Puncture

used to work with just swords, forgot that little mark then. archers do not move if you're running away too, they're ranged after all. but they'll sometimes stay around longer than casters. but randomization of ai does kinda cause hickups. if you had massive duration boosts like i do, puncture isn't so bad as duration ends up being a multiplier, a crit helps like i said but not required... unless damage is abysmal before hand as you point out.

I've always wanted to make a build centered around puncture, but I can never conceptualize a way to make it work. The only way to make this skill work against groups of mobs is to use it with a bow, but bow physical damage leaves something to be desired, and relying on crits doesnt exactly work with the low crit rate of bows.

Honestly, the only use I can actually come up with for this skill is a CI melee build that uses this for tough rare/unique mobs. Slap on a melee physical damage, melee damage on full life, increased critical damage, throw critical weakness, and vulnerability on the enemy, and then wait for a crit and run away.

I have the Blood Reaper unique that adds bleeding to all your attacks. I liked it so much I used it until lvl 60 before replacing it. I then sought out this gem and was disappointed to learn how restrictive it is - I could no longer get the effect on an axe, or any twohander for that matter. Why anyone would want to use Puncture with fast, low-damage weapons is beyond me, especially since they all have access to the superior viper strike.

I can imagine this gem being mildly useful for bow users since they can't use viper strike and they can support puncture to hit multiple targets, and victims are more likely to move (towards you) during the effect. Maybe there's potential there, but this gem could be so much more. I'd definitely want to use it if the weapon selection were expanded to everything but maces+staves, and maybe there could even be a separate support gem that adds bleeding to any physical damage skill used with an appropriate weapon. That'd be really cool and would break up the monotony of supporting all melee skills with the obligatory added fire, increased melee, weapon elemental and attack speed gems.

well despite "how much stronger" viper strike is, you can use both for that much more... don't tunnel vision.

yes only bow users can pseudo-AoE puncture, and bows need damage boost, which tends to be crits despite minimal crit chance.

Chance to flee worth it at all for puncture?

Also, I have a question about the dot dmg of puncture. Does the bleeding (while standing still) take into account only the physical damage part or the entire hit. For example, if using Darkscorn (25% of damage converted to chaos dmg), will the bleeding only take into account 75% of the hit?

Also what about the bleeding while moving part?

If using puncture on a bow and the arrow pierces, it will puncture all enemies that has been hit?

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ArchersBane wrote:

If using puncture on a bow and the arrow pierces, it will puncture all enemies that has been hit?

yes

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CertusAT wrote:

Why does this need Int?

From a flavor perspective this doesn't make sense to me. Besides if you are heavy in to INT I think a more caster like skill will be your choice instead of using a bow with physical damage.

Yes, a skill that does purely physical damage should not depend on an intelligence stat. I play a ranger which focuses on dexterity and dps passive skills. My plan was to deck out a character based around dealing physical damage, and maybe one more spell school. Puncture looked like the perfect core or 2nd skill for my hero. But unfortunately, I don't have the int to level the gem, and I don't want to spend anything on int for now.