Molten Strike

I think this gem is going to confuse a lot of people. Although I do enjoy the look and feel of the skill.

Here are some observations, feel free to correct me if you have found differently but these are my findings so far:

1) the tooltip DPS reflects the damage of the melee attack ONLY, not the DPS of the projectiles. Any gems you use that increases/ or decreases the DPS of the projectiles alone will not show in the tooltip, but does have an effect. For example Iron grip does effect the dmg of the projectiles and the projectiles only.

2) Neither faster projectiles or increased AOE appears to increase the distance the bombs travel. Or, if they do it is not by much at all. Increased AOE effects seems to only effect the splash dmg of the bombs, same goes for concentrated effect.

3) In a way, this skill DOES shotgun, but obviously it is very hard to predict. It appears as though the splash dmg of the bombs can hit 1 target from multiple different projectiles as long as it is within range of the bomb dmg. For example if you attack a mob and 2 projectiles shoot out to either side of the mob, they both can hit it.

4) Melee splash does work with the initial melee hit only.

5) I did not have a high lvl conc effect gem but conc effect does not seem like a good gem to use as the aoe of the projectile bombs is too small. In fact, I had a hard time getting any aoe modifying gems to be worthwhile.

If you didn't know increasing the aoe only works outwards. meaning you do not hit more within the original zone(the reason I don't like firestorm)

The skill functions as a single target attack with a bonus of damage to enemies close to you as well as extra life on hit. This skill would have been really well balanced if not for elemental proliferation and melee splash making it possible to hit more targets(the burn damage + ele prolif is going to be as good if not better then fire trap(oh god don't use the searing touch with this skill).

Will chain work with this? that may be interesting.

ps im doing 460 damage at level 23 and I am only using this menial setup

well i have tested the new skill now on my ls build i made for the ambush/invasion league and honestly at least for a piety farmer its a good one.

dps shown - like all the conversion skill (aka. physical portion will get other element) is only the melee dps. for me that was on a 5l (including bloodmagic) 14k with not a single fire note on the tree not any fire dmg on gear at lv1 (hatred on, 300+ dps sword)

with gmp/lmp it adds a lot more projectiles and with conc. effect i killed piety in maybe 5-6 hits "shotgunning" with the projectiles. i wasnt even able to cull here cause she went down that fast.

my char is ofc not optimised for the skill but if you have a high phys dps sword and maybe add in added fire - melee phys - conc. effect. - lmp/gmp/fa - multistrike it could be a nice piety/domi farmer skill instead of the usual melee cyclone/reave/spec throw ones.

as an aoe i dont think it is worth it i would prefer reave/lightning strike over it because of the range - even with carcass + aoe notes on tree this might not give you enough aoe power at all. i might be wrong ... skill looks at least supernice and i might try to make a build for it.

not sure if i ever saw a burn effect on mobs from the balls striking them but i might be wrong with that assumption. ooh and the manacost seems affordable (think lv10 was like 10 mana without other multiplier) at lv12 it was 11??

im sure someone will make a nice build with it but it will be more of a niche one

ps: i have made 10+ other pietyruns with different gemsetups now and i somewhat think conc. effect doesnt work at all (or only on a small base) sometimes i shotgun with the projectiles - means very fast dead - and sometimes not. without bloodmagic and including weapon ele i got on a 5l 18k+ dps (single target i know) and manacost are even lower then i thought (lv12 cost only 9 mana) my best setup would be molten strike - multi - weapon ele - melee phys - fa - ll/lmp/gmp/lgoh depending on what your doing.

i try later in a lv74+ map once that gem hits lv15+ till now im a bit dissapointed now. (though it looks damn nice)

I find it an interesting alternative and mix. I did notice that concentrated effect and greater multiple projectile support gems linked to molten strike does not increase tooltip dps.

edit; multistrike and faster attacks work great.

Conc effect could be potentially double dip,damage increased and same amount of projectiles but in a smaller area.

So i tried several things too see how the machanism works:


a) It can ignite enemies.

b) the range the balls fly and their area seems indipendent of autoatatck range.

c) Increased Projectile damage: seems to work.

d) Chain/Fork: does not work.

e) LMP/GMP: didnt test, but its pretty safe to assue that it works. on a side-note: the more projectiles the higher your chance to have a more constant hitting area.

f) concentrated/increased AoE: as pointed out before, it seems to work but the impact is really low.

g) Increased projectile speed: does not seem to work

h) added damage (of any kind): works very well, seems to have a 120% efficiency for the hit and if we believe the tooltip of 40% less damage it should be 72% for the projectiles.

i) skill duration: since its speed indipendent i guess it has a set duration until it hits the round. PLS SOMEONE VERIFY THIS, reduced duration could almost give instant hits, while increased might give the chance to set up and area of flying magma balls :)



So depending on these things the most efficient gems/efefcts seem to be:
- added damage
- LMP/GMP
- Point blank
and eventually incresed/decresed skill duration, depending on wether it works and what youwant to do with it


i hope this helps

"

Malgator wrote:

So i tried several things too see how the machanism works:


a) It can ignite enemies.

b) the range the balls fly and their area seems indipendent of autoatatck range.

c) Increased Projectile damage: seems to work.

d) Chain/Fork: does not work.

e) LMP/GMP: didnt test, but its pretty safe to assue that it works. on a side-note: the more projectiles the higher your chance to have a more constant hitting area.

f) concentrated/increased AoE: as pointed out before, it seems to work but the impact is really low.

g) Increased projectile speed: does not seem to work

h) added damage (of any kind): works very well, seems to have a 120% efficiency for the hit and if we believe the tooltip of 40% less damage it should be 72% for the projectiles.

i) skill duration: since its speed indipendent i guess it has a set duration until it hits the round. PLS SOMEONE VERIFY THIS, reduced duration could almost give instant hits, while increased might give the chance to set up and area of flying magma balls :)



So depending on these things the most efficient gems/efefcts seem to be:
- added damage
- LMP/GMP
- Point blank
and eventually incresed/decresed skill duration, depending on wether it works and what youwant to do with it


i hope this helps

I have tried with increased duration and reduced duration gems. It doesn't work.

this is like a barrage for every weapon (without intervals)


66loh*9projectiles*2chains*3targets*2.9aps*2selfcursed punishments = can be 20671 LOH per 1 sec

"

So depending on these things the most efficient gems/efefcts seem to be:
- added damage
- LMP/GMP
- Point blank
and eventually incresed/decresed skill duration, depending on wether it works and what youwant to do with it

What about with multistrike/ faster attack and GMP ? with life leech ?

@ tommy: wait, chain works? really?

i was talking about damage and utility. but yes, as combo this should work well. altough life gain on hit could be more effective than life leech