Stygian Coal (Unique Item) Feedback

Acolyte
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It feels very underwhelming and clunky. Originally, Drain Life affects up to 3 targets at once but using Stygian Coal makes it only hit 1 target at once. It makes clearing much worse than it was without the unique item because it doesn’t pierce at all (more about this below).

Most of the damage multiplier in the Drain Life skill tree feels like it doesn’t even increase the DPS (I know it’s unreliable), there’s no damage increase in the tooltip. And when testing against the dummy, the only damage multiplier that worked was “Unholy Mass (3% more damage per damned stacks on the target, max: 63%)”. I can’t say about the other multipliers because it’s so tedious to respec, earn points back and go back to the training dummy just to see if the node works. And just to be clear, I have no issues with losing points when respeccing system. Anyways moving on…

Despite it being a “beam”, it doesn’t pierce at all. And the targeting is very inconsistent and awful. Sometimes it hits enemies behind my cursor, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it can kinda pierce, but also sometimes it doesn’t. I know I have to move my cursor near the enemy but it just feels very wrong since it’s a BEAM and it’s not like the beam gets cut off on hitting close enemies, it even goes through the targets visually. Unrelated but–visual stuff like this kinda take away the “impact” or “feels good to use/satisfaction” or “fun/awesome to use” feeling of the game.

↓Targeting sample video:

Not only that, “Contempt” doesn’t work despite the skill still counts as channeled. And “Grasp of the Damned (Dark Shackles can hit up to 10 additional targets)” node doesn’t work at all, there’s no target increase. And by having the Grasp of the Damned node also makes targeting awful like I said in my previous statement.

↓Grasp of the Damned targeting sample video:

These are some of my suggestions and I am not saying all of these should work. I am just merely giving ideas on how could it be improved since I really like this idea/concept of the unique item:

  1. Make it pierce targets or if not, make it hit 3 targets by default (Same as the original).
  2. Make the Grasp of the Damned work. I really think it would be cool and more fun to use it. It’s not like all 10-13 beams will hit the same target and would only trigger anyways if there are 10-13 targets nearby.
  3. Or make it do more damage and area PER targets affected if most of the passive nodes in the Drain Life tree wouldn’t work anyways, or having to code the item to be something like “Drain Life is ALWAYS channeled” despite having Grasp of the Damned node taken.
  4. Damage wise–I really can’t say much yet as I am very undergeared and underleveled (still Lv77 at the moment as of making this thread). But feels like it’s dealing too low damage. Maybe add more scaling tags to it. And this is my stats:

EDIT 1: Bone Curse’s “Cursed Ground” node visuals doesn’t change to necrotic color when converted to necrotic. Even its direct-cast visuals reverts back to being red despite converted when having that node taken. Please “fix” this too.

EDIT 2: I said “Maybe add more scaling tags to it”. Maybe add “Damage Over Time” tag scaling to the beam so it could work with Drain Life’s “Eternal Servitude (Wandering Spirits does not expire while channeling)” node.

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Edit: You should also post this in the Lich or Acolyte forum.

I want this build to work so bad since its so visually appealing. You make good points but also a major point would be to make Virulence change the actual beam damage to poison and allow it to apply poison stacks. That combined with making Grasp of the Damned work would allow this to instantly be a viable endgame build. It would be nice if it would pierce but I feel like thats asking alot and would want it to more work like how the Wraithlord’s beams work. Maybe just transfer his multi target code into the stygian beams I dunno.

Also a minor gripe of the weapon but just remove the channeling parts on it and make it on hit and even remove the ward per second as this build works best with death seal, lich and aura of decay. I know that would prob have to happen next cycle but just an idea.

Here is my take on the build if it were to have said changes:
Beam Lich

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Sadly the game doesn’t have “on hit poison damage” that isn’t DoT, like ever, none. If you look at Chthonic Fissure’s Pyrochasm node, you’ll notice that it will convert the “on hit” damage into Physical if you have Blood Gulch node. BUT it’s converted to necrotic for whatever reason if you have Valley of Defilement node which is supposedly Poison. So I don’t know how EHG would handle that. But yeah at least make the Beam’s hits apply status ailments which I think it doesn’t (I forgot already as I already scapped this coal build of mine).

And yes, first thing went my mind was Wraithlord’s beam when I mentioned piercing. I mean, why not? Not like we’re gonna hit 99999k damage with it even if it pierces. Besides, why kill the fun for your playerbase if you’re gonna make a very underwhelming unique items which also feels like very untested and they forgot what passives and skill nodes the classes have when they brought the item in the game. Sounds cool on paper but very lacking in terms of actual usage or just straight up impractical. The scaling is crap, the base damage is crap and this problem exists in many skill nodes too. There’s a lot to say about this. But yeah, the item itself has many problems with skill nodes interaction.

Also I looked at your build planner. I don’t think Eternal Servitude would work if your Drain Life isn’t channeled. But it doesn’t look so bad assuming you’re playing a “normal” version of Drain Life. What I mean by “normal” is without using Stygian Coal. And sure. I moved it under Acolyte forum section. Thanks for mentioning it.

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So, no change planned about this item?
it’s something i really hate about this game, he looks like a game with great build diversity, but often when i try build, things don’t work, are bugged or simply don’t deal enough damage.
It’s really disapointing for a game about building

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