I have a build running in 0.9 using Umbral Blades with the Sword Thrower node as well as the Precision Cuts node and the Loathing node.
When I throw Umbral Blades, the location of the bladestorm that generates after the sword throw arrives at its location seems to be different (sometimes significantly) from what would be expected. From my observations, this appears to be relative to the distance of the location from the player. The further the targeted location, the worse the observed effect, to around 20-25% longer travel distance than should have been applied.
To recap the nodes at the time of this post:
-
Sword Thrower converts the daggers into a single sword which then spins in the location as an AoE until it is recalled.
-
Precision Cuts sets the throw location to be based on the player’s cursor (target location) instead of the maximum distance they would normally be thrown at.
-
In addition, I have the Loathing node which allows the bladestorms that get left by Sword Thrower to slowly track enemies. I mention this node in case it has any relevance as it does impact the location of the bladestorm over its life. However, I’ve done quite a few tests with no monsters in the area so I am certain that this is not an issue of this node’s intended effect impacting results.
What I would expect to happen: The bladestorm should, in my opinion, be centered at the cursor position at the time of cast, when it has arrived. When I allocated these nodes the wording of each of them combined gave me an expectation that the “eye” of the bladestorm would be where the cursor was when it was cast.
What I observe happening: When the bladestorm is targeted close to the character, the eye appears to be close to the cursor at the time of cast, but is always off-center. It is never exactly center. The further away from the character the bladestorm is targeted, the worse this effect gets.
In some scenarios, the bladestorm will appear so far away from the cursor position that the bladestorm doesn’t touch it in any capacity. When my character is standing still, the location appears to be constant, as in the position seems to be calculated consistently, but the location it determines seems to be incorrect. Terrain height differences also appear to have no impact, as I was writing this report I tested it on inclines and saw no observable difference.
When I target the far ends of the screen, the bladestorm will spawn off screen. I can leave about 10% of the screen on the sides for my cursor, and still generate bladestorms off screen entirely. Arguably the only reason it doesn’t go further than I’ve observed is because the skill appears to have a maximum travel distance and it get stopped from going further.
I’ve uploaded the video below to help detail this issue.
Additionally, below is the full tree allocation I was using for this video.
As an aside, if you haven’t already, I really recommend this allocation for the skill, it’s lots of fun.