Ambush
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Post your feedback for this skill here!
Make sure you concisely state your character build, level, and other complimenting abilities you have when you talk about a skill - The more we know about your character, the better we can understand your feedback. Last bumped on Nov 26, 2023, 5:02:16 PM
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I thought that it would be cool to do a crit facebreakers ambush raider but it seems you need to have a weapon for ambush to work properly. Was this decision because of balance, or just the design philosophy of the gem?
I think that implying that the next attack is exerted is a bit deceptive, as regular exerting works just fine with unarmed attacks. I did some looking into the skill but the wiki doesn't have the gem up at the moment so the other websites that had information wrote about it as "exerting your next melee attack". I'm guessing they made the same assumptions as me. The video announcing the skill gem says "one handed attack". I did some assuming here so yea I guess I made somewhat an ass of me, but it feels real bad getting excited about this build coming together, leveling to almost 50, only to realize the entire idea behind it wont work. |
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Some constructive feedback on Ambush support
Backstory I am trying to build a poison assassin delivering only a strong single dose over the more prevalent attack-speed scaling poison stacking. With the introduction of Ambush support, the Low Tolerance cluster jewel, and the seemingly archetypal crit-ailment scalings, the Stampede boots improving its cooldown, and auxiliary “against enemies on full life” supports, the build could be fun to role-play an “assassin” – ambush and assassinate. Currently I am levelling with Pestilent strike, while planning to use Bino’s knife with Dual Strike for Endgame. The issue with Ambush support However, trying to level with Ambush gets incredibly frustrating. The issue is two-fold: 1) the targeting-seeking issues, and 2) the delay between blinking in and attacking. Because of these problems 2 out of 3 Ambush attacks will miss even with 100% chance to hit, and often leads to death because you are now surrounded by full-health enemies. Targeting issues with Ambush + Strike skills Strike skill targeting has been very unreliable. Given the way it has been for many leagues it is either a design choice or difficult to change. The unreliability, to the best of my knowledge, comes from the constraint that the auto-target only works if you are facing the enemy. I think it is reasonable to assume the design objective of Ambush support is to be able to attack with a Strike skill immediately after you blink in, that you will be close enough and properly lined up against the target. Yet, when you blink in, you are teleported to the closest point between you and the enemy with no respect for the orientation, which means that it is very easy to miss the target-seeking if you do not re-aim (which is difficult as the screen flickers). Many times when I teleport to an enemy behind me, the strike totally whiffs in the opposite direction, which is very infuriating.  Suggestion: I would suggest having the player teleported FACING the enemy rather than just the shortest distance. Alternatively, the skill will be more reliable if it teleports only in the direction the player is facing rather than a random closest enemy, such that players can expect where they will be (it’s a planned assassination after all). In addition, to perhaps circumvent the obstacle collision issues (which also happens quite frequently), maybe teleport directly onto the enemy with line-of-sight and grant the player phasing for a duration, or knockbacks the enemy by some amount? The deadly delay The other issue with Ambush, say compared with Flicker Strike, is the delay between the blink and dealing damage. Often, once I blinked in with Ambush, I will get stunned mid-attack animation and lose the Exert buff. Compare Ambush also with the popular Slam archetypes, the player blinks in point blank instead of having some AoE buffer, meaning they are up close against enemies that will immediately attack. While there will be investments endgame to avoid this, it is very annoying during levelling when there is no possible mitigation – even with stun recovery or the Pantheon the Exert gets consumed. Not to mention that Unwavering Stance, the primary stun mitigation for slow Slam builds, is counterintuitive with the Ambush blind. Suggestion: I would suggest the Ambush buff also granting also greatly increased attack speed, or high chance to avoid stun for the next attack. This buff will encourage slower, more methodical builds to be more reliable, as opposed to the current meta of high-attack speed, where they can overcome such unreliability inherently with more attacks. Final words Right now, Ambush seems to be designed as an exclusively single-target skill, with its long cooldown and single-target blind. I think its possibilities could be improved if there are more supports. For example, a cooldown reduction support gem (which could also revitalize many other builds), or making Ambush dropping a smoke cloud for AoE blind. I am aware that this sound like “how Ambush should be buffed to improve MY build”, but I am unlikely to play the same builds again next league. Still I do believe there is much room for improvement to make Ambush a smoother skill to use, and a skill being broadly applicable across many builds is the charm of PoE. |
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" really cool and analyzed feedback here, i feel like the cast time needs to go so that it is instant (In a true assassin style maybe it could also teleport you behind that target facing their backs), also i would like to have an attack build into the skill itself to eliminate the delay issues which i also expericened in my current build. tried it first with pestilent strike as well later switched to dual strike to have simply more oooommphh. maybe an in-build attack some numeric chances and a restriction to dagger/claws (as it is an assassin skill) might be an idea, at least i feel that way. Last edited by FelicesBladewing#7155 on Aug 13, 2021, 12:37:03 PM
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I've been using ambush on a character I'm playing around with and I thought I would post my first impressions before I forget about them.
1) The tooltip of the skill shows when you have an exerted attack available. However when you are already in a group of mobs or fighting a boss in melee range and use the skill, you don't always 'blink' to the monster. I'm assuming because you are already standing where you would blink to, because you are already actively fighting it's difficult to keep track of the exerted attack counter. You either are paying attention to the encounter so you can mechanically dodge skills, or avoid being surrounded by mobs. It would be nice if Ambush created some kind of visual character affect so you know you have an exerted attack next blow. Kind of like how withering steps and phase run has a character effect when cast and dissipates when the effect is gone. 2) Ambush seems to teleport you to a random place around the monster, it would be nice if it was more controlled someway. ie. Teleporting to your maximum attack range, teleporting behind the monster, or something else. The word Ambush seems to imply some kind of strategic controlled strike, yet the current implementation doesn't work this way. 3) Thematically 'Ambush' also implies some kind of stealth/surprise attack, but currently it's more like a blink. It would be nice if it had either an elusive, smoke cloud, shroud, blind effect as part of the skill. This would make seem like I'm actually 'ambushing' the monster, instead of my character jumping silly into a monster. In general I think they are visual things we can do to the skill to make the skill feel better and actually feel like an ambush. Last edited by Minutemade#3995 on Sep 2, 2021, 4:59:34 PM
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Hello !
I've been tinkering with the skill a bit. Some things are disapointing : - It works like a warcry, exerting an attack, but seems to be thought to be used by assassin. Exerted attacks restrictions are... meh... the spell is not strong enough to quit using something like multistrike. And moreover, we cannot use any other exert on this attack. - The cooldown is very high compared to the power of this spell. Once every few seconds, I can deal ONE attack with increased critical strike chance (not even guaranted ? why ?) and increased critial damage... which is... meh. Here are some suggestions : If we keep the design like this, I would rather have : - A skill that gives us a guaranted critical strike. - More critical multiplier - A 100% chance to dodge attack and spell hits during 1 second after using Ambush. Maybe phasing for the next 1 or 2 seconds ? Or elusive ? Something that works with the design philosophy of the assassin. Why not replace the crit thing with double or triple damage even ? Or maybe inflict bleed, poison, crush... the skill is named ambush. It's just like "you are teleporting to this target to slit his throat". Your skill has a LOT of potential. But as right now, it's either not strong enough or not flexible enough. To me, it would make sense. It's designed for assassin. And as right now, the only way an assassin can survive in late game is by killing things before they kill you. We have near to 0 ways to mitigate physical damage. We have dodge and evasion... and... that's it. Unless we use some clever mechanics that... costs us a lot of damage which is against the design philosophy of the assassin. I'm OK with dying on a regular basis because I took a strong attack, but I'm not OK with the fact an assassin cannot properly assassinate without a very expensive gear. If we change the design, it could be something like this : Your next melee attack will teleport you to target ennemy, dealing a guaranteed critical strike that cannot be evaded with X multiplier. When you tell me "ambush" I think "the skill that can help me One Shot things, big things". I'm not thinking about a clearing skill. I'm thinking boss killer discharge grade skill. |
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I have been trying to work through how to build around a single large poison hit assassin concept and the numbers just dont add up even with the best of possible gear.
I would like to see something like the other users here adding a guaranteed crit chance, significant overall damage multiplier such as a guaranteed triple or even higher damage hit. Adding a large amount of added Phys or Chaos damage could also be considered to help boost this skill up. Adding Elusive to the skill also enables Nightblade support to be used but does not have a great synergy with the guaranteed crit in this way... With this single large hit playstyle the final damage calculation with end game gear should result in a damage value in the multiple millions of damage to be able to compete against high attack speed playstyles on boss DPS. In a POB mirror tier build I put together I was only able to at best make a single poison deal ~1 million dps. Some changes could be? ---- Teleports you to a nearby enemy, applying a buff to you for a short duration and blinding the enemy for a secondary duration. Performing a melee attack with a One-Handed Weapon removes the buff to exert that attack. Additionally Grants you an empowered Elusive effect Base duration is 1.50 seconds Base secondary duration is 3 seconds Buff is removed to Exert the next Melee Attack you perform Attacks Exerted by this Skill cannot be Exerted by other Skills Exerted Attacks have +100% to Critical Strike Chance Exerted Attacks have +(200–238)% to Critical Strike Multiplier Exerted Attacks have +100% chance to deal Quadruple Damage with hits and ailments Exerted Attacks have 40 to 60 added Physical Damage Additional Effects From Quality: (0–10)% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate |
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" Making it a buff like that is one solution to the excessive clunkiness. In terms of clunkiness even better would be to turn it into a hybrid active/support skill - somewhat similar to Battlemage Cry - so that it supports an attack with a lowish more multiplier but also serves as an active skill: If used as active skill it executes a teleport with subsequent attack with the linked attack skill. This would entirely avoid the clunky gameplay - a single button would be enough to "ambush with linked attack". -- Currently I dont see much relevance to the exert part of this skill apart from the obvious 'Static Strike' snapshotting for not-really-crit builds. Or maybe using it for Ignite. But maybe its not meant to be more than a travel skill with some extra. No wonder it's lost, it's in the middle of the jungle!
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Hello GGG,
I'm currently playing as a poison assassin and I've been trying the Ambush for the first time. Let me tell you that I absolutely love the skill and I feel like it's something strike skills needed for a long time. However it's not perfect and there are 3 issues I'd like to point out: 1. Multistrike is one of the best supports for strike skills because it helps with the targeting in chaotic fast paced environment that the game offers. It's also incredibly good for poison stacking builds that I dare to say fits the theme of the skill. At least my assassin fantasy is represented by fast and agile character. However the nature of an exerted bonus attack discourages from this playstyle. Sneaky teleport followed by a huge slam, really? I've tried to play without multistrike and it's definitely not worth the trade! Saying that I'm still using Ambush to reach enemies I just feel bad for the skill not doing anything else for me other than teleporting and applying blind to a single enemy. So I suggest to change the first attack bonus not being classified as the exerted attack. I wouldn't mind bonus to be lower to compensate for multi-hit attack. 2. It would be nice for the Ambush to be an instant cast skill because it would allow you to change target while attacking. I realize this is kind of double edged sword because you won't be able to stack another charge with the Second Wind Support but the trade is definitely worth it in my opinion. After all cooldown could be simply shorter to compensate. 3. Currently there are not many ways how to support the skill. Second Wind is all you need and perhaps casting speed? I was thinking it would be cool if you could support it with Mark on Hit or Cast on Crit. Anything that would give it a little bit more utility. So please consider giving it actual hit effect or perhaps ability to apply linked Mark? That sounds quite fitting to me and Bane already does something similar. Thanks for reading Last edited by Langhun#7314 on Aug 23, 2022, 3:11:53 PM
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Ambush is a very good idea but it was badly implemented being a skill that exerts the next attack. I can only think of one skill that could use it effectively and it is Static Strike, but is does not fit the same archetype. Currently the assassin archetype does not have any skills to truly benefit from the current Ambush gem.
A good change I propose is turning Ambush into a "offensive guard" skill, getting rid of the exertion part of the skill and instead making the critical chance and multiplier a 2 or 3 second buff and giving a really short duration shield based on evasion or suppress mechanics, or maybe increasing suppressed damage %, something like a single second is already good. This way you can wait for a window of opportuniny to pump out the damage, while having a little bit of protection to encourage staying still just a tad longer. Since we don't currently have a pure DEX based guard skill, Ambush is a great candidate for this change and all the Shadows would be really happy about it! EDIT: forgot to mention limiting the skill to claw and dagger use only. Sorry for bad english. Last edited by pauloseibert#5360 on Aug 18, 2023, 8:46:52 AM
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