Currently, Multistrike is in a really weird spot where it feels very bad to use in some situations and utterly fantastic in others. Chiefly, it feels terrible to use single target. Also, even if you have multiple targets, if you hit them all with the swing part, the swords will fail to come out.
I have a simple suggestion for a fix. When Multistrike is on your bar, you could have a simple line of code which designates the monster closest to you as the “primary target.” When hitting with Multistrike, swords will prioritize all enemies except the primary target, rather than the current logic used which prioritizes enemies that weren’t hit by the swing.
Furthermore, a node could be included that allows swords to hit the primary target at reduced damage (how much of a reduction would be necessary for balance could be tweaked.) The node could be mutually exclusive with the Smite node, and Aurelis could continue to be used for this purpose.
One very simple change that would make multistrike feel a lot better is to be able to disable autoaim so that you could miss the main attack on purpose.
Then you won’t get any armament stack which is an important part of Multistrike.
I do think Multistrike needs some tweaking. It seems like Multistrike is designed to work with other skills, but Multistrike itself is not very decent IMO.
Well yeah. But sometimes (especially when using it to cast smite) you might have armament already built up or be fighting a single enemy with the talent that gives you a sword on 0 stacks and would rather have the main strike not hit.
Imo, making it easier to miss with Multistrike is an awkward band-aid. You shouldn’t need to miss with the skill to make it work. Aurelis also doesn’t quite fix the issue, as it only works against rares and bosses, meaning you still need to hardcast Smite against trash. Also, it only functions for the Smite variant. It’s a minor gripe, but a gripe nonetheless.
When adding Aurelis, I assume it originally did work on trash, but they found that it was casting Smite on every target hit by the swing portion of Multistrike and was simply too insane with how many particle effects were being generated. That’s just speculation, but it was part of the reason I suggested having Multistrike designate a primary target.
