Animate Weapon

Trying to make a cast while channel animate weapon with minion instability work but the targeting area is too small. Please make it so if there is no weapon at your cursor area then it animates the nearest weapon in range.

I've been trying this for a bit and from what I'm getting, this is kinda like skeletons, a bit worse on damage or at best comparable but I feel it's a bit worse if I use the same setup. That in and of itself is not an issue but there are 2 issues and really, only one needs to be solved.

On one side we have a duration tag. Yes it's relatively long, but generally speaking, I see having to summon the weapons at least 3 times a map and that is assuming a player runs the map in about 3 minutes (a last resummon is needed for the boss thus 3 times) The average player who takes 10 to 15 minutes a map will have to do it many times.

On the other side you only summon 1 blade at a time and you need to cast another spell multiple times in order to summon the blades. This takes a long time and it's very tedious. Comapring to the skeletons, they summon at least 2 at a time right from the begining and go all the way to 4 at a time.

In order for this skill to be trully functional it needs to either lose the duration entirely and maybe raise the HP a bit (because they are still very fragile and shouldn't be needing resummon all the time when you do it one at a time) or the skill needs to summon several blades per cast. As it is, this is very clunky.

I leveled with this and zombies through the Acts...a big mistake (each zone requires fresh summons, and summons will not last the duration of the zone). I honestly cannot say how it compares to zombies in terms of dps, hp, etc, but it is highly inefficient. To summon one you have to use a blade skill 2-3+ times and then summon each weapon individually, If I cast a blade skill 3x then start summoning, I’ll have blades despawning before I can get to them. This takes A LOT of time. You can easily spend 10+ seconds summoning something with a 40 second duration.

I propose making the animate process an AoE and animating up to 2-5 (scales with gem level) weapons within the zone at a time and buff the default duration to 60 seconds. Skeletons after all do not require a thing to be summoned from, summon 2-4 per cast, and have a .1 second shorter cast time. That makes skeletons summon 5-6x or more faster with the only drawback of half the duration.

Furthermore gear and the tree and tree do nothing to encourage the use of this skill. I had high hopes for this, but without some change I don’t think it will be very useful.

Just remove the duration. It's a summon skill that requires an item for it to summon. It shouldn't have a duration.

The duration issue doesnt bother me as I used bladefall for my weapons.

This biggest issue I have is the lack of AI Aggression. Half the time the blades will sit there and do jack shit or just wander off doing whatever. They are also very slow moving around once they scatter and leaving me open to whatever is in front of me... even once i have cast a spell to have them re-target.

Give them a charge/dash ability.

I really enjoy the new interaction with Bladefall/Ethereal Knives, and most of the time the weapons last long enough that the duration isn't a problem. The major issue is having to summon one at a time EVERY zone change. This makes it a pain while leveling or returning to hideout.

I think one of two changes need to be implemented:

1) Animate Weapon follow/phase through zones for their duration.

OR

2) Animate Weapon animates all nearby weapons (AOE animate, maybe cap it at 10 weapons per cast)

I think this would make game-play, both leveling and mapping, much smoother.

I agree with the others regarding the frustration of having to summon each blade individually compared to skeletons multiple summons in one cast. Changing the skill to summon x amount of animate weapons at once would help things feel smoother especially during zone transitions (even between delve transitions).

If we can't summon x amount of animate weapons at once, at least make it so that the weapons stay with you as the zone transitions.

Is GGG going to do something about this? It seems pretty unanimous that only summoning 1 blade at a time and requiring a secondary skill to work makes AW a complete chore to play.

I'm fine with the duration, and I'm fine with loosing them over zones. But it needs to summon up to 5 if you target a lingering blade.

It's likely they didn't test playing this skill through the game or they would have realised this already. That or they're utter masochists :P

Edit: Literally have to buy a new PC mouse due to middle mouse button dying from so much usage :O

Please remove Duration tag. It is really unnecesary and reduces the fun of using Animate Weapon skill a lot.

Animated Guardian does not have Duration and he is also made of items.

Also, for summoning Animated Weapons from Lingering Blades, please allow to summon more than 1 Animated Weapon if more than 1 Lingering Blade is in the summoning area, like Summoned Skeletons are spawned by 2-5 not one by one.

I am currently playing a Necro with animate weapon and I love it. I am totally new so this is my first character and my first league playing.

My issue with animate weapon isn't its duration. I can work with it even if it swarms my loot filter with tons of white weapons to summon.

The biggest issue with me is the weapons despawning when you enter a new area... I don't understand why that is. Vall, Zana missions etc are just nightmare to do. I just want to hear a reasonable explanation for this.

As a second recommendation maybe adding AoE summon in a small area around your cursor would be nice as well but still not mandatory imo.