Chain

This gem (like Fork and Multiple Projectiles) should have the damage reduction changed to "Damage with area effects".

Currently the damage reduction only exists, because certain AE skills can heavily exploit Chain (like Kinetic Blast, or Lightning Arrow). This however makes Chain completely undesirable for most other skill gem combinations, because the damage lost is not compensated by the chaining at all.

If the damage reduction would apply only to AE effects, those spells would still do the same damage, while Chain could then be used in many other skill gem combinations.

I find the chain behaviour in this game really bizarre.

1) arc seems to have different chaining behaviour to projectile chaining - it can form loops, but only with 3 monsters.
2) projectile chaining is INCREDIBLY restrictive and seems to forbid bouncing back and hitting the same target ever

Here is a video showing how restricted the chaining behaviour is on ethereal knives and fireball - if you work out the number of "hits" you should be getting from the chain gem you notice you get nowhere near that many. The projectiles NEVER extinguish themselves on the pack. If you look at the ek example you will notice there is NO INSTANCE where a target is hit more than once by the spell. This is true even if using a triple chain capable of forming an arc style loop using eg roth's reach - no mob hit more than once with ek.

Notice the necromancer's energy shield in the second part of this vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7iJAEzVLUc&feature=youtu.be

This is NOT the case with arc. With arc, if there are 3+ mobs (this is especially noticeable with vaal arc) it seems to have the following behaviour;

1) check for targets in radius. If one hasn't been hit before, choose that one.
2) If all targets have been hit before, see if there is a target you haven't just chained from (ie no closed abab loops)
3) If there is, chain to it, else terminate.

This also means that arc never bounces more than once with only two targets but can go absolutely apeshit on 3 targets.

This seems counterintuitive and frankly really boring behaviour in both cases.

It would make the chain gem or chaining mechanically a lot more interesting for non absurd clearspeed projectile cases if you could get multiple hits from a single spell cast with eg gmp. Doing ek with chain seems pointless unless you are going for huge clear speed with offscreening and hitting untouched mobs. It would also make arc a lot better for single target if you could get higher damage potential by careful use of pairs of mobs close together or adds in boss phases - at the moment it is rare you get to exploit this. I understand there were originally balance concerns here, but the current behaviour just kinda sucks and is super unfun from a gameplay standpoint.

PS standardise which skills explode while chaining or piercing

Here is a video showing the inability of projectiles to behave like arc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Xve40365Y&feature=youtu.be

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TinyAngryCrab wrote:

I find the chain behaviour in this game really bizarre.

1) arc seems to have different chaining behaviour to projectile chaining - it can form loops, but only with 3 monsters.
2) projectile chaining is INCREDIBLY restrictive and seems to forbid bouncing back and hitting the same target ever

I THINK chain with actual PROJECTILES can only bounce the projectiles in some CONE behind the previously hit target. At least that's the way it seems to me when I was using Roth's Reach (since most other sources of chain are painfully hard to grab or riddled with extreme disadvantages) - I'd say it can bounce to any target within some 120 degree cone behind the target, and not back towards your character.


I find it a VERY curious design though that Pierce support actually INCREASES damage (while also piercing), but Chain DECREASES damage by A GODDAMN LOT. It doesn't make any sense.
If GGG is worried about ARC being made too OP by it, then simply change the damn support gem mechanic wording from

Supported Skills deal (50-31)% less Damage with Hits

to

Supported Skills deal (50-31)% less Elemental Damage with Hits

and guess what? PROBLEM SOLVED. COMMON SENSE. It would also help the purely physical archer actually doing any damage. And we all know pure phys archer is in DIRE need of a very long series of buffs if it's to ever crawl up from yellow maps to actual endgame.

And that's not even mentioning the absolutely useless PROJECTILE SPEED quality. Were the devs kidding? I found increased projectile speed useless for all but 3 abilities - frost blades, ethereal knives and spectral throw, where it increases range. Everywhere else it's just a glorified cosmetic effect.

PS: the mana cost is too high as well. Pierce support has 110% and Chain has 150%? Stupidly, unfairly high. It's bad enough that GMP is 165%. For abilities like Ice Shot that have higher base mana cost, it's debilitating. You literally shoot out more than 50% of your mana pool at once, not even allowing you to do a second volley before you get some mana back from leech/regen. Especially since most projectile skills cost 2-3x more mana than melee skills, despite doing less damage.

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MTX Wishlist:
- Mirage Archer (elemental variants + blood red or ebony for physical/bleed)
- Barrage/Puncture (and whatever other skills that have no effect and hard to spot arrows - Demonic, Ebony, elemental variants)

New Gem Wishlist:
- Herald of Cruelty (15% chance to Impale, 5-40% inscreased damage done to bleeing targets, 0.5% increased global phys dmg per quality)
- Might (aura, 15-40% Phys Dmg multiplier, converts 40% elemental damage to Physical damage, disables elemental damage)

Just a suggestion. can you guys make chain support gem Blue? since 5 out of the 6 skill gems are for int and blue. i don't see why it shouldn't be a blue since ur character would be int to use those gems. but the support gem need dex to use. just quality of life suggestion