Heavy strike, it exists but it doesn't.

Been playing for a few years now, all my characters are life based melee. Gladiator, Slayer, Champ, Assassin, Berserk..etc you name it.
Crit, non-crit, unarmed, I believed I have tried almost every melee skills.
And Heavy Strike stands out to be...the worst of all case.
It is (i believe) one of the oldest skills in Poe, and so every time i put it in use, I feel like playing patch 1.3 (when I first joined), very classic, yet has no place in the meta that came afterward.

Why?

It has to be linked with melee splash (most of the case) in order to work as map clearing skills, or put in Kitava's feast axe, or Slayer node (Impact).
When it comes to Kitava's axe, people would go infernal blow, as much as i've seen, 90% of them would.
And as a Slayer, most melee builds will prefer stun+bleed immunity and reduced phys (Brutal Fevour and Headsman) over Impact.

So lets just put in melee splash skill gem and go with it?
Sure, Heavy Strike+ Melee Splash+ and other attack/ area support skills.
Lets say we have a 5L, it'll be HS + Splash + Phys/Wed + Multistrike+ Faster attack/ AOE
And the funny thing is, when we swap in Conc Effect for heavier single target dps output, it doesnt work. Because Conc effect increases the damage of AOe skills, which is melee splash in this case, which has no dps on it.

Now let's just put in Sunder, Sunder + multi + melee phys + faster attack + inc AOE/conc effect. Things are so much more flexible and simple.

But, what if there's an exile who still wants to put it to work (like me) and bypass those gem slots drawback? How does it feel playing Heavy Strike?

It feels absolutely garbage (in my humble opinion) thanks to Melee Splash. The AOE isn't visible, and even with Slayer AOE nodes, I always miss one or two monsters in a pack. And for every attempt to clear a pack, I will always end up clicking a few more times than other non Melee Splash skills. In other words, it is harder to manage a "stationary" attack like Sunder, where we can stand still and target the ground instead of the monsters, hence, Heavy Strike provides much less control, and will very regularly make me misstep.

And then there's knockback mechanic. 100% knock back on hit. Which means, if I don't kill the monsters in one go, I will have to (again) walk toward them, which put me in positions I do not desire.

How about the unique glove Empire Grasp? Reverse knock back that makes the character work like a vacuum cleaner?
I've tried them, multiple times, it feels much easier for heavy strike. But the glove has no attack speed, no accuracy, no life and resist, just a bunch of Armour and reverse knock back, it is so undesired that anyone can get for 1c on trade. Plus, wearing that glove almost certainly defines the build as non crit.

Okay, how about the unique jewel Weight of the Empire? Wearing two of them will grant 40% to deal double damage?
It is nice, but not too nice for the cost of two jewel sockets (approximately 5-6 skill points), when I can get 8% increased maximum life, increased melee damage/ whatever else I need, stats, resist, etc.

And at this point, after using all that can make Heavy strike feel better, I realize I can just put in groundslam with Rapid Expansion jewels and achieve a faster clear speed with very visible effects.
Or simply Sunder all the way with even more flexibility.

How about 1h heavy strike?
Nothing pass Blade Flurry in terms of generic melee skills for one handed weapons. I mean nothing.

Is Heavy Strike at least viable for end game contents?
No, not that I know of, I've searched all over and people who make heavy strike builds demonstrate it in a tier 13 Gorge map.

How about the dps comparing to other melee skills?
I tried on SLayer, Beserker, Juggernaut with full ascendancy points and decent generic melee gears (both crit and non crit), It does not feel significantly different in terms of single target dps.

So? Why heavy strike? besides the sole reason that someone personally likes it so much and does not care about clear speed or boss killing?

Maybe, with the new bleed and DOT change in 3.0 (I don't know how lol), someone will put it in action again to see if it's worth playing, otherwise, this skill is pretty much dead.

All thoughts are welcome.

IIRC, Chris once said that figuring out which gems are good and which are not so good is part of the desired poe-experience.
Could have been an lazy excuse for not wanting to balance them out.

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MinasMorgul a écrit :

IIRC, Chris once said that figuring out which gems are good and which are not so good is part of the desired poe-experience.
Could have been an lazy excuse for not wanting to balance them out.

And so the not so good gems that are dead or dying are :

Heavy strike, Double strike, Glacial hammer, puncture, Vigilant Strike.

Basically no one wanna touch Melee Splash.

I wonder if the double damage from Weight of the Empire is applied to Bleeding, too.

I think part of the reason they keep certain skills bad is because they work best as early game skills that are supposed to be replaced by skills that have more, better inherent abilities as part of RPG progression. Going from Heavy Strike to Molten Strike or Ground Slam is kind of like leveling up in a way while still keeping the possibility of making a build around them if you REALLY wanted to.

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VolcanoElixir a écrit :

I think part of the reason they keep certain skills bad is because they work best as early game skills that are supposed to be replaced by skills that have more, better inherent abilities as part of RPG progression. Going from Heavy Strike to Molten Strike or Ground Slam is kind of like leveling up in a way while still keeping the possibility of making a build around them if you REALLY wanted to.

Well, we can choose molten strike at level 1, and it requires 1 socket, or ground slam to get level 12 and take Sunder to level 80+, at least that's what i do, and what most people do in races. Heavy strike just stands out as the worst choice at all scenarios.

I do agree that skills like Glacial Hammer and Heavy Strike are "Twilight Strand only" skills :P

I think it is good that their are skills for early game and late game
Maybe the weak skills should get a buff in early game

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bananapanama1 a écrit :

Been playing for a few years now, all my characters are life based melee. Gladiator, Slayer, Champ, Assassin, Berserk..etc you name it.
Crit, non-crit, unarmed, I believed I have tried almost every melee skills.
And Heavy Strike stands out to be...the worst of all case.

Naive. You've not tried elemental hit yet. I assure you as bad as heavy strike may appear to you, elemental hit is just broken, no other way to describe it. There is no real way to fix it unless you're very very skilled.

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bananapanama1 a écrit :

And so the not so good gems that are dead or dying are :

Heavy strike, Double strike, Glacial hammer, puncture, Vigilant Strike.

Basically no one wanna touch Melee Splash.

As I see it, both Double Strike and Heavy Strike are good single target skills if kept in a 5/6L. The problem in my eyes, is Melee Splash. Few builds can afford an own 5/6L single target setup. I think Melee Splash could use a little single target love. Maybe more damage with less enemies nearby.