[Suggestion] Vaal skills in PvP

Why?
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We all know the meta needs some more diversity and PvP needs more skill-centric play. The solution to this can be the introduction of Vaal skills. This can also give the never-used Vaal skills a niche place to live. The Rogue Exiles (and presumably the Grandmasters) can use Vaal skills. Why can't we? Imagine the possibilities:
* Vaal Storm Call or Vaal Flameblast to push opponents out of a corner
* Desecrate -> Vaal Detonate Dead
* Vaal Summon Skeletons w/ Instability
* Vaal Glacial Hammer -> Vaal Spark
* Vaal Flameblast -> Vaal Cyclone

Implementation
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When a character is inside a PvP arena, it gains 1 soul every second or so. Souls are reset to 0 at the start of every match. If a character has multiple Vaal skills, the soul gained is distributed to one random Vaal skill.

Pros
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* Potential increase in meta diversity (if well-balanced)
* Greatly improved quality of viewing/spectating, especially for invitation-style broadcast events
* Encourages more movement/positioning, if there are more skills that can pose a serious threat against someone.

Cons
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* Potential decrease in meta diversity (if poorly-balanced)
* Difficult to balance

Some initial balance comments before all the rants
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First off, the use of these skills is not a benefit without any trade-offs. You can't spam them. You have to give up gem slots to support them.

The only skill that I can think of that will pose a serious problem is Vaal Molten Shell. This has to be delt with (nerfed) in some way. Other skills that might require nerfs are Vaal Spark, Vaal Righteous Fire and Vaal Burning Arrow.

Everything else is easily dodge-able and simply encourages smarter play.

One little disclaimer is that I mostly thought about this in terms of LLD 1v1 play. Other issues can arise in a team setting or in HLD (which I'm not familiar with).

I suppose there's also Vaal Righteous Fire to think about... (edited that in)

youve been listening to too much david bowie. this is the REAL world, pal.

I suggested this on the alpha forum, but my idea of getting souls was much different. I think that if you lose a round you gain souls, that way it makes pvp less 1 sided (where 1 player absolutely destroys the other player) and encourages comebacks.

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mrmagikboy wrote:

I suggested this on the alpha forum, but my idea of getting souls was much different. I think that if you lose a round you gain souls, that way it makes pvp less 1 sided (where 1 player absolutely destroys the other player) and encourages comebacks.

Ooo. I like that idea too. However, that does mean someone on the losing side has to have those gems prepared for such a situation.

(vaal spark - lmp - gmp) in reverberation wand.

lets see who crashes first.

pvp is hard enough to balance without vaal skills.

Maybe there can be special events that allow use of vaal skills or just allow use in sarn (or maybe specific days of sarn even)

the main pvp balance needs to be worked on more before so many new skills are added

ps. Vaal spark for casters will be OP as fuck

"

A222 wrote:

(vaal spark - lmp - gmp) in reverberation wand.

No way to hide from that in these arenas even without gmp.

So, player 1 kills player 2 in the first round. Player 2 gains souls and uses his vaal spark in the next round. Player 1 gains souls and uses his vaal spark in the next round. Player 2 gains souls and uses his vaal spark in the next round... Player 1 still wins in the end but its boring

Would a vaal skill work if you killed a summoner's minions in pvp? Would you gain souls from that?

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Dopamineloveaffair wrote:

Would a vaal skill work if you killed a summoner's minions in pvp? Would you gain souls from that?

I don't believe that you gain souls from minions in PvE, so you shouldn't in this case either, and even if you did, I personally would prefer for minions to not yield souls (or flask charges for that matter), since one of the biggest downsides to minion builds is how you're constantly feeling your opponent flask charges.