The values of seal are good. Melee skips it not because the skill is bad but because the gameplay has changed. At least in Crucible it has changed drastically.
After the aggro fix mosters now rush you all at the same time - and cast their area debuffs all at the same time. So most often than not standing in a seal for melee is straight up detrimental despite huge absorb.
AFAIK for SR farm seal was always a steep investment for melee because of long cooldown. You basically only get to use it in boss rooms - and even then itās hard to say what is better, mobility or arborb.
Lack of access to flat is a huge problem for several dmg types in general, not just for Inquisitor.
Thereās at least 3 facets of Inquisitor Seal we can discuss to see if itās up to the current āmeta (meaning the same small group of Crucible speedrunners approve of it)ā standards:
Do melee builds which use Bonemongerās for the Inquisitor Seal bonuses get a noticeably better performance using it compared to picking a more standard build - something like Elemental Apostate or Elemental anything with Inquisitor in it?
Are there (non-Infiltrators) that can even use the equipment that provides bonuses to Seal and Arcane Empowerment to their fullest potential? Usually itās either Cold with these pants, or Panettiās with Spellgaze and this belt. Otherwise, itās just way too many skillpoints spread thin between WoR and Inquisitor Seal, and the racial bonuses and secondary resistances from the WoR line are much better than Sealās flat damage, small absorption, and Crit.
Iāve tried combining Seal with other forms of absorption like in this Runic Bolts Purifier and guess what? It doesnāt matter that you can absorb a lot of things with Blast Shield if stuff like SR75 Reaper OHKOās you so you donāt even get to use Blast Shield.
High SR has become either killing things before they can hurt you or having enough passive damage that you can run and heal yourself, but not lose a lot of DPS while doing so. Inquisitor Seal is the antithesis of what SR and Crucible now require.
Even before the aggro fix some infiltrators skipped seal because of this and the cooldown issue. Especially on shadow strike builds. Also even on maxed seal builds you donāt generally see maxed empowerment.
Taking crazy pills over here because I still heavily invest in seal if Iām inquisitor. To be fair Iām usually playing ranged and in SR which does get benefit of shooting further away targets from inside my safety blanket. No, it doesnāt single handedly save you from single big hits anymore, but it absolutely still ignores aoe abilities stacked to the moon under your feet and any papercuts while the pack goes down. The increased duration has meant I can sit in one, cast the next, and dash between the two on ouchy targets if I need to reposition. Even on melee or melee ranged skills (looking at you foi) itās very easy to plop down a seal, WoP/boombox aggro a giant crowd, and murder them as they come your way while ignoring anything that doesnāt have single big hits.
Totally understand not taking it in modern crucible because no one has time to sit in place when speed records are at play, but thatās a hyper niche use case
Honestly this reads like player damage has scaled too far. It doesnāt help on big targets that donāt immediately melt, and itās not needed on smaller packs because they disappear instantly to a now very large collection of hit and run options.
Empowerment Iād agree is niche. I normally only heavy invest if I am converting to a single damage type
Itās real simple folks: you have spare points, you invest in it; if you donāt - you donāt. Also doesnāt make any sense taking it on high mobility builds like Shadow Strike, Vireās Might, etc.
Arcane Empoverment has pretty bad returns unless you convert, yes, but not too bad if compared to Mogās Pact and Rebuke.
Alright, getting back to the main topic at hand because I feel this thread has gone way off course and as much as I like drama, I have questions and curiosities for the Crucible runner crowd.
@afanasenkov26 Yes but as your original post was aimed at Tactician, I have to ask if you think the 140 Elemental damage to Field Command on Soldier + 60 Elemental damage on death from DWing Malakorās Infusion compensates for this? And yes, while another combo like Witchblade could run away with this, the same weapon also pushes +6 to Censure and 16 Elemental RR so it does reinforce the Soldier + Inquisitor pairing quite nicely.
And if itās not enough. What is?. Serious question because I and I think a lot of people consider those bonuses quite big even if it is to one of the worst damage types.
I dunno actually what is enough. Despite the bonuses look solid, the timings are very bad.
But maybe Iāll test it myself soon abd post the results.
and Malakors could surely ger some buff. maybe changing the weapon to scepter with ele base and give it a mod with 50% phys -> ele conversion to Field Command.
also +1 to Demo here makes no sense at all, better replace it with Soldier/Inq.
Cadence being good skill on its own, not only when itās supported with omegacharged WD from cold or pierce. Cadence absolutely needs charge dmg increased from 100%, itās long, long overdue.
Here is fun fact for you. @supertolik made cold BM with Dreadweavers, with Cadence and Beronathās Fury. Beronath won despite the fact that Cadence has strong amulet for full conversion into cold.
Overdue implies that itās expected, why set yourself up for things like this when youāre just going to be disappointed and complain about them when they inevitably donāt happen? Do you really think theyāre going to make significant changes to Cadence and Cadence builds as a whole this far into the gameās lifespan like increasing the charge damage from 100% or lowering the number of attacks to charge it from 2 to 1 etc. (as another person long ago suggested).
Great, but thatās only 1 build in 1 specific scenario. Thereās not a lot of data to go off of here nor do we have a build link to see how much investment in Cadence there is and how much impact it could/would have had. You also did not say by how much Beronath beats out Cadence - is it by a few seconds, 30 seconds, full minutes, in what area of the game etc.
In what universe? Overdue implies only what it says. There are many imbalances in this game carried over through time and changes, because you have only so many testers and so many devs(1) working on balance passes. Itās only natural. I do not expect anything. I only give occasional feedback.
You have my word. It was a fun fact, not an invitation for debates. Iād expect that this fact, an AA replacer being stronger than Cadence on a build with full momentum conversion and two weapons for cold Soldier, would be fun for you. I suppose it isnāt.
In my brief foray into how a melee Elemental tactician would work, I could say off the top of my head:
Better Elemental Jewelry as thereās barely any that gives good skill bonuses + attack speed
Better Gloves as thereās one right now that even gives flat + attack speed and itās the Dawnshard ones that buff Runes + Guardians of Empiryon
Better WPS, as you have Markovians + Zolhanās + Seal of the Void as your only real options. Oh, and based off skill point bonuses and stats, which one of the dual-wield enabling medals looks the most appealing?
You canāt really benefit from Deadly Momentum or Steel Resolve because thereās no equipment that gives Elemental Damage + points to these abilities. Steel Resolve confuses me because the very skill gives Elemental Damage + flat Physical to convert.
You still have to deal with crap like Grava who boasts a high resistance to both Fire and Lightning, and Grava eats up Melee builds anyway.
I could go on, but even my brief look into it reveals a lot of flaws that canāt be tapered over by something like a Tactician.
It would be nice if there are items/sets bonus extend the AoE range of Seal, as I find it distraction as I have to recast Seal everytime I move on (especially in Cru/SR) as a melee char. For ranger/caster, itās fine as they mostly standstill or kite all the time.
