I’m fairly certain this is ‘working as intended’ and isn’t a bug so I didn’t file it there. But, that said, it’s really a wonky way to play. It just doesn’t feel ‘right’ so to speak.
The node Hollowed Arsenal in Multistrike converts extra ‘swords’ into Smites. Cool.
However, Multistrike extra swords can’t hit the same target you hit with Multistrike. Fine.
Against single target enemies (like the dummy in the video) to get Smite to go off I have to literally “Attack the Darkness (Air)”. First part of video.
At about the :40 second mark I go to the dummy and attack it and all smites stop. Then move away again to Attack the Darkness™!
This just feels really, really strange and isn’t particular intuitive. I honestly don’t have an idea wha the solution would be, I’d say add something that allows Bosses and Rares to be hit by the Smites (it’s not really much of an issue with trash mobs because they Forge Weapons/Manifest Armor kill them fast enough) but when finding things like Dungeon Bosses or Mono bosses it feels really awkward to remember to NOT actually attack them in the middle of attacking them.
Well, maybe it’s the way it should be, but from outside it feels like it shouldn’t work that way. Multistrike should only give you swords when you hit stuff. Hitting air shouldn’t trigger that. At least from a “make sense” point of view.
However, if that were to be changed it would probably end up being a nerf, so I’m not sure what the solution would be.
Maybe fix it so that you need to hit stuff but remove the “can’t hit the same target” restriction.
I mean, the build doesn’t seem OP. Or maybe add some other balancing fix? But I agree that the air hitting doesn’t make much sense and is counterintuitive when playing. I’m sure that EHG doesn’t want to penalize us for hitting things.
Then again, Disintegrate build uses that as its core, so…
Yeah, that’s working as intended. I’m pretty sure the skill says the extra swords/etc can’t hit the original target. The unique Aurelis is the solution you are looking for.
This has been brought up many times since Multistrike was added. It is, afterall, Multistrike, not, MassiveNukeOnSingleTargetThatsFreeAndGeneratesManaOnHit.
It’s an AoE/clear skill, it’s not supposed to be a good single target.
I don’t use it for single target DAMAGE. That’s what my minions do. I use it generate healing (Smite speced all upper left quadrant.) And I’m totally fine if the FUNCTION of it isn’t changed really. Because I can make it work, as shown in the video.
What my main issue is the game play of using a MELEE skill that against single targets has functionality requiring you NOT to actually swing at it on-screen. It’s completely counter-intuitive. It’s sort of akin to telling a swimmer not to hold their breath when they stay under water.
This behavior is there since the introduction of Multistrike.
It was reported plethora of times, but I think there was never any direct response from a dev. So I assume that is how they want it to work.
I myself reported it, because it just doesn’t feel right.
But since Multistrike is not a skill I particularly care that much about I never really tried keeping this topic visible.
I think after the initial wave of people reporting it, these kind of feedbacks died down a little bit.
This behaviour appears in a few aRPGs over the years. I think it existed in D4 Hammer of Ancients Barb, whacking the air for the proc from a legendary Aspect doing vastly more damage
I played Aurelius Paladin to 85 and quit it solely due to this but it was my main DPS skill and wasnt fun against bosses
Yeah, I understand they don’t want it to be a single-target and I really don’t have an issue with that but it would be nice if they found something that felt more naturally in use.
On a side note, when single target bosses have adds they produce this isn’t a problem because there are enough other adds they continue to proc the smite keeping my minions and I healing.
I don’t know.
Maybe even a 1 pt node AFTER the smite node that says “Additional swords can now strike the same target but damage is reduced 5% for each additional sword strike up to a maximum reduction of 60%”
That’s just a spit ball though, I’m sure that might cause other balance issues.
I have a build that’s actually fun to play and I wanted to make another attempt at a build guide but this interaction is so wonky, I’m not sure many people would tolerate it.
I’m going to test the Aurelis sword but I’m pretty certain it’ll be a BIG nerf for my particular build because it’s my minions doing the damage and the loss of those stats on the sword for my MA will likely drop quite a bit. At least until I can find one with at 2 LP and then a good craft RNG.
You know, the more I’ve thought about it the more I think I’m asking for them to make an adjustment to it for a niche (and not intended) use of the skill. So adding something to it to compensate for that probably is not an appropriate suggestion unless they ever reconsider the purpose of the skill in general.
If I’m going to find some unique way to use a skill then it just is what it is and either learn to adjust to the ‘outlier’ of it or move on.
Since it can comfortably do 300 monos I’m going to still call it a success but with a ‘word of caution.’
Yup, that’s why they added a unique to do just this.
Also, a 5% increasing damage reduction would be a massive damage buff for single target (2.6x the damage of a single Smite just with 3 stacks rising to 4.05x with 5 stacks) not to mention the constant healing for 3x to 5x a single Smite.
I meant the PLAYERS damage. Not the targets. So YOU lose damage at the benefit of being able to proc smites against the target by actually hitting it instead of the air. If the context was that unclear just put a “YOUR” in there.
