Ethereal Knives

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pneuma wrote:

No, Hatred works because it gives you a phys->cold conversion and EK does physical damage. Anger and Wrath add flat damage to Attaks (and EK is a spell).

I've had moderate success with a Ranger using EK, focusing on crit and projectile damage for my damage boosts, with Hatred, Added Fire, and Faster Proj to increase the damage via non-passives.

EK would feel much more fluid if the cast time went down a bit (going from 1s to 0.84s with frenzy charges is a huge relief) and the damage went down to keep the same relative strength. Right now it feels far to slow compared to normal weapon swinging animations and movement speed.

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pneuma wrote:

... Added Fire, ...

• When you try to use the skill and click a point beyond its range, it will move closer until that point is in range and then use the skill. Thankfully, it seems to take the improved range that faster projectiles provides into account in this range finding. However, someone who is more accustomed to other projectile spells (especially ones with multiple projectile supports added) will find this very unusual. I know that there are other skills that use this range finding technique, but I've never particularly liked it, and I don't find it to be a good fit for this spell. I find myself using shift at long range more often than not to try to fine-tune the direction of flight. The range often seems to be a little longer than the range finder would suggest, but that may be a product of latency.
• The base range is almost pitifully small. I like the fact that faster projectiles will increase the range (it is a chronically underutilized stat), but it takes quite a lot of it to make EK feel suitably powerful. It's no wonder to me that most people never give it a chance.
• I'm not a fan of the look of the spell. If it weren't for the arm movement, it might make me think my character was sneezing on things. Maybe some sort of sonic boom type of effect on each individual projectile would help?

• There's now a spell that does physical damage, which creates a use for all sorts of physical-damage-only supports etc that were previously not useful on any spell. Who doesn't love that?
• I think the base damage is near perfect but just a little on the high side (wut? he said it was too high?) considering all the options for improving it.
• It's got a nice tight arc that makes you feel like a boss when you aim it just right.
• EK fills a much needed niche for projectile spells that will hit multiple unbunched targets without having to throw on Multi Projectile supports.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Initial testing suggested it was really frustrating being able to click on a monster and not hit them because they weren't quite in range. We found this skill felt better to use when treated more like ground slam than a projectile like ice spear in terms of targeting. It seems you disagree - I'm interested if anyone else wants to chime in on this one.
Actually, currently the range of the skill isn't taking increased projectile speed into account - that's something I should make a note to do.
The reason the range you'll walk to when using the skill is less than where you hit is because each projectile has some random variation in it's movement, including speed, so sometimes they go a bit further than others. The minimum targeting range set for the skill is at point where you'll (almost) always hit something at that range, rather than a bit further where you might or might not depending how the random variation affects you.

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UristMcDwarfy wrote:

And some things I like:

• There's now a spell that does physical damage, which creates a use for all sorts of physical-damage-only supports etc that were previously not useful on any spell. Who doesn't love that?
• I think the base damage is near perfect but just a little on the high side (wut? he said it was too high?) considering all the options for improving it.
• It's got a nice tight arc that makes you feel like a boss when you aim it just right.
• EK fills a much needed niche for projectile spells that will hit multiple unbunched targets without having to throw on Multi Projectile supports.

My overall review of the spell is positive. It is different enough from other skills to give it a useful place while still allowing for supporting combos with other projectile spells and some attacks to make up for the areas where it lacks.