Shattering Steel

Hi.

I'm playing Champion, with focus on Steel and impale mechanism. Pure physical damage, attack speed and sword/shield combo.

Supporting me i've got Herald of Purity, Dread Banner and Proj Weakness+Blasphemy.

Here's a thread i've done in general feedback with a few ideas on the steel skills and the impale mechanism: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2266800

I'm playing a Champion with Shattering Steel as a main skill and Vaal Double Strike purely as extra single target for bosses/beasts/betrayal encounter. I support it with Ancestral Protector, Herald of Purity, Blasphemy Aura and Dread Banner.
I feel like the skill is badly designed because while it has a massive multiplier at long range, the only real way to play it is to use point blank in combination with additional projectiles (such as GMP, dying sun & that one unique sword that has iron grip, point blank and 2 extra projectiles). There seems to be no real mention, so for the first 40-50 levels I struggled because my damage was extremely lackluster and I had a lot of issues with both clearing & single target damage. Turns out I was handling it completely wrong due to the way the skill gem is described.

I think the skill would be better if it had higher base damage, a mention that both the primary projectiles & secondary cone can shotgun (although an enemy cannot be hit by both the projectile and the cone from that same projectile) and a penalty for additional projectile hit damage.

With some tweaking, I would assume you could come to a point where it would have the same damage up close & at long range as it currently does, but the gem would make a lot more sense in its design

Other than that, I just think the "stand still still right next to an enemy and keep hitting it" playstyle of Shattering Steel isn't really suited for this league but I doubt that's specific to just this skill.

Currently breezing through tier 9 maps as a lvl 88 Champion in betrayal. My build is pure phys, scaling primarily with crit, the new impale mechanic, and the new Rapier, paradoxica.

Exact dps is a little hard to pin down, but by my estimation, I'm dealing around 1m single target at point blank. Bossing feels really good at my current Tier, and I feel like I have significant room to improve on those numbers. I disagree with those who feel the need to be point blank for optimum damage is an issue, as for tougher fights it is possible to kite, get in a few hits, and set up a really massive impale hit when you close in. I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can push the build.

Clear is somewhat more lackluster, due primarily due to the way the damage is loaded, but still very acceptable. I find it tends to be better to use the skill from further back for clearing to get the best coverage, before moving forward to point blank any surviving rares and cut down the next mob. Done right, it's fairly smooth, though it'll never be KB. I plan on experimenting with removing point blank next to see if that helps.

My only major gripe with the skill is the lack of effect that projectile supports, or increased aoe seem to have on the clear. Other than GMP, none of them really seem to add much to the skill at all. I'd really like just that little bit more range to hit allies cannot be killed mobs and the like, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way to do it. Fork or chain seems like it should increase the range by the same again, making the skill a genuinely top tier clearing skill... but they don't. Probably just as well.

There's a lot happening mechanically, which while it makes it a little more difficult to understand, also makes it an extremely interesting skill to build around.

TLDR: Might not be god tier, but still a great, and interesting skill. 8/10

im still uncertain as to the impale effect from the skill and how best to try to enhance that damage.

Does the impale count as coming from you ?

the wiki seems a bit unclear and I cant really tell myself.

I find it odd that it has this addition to it, but there just isnt enough information I can find to best utilize it or even to try to get leech or something going off the increasing inpale count (if possible, but doesnt seem like it).

"

Godfeast_1 wrote:

im still uncertain as to the impale effect from the skill and how best to try to enhance that damage.

Does the impale count as coming from you ?

the wiki seems a bit unclear and I cant really tell myself.

I find it odd that it has this addition to it, but there just isnt enough information I can find to best utilize it or even to try to get leech or something going off the increasing inpale count (if possible, but doesnt seem like it).

When you inflict Impale on an enemy, they get a debuff that deals them an additional 10% of the physical damage dealt by the attack that Impaled them. It lasts for the next 5 hits of damage they take. So, say for example you deal 1000 physical damage and successfully Impale the target. Now, for the next 5 hits they take, they will be dealt an additional 100 physical damage.

Impale effects can stack on top of each other as well. It works like this:

Assume you have 75% chance to Impale.

Attack 1: Impales the enemy applying "Impale 1" for 5 hits.
Attack 2: Impales the enemy applying "Impale 2" for 5 hits. "Impale 1" triggers once and now has 4 hits remaining.
Attack 3: does not Impale but triggers Impale 1 and 2, leaving "Impale 1" with 3 hits left and "Impale 2" with 4 hits left.
Attack 4: Impales the enemy, applying "Impale 3" for 5 hits. "Impale 1" now has 2 hits left. "Impale 2" now has 3 hits left.

As you can see, the damage can reach pretty crazy levels in no time, especially for single targets. The best way to scale it is by increasing your physical damage, making pure physical builds the best way to take advantage of the effect. The more physical damage from the initial hit, the more Impale damage you will deal.

Hope this helps!

This skill definately has a lot of things going for it.

Firstly an observation on the stats side of things:
At first glance it seems to have slightly lower than average stats, but the beauty of it comes from it interaction with other mechanics.
At base it's 49% base damage with 3 projectiles, so 147% base damage singletarget when you're point blank. You take PT keystone and now it's 220%. Next, we look at it's support gem options. Usually skills's first 2-3 support gems are big increases of around 40-50% more and the last ones taper of at 25-15%, with some exceptions, like molten strike.
A very efficient 6L for MS with lv21 gems would be WED+ConC+AC+Combustion+FirePen, which is roughly 55%+55%+70%+56%+38% or 8.8x multiplier. For comparison, a Double Strike 6L of Brutality+MeleeD+Ruthless+Maim+Multistrike would be 6.8x.
For ST a 6L of GMP+Fork+Maim+Brutality+SlowerP is a 9.8x multiplier. In case the current interaction with Fork is removed, replacing it with Vicious Projectile makes this a 7.3x, which is still on the higher side.
Then, we take into account it's innate 40% impale chance and 20% impale effect from quality. At first, it's seemingly 22%~ more damage, but on a build taking advantage of impale, it comes closer to 50% more.
Impale as a mechanic seems to have a lot of potential, especially for something that is at it's first iteration. With more impale support in the future, I can see Shattering Steel becoming a lot more prominent.
Another minor thing is that it hit 12+ times per use on singletarget, so very good with on hit effects.

How it feels to play:
It's not a T1 skill for clearing, but it has it's advantages with good enough coverage and superb singletarget. Sound design is nice, feeling almost like a whip attack with it's snappy slash at the end.
A big disadvantage is how little you can actually modify the skill. You can't increase or decrease projectile speed and the distance they travel. Volley doesn't support the skill, which is a reall bummer as the biggest weakness of this build in clearing is the lack of coverage very close to you. A lot of times you encounter a situation where you engaged a pack, killed 90% of it in one hit but there are stragglers to your left and right front sides,each of which takes a skill use to dispatch. A Sunder/GroundSlam/TectonicSlam clears the pack in one hit in these situations while ST can tanke 2-3 due to stragglers. I would suggest to perhaps adjust the cone slightly so scaling area could fix most cases of this or allow Volley to function with the skill.

Does Fork Still work with this skill and act as a more multiplier for single target?

I've tried with it, sometimes i get spikes in damage, othertimes not so much.

SO not sure.

Not sure how far shot of Deadeye works with this skill or the inherit "far shot" of the skill.

Since the projectile break after around 35 units it would mean far shot of deadeye is actualy useless for this skill but if also cone that is crated after the projectile break is count to the lenght the projectile trevel it looks like it can reach the edge of the screen for full far shot effect.

and the second question, the inferit far shot give full 100% more dmg at the start of the cone after projectile break at 35 units or at the very end of the cone?

so simplier question would be, does the cone after projectile break count to projectile travel range?

Man sometimes I really wish there were target dummies with floating numbers...

I've played pure phys Shattering Steel on an impale-focused champion from lvl 12 until ~83 or so. Unfortunately I think this skill is absolutely garbage.

Pros:
- With dual beltimber + dying sun + impale + point blank + good flat phys from gear, the single target dps can reach some absurd levels through shotgunning.

Cons:
- One of the worst skills for leveling. Without a few sources of additional projeciles (gmp, fork, beltimbers) it feels super random and slow. Individual projectiles have very small hitboxes, making this skill work only at either melee range via shotgunning, or at maximum range by cone explosions.
- Confusing and ineffective mechanics, like projectile speed not affecting SS at all for some reason...
- Boring visuals.
- Requires very good positioning for shotgunning. Otherwise the single target dmg is dogshit.
- Same problem as with scourge arrow - it's better to go full elemental and get some extra AoE clearing potential via herald of ice or inpulsa, rather than sticking to the "intended form". I guess that as for pure phys you could also get haemophilia gloves or the gladiator ascendancy, but it's much harder to scale explosion from those.
- Outperformed by spectral throw, which has quite similar mechanics, but provides a lot of freedom when it comes down to playstyle and gearing. Also deceleration enchant + slower proj combo gives as much or even more single target dmg potential, while not requiring to remain in melee range.