Whirling Blades

Yeah, with fast weapons and some IAS most mobs can't hit me during the cooldown phase of WB before I'm off again. I'm also seeing the desync events everyone else is seeing. It seems to occur much less often if you use WB toward mobs that don't move quite as much, such as ranged and casters.

Also, I've found that if you use a movement skill like shield charge (which is a great combo with WB because it's mobility and a skill that gives you extra damage for range to target) when things are desynced it seems to help resolve the issue sometimes.

I have the feeling that 0.9.11 made things worse for desync. I sometimes had it on my previous shadow with WB, but on the most recent one, it's real bad.
It just seems to happen VERY frequently, making WB rather dangerous.

And yes, I've also encountered desync issues. Coupled with usage of Flicker Strike, the desyncing can get pretty bad.

I think I'm missing something, what advantage does this on shield charge?

shield charge is damage to one foe, and whirling is a full AoE damage in the distance traveled.
however, shield charge pushes foes back and protects you on the trip, while whirling does not.

I can definitely see why people aren't happy with this skill after playing around with it for a while. The damage on it is paltry at best, and even lower if you're single-wielding. It could definitely use an increase in damage and a drop in int requirement.

However, it's a very nice skill to have as it provides lots of utility from AoE effect to escape to hitting targets in a straight line (good for caves and dungeons).

There are collision issues and desynching issues that are really holding this skill back. I'm not sure about the damage problems past level 30, but I don't think it's much of a problem from 4-30. The utility of this spell is fantastic. But if someone is going to use this skill for its utility, it needs to function as intended! I've lost at least 5 shadows due to desynching or collision issues.

Also, one suggestion. If you use this skill while clicking off the actual playing field, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think the skill should always, if used off the playing field, go max distance in that direction. At least then the player is getting the desired effect out of the skill, especially in tight situations and cluttered maps.

This is a great skill with a lot of utility.

If you can use it, I think it's a must-have skill. This isn't a problem, since it's very fun to use and highly spammable.

Two problems with this skill as I see it:

1) Too often it doesn't connect when intersecting enemies diagonally... Horizontally, however, it seems to work much better. I've not tested vertically. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. :D

2) Often enough there is a ~1 second delay before I see if the attack actually connected with any mobs (the playing of the hit effect). Since my latency is always between 65 - 85 and not ~1000, it doesn't appear to be a lag issue.

Minor issue: Sometimes it doesn't do anything due to my cursor position. Whether it's too close to my character, or I moused over some obstruction... shouldn't matter. I think it needs to move my character in some direction according to some simple best-guess algorithm plus or minus ~90 degree angle. e.g. if my char is against a wall, and I try to WB into it... don't you think it should WB parallel to the wall in some direction, rather than doing nothing?

Love the skill - but it's just not viable with the desyncing. It's too dangerous.

Even if it didn't cause desyncing though - it's mostly a utility spell. I don't think there's any way to use this as a substitute for cleave or slam, which is a shame.

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Zarondd wrote:

Rehash of problems:
1)Buggy Targeting
2)Low Damage/High Mana Cost
3)Poor Scaling

Highlights:
1) Excellent Mobility/Repositioning

Suggestions
1)Hit all targets in path
2)Dual hits /w dualwielding at penalty (ala cleave)

My suggestions:
1) Modify max range based on %move speed (+20% move, +20% max range). Slow/Snared targets won't be able to panic out, while fast ones maintain relatively higher mobility.
2) Make it be considered an AoE with radius setting the attack width. This will at least let one use AoE passives and supports.

I would allow the max distance to increase per level, and also allow the dual wielding with a penalty, (right now base is 60%, so drop it to 40% per weapon and allow it to hit each enemy twice) you effectively get 33% more skill per use using twice the weapons. If you guys want dual wielding to be as useful as it should while keeping the glassiness of it despite shielding then I think it's the way to go.

Also if this becomes dual wield daggers might finally have a non-single target skill