Vaal Glacial Hammer

very short feedback:

there is something 'not right' with the whole concept. for a hefty cost the dmg is irrelevant (typical scaling as with all other melee gems). main point of this skill is the frost wall

but..

desync causes frostwall to appear in different place than one thinks it should. it put me off immediately from using it.

second - duration is.. almost-ok. it is in that weird spot when you know it is not enough to be 'wow, useful' but on the other hand buffing it significantly means creating something broken (Tested with and without Inc Duration)

also - there are just few scenarios when locking a monster down is a good idea - fast+proxShield snake (vaal boss) + maybe some other bosses that run away

issue with that is that.. if you are specced into vaal glacial hammer there is a good chance you are specced into GH, too. and this means that it is probably easier to freeze said boss than to hit is for 4 seconds with frost wall

inc aoe/conc effect work with it. same as inc duration.

suggestion - add 'area within the wall chills enemies'

+100 To the add chill within it.

Sidtherat brings up many of the points I wanted to say.

This skill is just a giant troll when it comes to party play. All you do is use it over and over on your friends and it can get them into dangerous situations.

Knockback makes the mobs push out of the circle so it becomes utterly pointless to use if you have knockback. (IE never use heavy strike for single target)

The mobs are hardly even get locked into the circle. Duration is fairly short too, even with inc duration.

As of right now I just use it to mess with my friends.

Chilled ground would make it semi more useful, still doesn't seem all that "Vaal Powerful" compared to all the other gems that you could use instead.

I like the suggestion of adding some sort of effect within the circle.

I love the effect on the circular frost wall, but am left feeling, "so what?" about its gameplay functionality. Currently I'd rather use something like Coldsnap as a utility than this - the duration is too short and the effect too small for it to be worth spending valuable sockets on.

This is a mediocre 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 skill doesn't offer much in the damage department, but is trying to provide some utility. However, despite a nice design concept, it fails to impress.

I think the key to improving this skill is improving the wall. Frost Wall has weaknesses; remove the weaknesses from this gem. Make it stop piercing projectiles; make it impassible for thrown traps, flying monsters, and Leap Slammers; make it impossible for Knockback to send a monster through the wall. This would add to the "one versus one" feel of the gem, and could be used in some interesting ways (such as preventing Temple/Shrine Piety's Lightning Balls from interfering with your battle).

I wanted to wombo combo with some people I do maps with by using Vaal Spark in conjunction with this ability... spark doesn't look like it bounces off the wall it seems like it just gets absorbed.

Edit: No spark does not bounce off the ice wall. Disappointing.

Vaal Glacial Hammer + Tormented Spirit = Tormented Spirit passes through the wall


Very disappointing.

Is this a joke?