want Second Wind. Using dash will remove only 1 intensity stack and with second wind you can crackling lance while teleporting forward or backward frequently, which keeps me from being focus fired or AOE'ed constantly.

Also, the massive amount of cast speed you have will give you that single stack so fast that you almost wont notice you lost it.

That said, the skill doesn't seem to be benefitting from Intensify support the way it should. It doesn't seem to get any of the damage bonuses from additional intensity stacks from the gem. It seems like a bug - and I hope its fixed as it really hurts the skill in the long run.

So I started off the league with Crackling Lance and after having reached maps with it, I feel like I can provide some feedback.

So I do find the skill fun and it does do alright at both killing packs and bosses from a damage perspective, although it does feel like a lot of other skills in the game already outperform it and this is where I would say it's biggest issues stem from.

Although adequate, Crackling Lance requires you to stay in place and sacrifice a lot of survivability and clear speed, as well as needing a hefty cast speed investment (and subsequently a hefty mana regen investment to sustain it) just to have the skill perform about average. The payoff for working around the skills inbuilt downside simply isn't quite there.

Once again, the skill is fun, but it just needs some adjusting.