Vaal Skill Gem Retrospective

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SL4Y3R wrote:

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Sheriff_K wrote:

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sirgog wrote:

You underestimate the power of the Vaal gems that clear the entire screen, mostly Vaal Cyclone (but potentially also the weaker Vaal Detonate Dead or Vaal Fireball or some others). Once it's charged, you gather three to four packs of mobs, hit relevant defensive flasks (Granite/Jade/Topaz/whatever is appropriate for the area), and wipe the whole screen out, and your Vaal gem is well on the way to being ready for reuse.

My only issue is running out of hotbar slots for them.

Except your normal main attacking Skill can accomplish the same thing, without having to kite or put yourself into a dangerous situation...

Summon skeletons begs to differ. Further, and you may be surprised by this, but some people use them for fun.

CRAZY TALK!!!!!!

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Pizzarugi wrote:

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SkyCore wrote:

I think vaal skills should function as their normal counterparts until fully charged.

I actually made a suggestion on Warframe, inspired by the vaal skills, that was supposed to behave exactly like what you suggest. A few people really liked it.

I actually think this is a great idea also.

In my experience, the vast majority of Vaal Gems are useless. This points to very bad design. The fact they don't function as the normal gem before being charged was really where the design jumped the shark.

The fact that a couple of them are build enabling while several (I'm specifically looking at you Vaal Ground Slam) are not worth even picking up is telling. Of course, the same thing can be said of some of the regular gems, but from a pure percentage perspective, Vaal gems slay regular ones as far as being useless vs the good ones.

They are situational at best at Merciless+, almost never worth linking, and almost without question too unwieldy and un-predictable to be worth gemming more than one on a toon.

All-in-All they are easily the weakest mechanic in PoE...its easy for a player who didn't start playing until recently (like me) to see they were tacked on to the original game.

I'd say fix them or axe them. Certainly continuing to add new ones it not worth the time investment vs usage and you must certainly know that from db data from the server side. As a software guy, I find it hard to believe you haven't discontinued these or fixed them yet...

Vaal Summon Skeletons, Haste, Cyclone and Discipline are the only ones that are worth using imo.

I have to agree with many here, Vaal Gems are useless, except one or two, which I either forget to use when eventually charged or I haven't got a slot to use them in.

The only one I have successfully used is Vaal Skeleton with my summoner, who is squishy and helps me out of tight spots every now and then.

Some other skills don't trigger while attacking, like Vaal Discipline, which has dropped me time and again, even though it was charged.

I really love the vaal skill gems and don't think they are useless. I love how there are supposed to be ultimate skills however I do think some of them need a slight buff maybe in souls per use such as vaal ground slam. One other concern for some people is the fact that they feel its needed to be 4-linked or 3 linked. It is your choice to 4 link it to use to clear packs/fight exiles/stronger rares. I think its totally worth it considering something like vaal double strike is so powerful. Great ideas behind the skill gems! I love to hear how much thought was put into the concept.

I feel kinda bad. Like watching someone be given a present by someone else whos been saving up for months.. only to have it be completely rejected as insignificant. Like a puppy looking up with wide happy eyes right before you shoot it in the head. Just... disheartening.

We care, GGG. We care that you try to make things for us. But the unreliability of the vaal gems does not exactly make them popular.

They are cool and fun the first few times, sure. But at the end game, all that really matters is power. Perhaps if the system were designed with an alternative to berserker style maximum offense... Or there was more depth in the game play where hitting hard and often wasnt everything... Or there was some alternative to destroying everything you see...

In the end, everyone just gravitates towards the highest gain per unit time. And such gee wiz bangs are just left at the side of the road as dead weight.

Vaal Gems? biggest crap in game.....