Whirling Blades
" Single target sometimes have this issue too, as a melee you'll notice it if you try to stand and attack instead of just clicking the mob, and even then you'll desync yourself if ythe mob is desynced, it's a bit messy. It affects smaller aoes the most, stuff like WB which is a thin line and cleave which is a small half circle, you notice the issues a lot more than when you're spray and praying lmp freezing pulses on half the screen. And yeah it's more of an issue with the mobs being out of sync than the skill itself. It seems to connect just fine when the mobs are where they're supposed to, when it misses repeatedly the mob is simply not standing in the right place. |
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lvl 32 shadow, Act 3 normal
dual wielding daggers, melee build. focus on crit damage/crit multipliers. I believe whirling blades is broken as implemented and that this deficiency is fatal to a reasonably viable shadow melee crit damage build. Whirling blades is the only aoe damage skill available to a shadow focusing on melee crit damage. Lightning strike (or other strength skills) are not an option due to inadequate strength. Spell skills are also not an option because they would derive no advantage from melee crit chance/crit multiplier passives which are the singular focus of the build. So, I'm left with whirling blades. That's a huge problem. 1. Whirling blades does comically low damage. Compared to other low level aoe skills--such as sweep, leap slam, ice nova--it is entirely ineffective. I'm not even gonna get into this. It's not worth further discussion. Sweep and ice nova absolutely crush in comparison. 2. Inadequate hit box. Not only is the hit box very small, it is also very difficult to judge. When I cast sweep or leap slam, I know who I'm gonna hit and who is out of range. With whirling blades I have, at best, an educated guess. Furthermore, desync issues abound with whirling blades (an issue that doesn't occur with other basic aoe skills) and I would posit that the high incidence of desync issues with whirling blades is a product of its unreasonably small hit box. Don't get me wrong here, I like the skill. In theory, at least. I appreciate that it is congruent with the shadow melee character: a shadow wielding dual-daggers should have to physically stab someone with a dagger to do melee damage. I also appreciate the huge value of this skill's mobility, both for attack and for defense. That being said, the skill needs to be improved to provide melee shadow builds with a viable aoe option. Some suggestions for improvement: --Allow both daggers hit with whirling blades, instead of just one, to enhance the damage. This fits with the animation. Also, it would be nice to have one skill that hits with both dual-wielded weapons simultaneously besides dual strike. Leveling dual strike is not an option due to strength limitations. This would also allow whirling blades attacks to benefit from modifiers on both dual-wielded weapons. --Enlarge the hit box. Substantially. If only to reduce the incidence of desync issues. Spamming whirling blades through a tight pack of mobs, with 90% chance to hit AND an accuracy support gem, and still not hitting most of the mobs renders the skill a waste of time. This is especially frustrating when you watch your friend kill enemies with ice nova when said enemies are outside of the visible animation for the skill. Seriously, why so much hate for whirling blades??? If it looks like I hit them, they should be in the hit box. In fact the hit box should probably extend a little outside the visible animation of the skill (as is the case for sweep and ice nova). I'm enjoying PoE immensely. But I'm not playing my shadow build any more until whirling blades gets fixed. Because right now it's broken and that's fatal flaw for melee shadow builds. |
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" A really Huge +1 for all the words in this one! Please make balance guys! I love this game! |
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I assume that when whirling blades is casted your champion dives in the direction of your cursor. There are several issues I have with this, for one it seems the movement desyncs with the server and oftentimes I find myself back in the room I just dove out of. Another problem I have with it is that sometimes it will dive me in the opposite direction of the cursor, leaping me to safety and then right back into harm.
As the utility of this spell is mobility and not its damage, it would really benefit from being refined. Ign:Sinisterdeeds
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Hi again guys!
I just found something annoying on the Wiki: "You can't hit the same monster more than once with the same skill use." "CAN'T HIT" "MORE THAN ONCE" "CAN'T HIT" "MORE THAN ONCE!!!" ...all the problems are explained right now. All the GGG guys have to do is remove this nerfed,unbalanced(or anyhow you call it) thing from this skill... so we'd have a usable "AoE" for melee shadows. |
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How is that the reason Whirling Blades sucks for damage, when the problem is that it doesn't seem to hit in the first place for a lot of people.
Additionally, one-hit-only happens with nearly every AoE ability. I don't see why WB should be different when you blitz through at such a pace. Last edited by Vipermagi#0984 on Feb 6, 2013, 9:37:29 PM
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I agree with nearly every point SirDankington addressed, but to reiterate what I feel are the most pressing ones of this skill:
- Does not take dual wielding weapons in account (only strikes with 1 weapon). - Hit-box radius often does not match the visual radius of the skill, which makes little sense. - Recovery animation is FAR too dominant, and could easily be cut in half and still achieve the same goal of illustrating the sudden drop of momentum, without being so detrimental to the player. - The damage is too low for the initial mana cost sans support gems, but this would easily be satisfied if the skill attacked with both weapons. - Desync issues (as stated by several others in this thread) Like many others, Whirling Blades is my current favorite skill in this game, but its only for aesthetic reasons. A saving grace as far as funchtion is that it works beautifully in conjunction with Fire Trap, certain skills in Spell Totem (Shock Nova, Firestorm, Ice Nove, etc), and has great mobility. But the issue is that if you aren't coupling it with AoE spells, it's damage is far from acceptable for its mana cost, and leap slam is just better. While even if you ARE coupling it with those skills, Leap Slam is STILL better, simply because it is a better skill at the moment. Better mobility with more versatility, better damage with fewer weapon restrictions, far more accurate, fewer desync issues. Just Better. Suggestions: - Whirling Blades needs a larger (read: wider) hit-box radius, or was at least to be effected by the Increased Radius stat (passives, supports, etc.) - Whirling Blades needs to strike with both weapons, -OR- have it's physical damage be an additive calculation of both weapons combined, if full damage from both weapons would be too strong (75% from each weapon at gem level 1, 100% at gem level 20) -Whirling Blades needs fewer or no recovery frames on its tail-end animation (the momentum drop pause) Edit: - Also, I understand that with large-bodied targets, Whirling Blades could potentially need to be restricted to "1 strike per target", but honestly due to its speed, I agree that this aspect is unnecessary. *-If none of the above are feasible, then Whirling Blades needs its mana cost reduced across the board to facilitate several support gems to improve it. I don't think any of the above suggestions would break the skill, or even push it towards that direction, just simply improve its functionality and bring it in-line with the other similar mobility/AoE-damage skills, taking its uniqueness and restrictions into account. Since Leap Slam can't be used with daggers or claws, and Lightning Warp would gain 0 benefit from dual wielding (except wands) or physical damage, Whirling Blades is pretty much the only non-spell/projectile option for AoE damage with daggers and claws, and also currently the worse overall. If that's intended however, then that's another story. Another sad story. Wrote way more than anticipated, but GDI I like this game. :P Last edited by LoJackATK#3911 on Feb 7, 2013, 6:36:32 PM
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Okay once again,there r the novas for example...
do not tell me,they are hit the same monster only once! archer skills are the same story... As you said "the problem is that it doesn't seem to hit in the first place for a lot of people. " so we have to try 5 times for only 1 freakin hit? Even totems are stronger than this skill in AoE... Btw i agre with that the dmg could be better too but this skill is still far useless compared to other skills with only 1 hit its something like a fleeing skill only ...use it once then spam the other really "good for AoE" skills or what? I know its not a realistic game,but do not tell me that you cant hit someone more than once ._. Its not a freakin "finishing" skill... ----just a not really necessary idea,but..: (If they will never change this "system" on this skill,and we "HAVE TO" hit the same boss/mobs only ONCE,then use the other skills... then give us a chance to "instant kill" like a 5% or something.) |
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Love the idea from the skill but its flat out broken. you can spam the skill back and forth through the same group of enemy only to have 2/3 of the hits not register. When it does hit the damage is decent but until its fixed we will never truly know how well the skill is balanced.
Until then it is little more then a mana heavy dash that can backfire. |
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as the ONLY aoe option for a dual wielding dagger/claw character whirling blade is broken.
as a mobility spell used by all dagger/sword/claw users it is great. the above disperacy really bugs me. the main problem with whirling blades is the hit box and the desynch. most of the times when this skill is used to pass above 3-4mobs you will only hit 1 at most. other times you use it to get away, land and then start taking hits from invisible enemies since your position seems unchanged for them... since the desynch problem seems to be something much more severe and linked with almost all movement-type skills, it is easier imo to fix/buff up whirling and IF the desynch ever gets fixed we can see if it needs a nerf. my suggestion would be that: increase base width of the line by 15-20% change level up bonus from 3%damage/level to 3%damage/2%width/1.5%length the above will allow whirling blades to be used by all the people who are using it so far only as a lvl 1 gem for mobility, but will also allow all of us who want to use it as our main aoe skill to get much more benefit for a much increased cost (double the cost atm for a lvl 20 vs a lvl1 gem, without counting the support that if someone wants to use it for an actual attack has to link) as a side note, since there doesn't seems to exist an aoe attack for dual daggers/claws, you can maybe give it the same clause as cleave: -40%damage but hits with both weapons |
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