Smoke Mine

I think that a good compromise for the line of sight issue would be to allow smoke mines to be "primed" while out of line of sight by the detonation skill, firing automatically once you return.

For example, the player sets a smoke mine down at the end of a corridor which opens into a room on the other side. Once running into the room, the player breaks line of sight, but finds danger. The player uses the detonation skill, which primes the mine, but cannot activate due to line of sight. The player retreats, and once he rounds the corner into the preceding corridor, he establishes line of sight and the mine activates immediately, bringing him down the corridor. It may or may not be necessary to have a short grace period where the mine will fail to activate if you take too long to reestablish line of sight.

Furthermore, this change could allow the mines to go off in a staggered fashion. I'm imagining a scenario where you could place all of your mines down in a chain, with each of them in line of sight to another mine but out of line of sight to the rest, allowing you to instantly traverse the entire chain upon detonation. Maybe this would only work with a chain gem. LOL

I think this is a good compromise to the issues people have had, dramatically improving smoke mines' strategic capability while keeping the line of sight requirement. I'm sure that removing the requirement instead could have unfortunate consequences, which I assume is why it's there in the first place.


Alternatively, or even in addition to this, the smoke clouds themselves could block line of sight in a parameter on the edge of the cloud, so that an unsuccessful teleportation would still give a means of escape. Those within the cloud would be blinded, but still aware of each other, while those outside would be unable to see past, providing a means of cover in open space. It would also give the mines a use against ranged, acting as a smoke screen the way smoke grenades are used in real life.



With any of these changes, I imagine the run speed buff wouldn't really be necessary. :)

Most useless skill ever.
I rather add blind gem than waste time to set up the mine and detonate it.

This is an interesting skill but the LoS requirement is just too much to make it useful as an escape in my experience.

Like others I think the blind effect / smoke is cool. But I would much prefer it worked like the "Shroud Walker" boss mod in nemesis. I understand you can do that, but In my experience it takes a pretty big effort to use the skill that way.

I would love to see a smoke bomb skill put in the game with a similar effect but doesn't teleport you and just blinds enemies at the target location. I don't know if that would be OP though.

Hi

Interesting idea Jacul, to prime the mine.

LOS is the issue for sure, it eliminates the strategy behind it being a mine especially a REMOTE MINE. Remote mines don't need LOS if they did it would completely defeat the purpose of REMOTE mine, its remote for a reason, so you don't have to be their to see/set it off, no line of sight!,but all is not lost, remove LOS add a radius in which it can be activated, this radius could be affected by AOE passives/support gem and when it can't be activated have a X or something like ku2three suggests.

Even if you,Rory, decide to keep the LOS effect at least add the X or something so players know when they can activate it or do you just delight in players having the skill go up in smoke and keep them stuck in a group of monsters because they didn't realize the LOS?

This skill deserves the: The Good idea/Bad mechanics award

cheers

The thing that makes this skill difficult to use is very similar to freeze mine. Its the mine laying speed. If you are fighting a monster and you look like your in trouble you spend half a second laying the mine being beaten on and not leaching life.

The argument against this is that you should plan ahead which I agree with in principle but again spending that half a second laying a mind down before you go into a mob pack even though you will need it in 1/20 cases seems really clunky.

Having said all this I think there is potential for these styles of skills to be very strong if there was some kind of "simultaneous casting" support gem. It would be awesome if whenever I cast flicker strike it put a smoke mine down at the same time so I can always jump back out! (ofc this would be overpowered with damage spells so you would probably put a 0% damage modifier on the skills that wern't manually cast so only flicker strike did damage and not a free EK)

Hi

alunmeredith

"

Having said all this I think there is potential for these styles of skills to be very strong if there was some kind of "simultaneous casting" support gem. It would be awesome if whenever I cast flicker strike it put a smoke mine down at the same time so I can always jump back out! (ofc this would be overpowered with damage spells so you would probably put a 0% damage modifier on the skills that wern't manually cast so only flicker strike did damage and not a free EK)

a new trigger gem perhaps in the works?

cheers

I have been thinking...

Smoke mine + Increased AoE + Cast on Damage Taken + Something else ( :P)

That is, with a melee evasion build. The idea behind is the blind. What more, I have been thinking of grabbing Volatile Mines notable passive that makes the mines detonate instantly. So I guess it is supposed to release smoke mines on my feet repeatedly when I'm in combat blinding everyone around with instant detonations. Would work?

No, Mines aren't spells, and even if they were you gotta detonate manually even with that notable.

"

WAWAMELONS wrote:

Easily one of the worst new skills they've released since Searing Bond. Just absolutely underwhelming in every sense. Every other escape skill in the game is better like charmolipi alluded to above. This is pure, gimmicky garbage that's more for show "hey, look at this cool skill we released it makes you a ninja, Path of Exile is awesome" than for any sort of practical use.

It's actually a really good escape in more open areas. The range is incredible--you can teleport to a mine set a couple screens away. To say "every other escape skill ... is better" is an over-generalization. Most trappers and ranged heroes obviously won't use Leap Slam or Shield Charge, so this gem is the next most viable option, especially for solo HC with a class that is typically squishy. One escape isn't necessarily going to be better or worse than another. They are all just options to help diversify viable builds.

The LOS requirement doesn't seem like too much of an issue. Again, you can detonate it from a couple screens away in areas open enough (fields, forests, and town areas). In places like the Crematorium, you can teleport through the iron-barred walls. There are enough open areas to keep a decent LOS. In cramped quarters, simply make sure to set a mine every so often at a room entrance.

One LOS issue I noticed is that the mine disappears once you break LOS with walls, corners, etc. The mine should stay for its intended duration rather than disappear. That way you can return to LOS if you need to backtrack.

Also, the mine is a spell.

This gem makes for fun, strategic gameplay and, depending on class and playstyle, can be extremely practical.

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Drudley wrote:

No, Mines aren't spells, and even if they were you gotta detonate manually even with that notable.

But but but...

Smoke Mine
Active skill gem
Attribute(s) Dexterity, Intelligence
Keywords Mine, Movement, Spell, AoE, Duration
Cast time 0.5 secs
Per 1% Quality 1% increased area of effect per 1% quality.
Mana Cost 10
Required Level 19*

I know it doesn't work, but why? :( It IS a spell...

And, by the way, if "detonating mines is instant" doesn't make mines detonate... well instantly when placed, what does it do in the end?
So depressing, I planed my build with that

* Source