Vaal Ground Slam

One of the vgems I have spent a decent amount of time with... I found it very lackluster and the possibly the worst of the bunch.

*The damage increase over ground slam seems minimal (compare to vaal arc, fireball, etc. which can hit the same target multiple times for a very noticeable damage increase).
*It was OK in normal, but the soul count feel so high as to make it pointless in merc.
*Only storing one charge means, to me, that it should be quite powerful. It's really not. Maybe if it had at least 3 charges so we could pump out several in a row (hopefully at a reduced soul cost), then I might find a 4l for it. As it stands...nope.
*I notice it has a stun on it, but I never seemed to notice it. Maybe try doubling that duration?

I'm currently using a BM RT ground slam marauder in the ambush league at around level 70. Although I'm not playing hardcore, I plan to make a character in HC soon and I'm very interested in getting through the game with no deaths.

While I don't use this gem regularly, and don't think I ever will, I'd really like to argue that it's not *useless*.

If you're getting questing help from a higher level friend, you usually don't need to take any risks, or even be in the same room as the boss while it's dying. Brutus, vaal, weaver, merveil, piety, etc....

The Bandit lords in act 3 are (to my knowledge) the only bosses where you must be in the same immediate area, and as such are a bit riskier. Vaal gems that provide cc (even if it's on a long cooldown) can keep you alive while your friend kills kraityn or oak. I like that this one has inbuiilt knockback, because I usually link knockback to things like vaal ice nova anyways. CCing enemies is usually better than kiting, because in the Oak fight for instance, as long as you stand behind a tent and he doesn't have LOS, oak is no risk to you. It's safer to try to hold that position than to run away (and risk getting Oak aggro) if little mobs come.

Multistrike Vaal ground slam can buy you enough time to get safely rushed by bandit lords.

It's a niche use, and you'll use it at most 9 times (once per bandit lord per difficulty), and it's probably not the use GGG intended, but if you play HC and cannot die to bandit lords, I'd say it's far from useless.

i tried again to make use out of it - failed badly

this gem simply has 50% dmg of what it needs to have for such cost/soul cost. so it actually can kill something from time to time..

currently THE WORST - and by far! - vaal gem

This is a bad Vaal skill. Good Vaal skills do one of two things: either help deal with powerful threats by killing them quickly, or help deal with them by providing some form of defense or utility. This definitely provides some borderline counterintuitive utility in the form of knockback, and the damage is definitely not memorable.

I believe this skill would be better if it was redesigned to resemble an earthquake. Activating the gem could trigger 32 Ground Slams which spiral from the point the character initially hits (similar to how Vaal Fireball works currently, but focused on a point on the ground, not moving with the character). The Knockback should be removed, but the guaranteed stun should remain, combined with 2% increased Stun Duration per gem level. This would provide a nice mix of damage and utility which players might find useful.

literally worst vaal gem.
and itd be soooo easy to make at least usable.
holds 3-6 charges. cost half what it does. probably more dmg.
if u dont want it spammable, add a cd of 5-6seconds between charge use.
why use this for safety...vaal immortal call makes u invincible.
for the same amount of charges.

its hard to believe any dev thought it was a nice gem.
too busy using v.fireball and v.spark with gmp every 10 seconds with /souls.
i cant blame them for that, but this was a huge oversight.

vaal summons skeletons summons a goddamn army of undead.
vaal spark literally fills an area with shooting lightning balls.
vaal fireball...see above. but fire.
vaal burning arrow? +30%more dmg. more chance to ignite,
AND an aoe version of the normal skill.
its like normal BA+added phys proj+added fire+chance to ignite+melee splash
thats like a 5l. but u can still add lmp to it more than double the dmg.
this skill smacks the ground. once. a bit harder than usual.
basically leap slam without the leap.
yall serious with dis vaal ground slam thing?
vaal BA and vaal molten shell are awesome. and imbalanced. and for once thats ok.
vaal ground slam literally isnt worth picking up. or a scroll fragment from vendor.

I use it... mainly out of "gee-wizz... someone has to". But it really doesn't do anything to help my character.

One effect I thought of that would be a bonus would be to have VGS break every breakable container in the zone... not just in it's area of effect. That would add to it's "cool" factor and not make it uber.

I agree with people though that this gem needs some love. Larger range would be my wish... or perhaps chain it for 5-6 stomps over 10 seconds.

still pathetic.
really, its just some numbers changes to make it at least usable.
seems easy to fix.

So hey, when did this get changed to be a 16 soul (base) 4 charge skill? I actually like it now. The knockback distance is still a little low but maybe once I get the fending cluster it might be good. Anyway, most importantly connected with ECOMS and faster attacks VGS becomes a good way of getting 4 endurance charges up quickly when against a boss. A valuable utility seeing as the only other guarenteed stun in the game is shield charge, which requires a small distance to always stun so it's not as quick.

it seems that it is some kind of silent change

previous state of this gem was so bad that i would have NEVER EVER tried it again

currently it at least looks fun



according to wiki history changes were

80->150% dmg effectiveness

1->4 charges

also it seems it has a bit larger AOE now (but this is only observation, have no comparable data)

edit:

im now convinced that something had been done to AOE - my ground slammer now can cover ENTIRE screen with it. it grows on me now

Whoever did the rework on this gem really did it justice. Currently I am running a crit 1H groundslam build and I am really enjoying this gem. As it stands I've found these to be the pros/cons

**PROS**
At 4 charges you will have this Vaal skill up quite often.
Sister skill to the awesome Vaal Cyclone, whereas cyclone draws enemies in, Vaal GS BLASTS them away (Very good defensive utility).
Pumps out respectable numbers in addition to its great utility once the player has good gear.
Viable endgame skill.

**CONS**
MUST be linked with multistrike and support gems to justify using this skill at all.
Players are not going to get a lot of joy out of this skill before it is maxed 20/20 quality.

That said, this skill certainly does reward players who choose to invest in it. The downside of this is that players will have to invest quite a bit in their equipment for Vaal GS to really shine. I can't speak for 2handers, however as a 1handed crit build it is safe to say that this is a solid, reliable skill that is enjoyable to use!

Great work GGG!!!