Voltaxic Burst

So, first, this new skill has some really great things going for it. Good damage and great clear, especially with its natural corpse deletion.

The only thing holding it back is the very long delay time. I know that it's meant to be a skill that's stored up and then used to bomb your way through a pack of mobs, but it just doesn't feel good in my opinion. Even with duration reductions, the delay from cast-to-explosion feels too lengthy.

Maybe giving the gem a "less duration" modifier as a Phantasmal quality would be a good addition. Keep it's original design intact while having keeping an extra option available

Hi (unfinished) lvl82 Life-based crit Voltaxic Burst self-cast Elementalist taking advantage of Heart of Destruction & Shaper of Storm.

It's a beautiful skill, the graphics are nice, the explosions are nice. The general look and feel is lovely. I really am enjoying the skill. The gameplay is quite clunky, duration is too long, area is a tad small, dmg vs bosses is not enough.

Levelling with this skill is useless, and really cannot use it until you have a decent amount of area of effect & duration reduction. So getting it from Act 1 is pointless. Also witch does not have access to Less Duration, so how you league start of go SSF, I don't know, good luck?!

Right now, it's pretty okay for mapping magic white/yellows, had to invest heavily into area & duration reduction, this really gimps the dmg output potential. Especially when bossing, trying to kill bosses is not that fun, and especially Maven bosses the dmg output is pretty low for a skill that requires face tanking.

On the subject of face tanking, with the recent nerfs to flasks/mana/cwdt etc, I die mostly to no flasks, no mana, random mishaps and/or running face first into packs without explosions going off at the right time. Witch is quite a weak character when it comes to mitigation, so when it comes to face tanking with a skill like this, it's got to be glass cannon or you're dead, and this skill gets you dead vs bosses.

Game play:
Double tap Voltaxic Burst, lightning warp into packs, put down Orb of storms, double tap Voltaxic Burst again.

Bosses: lay Arcanist brands (Hydrosphere/Ass Mark) repeat above.


My links so far:




My gear so far:

I haven't taken this on a proper build to maps yet (and I don't think I will), but I have tried a 6L setup as well as having levelled a templar to ~lvl45 with this skill. I really wanted to like the skill because the idea seemed really cool, but like others said the delay is too punishing. Even if the gameplay loop involves you charging up bursts before dashing/blinking into packs, you get completely blasted if you get swarmed by a quick mob (or a mob that just jumps onto you) since you can't really do anything until your duration expires. It also sucks trying to hit targets that actively run away from you (oh god, Al-Hezmin...).Building less duration gimps the already lacklustre single-target and the skill kinda sucks on COC builds because once again you need to wait after critting to proc it. CwC isn't as bad, but CwC already doesn't do any damage so...


On top of that, the visuals and audio are a bit janky. I've already left feedback on this front elsewhere on the forums, but the minion explosions are far too loud and the main skill sfx is too soft. You basically don't hear anything when you're in boss fights but when you blink into a mob you're blinded by the secondary explosions and then you're defened by the audio as well.

Really, outside of some meme stuff you can pull off with Fanaticism charges I don't see a way in which this build can be built around in its current state. If mobs were less gung ho about swarming you (especially certain conquerer mobs), the skill would be a bit more playable. However, as a player we just don't have the time to make this skill work. It might find some niche use on a mjolnir build as corpse removal, however...

Hello, I am playing this league as a Voltaxic Burst Assassin using Voltaxic Rift to convert 100% of Lightning Damage into Chaos Damage.

Now I understand that with so much avenue for character customization, there are so many possible, very subtlely different gameplay patterns, and I am sure that many of them are much more effective and or user friendly than the one I have workshopped. I could have used a Warped Timepiece and Window of Opportunity. I could have invested heavily into increased Area of Effect. I could have invested more heavily into defences. I understand that many of the things that made the build fall flat for me were in fact simply due to my inexperience and ineptitude at making the right build choices.

Basically, my build is currently at level 86, I have 4/4 Ascendancies, I have 3.0k Life and 3.3k ES, I use Astral Projector to make Voltaxic Burst into an area-targeted skill, and I have the 21/20 Voltaxic Burst in a Shaper-influenced Helmet that provides Increased Area of Effect, Innervate, +2% to crit chance, and I also support it with Spell Echo, Less Duration, and Void Manipulation. I have a Synthesized Vaal Regalia with 25% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments as an implicit which alongside a pair of Shaper boots allows for 100% elemental ailment avoidance.

With that out of the way, firstly, I found that the skill being on a 2.5 s delay at base level was really quite a tremendous downside. If I were to want to use Voltaxic Burst without a Less Duration support then I would have to cast the skill before the enemies appear on my screen, and that is if I am simply walking around normally such as in the campaign. Now of course you can reduce this dramatically with a 20/20 or better Less Duration support. With a 20/20 Less Duration Support, this 2.5 second delay comes down to a 1.0 second delay. But this is still quite a large delay, especially in the end game, and there is no other good way to reduce this further. Yes, I could use a Swift Affliction Support, a Warped Timepiece, a Timetwist, or the Window of Opportunity notable to reduce the duration further, but each of these provide a much smaller reduction in duration and they each come with much greater opportunity costs.

On the topic of being able to quickly and efficiently clear mobs, I personally would have had much more enjoyment with a version of the skill where the explosions could cause a chain reaction in densely packed mobs similar to what can already occur with Profane Bloom or the EnemiesExplodeOnDeath Crusader's mod. I believe this would allow the skill to both feel more satisfying and stand out mechanically compared to other similar skills.

The area of effect is also much smaller than I would have preferred it. While I was leveling, I found myself simply using an unlinked Shock Nova instead, as the area of effect was significantly greater, there was no annoying delay to deal with, and the explosions were not relevant unless specifically dealing with Porcupine Goliaths.

Also, as a nova skill, I find that the short range forces your "caster" character to either be in melee range of the enemies, or even worse, teleport into the middle of a dense pack of enemies and pray that they die before killing you. This isn't necessarily a problem, as players can make their own decisions with the amount of risk they are willing to take, and the Astral Projector ring entirely sidesteps this issue, but it is worth mentioning as a significant weakness, especially when compounded with the unwieldy duration, and is perhaps one better left to those who specifically choose to use something like Intensify or Concentrated Effect rather than everyone.

And for my last negative thought, I wish there were more ways of supporting the Lightning->Chaos conversion, comparable to the many ways of supporting a Lightning->Cold conversion strategy. But this is only tangentially related to the skill.

For positives, I do very much appreciate the fantasy of the skill. I also enjoy the "cool-guys-don't-look-at-explosions" feeling I get when I cast an Astral Projected Voltaxic Burst and immediately move on, after which the pack explodes. I also very much appreciate, at least aesthetically, that when I do so there is never some random surviving enemy with 2% of his hp remaining. No, the concentrated explosions ensure that the pack is entirely annihilated, and this pleases me. And I appreciate that it really does feel and look like a Lightning/Chaos skill; the purple lightning effects are identical to the purple shock effect from Voltaxic Rift and I really appreciate the sense of thematic cohesion that provides.

Finally I just want to emphasize again these are just some thoughts I personally had, I'm sure other players may have different perspectives, especially those with more experience with the game or those who made significantly different build choices than I have such as by not using Astral Projector.

For those who want it, you can see my PoB here: https://pastebin.com/pfnurwhB

An update to my (unfinished) lvl86 semi-budget Life-based crit Voltaxic Burst self-cast Elementalist taking advantage of Heart of Destruction & Shaper of Storm.

It is currently feeling quite all right in Yellow maps and not so good in T11 Red maps, yes, only T11s so far, my previous builds usually cruise red maps by now. The bossing dmg is still quite low (even with a 6L 21/23 main skill setup).

And the Expeditions are just too rippy because of lack of mitigation. I will not be attempting logbooks with this build. I like a challenge, but I'm dead in a split second vs Expedition mobs if I run in/near. Even with Arctic Armour and stun mitigation (on the tree, pantheon) too, dmg taken is just absurd while trying to face-tank and explode in time is painful.

Edit: I'm always out of flasks. This is a H U G E problem for this build.

Change in Gem setup:

I've had to fit a lvl1 cwdt + immortal call back into the build as it's too dangerous doing Expedition without, for some reason I get tens of small hits which don't give me a chance to react in time, mitigating it is difficult, only way is to avoid hits.

Now using Vortex on movement trick since it synergises with AoE and chilling (Storm Rider cluster node). Both hindering and chilling mobs should give reduced movement/action speed, but might have to put Aspect of the Spider on.

POB of what I am aiming for (no elusive yet): https://pastebin.com/iqYYtcS9
Upgraded gear:



Also bought a 21/23 Voltaxic Burst which made the littlest difference.

Still need to wear Warped Timepiece with Window of Opportunity anoint as the delay/cast speed is rather lackluster without. Otherwise I'd like to wear this other amulet. Also tried Astral Projector, however my life pool drops and thus risking survivability.



Still trying to link this, to give better clear, and also have a Divinarius which I don't want to give up my Singularity (hinder nearby mobs) for:


Conclusion:

I am not sure how to properly improve this skill as it's pretty okay for clearing maps, perhaps some rare/unique multiplier like she gets with Heart of Destruction. And most certainly needs more AoE and reduced base delay. It'd also be nice to have someway to feel safe to run in and explode at more difficult mobs/packs, if they're not dead by the time all the seals of exploded, the character is a walking corpse. As soon as my character gets tapped, it's game over. Perhaps some sort of leech on hit? Or mitigation when having seals?

I will still keep playing this build until lvl93 as planned, there may be a few more changes to the build, but I do not foresee this build making it to T16 maps or any endgame content/bosses, like all my other builds easily did. I am enjoying the build as it's new and explosions are fun.

It is just too clunky. 2.5 seconds is just too long for not that much of an upside. Added damage effectiveness is mediocre. %40 chaos conversion is actually really clunky, makes the skill really awkward to scale; do you get ele pen or do you get wither? Corpse explosions are ok but they don't even chain. You need voltaxic rift to properly play the skill pretty much but it's a weapon that doesn't provide anything else apart from the overshock and quivers were purposefully made useless for spellcasters so you're shooting yourself in the foot with that too. It badly needs a tune up.

You can't even use it with mana scaling since you're screwing up your arcane cloak and arcane surge with all the reduced duration you're going to have. And less duration scales really badly with reduced so you're bound to feel bad regardless.

I have spent countlesss hours theorycrafting this skill.

Biggest issues with the skill:
-Trickster inspired skill that is suboptimal on said Ascendancy.

-Inability to utilize without Voltaxic Rift. This is the core issue I feel.

-Playing with Voltaxic Rift is suboptimal. While you can shock and get full chaos conversion, you cannot scale spell damage efficiently with a bow and quiver, at which point it is better to utilize other skills.

-Playing with Voltaxic Rift and Astral Projection is suboptimal as well. If players enjoy throwing out explosions their are other skills that do so more enjoyable that do not suffer from delays, and other ascendancies. See Saboteur.

-Playing on a Trickster is bad. Harness the Void utilization is hampered by Lightning to Chaos base conversion. Circumventing this by utilizing 2 Rings of The Brotherhood for 60% Lighting to Cold eliminates the ability to utilize shock and the Lightning damage node in the Witch area efficiently.

-Continuing on with Trickster, ideally one would utilize Swift Killer to generate Power and Frenzy charges in an attempt to generate some way to scale the ability. The existence of Voltaxic Rift makes this playstyle suboptimal, and VR itself is suboptimal as previously discussed.

-Ironically, I don't believe the duration is not an issue. The helmet enchant of "Increased damage by .2/.3% per .1 second duration" is a good source of damage. The issue is pathing to the relevant nodes on the talent tree (although this direction for the build is one I have overlooked and will be investigating in the future, although it does feel inefficient.) The issue is survivability. Voltaxic Rift (seeing a pattern?) with Astral Projection causes VB to take anywhere from 2.5 to 6.6 seconds to detonate. Using without Astral Projection is suicidal unless the Player is largely invested in Area of Effect, and this playstyle promotes lowered duration and/or fast cast speed. Ironically, light investment is possible while utilizing staffs. But Voltaxic Rift

There are other lesser issues with this skill, but these I believe are the fundamental ones. In particular, the fact that this skill was announced as "inspired by the Trickster" was a mistake. At the time of this writing, 8/28/21 4:07 pm US Mountain Time, on poe.ninja, an Assassin, an Occultist, and Inquisitor, and several Hierophants are showing much higher DPS numbers than the few Tricksters on the ladder. I will admit to the accuracy of the those numbers but the data is there for your investigation. Additionally, this spell seems to be created with the knowledge of Voltaxic Rift in mind, while overlooking key issues I have previously mentioned.

I understand (and embrace) the fact that PoE embraces the ability for any ascendency to utilize any skill gem. However, when a skill gem is introduced that does not utilize the capabilities of it's source inspiration, there is a design problem. I will attempt to revist my staff idea and attempt to scale spell damage instead of shock, lightning damage, and Harness the Void abuse as that seems more promising (and realistic) than what I had previously envisioned, but I believe other other Witch or Templar ascendencies varients of this will outperform the Trickster variant.

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to hire me for QA testing of new skills, I very much enjoyed this process despite the headaches and heartbreak.

Small Update

I have formulated a build regarding Voltaxic Burst as a Trickster and once I solved the defensive issues and determined an ideal pathing leveling, the playstyle was/is very fun.

1st 6L:
-

This is the current defensive I have implemented. The Fortify effect is helpful, as is the Infsuion Channeling. The presence of Void Sphere and Frost Shield give me a small little arena where I have a little bit more eHP and crital chance for Elemental Overload procs. Void Sphere slows enemies down just enough to keep them off me. As I invest in Increased Duration, the cooldown of both CwC skills becomes less relevant. I suspect after the upcoming Fortify change I will replace it with ID support.

2nd 6L (theorized):
-

This is what I plan on running once I have my staff linked and fully socketed. The reason I'm running two Voltaxic's Burst is to maximize the utility provided by Unleash. While this limits the amount of damage supports VB is linked to, the play style granted by maximizing Unleash's seal generation is far safer than the spell echo variant.

This is my current (not final) Passive Tree:
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABQYCYgQHBUIG5wj0CSAN0Q5IEFgRDxVWG8gcxB7uH0Ei9CQtJV8ngyycMe8yWDJxM7A2PTmZOlg9X0I6Rv5Ms1AwUEJSU1M1VEdVS1WFVcZWSFq5W9ddjl3yYeJirGNDZ9lqQ2wLbIxtGXYRfll_xoCzg9uLDow2j0aRR5MnlPGXlZf0mFOboZyLnaqexKKjpAWly6X1pr6nCKf4rJius7Q4uQK86r2swX7B88aKyBPKWdFF2CTbXt_z44TlGemC99f4l_v1_vkA?accountName=drafaelf26&characterName=_HarnessTheBurst_

As you can see, pathing is hell, as Damage, Spell Damage, and Area Damage are the most efficient ways to scale VB's damage. We also invest in Frenzy and Power Charges to make use of Trickster's Swift Killer's "5% increased damage per Frenzy/Power Charge", as the charge's themselves help increase our Crit chance and thus are Elemental Overload procs, the Frenzy Charges provide us with a "more multiplier" and faster cast speed, which aids in not dying while hard casting VB.

As for auras and other skills, I am currently running both Flesh and Stone (the blind one) and Discipline, and I am likely to add arrogance supported Artic Armor to beneift from Pain Attunement. I have Arcane Cloak on Left Click, Flame Dash, Spell and Multiple Totems supported Wither for Single Target, Hydrosphere for more single-target.

Oh also, when I got some cheapo version of the Lab Helm. This is also a key factor in deciding to go the Increased Duration route. My assumption is that replacing Increased Duration with the weakest support linked to VB (maybe added lightning? arcane surge? no idea) will result in a net gain of DPS, and the Increased Duration will make mapping safer and result in better single-target DPS. But I have no clue, should probably calculate that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Screw it, here's the most recently imported Live Version of the build:
-NOT OPTIMIZED AT ALL-
http://poeurl.com/doGJ
-NOT OPTIMIZED AT ALL-

Anyways, I just wanted to re-iterate and re-frame a theme of my previous post:
Players (and possibly GGG?) are looking far too narrowly into the Voltaxic Rift and reduced duration route.

If y'all could get back to me and let me know what you think of the build, or any improvements, I'd appreciate it. Been working lots of 12 hour shifts and don't really have the energy to play too much nowadays. Buh-bye ヅ

EDIT: So I started playing before submitting this and moved my gems around in my inventory, and since it'd be a real hassle to unsocket my items and then link them here, y'all can just click the PoB link :)

Does this skill snapshot Intensify? I'm having a hard time testing it.