Ice Spear

"

Qarl wrote:

"

Deathtiny2266 wrote:

seems that crit is broken on this skill after patch or is it working as intended and changed for projectile spells maybe?

Are you using Multi-Proj?

That received a crit penalty, for each extra projectile.

argh ;) yep multi lvl 17 i think it is

tnx for confirming the "working as intended" - have not checked the multi projectile gem.
A basecrit nerf for the spell would have been enough ^^

I seem to find that it is too easy to always crit long range, making a build that focuses on Crit Dam Multiplier extremely effective.

That being said, I m wondering about the distance in relation to the quality version of this skill which does Increased Projectile Speed, seeing that does seems to translate in an increased range.

Is the 'crit' range hard coded to be X amount, or is it %X amount? I m afraid it's the latter, something like at half the range (50%), it turns 'critty'. The latter would mean that a Quality Ice Spear would extend the non-crit range which is definitely what you do NOT want. Sure it also increases the crit range that comes after it but you don't care about that at all. In fact, that's also worse since you have more chance to push a ginarmous crit offscreen on a Reflect mob(s).

I ve just levelled up a Qual IceSpear on teh side and now that it's finally almost the same, I m thinking it s worse in use than the non Qual gem. This obviously is NotGood(tm) if a player can come to such a conclusion. So I m hoping the actual mechanics are different from what I fear.

What sayeth you?

EDIT: I did some actual testing and visual confirmation seems to indicate it's indeed the latter. The non-crit range gets extended by the Quality property. That's bad guys.

"

Mark_GGG wrote:

"

Koalachan wrote:

Is the 'crit' range hard coded to be X amount, or is it %X amount? I m afraid it's the latter, something like at half the range (50%), it turns 'critty'. The latter would mean that a Quality Ice Spear would extend the non-crit range which is definitely what you do NOT want. Sure it also increases the crit range that comes after it but you don't care about that at all. In fact, that's also worse since you have more chance to push a ginarmous crit offscreen on a Reflect mob(s).

What do you mean by range? it just goes until it hits something, or until it leaves the active part of the game world (which isn't a part of this skill). it doesn't have a range. the distance from you at which it changes is hard coded and cannot change with quality.

He's talking about the distance it pierces. If I understood him correctly, it travels for a certain distance, piercing anything it hits, then after that it ends on the next enemy it hits and has an increased critical chance. He's saying that since the quality upgrade increases projectile speed, that somehow increases the distance at which it stops piercing, which would make it worse for single-target damage.

Exactly. Since I was unsure, I raised the question. Hardcoded is good news, like it should really. The distance is indeed hardcoded. I ve found a a support Faster Projectile and after levelling that one up, I was able to greatly enhance the Projectile Speed between my 2 spears to get confirmation. I must have fooled myself into seeing things the first time around but it 's fairly obvious now that even at high speed, the range at with it start critting is the same. Carry on. Nothing to see here.

Exactly. Since I was unsure, I raised the question. Hardcoded is good news, like it should really. The distance is indeed hardcoded. I ve found a a support Faster Projectile and after levelling that one up, I was able to greatly enhance the Projectile Speed between my 2 spears to get confirmation. I must have fooled myself into seeing things the first time around but it 's fairly obvious now that even at high speed, the range at with it start critting is the same. Carry on. Nothing to see here.

i think the cast part graphics of this skills is very messy, and frequently i dont notice small spiders or monkeys that are hitting me point blank because of this.

just by chance i noticed how much better the skill looks if you're standing in the ocean, and the straight lines that are sucked into the player, are hidden.
this way you can actually see the swirling snow flakes, and the skill looks nice and clean.

i also think the collision frame for the skill is too large. very often archers are shooting at me, but i cant hit them, the skill being cut of on a corner or such..

"

dztopia wrote:

i also think the collision frame for the skill is too large. very often archers are shooting at me, but i cant hit them, the skill being cut of on a corner or such..

On the other hand, this also allows you to "shotgun" enemies at range and hit them with most, if not all, of your projectiles when aimed well. It's sort of a tradeoff. This is one of my favorite aspects of ice spear + multi, actually. It's sort of a game within the game of "where do I need to aim behind the monster to hit with the most projectiles?".

i was reffering to the skill w/o multi.
standing in a doorway is a typical example, where the skill is easily cut off when trying shoot diagonally though the door..