Molten Strike

How does flat fire damage, like from Anger, influence the damage of the balls? I expected they were based on the total fire damage of the initial attack so you could scale using melee phys or flat fire damage, but I haven't been able to find anything that says so definitively. If I toss on an Anger aura, does it increase the damage of the balls like you'd expect?

Yes, flat damage works for the projectiles, as well. They essentially deal a % of the damage of the initial hit (well, it's not the same damage, it's projectile, not melee, etc), and as such will benefit from mostly the same things.

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Vipermagi wrote:

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UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

They essentially deal a % of the damage of the initial hit (well, it's not the same damage, it's projectile, not melee, etc)[..]

More accurately, they are simply calculated like any other Projectile Attack - it's entirely separate from the melee swing, and has its own set of Damage modifiers. Being an ordinary Attack, it benefits from +Damage to Attacks as expected. Because they are calculated separately, they do not benefit from Melee-specific modifiers (as mentioned).

Okay, that's what I thought - it's basically two weapons attack skills in one. So it should also benefit from weapon bonuses like other projectile attacks? Thinking of 'elemental damage with attacks' support, or Lava Lash notable effect 'damage with weapons penetrates 8% fire resistance'.

As a huge fan of this skill, I have to say it is way too strong right now and everyone knows it. That said, I really hope that when this skill gets rebalanced that it doesn't get destroyed mechanically. One of the things that makes this skill so cool is that fact that it is mechanically unique. Its ability to shotgun could be seen as the biggest problem, and in a way it is. That said, that's kind of what makes molten strike be molten strike. So rather than remove shotgunning, I have been trying to come up with other solutions so that molten strike can continue to have its unique and enjoyable flavor without being quite so overpowered.
Option 1: cut the damage of projectiles by ~1/3 (make it have a 60% damage penalty for projectiles instead of a 40% damage penalty). This has the advantage of keeping the skill balanced on both standard and new leagues. It also leaves the skill firing tons of projectiles which is very enjoyable to look at.
Option 2: reduce the number of additional projectiles it gets. Reduce the extra projectiles on the jewel to 1, and reduce the additional projectiles on the helm enchant to 1 at merciless and 2 at eternal labs. This solution might not be enough by itself and might still need a bit of a numbers change, but it does have its own advantages. The advantage of this one is that it makes the difference between the vanilla skill and the skill with jewels and enchant be not so dramatically different. This can especially help to narrow the gap between the wealthy(or lucky) who have the enchant and those who do not.
Alternatively, you could remove shotgunning, but that would still leave you with a broken skill which you'd have to dramatically increase the projectile damage to keep it relevant and it would destroy the unique flavor of the skill.
Overall, I don't know what solution is best. I just wanted to share some of my ideas and feedback. I hope that it helps. Keep up the great work, GGG balance team! We appreciate all you do, even if some vocal minority says otherwise sometimes.

Despite of majority saying that this skill is super broken,i have to disagree.As a veteran poe player(4,5years of poe) this is by far the most balanced skill and the most decent skill for new players(its super noob friendly).Yes with gear investment,like dozens of exalts you can make the build to melt everything from end game in seconds but that works with any skill pretty much.There are skill out there who dosen't need super investment and still performs by a mile better than molten strike.Consider that you shoud not change ms for the moment and rework/change other skill that are in a very poor state for years.

"Now requires that you hit an enemy in order to produce projectiles,..."

-JUST TOTALY WRONG!

that skill feels dead, no fun.

rework it!

Congratulations, you've once again utterly gutted something I enjoyed playing in your game.

Melee is now completely dead imho especially with this destroyed skill.

What is the point of an ARPG when you can't even play the game to the very end with melee?

MS with LGoH was one of the few surviving melee that could actually handle end game bosses, now that its gutted, it's no longer viable.

Just remove melee altogether and create a new genre called "Meta-Nuke Speed Rush Clear Maps".

Especially with all the crap you've designed to attack you at range off-screen, melee is crap in this game as it currently stands.

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argenex wrote:

Congratulations, you've once again utterly gutted something I enjoyed playing in your game.

Melee is now completely dead imho especially with this destroyed skill.

What is the point of an ARPG when you can't even play the game to the very end with melee?

MS with LGoH was one of the few surviving melee that could actually handle end game bosses, now that its gutted, it's no longer viable.

Just remove melee altogether and create a new genre called "Meta-Nuke Speed Rush Clear Maps".

Especially with all the crap you've designed to attack you at range off-screen, melee is crap in this game as it currently stands.

You must be trolling? If not, let me know. I play nightly and will happily help you learn this game.