Skill Gem Tiering - Feedback for GGG from the Q&A

Hello,

Posting here in hopes that someone from GGG sees this. Ziggy asked a question about skill gem tiering to Jonathan during the Q&A and Jonathan mentioned he wasn't familiar with specific feedback about skill gem tiering. I wanted to highlight Whirling Assault as a skill that could benefit from lower tiering.

Whirling Assault - Currently Tier 11 (late Act 3)

Whirling assault is a core damage skill that primarily does physical damage. It's a "core skill" in the sense that it is typically the primary damage skill for mapping, and it is sometimes supplemented by other skills for bossing. Whirling Assault is not a payoff skill, ultimate skill, or support skill.

Compare Whirling Assault to Ice Strike which is a similar core damage skill, but Ice Strike is available at Tier 5 (late Act 1). There is no world in which a character would choose to use both Ice Strike and Whirling Assault in a build. These two skills are purely substitutes for one another.

The challenge for someone wanting to play whirling assault is that they have to play a different core skill for 3 acts (at the least) before transitioning to Whirling Assault. Typically, if you are playing quarterstaff, the core skill for the first 3 acts will be an elemental damage skill like Ice Strike. This creates additional burden in respecing to Whirling Assault, a physical damage skill, when it becomes available late act 3. So most players don't switch to whirling assault until maps.

It would be wonderful if Whirling Assault was accessible earlier in the campaign so that you could feel the progression of the skill and archetype all the way thru without having to go thru a painful respec late in the campaign or maps.

Let's make it happen, GGG!