Puncture

Should a Puncture gem's level be increased by +bow gem modifiers, since it can be used by bows? It's not working at the moment with this modifier, but I wasn't sure if this was intentional.
The gem here is level 2:
http://i40.tinypic.com/154boli.png

I've used it on skeletons- they all were bleeding :) the same with living rocks- how is that possible??

I've been playing a melee Puncture ranger since the wipe. I like the playstyle, but I think Puncture as a melee skill really suffers from being combined with a bow skill in such an awkward way.

The portion of the DoT that works on a stationary enemy is too small to be relevant; you might as well remove it to save space in the tooltip. Melee Puncture is effectively a hit-and-run DoT that only works while the enemy is moving, which doesn't make a lot of sense because the playstyle necessitates constant movement and kiting. The only practical effect of the movement restriction is that it makes the skill much less useful against ranged enemies because they tend to be stationary, and I doubt that was the intent.

So you have one character using ranged Puncture and another using melee Puncture, and both of them are kiting. The difference is that a melee character has a much harder time kiting enemies and no melee equivalent for Multiple Projectiles; a huge disadvantage.

I'd the skill to hit a number of nearby targets when used with a melee weapon. This in addition to merging the stationary DoT with the moving DoT's damage for clarity would go a long way, but it probably wouldn't be enough. A new movement skill or an improvement to Phase Run, allowing the user to safely move into and then out of a group of enemies, would tie things up nicely.

I also suggest adding some kind of Multiple Strike support gem (more melee targets, less damage/crit/stun) and letting that stack with the multiple hits on Puncture. Generally speaking, Multiple Strike is something I consider to be a mandatory addition to the game.

Currently, there's no reason to use skills like Puncture, Venom and Poison Arrow with classes that can't easily reach the 45% skill duration cluster near the Ranger start, namely Rangers and Duelists. More skill duration passives should be added to other parts of the tree.

It would be nice to be able to use the skill with two-handed swords. This would add some variety and the slowness of the weapon would more than balance the increased damage because it's important to get in, Puncture, and get out quickly. I'm not sure using a two-handed sword to puncture someone, conceptually, would be much more silly than using a broadsword.

Puncture doesn't count as a bow gem, as mentioned, and it doesn't seem to count as a melee gem either. Both of the these things are unacceptable and I hope you view them as bugs.

The bleeding effect can be hard to make out through some particle effects and on enemies like wolves where the effect is ill-placed. A new sound effect on hit would make it much easier to tell when you've Punctured an enemy. The bleeding effect itself does look nice.

The skill is very susceptible to desync, but I'm now sure how you'd be able to fix that problem.

Edit: Of course I forgot the most obvious suggestion, which is to simply separate Puncture into two skills. I'm not sure why you combined them like this anyway, since we have things like Exploding Arrow and Infernal Blow.

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OnmyojiOmn wrote:

The only practical effect of the movement restriction is that it makes the skill much less useful against ranged enemies because they tend to be stationary

Another thing I've found is that when kiting, even melee enemies tend to spend a lot of time turning in place, and the main part of Puncture's damage doesn't apply because they aren't actually moving. It would be nice if the damage applied when an enemy moved OR turned. That would also make it more useful against ranged enemies.

I was initially excited about this skill as a bow Ranger, since it seemed a perfect kiting tool. Hit them with the bleed DOT, then hit them with a poison DOT, but it seems like it isn't doing the damage it states it will do.

I've tried with various combinations, but does it ONLY work with physical damage? It states damage, so I would assume it would work with support gems and auras, but so far, it doesn't seem to be working that way for me OR, I'm just expecting it to be a quick DOT like poison arrow.

I like it in certain circumstances, particularly with elemental resistant mobs, but it doesn't seem to have the 'heft' the description seems to claim. It might just be perception, but I wonder if it isn't working correctly.

So, how does this work if I hit the same target twice?

Plain stacking, Ignite type stacking or just plain overwrite no matter the dmg?

Combining this skill with poison arrow made Mervil a pushover at level 15. Cast puncture and poison arrow, then run around for a bit.

I don't use this skill much, but it's a handy niche skill to have against bosses.

I don't have the passive skill duration bonuses either, but it's still useful.