The hardest content in the game requires reliable resistance reduction application to the adjacent targets for melee because otherwise you risk of having no leech against the resistant enemies you are hitting.
Thermite Mines and Wind Devils are lacking in that regard. Both of them don’t apply RR instantly on cast (which is natural) but they also have other big issues. Wind Devils are known for their headstrong behavior when they can fly off to some trash mobs instead of staying at Grava infront of them. Every time i play melee with Wind Devils i end up maniacally pressing “pet attack” because othrewise i just die to resistant enemies.
But i wanted to focus more on Thermite Mines. Here is a video:
I’m placing mines under my char and they can’t reach a target in melee range. Same thing happens in the fight: you attack an enemy and place the mines under them, but other enemies stay unaffected by RR.
This is the char: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZwEORq2
It’s much sturdier than i usually have. It has all boxes checked (effective DA is over 3k) as well as 4 safe abilities. And the dmg is very high on paper. Yet it often dies in Crucible and when it doesn’t the time is closer to 7 minutes in my hands.
Warlord with basically the same items (including the same weapon) is a 6 min build and it only dies to Grava (although it dies constantly to Grava and to him alone). All that despite being more squishy and having less dmg on paper.
I’ve tried a lot of builds with the mines and the only two chars where i felt comfortable with the skill were based on Infernal Knight set (bonus to radius) and Cyclone set (bonus to summon limit), both are casters, of course.
I don’t have a solution. Maybe increase the range and decrease the dmg on the mines? What do you guys think?
Demo has an autoattack skill and two transmuters for melee, as well as quite a few melee weapons supporting the mastery. But playing melee demo was mostly unpleasant experience for me and only really worked when i had a strong RR skill from another mastery.
I wouldn’t decrease the damage but increase the range by a little may be good… Now being melee in theory it should be easier to do that but as you point out it’s still tough because anyone not standing on it dosn’t get affected… Maybe they could make the RR like a bloody pox ability… I don’t mean damage but maybe the RR… Could that be done?
I’d love that but i doubt it can be done. Stll mines are pets… Lets wait for someone informed to answer.
I’d also love them to be permanent and more… intelligent. But then you’d have to cut their dmg severely, because it can’t be a full blown dmg dealer, perfect procer and perfect utility. And then the builds that focus on Wind Devil dmg would get hurt, so
Honestly, if it is at all possible, i’d love to have a toggle in the settings: “pets always attack the last target” that would make at least one pet attacking your current target.
Almost the same items. The mastery isn’t supported by the weapon nor it has any AoE or attack speed. Yet i’ve finished Crucible in under 6mins with Grava and shattered mutator and no issues whatsoever. I reckon it’ll be even better in SR with the seal. Goes to show how lacking the mines are.
Wishful thinking would be a Mod or Transmuter that made them permanent but at the cost of their damage so that it could be effectively used for both aspects as needed, but GD2 getting released is probably more closer to becoming reality than any changes like a Transmuter at this point, I suppose
+1 for bigger radius for the cost of damage. Infernal Knight builds stack insane damage on Mines alone thanks to radius and damage mods and they don’t really that radius as much as melee builds do.
The technical (or design issue) where RR from Mines is applied only after a second (or was it half-second?) is also quite a bit annoying especially if you need to start leeching properly right there and then (when playing melee).
Also when you play with Sand Devils from relic they are noticably faster than Wind Devils. Increase in their movement speed is the most needed. I don’t have any issues with Thermite mines. Seem OK to me. The worst RR skill in the game by far is the Devouring Swarm.
