So in my opinion, Fire Strike is a weird place right now. It feels a bit underpowered compared to other auto-attacks and it’s main strength - ranged superiority (due to Brimstone’s aoe) is no longer a factor because ranged meta is currently in a bad place. I love the changes that have been made to Blazeheart - it really makes melee Fire Strike no longer a meme, but it feels like overall skill is not there given how skill points hungry that auto-attack is.
Suggestions
Buff the baseline weapon damage a bit
Make one-handed melee weapon transmuter work for one-handed ranged too
Add more flat damage support from relevent items
One of those things or a combination of those or anything really would really help good old Fire Strike and will be a step in the right direction if Crate wants to ressurect ranged a bit.
No, Fire Strike is fine as it is
Yes, buff the base skill and/or make 1h transmuter work for ranged
Well, there is a broad field of ideas about FS and ranged at all.
Basically, the only viable types of damage now are fire (supported by most gear), chaos (Darkblaze) and Pierce (Valdun).
Others are in a deep ass, melee FS with very little exceptions too.
So, the proposals are:
Increase the base damage of 1h and 2h guns to make them compete with melee weapons.
Add more conversions to pistols like chaos to sth. Without them, we lose a significant amount of damage and/or have to use items with conversions instead of really needed ones.
Example: this pistol may become better if we add 45% cahos->pierce conversion and +1 to demo/inquisitor instead of Fighting Spirit, probably.
Buff FS itself for more WD and better scaling at ultimate ranks.
yes, overcaps, nods, transmuter, amounts of brimstone pieces it’s all “buff the base skill”. I couldn’t make a poll option for every possible way of buffing FS, so please vote, if you have an opinion on the matter.
BTW, 22nd point in FS gives quite a lot, but I agree that overall progression feels lackluster especially given the fact that you never ever really have enough skill points on FS builds.
IMO it’s better to just buff the base skill to values better than current FS with transmuter then remove all the transmuters for FS altogether. 3 skill points is a lot nowadays.
This is my firestrike purifier that I’ve been working on for a while: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZROmejN
I know that purifier is supposed to be a mostly fire and lightning damage build and a bit of cold but, I wish I could do something to make it a pure damage build without crippling the build… I guess the whole purifier thing is not about a single type of damage and this is not the subject of discussion here. At least other builds with other class combos don’t have this issue.
I totally support buffing or improving firestrike, being able to control your chosen damage type and support it IMO should be implemented somewhere in the skill. Having better transmuters or stronger base skill with better support skills further down the line is a good step towards improving firestrike.
I didn’t leveled it pass 1 on my Purifier as leveling other skills (including modifiers and Inquisitor WPS) seems to give more DPS, so I use only 1 pt + skill bonuses.
This situation looks like it need some buff indeed to make SP investment worthwhile.
p.s. this is pre100, sitting at something like lvl 81 atm (playing other chars). In the end, probably will end up maxing FS anyway.
I innitially wanted transmuter to work for ranged. But DW ranged and 1h ranged can work really well so i’m inclined to say no. I feel that unlike lots of melee builds ranged builds with inquis wps are in a very good place
I would slightly buff for 2h actually. 1h guns are in a better spot than 2h imo. There is no option to vote for this though
nope, stronghold is just one that i posted for SR.
But in my experience DW guns feel more fun and versatile than lots of melee. Can’t say i tried all of them though. We can go case by case if you think it is best. And for talking to Z it might be.
How did you find dagallon for example? is it the dps or sustain if there is a problem?
Last time I have tried Dagallon it was back in AoM when it was a Mortar Trap set. Right now set looks like it’s not even worth trying: it’s super glassy and won’t do well in current endgame. Deadly Aim mods are questionable as well.
Couple of guys from our discord tried auto-attacking Ludrigan Vindicators and they were mediocre by Vindicator’s standards to say the least. It works best as a hybrid that stacks Electrocute from totems + Chilling rounds (although it’s pretty glassy).
Problem with most ranged archetypes is that they are effectively melee builds but with less damage and much worse defenses. Stronghold Purifier is obviously an exception since you can use it with a strong heavy armor set and it has a shield.
I think having almost no gunslinger builds in the build section is a good indicator of where the truth is. Remember how many gunslingers used to pop up in AoM era? Nowadays builders don’t even bother with that.
