Against the Speed and Mass Meta

I see that GGG is trying to overturn the attack speed meta with the new Earthquake skill gem, which limits you to one use per full animation. I seriously hope that the skill will be viable damage-wise and open up a new meta. However, it's just a single skill, and it appears to be limited to 2h weapons, maybe even only 2h maces and staves. Of course, if it can be used with Facebreakers, there are no complaints to be had about this one particular skill.

It's the right step into a more diverse game playing field, and I sincerely welcome the change. However, this leaves the rest of the game still in the attack speed meta. Spells have Flameblast, which actually still scales with cast speed, but at least it's a charged one-hit heavy damage skill.

Why not create a Melee and Ranged skill that requires charging? Something like Vaal Oversoul's, Dominus' or Voll's ground slam, which looks like they are charging up for one heavy damage hit, or Kaom's long-range earth-splitting skill? If done right, this could bring a welcome variety into the game.

I had a few ideas regarding charged melee skills that have extra stages of effects (don't mind the names):

1. Execution: A skill with a similar animation to Cleave, in a ~160° forward angle, which gains area of effect and damage through charges. At 5 charges the skill repeats itself with increased damage. When charged to 10 charges it adds an overhead strike with even more damage, which hits the primary target of the skill with a melee splash effect, or if no target was selected, the ground, resulting in a Ground Slam effect that knocks enemies back.

2. Earth Splitter: A skill that is similar to Kaom's earth-splitting skill, which can be charged up to 10 charges, with increasing damage and slightly increasing area of effect, with a set range. At 5 charges it pushes enemies to either side of the split. At 10 charges the rift stays as impassable terrain for a set amount of time and releases Molten Strike projectiles randomly for the duration.


Likewise, ranged skills need some love in that regard, too, because currently the go-to skills are Tornado Shot or Split Arrow with Pierce, for packs, and any single-target skill for bosses, all within the attack speed meta. A bow skill that requires charging up, releasing an AoE shot that travels forward or a shot that explodes on the targeted area, would bring much more diversity into the game, as well as add a new layer of fun. I know there are Rain of Arrows and Blast Rain, but those still utilize attack speed.

Two ideas for charged bow skills (again, names are just for fun):

1. Storm Shot: A piercing shot that gains in width slightly and increased damage the more it is charged. At 5 charges the skill creates shocked ground in its wake. At 10 charges the shocked ground expands to twice the skill's width and locks enemies in place for a set duration.

2. Implosion Arrow: A skill that shoots an arrow upwards, which will land at the targeted location and explode, gaining in area of effect and damage the more it is charged. At 5 charges the explosion leaves behind burning ground that has a % of the skill's initial hit as damage over time. At 10 charges, same as before, the skill gains a secondary effect that pulls in enemies from a greater area of effect towards the epicenter of the explosion, similar to Vaal Cyclone, for a set amount of time.


For spells, something like a chargeable Vaal Oversoul lightning laser, or a piercing channeled laser that gains stages similar to Incinerate, the longer it's channeled, with more range but not counting as a projectile. This counteracts it being used with GMP, LMP or Chain/Fork/Pierce:

1. Railgun: A piercing laser that explodes on the targeted area, with increasing damage and chance to shock. At 5 charges the explosion shocks nearby enemies not inside the blast radius, and deals a % of the initial hit in damage. At 10 charges the secondary effect chains 2 additional times.

2. Annihilation Beam: A channeled laser that gains increased damage per stage, as well as increased damage per stack on an enemy (at a rate of one stack per 0.5 seconds, up to 10 stacks). At 5 stages the beam poisons enemies per stack on them. At 10 stages the beam slows enemies by a % for each stack on them, and increases the maximum limit of stacks to 20.


Of course, these are only concepts and may, or may not, be over- or underpowered the way they are described. In either case, I believe that skills with charges and effects depending on number of charges will not only be an incentive to utilize them at full charges instead of spamming them for the base effects, but bring much-needed variety into the current playing field, utterly dominated by the speed meta.

With this, I'm seriously looking forward to the Earthquake skill, as well as any and all feedback in regards to my suggestions.

So much love for one-heavy-hit playstyles! I don't even care that this is on the third page. It needs a bump.

I didn't read all your ideas yet since I'm mostly a sword fanatic so I'm just getting excited over your first suggested skill but I'm pretty sure I wholeheartedly support your post

Thank you for your interest.

I still have a lot of ideas for skills and I think I could come up with one or more heavy-strike skills for every weapon type and element, while keeping it lore-friendly and within the constraints of the game mechanics.

Including something for swords, along the lines of Whirling Blades meets Shield Charge with a longer duration and controllable direction, for example.

Yup. Ice Crash was a nice attempt to move the speed meta a little bit into more damage scaling, too.

Simple fix is just giving skills Less Attack Speed modifier, paired with high Base Damage %. Charging is an option too. I hope we'll see more of this kind of stuff in the future. :)

IAS breakpoints and diminishing returns would have been such a wonderful thing for the devs to embrace, but sadly they didn't and it led to what we have now. However, that said, I do like the idea of skills that have effects or what not that are set at certain intervals (like with Earthquake) and IAS won't help you achieve getting faster 'procs' on those effects. Therefore, you'd want to try stacking damage instead of going 'IAS or bust' to try and make sure those skills/effects hit as hard as they can and favoring big, bursty hits instead of looking like a kid who's had way, way, way too much sugar and steroids. :P

What I dislike most about the speed meta is the fact that there are too many things supporting it: For attacks there is Life Gain on Hit, Life Leech and Vaal Pact, meaning incredible sustain. For cast speed, you just need to stack mana regen or Zealot's Oath with Eldritch Battery.

Slow attacks are punished for the fact that they don't give as much survivability as million hits per second, and don't clear as quickly. Even Ground Slam builds use attack speed, including Multistrike, just to cram more hits in. And then you have weapons that have less damage than a Marohi Erqi, for example, but just 0.2 attacks more per second, and the overall damage is way higher already.

What is holding the game back from moving away from the speed meta is the fact that speed equals sustain at this point in time. Maybe introduce support gems that have a threshold for activation, such as:

Consume the Meek: Single hits that deal more than X% of the target's maximum health have X% damage leeched as life.

I'll leave the more number-savvy people to think about balance in this.

Imagine if they just added a support gem that added a flat cooldown to any skill (like 1.5 seconds) and added some stupid damage multipliers (like 200% more) for a single league just to see what happened.

"

ihasmario wrote:

Imagine if they just added a support gem that added a flat cooldown to any skill (like 1.5 seconds) and added some stupid damage multipliers (like 200% more) for a single league just to see what happened.

Or a league with 50% less attack and cast speed, no attack/cast speed supports and mods on gear, but deal 100% more damage.

Would like to see what kind of builds come out of that.