Lightning Strike - weak/inferior skill?

- used as a projectile skill, it's similar to ST. Has built in LMP instead of built in Pierce. High STR requirement makes it difficult to build on the projectile/DEX side of the tree that has pierce and all the nice crit, suggests this should be efficient with RT - but going RT takes away the main advantage of lightning damage, shock. Nodes like Static Blows are just too far away from RT and weapon/phys nodes, and crit ST can also shock with Phys to Lightning.
- should be able to double as a melee single target skill for a projectile user, but this is not realistic when modded for projectile clearing (LMP/GMP, Pierce/Chain, PPAD).
- used primarily as a melee skill with some added crowd control, Molten / Static / Ice Crash are simply just better.

In short, it seems to me there are better options for both a projectile weapon skill and a melee weapon skill than LS. Makes sense almost nobody uses this skill, hoping for a small improvement in its mechanics to make it stand out as a unique skill.

The main reason Lightning Strike is unpopular is because it's a ground projectile, it gets blocked by ledges, boxes, pebbles and coke cans. Other than that, the skill is decent, damage and range are very good and it has no weapon restrictions, if they make projectiles flying or at least enable them to bounce around like sparks it would probably be popular again.

Is not that bad but is annoying to press shift while u atack everytime IMO (if you dont, the exile walk to where the mouse is)

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marco150 a écrit :

Is not that bad but is annoying to press shift while u atack everytime IMO (if you dont, the exile walk to where the mouse is)

yes i agree.

Probably the longest range of the melee attacks, although it could be outclassed by spectral throw...somewhat.

It's really useful if your build is too paper. Shift Attack allows you to thin out mob packs before you jump in to kill. Has a melee component to scale with your other melee modifiers, unlike spectral throw.

Well, there's also the problem that LS has set angles to it, which really restricts its use as a real projectile skill too. ST you can toss off at varying arcs depending on what you need at the time, but LS fires at set angles, meaning you've got to really position yourself perfectly to hit more than one target at a distance (not to mention the hitbox width of the ST projectiles is much more forgiving than LS's).


Personally, I think LS's projectile should automatically fire off in the direction of nearby enemies... they shouldn't curve or anything like that, but their initial heading should be directed at chosen enemies in front of the user, rather than being tied to rigid preset angles.




As for the whole 'RT would be nice, but it defeats the purpose of lightning damage for shocks'... well, frankly crit shouldn't be tied to status effects anyway. Status effects SHOULD be derived from supports and skills and passives/gear, critting should absolutely not be the most practical way to apply status ailments while also being the general best form of damage scaling. Maybe if there were a keystone that enabled crits to auto-apply status ailments with some substantial downside it'd be acceptable, but right now the fact that crits guarantee statuses with absolutely no tradeoff is a joke. Anyway, the point is that the no-shock-with-RT shortcoming of LS isn't because of LS itself, it's because of a poorly designed status ailment system.

Lightning strike is pretty awesome for crit builds when combined with herald of ash. The projectiles pierce and go offscreen and burn everything. Its pretty insane for clear speed, definitely better than molten/static. It's also one of the best skills to use while clearing apex/abyss.

The bad thing is that outside of that context(crit + HoA ele prolif) its a pretty shitty skill.


Edit: Just remembered, also works with any high dps 2h weapon(eg disfavour).

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Shppy a écrit :

Personally, I think LS's projectile should automatically fire off in the direction of nearby enemies... they shouldn't curve or anything like that, but their initial heading should be directed at chosen enemies in front of the user, rather than being tied to rigid preset angles.

I don't think you would like that, imagine playing a range character and some enemy using LS attacking your golem or a melee buddy, you'd get autotargeted and bolts can't miss if the melee attack hit so you'd most likely get shredded in mine or precinct maps.

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raics a écrit :

The main reason Lightning Strike is unpopular is because it's a ground projectile, it gets blocked by ledges, boxes, pebbles and coke cans. Other than that, the skill is decent, damage and range are very good and it has no weapon restrictions, if they make projectiles flying or at least enable them to bounce around like sparks it would probably be popular again.