Vaal Double Strike

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Mark_GGG wrote:

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TheMaker51 wrote:

Any plans to make it so the double inherits your current buffs as wellas your stats? I know this isn't the case for mirror arrow clones and technically haven't tested it for vaal ds clones, but would assume it's the same.

Buffs work by giving stats. If you have any buffs that would affect the use of the skill, they do so already. It's exactly like how totems work by using your skills.
The Mirror shot clones are entirely different, and not relevant to the Double. It works like a totem.

The specific case I had in mind was Righteous Fire. Your mirror arrow clone inherits the cosmetic effect (the flaming ring) but not the degeneration and aoe burn. Does it make sense that I would be confused by this interaction? Is there any way we can make this a thing?

... Pretty please?

I just carried out two tests before reading this thread, and wanted to share the results to take away confusion if any was still remaining.

The first was drinking a movement speed of adrenaline potion before casting Vaal Double Strike and seeing if it can cover more distance. It doesnt.

The second was equipping an Inspired Learning jewel and hunting for rare monster auras.
Interestingly the monster aura visually stays active on the VDS clone even when the duration expires on your own character. However, it turns out to have no effect.
I captured a rare with the all resist aura, and activate VDS with just a second of the Inspired Learning buff remaining. I saw the bonus drop off on my character sheet as it expired, while it was still visually active on the clone next to me.
Also captured one with the green massive attack/move speed aura. The clone seemed to move slower when it got out of range of the effect on me, pointing to not having the aura (effect) copied to itself. Same result also after expiration on myself, the aura shows visually but i dont get the extra speed anymore.

However, the things Mark wrote on the last page should still apply, so forget all this visual what works and what doesn't. Anything that alters the behaviour of your VDS skill should work, so drinking a Diamond potion should work for your clone, and it shouldnt matter if you drink the pot before or during the VDS.
The things i have been testing were things like movement speed, survivability or aura-functionality, none of which has to do with the actual behavior of the VDS skill on your bar considering thats an attack skill.

It would also mean that the move/attack speed aura i captured with Inspired Learning díd work, its just that the movement speed has no effect on the clone, and because its an aura on you would be working anyway since the double is close to you.
However, in the situation where it walked out of my aura range it should still be getting the attack speed buff, because that does apply to the VDS skill, its just that i thought it didnt because the move speed wasnt there.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Yes, that all sounds correct

I'll take that as a no then.

It doesn't have "minion" or "totem" and the wiki is pretty much empty:

- If it uses your stats, increasing your own melee capability should increase the capability of your double.
- It should inherit your defences, chance to block, etc.

What about auras? Will an aura linked to generosity affect it, or will they need to be non-generosity'd?
Will the heralds of the caster activate on the double?

Thanks for that, I didn't fully understand what he was saying.

It seems like a tricky thing to buff then, not having "totem" or "minion" keywords so the best you can do is just make sure you have a regularly strong melee character and then burn your melee capability by spending some gem slots on this skill (and skill duration).

I was leveling my Bino's/crit/reaver and found this gem, equipped it and now i am loving it..

-level 71 Ephij down with 2 uses(no damage from me)
-level 68-71 exiles down with 1 use+ my own damage(the clone killed Igna by herself)
-most mapbosses are down with 1 use

VDS atleast doubles my single target damage and also it allows me to run in circles, if needed(facing 70 Igna with 3300hp/75res was one of these times).

I am using VDS + meleephys + duration + meleephys on full life(i guess this works, since the clone seems to take no damage?) and seriously considering to take more duration from tree.. :D

I use it with Poison, Multistrike, and Faster attacks on my Growing Agony Viper Striker.

In addition to the damage that it does on its own, the extra 20 or so poison stacks it generates against bosses after a couple seconds is equivalent to a 160+% increased damage modifier for my own attacks.

All part of a balanced breakfast for mind blowing single target damage.

With Vaal Double Strike, my own attacks, CoC Blade Vortex, and poison Flame Totem, I figure I regularly hit 150-200 poison stacks (1200-1600% increased damage) against bosses in under 3 seconds. Which is about how long they last.

Is there any reason why it does so little damage by comparison to it's non-vaal counterpart or is the tooltip DPS just completely useless in gauging this gem?

I run a Double Strike / Vaal Double Strike set up. I'm lv 21 with no weapon-specific damage nodes, just generic Melee Phys Damage. I'm using a shiversting, and I'm noticing something REALLY fucking confusing.

My Double Strike attached to Melee Physical Damage and Melee Splash (one of these things having no impact on single target DPS) does 392.7 DPS without my Herald of Ash.

My Vaal Double Strike attached to Added Fire Damage (only 2% shy of the "More Phys"'s damage) does... 241.5.

Both skills are the same level (7), and thus both do the same amount of damage (74.8%), but yet DS does about 24-25% more damage per attack than VDS does after doing the math on the overall breakdown. Is there some sort of hidden Less Damage I'm not seeing or is the Tooltip just not gunna work on this skill at all just like it doesn't on Elemental Hit or Wild Strike?

Edit - Removing all support gems puts the skills at doing the same damage, but still showing about 100 less on VDS. Glad to see it doesn't do less damage per se but still confused by Tooltip being dumb.