Path of Lightning Spear?

With how the trajectory of this game is going (spark in 0.1 and now LS in 0.2), game should be called "Path of Lightning Projectile Skills"

I predict lightning strike with swords next league.

Wasnt it over 70% few weeks ago

Probably a little bit of both, welcome to EA, it will keep happening.

LS probably needs a minor nerf, but the real culprit is tangletongue. It's just way too common of an item for anybody to copy pasta a crit build and be OP. I expect tangletongue to be completely gutted next league.

It's essentially the pillar of caged god of 0.2. Except instead of stacking stats you're stacking crit. It's cheap, op, and literally anybody can do it without having to "work for it".

Tangletongue is effectively Paradoxica with 25% base crit.

Weapon locking skills was a mistake and is going to lead to never ending boring things like this every league.

New weapon type and a skill that mimics Lightning Fury from D2. It's to be expected.

I've been waiting for this skill for many decades.

honestly i suspect lighting spear is fine,
you have to think of the context, most players are playing amazon because its the new thing,
then you have to think that there really isn't alot of spear skills, most are "supports" or combo skills, there really is only like 5 main skills so "baseline" expected % would be 20%
then you have think that you can use multiple (look at storm lance which is used in most lightning spear builds) so the real "base line" is like 40%
finally put in mob mentaility aka the streamers said it was good so now i gotta try it so add like another 10%

combo all these together and i'd be surprised if it was much lower
TL:DR there are very few options, you can use multiple options and word of mouth make this rather the the balence

Path of fixing the "broken" builds to increase build diversity

path of nothing work correctly currently, they overkilled interactions.

Been running cold twisters in SSF. No complaints on clearing or bossing.

After they nerf LS into oblivion, this game will be more diverse and fun again right

I can't believe people are using the new skill gem on the new weapon that conjures up nostalgia but also is unbalanced 😉 

Been always sharing that whatever GGG did with the lightning skills (since 0.1) are too damn good not to abused. It can easily proc any other ailments / elements:

- Just add 20% of damage is cold gem + 50 chance freeze for Storm Wave and boom, easy freeze since GGG permanently disabled Glacial Cascade to have a percentage chance to freeze)

- This can also be done with any of the other chaos / elements using lightning to easy proc the ailment effects and the damage is still as good as it gets and is one of the cheaper alternative to trigger 2 elements at once

- Best part, lightning skills have some of the fastest, medium to long range and multi hit attack behavior in the game :)

Which brings me to my next point: Skill design in PoE2 is antifun, especially for huntress and warrior, due to mechanics, and many spells, due to low damage. Monk is peak PoE2 design, Deadeye is stuck in PoE1 but because that's what endgame is, is one of the most effective ascendancies in the game.

Since skill and skill gem design is my major complain currently, aside from the tree being gutted, boring, and neutered in comparison to the ridiculous power locked behind gear (which, when you upgrade it, doesn't come with a bunch of downsides, isn't that fun? just power increases from doing what you're supposed to do, instead of getting your nuts pinched every single time you choose a notable?)

Let's look at fangs of frost, your first melee spear skill. Does no damage, but, if you consume a parry charge, you get an ice nova. Is not a slam skill, is supported by virtually nothing useful. This here is ballsack design, this skill is useless beyond the first five minutes of campaign you are tricked into thinking parry is useful.

What Fangs of Frost could have been: on crit, stun, or when a parry charge is consumed creates a 100% of phys as cold aoe. Is a slam spear skill so can be supported by fist of war, warcries, and slam gems. Now you have a gem that is, effectively, spear glacial hammer, but only for crit builds, which all skills in the game are in their final forms because it's the only scaling that is truly supported, now that archmage is dead (lol, it lasted ONE league of the beta, nice job there GGG, real real good "balance"). You would have a dead skill that is now an AoE boomer, melee skill for the spear, to reward this in and out gameplay they're trying to force you into.

See also, Elemental sundering is a garbage active skill that should be a support gem. If it were attached to Huntress melee spear skills it would turn them into pay off skills that reward the player for what they're doing without adding an unnecessary buttons and another skill slot that they are already starved for in GGG's combo heaven vision, when you consider that your auras consume skill slots, which is ludicrous if three/four button skill rotations and situational skill usages is the Vision^(TM).

So, now, you have Fangs of Frost, a powerful slam spear skill usable by default, which is build enabled in a crit build, viable as of about your second ascendancy, about lvl45 to get to the accuracy spear nodes that make it somewhat consistent, in other words, useful as of mid Acts, an emergent build choice or way to make the skill viable post parry that gets you surrounded and killed and sucks because half the mobs and bosses use little else but unblockable/unparryable/undodgable aoe slams that one bang you or swarm in legions.

Your fangs of frost is now linked to elemental sundering support gem, which permits you to consume the freezes inflicted by your crit/parry charge for big aoe cold novas. But, because we're living in Visionland, you can also set up big combos with the explosivespear/stormspear combo to inflict ignite/shock, seismic/infernal cry, thundering leap onto the spears to set them off, inflicting the ailments, and Fangs of frost slam crits to create a huge triele nova. A combo that turns into a big ass melee elemental nova, good for deleting packs and paying off setting up on bosses utilizing the full range of GGG's idea for how huntress should play. it would rock as a combo skill.

And I'm over here as a detonate witch wondering why all of my gear is still way more expensive than it was last season but only 1% of people playing it

Still not as bad as 67% sentinels in last epoch

Oh yeah, my favorite game Path of LS (Lightning Spear/Lightning Strike)

I'm playing thorns warrior and smashing t15, but yes, I have a deadeye tangletongue build that wipes screens and pinnacles and it's disgusting

Shows that at least 53% of players want a one button screen deleting build.

Its early access. Half the skills aren't in the game and the only people playing are the ones who are addicted to the next best thing. Of course it's gonna be the majority.

Wait til game releases.

Its funny how exact same topic in LE sub regarding Sentinel been played by 48% is praised by fans. In Poe2 playing new class is a fail and poor design. Reddit moment.

Needs a big nerf. All other skills are fine.

Lightning spear needs serious nerfs and it should've been done immediately, not until the next league.

If everything else didnt feel like shit to play…

Been like that since 1.5 weeks into league

Minor nerf yes. But GGG should focus on buffing other skills then so that such a majority do not feel obligated to go to this. The other elements in general just feel worse than lightning too, give me fire buffs please lol.

You can make lightning spear work with a dozen exalts. When players only have a dozen exalts it’s a clear winner. 

It needs a nerf. The bigger balance issue is with defences tho. 20k Energy shields vs 3k life. Guess whos getting one shotted every single time. It doesnt make any sense why ES has to go so high. Chaos Inocilation should be the ES stacking mega build. Others shouldnt reach those highs and the game should be more balanced between HP and ES. Way easier to balance then. Other games dont have such huge problems within player defences, I hope they really look into this and find a good solution

i ask people on other game..do u play poe2?..if they say yes..its always continue with i play lightning spear..its so funny..that some build diversity right there..game so easy ppl only 1 build to have fun with it

can confirm it’s busted. got my 4th ascension with it 2nd time ever seeing the boss with mediocre gear.

Path of fubgun?

Definitely other skills need a buff. Lightning spear is a good baseline of what all decent builds should be able to past campaign.

The problem is the tree... It is way too advantageous for ranged characters. It just makes sense. And you can generate frenzy easily from lightning skills compared to others.

As someone who hosts many many super juiced full party deli maps which have a wide variety of builds teamed up together, lightning spear is consistently and always the only skill still capable of one shotting entire screens. And I’m certain many of those players aren’t exactly playing high investment builds. It’s a bit overtuned, bros.

Edit: I won’t ever play it myself in this state, I don’t like being a part of the brain dead herd mentality, but I’m aware it’s not just the LS skill itself. Things like tangletongue and the volt support are likely big reasons it’s over-performing and out-performing everything else in sheer instant screen clearing power.

Where's rake at cause it's cracked out too.

Tbh I started this patch trying to do a bleed build. Shit sucked found a lightning spear build and was having fun. Personally, the issue I have is that I feel like I can’t do what ever build I want without feeling punished

You guys need to try strength stacking with rake on a warrior cause it's just as powerful

Wonder what class distribution looks like now. I wish i could pick any skill in the game and make it viable at every point in the game, like a frost bomb to be able to nuke bosses after overinvesting or something like that. And not being a hostage of meta (otherwise you spend unreasonable amount of time to catch up)

So what I've learned so far, is on whatever new stuff they release, pick lightning abilities and I'm golden :D

I feel like there are so few builds in total as well, so that doesnt help.
If you play Mace then how many builds are there? 1/3rd of your available skills are on your bars so how much variations can there be.

In PoE 1 you have a main skill and the rest is to support that skill. I feel this is not so much the case in PoE 2. It feels more like playing a Diablo class, where your playing a class (weapon) instead of a skill, which was always one of PoE 1's biggest strengths for me.

Oh noes people are having fun.. quick nerf everything because I'm stuck in story mode and if I can't have fun no one else can either .. smh

I started as lich and was having fun with it. But it's just too damn slow in maps.

Not enough loot dropping and low movement speed took the fun out of the lich.

Ended up re-rolling deadeye LS just to clear maps at a reasonable pace.

How many other new classes this season? Kinda explains the vast majority being lightning spear as it is the best skill on a new class.

I will remain that Lightning spear is doing exactly what it is supposed to do (zoom for maps, it's not good for single target, you need another skill for that) and such shouldn't be nerfed. Lightning spear is not too strong, the rest is too weak.

I don't see a problem with a skill being good at clearing but lacking single target, just as I don't see a problem with a skill being bad at clearing but being great for single target. Lightning spear makes the game feel fun in endgame and enables you to do the necessary grind. With lightning spear loot almost feels sufficient, while it doesn't with every other build.

Well not everything is Lightning Spear, but sadly a lot play it. It just has an insanely fast clear.

Lots of great skills out there. Lightning arrow/lightning rod is blasting. A ton of fun fast mapping and I don’t even have my rhoa yet.

I mean what do you expect? It’s the new class. New skills. Brings back D2 players Javazon nostalgia. Is maybe, slightly, over tuned. Is satisfying as fuck. Fast. Good clear speed. Decent bossing. 

I miss 0.1.0 we could choose from multiple skills on the same level as current LS... or it was just double heralds but...

Yeah, such a disappointing joke.

Let me know when there's decent build diversity.

No, I don't want to play SSF.

Yes, I like to join parties or play with my small circle of poe mates.

No, I don't enjoy being in a party and not getting to kill anything as the LS horde wipes the screen before I get close.