BUFF WHIRLING ASSAULT

Whirling Assault is being used by almost no builds in this game. It is SEVERELY lacking in power, and is highly impractical for almost any situation. The only remotely viable circumstance that I have seen it used for is proccing rapid AOE on the bell with its many small hits, but later in the game, even other attacks are more efficient for this. Modifiers to attack speed do pretty much nothing for Whirling Assault because of its fixed and unmodifiable 1.4 second added skill use time. Attack speed only affects the miniscule amount of frames in the attack that occur after the 1.4 second duration, making attack speed almost entirely useless for this skill. Even gem quality will barely affect it, and you probably won't even notice the difference. If the fixed duration was removed, we could actually use WA as a travel/mobility skill or as a better skill for proccing bell area damage. It's such a cool looking skill, but at the moment, there just isn't any justifiable reason to use it, particularly for higher end mapping when you have better gear. At the moment, WA is quite literally a dead skill, and it needs serious attention if it's ever going to be practically implemented into a viable build. If we can't get a buff for it that allows for viable increases to its speed, then it's going to need an absolutely colossal damage increase, and/or perhaps something like implicit knockback. This is an underwhelming skill at best, and a suicidal skill at worst.

I'm pretty sure Whirling Assault exists purely to be a combo skill for Bell, and to be a platform for Staggering Palm and Charged Staff. Even then, it's terrible at both. I'd love for this skill to be buffed in some form.

Signed: Someone with over 300 hours of torturing myself with a Wind Blast + Whirling Assault + Charged Staff + Bell build

Asking for a colossal damage increase on a movement skill which has built-in phasing is kinda insane. Go away.

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Immoteph#2974 wrote:

Asking for a colossal damage increase on a movement skill which has built-in phasing is kinda insane. Go away.

The skill literally has zero phasing. You would know this if you've ever used it before, you absolute cretin. Use your brain before you speak. Perhaps is was supposed to, but you CANNOT move through enemies with it in its current state. And no, this post is here to stay. I am providing feedback for a skill that no one uses. There is a reason that no one uses it. It's because there are so many better alternatives that make WA irrelevant. That is not good design.

I remember testing it for 5s : looked at the terrible DPS , looked at Attack Speed having zero effect on it , put it back in the Stash & never looked back .

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Gwonam#5505 wrote:

I'm pretty sure Whirling Assault exists purely to be a combo skill for Bell, and to be a platform for Staggering Palm and Charged Staff. I'd love for this skill to be buffed in some form.

Whirling Assault will never be better at striking the Bell than any auto-attack skills such as Ice Strike . WA attack speed is too low and it's a movement skill that doesn't lock any target . Best bell-combo i found was Ice Stike + Charged Staff + Eye of Winter ( Cast on Crits ) , fully upgraded Bell last 2s against that already .

WA need a complete rework .

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

I remember testing it for 5s : looked at the terrible DPS , looked at Attack Speed having zero effect on it , put it back in the Stash & never looked back .

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Gwonam#5505 wrote:

I'm pretty sure Whirling Assault exists purely to be a combo skill for Bell, and to be a platform for Staggering Palm and Charged Staff. I'd love for this skill to be buffed in some form.

Whirling Assault will never be better at striking the Bell than any auto-attack skills such as Ice Strike . WA attack speed is too low and it's a movement skill that doesn't lock any target . Best bell-combo i found was Ice Stike + Charged Staff + Eye of Winter ( Cast on Crits ) , fully upgraded Bell last 2s against that already .

WA need a complete rework .

I completely agree. It needs either knockback, phasing, increased damage, removal of fixed speed, or something that makes it stand out as a reasonable utility skill. I'm not entirely sure what the best solution is, but it definitely needs a buff.

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Clumpinator#4756 wrote:

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

I remember testing it for 5s : looked at the terrible DPS , looked at Attack Speed having zero effect on it , put it back in the Stash & never looked back .

"

Gwonam#5505 wrote:

I'm pretty sure Whirling Assault exists purely to be a combo skill for Bell, and to be a platform for Staggering Palm and Charged Staff. I'd love for this skill to be buffed in some form.

Whirling Assault will never be better at striking the Bell than any auto-attack skills such as Ice Strike . WA attack speed is too low and it's a movement skill that doesn't lock any target . Best bell-combo i found was Ice Stike + Charged Staff + Eye of Winter ( Cast on Crits ) , fully upgraded Bell last 2s against that already .

WA need a complete rework .

I completely agree. It needs either knockback, phasing, increased damage, removal of fixed speed, or something that makes it stand out as a reasonable utility skill. I'm not entirely sure what the best solution is, but it definitely needs a buff.

First fix would be to change "Fixed Attack Speed" for a "Fixed Duration" : the more Attack Speed you have = the more hits you proc but the duration remain unchanged ( 2 or 3 seconds iirc ) . That was the bare minimum i expected this skill of being capable of ... so if they keep it like this there's no saving it .

the way ailments work in this game means that abilities with lots of small hits will almost always be bad, except for niche cases. ( like frozen orb being used to buff crit chance )

You get really small shock chance, dot damage on all ailments is non existent with small hits.
Only ailment where it works is freeze since its a build up mechanic

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

I remember testing it for 5s : looked at the terrible DPS , looked at Attack Speed having zero effect on it , put it back in the Stash & never looked back .

"

Gwonam#5505 wrote:

I'm pretty sure Whirling Assault exists purely to be a combo skill for Bell, and to be a platform for Staggering Palm and Charged Staff. I'd love for this skill to be buffed in some form.

Whirling Assault will never be better at striking the Bell than any auto-attack skills such as Ice Strike . WA attack speed is too low and it's a movement skill that doesn't lock any target . Best bell-combo i found was Ice Stike + Charged Staff + Eye of Winter ( Cast on Crits ) , fully upgraded Bell last 2s against that already .

WA need a complete rework .

Also, once we get Cyclone, I have a feeling Monks will just swap to a sword/axe (whichever weapon class gets Cyclone) and use that to hit the bell instead.

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Immoteph#2974 wrote:

Asking for a colossal damage increase on a movement skill which has built-in phasing is kinda insane. Go away.

Whirling Assault doesn't have Phasing, but it does shove enemies aside. Unreliably. Most of the time, you'll just spin in place. But if you hit an enemy at an oblique angle, you'll kind of swirl around and through them.

Anyway, asking for a big damage increase isn't super unreasonable when the skill already does crap damage.