Poacher's Mark

The life/mana on hit sounds like it could be very strong on a Cyclone build. Is it scaled by damage effectiveness?

Does the increased flask effect apply if my minions kill it?

Note: this is feedback I am trying to give. I am not intending to be mean. That is not the point of the review of the skill.
After making a build specifically designed around life gain on hit...I am most unimpressed. Like...the whole thing is so underpowered.

In order to get at much healing as a Vaal Pact Warlord's mark (11 hp/attack for poach, 6.9% * 40% = 2.76% for Warlord's) You need to deal as low as 400 damage for every attack. (0.0276*400 = 11.04).

Hell, a level 21 Poacher's mark has less life on hit than a level 36 white claw's implicit. That is sad. (In fact, I don't think you can get over that claw's implicit via Poacher's Mark's levels, the scaling is so damned low.)

Not even my LMP, GMP, Multistrike, Molten Strike does that little damage per hit (at least, according to what I assume the calculations are, as they are dealing more than 0 damage, and heal me when using Warlord's so the LESS multipliers aren't additive).

Only on supremely undergeared characters would this ever be an option (and even then, only in early game, as Warlord's just completely overtakes Poachers as soon as you get a decent damage item). This could be useful a niche build that attacks fast but does no actual damage, like explosive shot/quilrain.
But even then, I doubt 11 mana per hit is actually going to compare to the real cost of casting the shot.

Also, let's compare the other aspects to Warlord's. The charges. Arguably, these are of equal value based on your build. However, if you have enough attack speed to make this worth having, 15% additional attack speed really is not going to be near as useful as 12% damage reduction from everything but chaos damage.

Also? Less Evasion? Seriously? I guess it has it's niche purposes, and reducing evade chance to 5% could be nice, but in almost every build, this is utter trash. Even in PVP, it's not going to affect an evasion character as they will likely have other ways of avoiding your damage. (Say block, or dodge)
Warlord's Mark provides increase ability to stun, which is CC. This further increases your survivability, because things aren't hitting you as often.

That is INSANELY weak.
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What I suggest to be done: maybe increasing the life/mana gain on hit scaling by say, instead of +1 per 3 levels, +1 per 2 levels. This should still make it quite underwhelming, but allow it to kinda compete, and it isn't a large change (14 life/mana on hit at level 19, 15 at level 21).

To keep thematic, I would change the less evasion to crit chance, but....yeah, assassin's mark has you beat. Perhaps, to still keep thematic, have reduced damage reduction? Still not great but it's better for the vast majority of PVE content.
I would say, have it reduce the cursed ones' accuracy. This would add survivability without stepping on any other curse's toes.

Not really much you can do about the whole frenzy charge thing not being too incredibly worthwhile on a build that uses a curse like this without reworking the curse. Which....I like life on hit, and this is one of the few sources...virtually the only source at high levels.
Or, unless you were to swap Warlord's and Poacher's charges. But, unless you have Vaal Pact, more attack speed isn't going to increase your healing of of Warlord's Life leech, so that's likely a no go.

Has this changed in 2.00?

IT hasn"t change I believe, but with the huge blow life and mana leech have taken, this curse can solve a lot of mana problems while leveling. I've mostly relied on this curse tu sustain mana on my wild strike char, until I got a gemini claw. (and will probably leave it on cwdt).

With the new mana pots, the increased flask charges gained, give you nearly infinite mana pot uses. divine mana = 5/30 charges, so you gain a flask use every 3 ennemies you kill.

The less evasion part is not that gratifiying visually, but probably gives more dps, but does not justify using it over assassin's mark if you go crit.

So in the end, it is a nice defensive curse for non-crit non-RT fast attacking builds, wich are quite niche in the current meta.

This skill paired with blasphemy breathes new life into phys flicker strike.

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parapaparapa wrote:

This skill paired with blasphemy breathes new life into phys flicker strike.

And also to a lot of builds based on frenzy charges...
As blasphemy converts this to a 35% aura, say goodbye to spending time to cast somewhere at fight or to link onto curse on hit/cast on critical hit plus an attack to trigger it. The only problem is that you can't run with so many auras...

This curse is steadily becoming my favorite one. I'm tempted to use it on every build, but not quite enough to actually use it on every build. I think its power level is totally perfect: It gives accuracy and mana sustain to attack builds, and for all other builds it hugely buffs flask uptime (seriously, 100% flask charges is the difference between 50% uptime and 100% uptime, or 1 flask constantly or 2 flasks constantly). The Frenzy charges are just gravy, I don't like Blood Rage myself since I keep rolling VP+Abyssus chars...

So yeah. It doesn't feel mandatory like enfeeble+temp chains, but it's secretly even better than those in some circumstances, and just offers a lot of upside all around. A perfect curse.

i always use this curse in no regen maps when i play archer. works great to keep my life/mana up at all times. 100% increased flask charges is very useful on no regen maps as well.



useful little skill. 4/5 rating only because it is overshadowed by other curses in most situations.
i think if bloodrage wouldn't be such a good source of frenzy charges it would see more use.

Reduce the increased charges granted to 50% and make it apply at all times, for effects like "#% chance to gain charges on critical strike" or "recover 3 charges when you take a critical strike", or for pathfinder's charges gained per 3 seconds, etc.
The 100% is a bit overkill and barely matters in the current meta as we are clearing too many mobs at a time, at least most builds, so we get full charges of any flask very quickly, as long as we are kiling them... currently this is the worst of the 3 "charge gain"-curses and this small improvement would help greatly, specially for boss fights.

People would start using this curse instead of only Warlord/Asssassins.