Detonate Dead

The organs that splat around are a nice touch.

Since the mechanics haven't changed I've only toyed with it enough to see how I feel about the new effect. The look makes me think more of Chinese firecrackers or of a fleshy body being hit by a volley of small caliber explosive rounds. My view is it should be a single wet (for fleshy mobs or dry for bony ones), messy explosion with visible actual area of effect. I do love the splatter on the ground and the chunky bits that fly out but from memory they were there in the old effect too.

Since my last post I've stopped using the skill entirely. It only has potential in the specific circumstance where you have a cluster of mobs within range of a corpse but in play you are invariably better off raising a minion from the corpse and using any other aoe skill. Negligible damage and range combined with circumstantial casting requirements make the skill unworthy of a valuable socket. Perhaps if it dealt 20% fire and 20% physical damage of max corpse life with increases in range each level it would be worth equipping. Also I'd really like to have the radius of effect listed on the skill tooltip.

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BlastMonkey wrote:

Perhaps if it dealt 20% fire and 20% physical damage of max corpse life with increases in range each level it would be worth equipping. Also I'd really like to have the radius of effect listed on the skill tooltip.

This skill really needs to be spiced up a bit if this is going to be the only Dex-based AoE that Dexterity based melee users have (and it's not even melee). I hope that before the Dex/Int character is deployed that we have something melee for claw and dagger users, since that is what the Dex/Int character seems to be designed to use.

Lightning Strike is fantastic, and since it has been released, even though it's strength based it's a great skill for claw/dagger users.

Detonate Dead *might* be fun if the damage was reduced substantially, but it functioned like a real AoE. By this I mean instead of exploding just one corpse, it exploded all the corpses around where it was cast. That way, it would feel more useful as an actual AoE, but would still retain the element of needing to be aimed.

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aerows wrote:

Detonate Dead *might* be fun if the damage was reduced substantially

Are you serious? Have you used this skill late game? It's practically useless for lack of damage right now. Currently it's good for a laugh and that's about it.

If anything its casting limitations require it to deal more damage than other aoe skills over a wider area before it will be worth using.

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BlastMonkey wrote:

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aerows wrote:

Detonate Dead *might* be fun if the damage was reduced substantially

Are you serious? Have you used this skill late game? It's practically useless for lack of damage right now. Currently it's good for a laugh and that's about it.

If anything its casting limitations require it to deal more damage than other aoe skills over a wider area before it will be worth using.

Read the rest of the suggestion. He said it should blow up EVERY corpse at once.

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Strill wrote:

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BlastMonkey wrote:

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aerows wrote:

Detonate Dead *might* be fun if the damage was reduced substantially

Are you serious? Have you used this skill late game? It's practically useless for lack of damage right now. Currently it's good for a laugh and that's about it.

If anything its casting limitations require it to deal more damage than other aoe skills over a wider area before it will be worth using.

Read the rest of the suggestion. He said it should blow up EVERY corpse at once.

Exactly. That would retain the aiming element, and make it strategic, but powerful.

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Strill wrote:

Read the rest of the suggestion. He said it should blow up EVERY corpse at once.

That was not lost on me. As it is you can cast it several times if you have several corpses and it's fairly useless. So why do you imagine that reducing its damage and automating multiple casts would do anything other than further weaken an already weak skill?

Think about it. This suggestion serves only to increase the skill's casting requirements in order to deal the same low damage it does now while simultaneously reducing the effectiveness of dealing that damage.

Why?

Because the more mobs you have to kill before casting the fewer remain alive within the area of effect.

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BlastMonkey wrote:

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Strill wrote:

Read the rest of the suggestion. He said it should blow up EVERY corpse at once.

That was not lost on me. As it is you can cast it several times if you have several corpses and it's fairly useless. So why do you imagine that reducing its damage and automating multiple casts would do anything other than further weaken an already weak skill?

Think about it. This suggestion serves only to increase the skill's casting requirements in order to deal the same low damage it does now while simultaneously reducing the effectiveness of dealing that damage.

Why?

Because the more mobs you have to kill before casting the fewer remain alive within the area of effect.

They could tweak the damage so that it maybe isn't reduced as substantially as I suggested, but I still think it blowing up more corpses would improve the skill.

Should make it blow up other corpses that are touching the original blown up corpse. Chain reaction.