What is this item even supposed to be? It is very clearly part of solo inquisitor set. But the weapon has been given a default attack modifier.
What’s weird to me is that the weapon or the set lack any speed to augment the weapon, the base damage isn’t all that impressive either.
I get it new default attack modifiers had to be introduced so you guys did it, but unlike Belgothian Set Skill (which looks good), this one is very odd. Mostly cause it’s a ranged default attack modifier and there isn’t much incentive to pick it at all.
Basically, I think you guys can add 100% Piercing or some other form of AoE to the skill and up the base damage a little. Surely such small buffs won’t make it compete against class skills.
It will only serve to make the skill more lucrative.
On one hand we get really awesome support for pistol lightning and cold. On the other hand Aether Ranged’s “best” pistol is an epic item while the legendary version is okayish. Now rifle based Lightning isn’t very impressive when compared with Aether
We still lack a Legendary Acid Pistol but we have two really awesome acid rifles
I was sad to see Inq tree had no auto-attack replacers, fine… i waited to see items and then i see the crossbow, get a bit excited and then bummed when i see that awful skill.
Yeah I was also disappointed by this weapon. I actually drafted an inquisitor that uses this set but with the 2H Blade of the Luminari instead. From what I could see it was just a straight upgrade.
The final version of this attack replacer functions like Savagery, so it actually buffs other abilities with % bonuses, it didn’t make the release build though so it’s going to be in a future patch/hotfix.
I agree the weapons seem worthless for auto attack and more of a caster support and not even a good one at that.
I am honestly somewhat disappointed about some of the ranged sets for the inquisitor.
The Inquisitor demo set lacks support for fire strike and seem awkward to use.
It lack any support for the ton of piercing damage the inquisitor mastery adds and has no damage conversion for the physical part of the mortar damage.
The Infiltrator/Mage hunter (“The Mageslayer”) set is just weird, trying to support both the Arcanist and nightblade mastery with Flames of Ignaffar.
This set only makes sense to use with the cold conversion off hand (Farath’s Cube) but that support the Shaman and Arcanist but not Nightblades, while the set it self has stronger support for nightblade.
Meanwhile there is no legendary Infiltrator set that supports ranged auto attack (with ABB and Chilling Rounds) or a purifier set that supports the Flames of Ignaffar.
Both natural fits for their mastery combinations.
For the pure Inquisitor weapon I would suggest boosting the damage of the skill(and Perhaps add a bit of AoE) and add attack speed to the weapon as it is to slow to be usable as it is now.
For the ranged Infiltrator I would suggest upgrading the “Silver Sentinel” unique set to legendary considering how well the set currently supports that play style.
While the set is good it still is an lower level unique and thus lacks in armor and bonuses compared to the max level legendaries.
edit:
That is good, but still the weapon seem way to slow to be usable as a auto attack build(unless a part of the skill boost that).
They are good about listening to feedback and balancing things as needed, so I don’t expect everything to be perfect right out of the gate. We’re still sans expansion, so it’s WAY too early to be disappointed by it.
Edit: Also note that their tester pool was a pretty small group of veteran players. Once the general players get to play, there will be much more feedback. Also, I’ve been seeing and hearing that the Inquisitor and Demolitionist combo is simply amazing, so their sets might be slightly underpowered to compensate.
One of the build i had in mind was inquis / arcanist , with granted spellthrower autoattack , IEE for big chunk of ele dmg and all inquis procs (cold,fire,lightning). It will take some time to drop the full runebinder even if i farm like there is no tomorrow so i’ll just wait and see…
Continuing the strange choices in sets, I honestly don’t know what this thing is doing here:
Aura of Conviction on a set, purely oriented for Internal Trauma and Forcewave usage? Why? There isn’t any source of Pierce or Elemental damage for this character, so what purpose does it serve?
Before anyone says physical resistance - there are already multiple ways to stack it on this build without Aura of Conviction. Same goes for OA.
Forcewave is a cunning-dependent spell. In fact, it is the only cunning-dependent spell in the game besides Blood Orb, since both Devouring Swarm and PB have 50%+ spirit-dependent damage types.
Anyway, Forcewave has a pierce damage component on rending force and it also deals 200% weapon damage on max level. AoC boots pierce damage and adds flat pierce damage to your weapon. The set basically invites you to use Forcewave without tremor in order to deal high amounts of physical damage, pierce and bleed. It is a nice set, but you’ll prob need cleansing waters in order to deal with reflection in the campaign despite the physical resist the set gives :).
It’s still a spell that supports Internal Trauma and Physical Damage first and foremost. Besides, the set and the weapon, Pummeler, directly improve this by adding cooldown reduction and further amplifying not Pierce, but Internal Trauma damage. In the end, in comparison to those two types of damage, Pierce damage is irrelevant.
If I would want a Pierce Tactician, I would go for Cadence conversion with Warborn set and Reaver’s Claw.
The set already gives 25% reflect reduction and more I can get from Titan Plating (another 15% reflect reduction).
True, but being weapon agnostic, the set allows you to take a pistol and benefit from the Ranged Expertise passive from the Inquisitor Mastery (or Hydra, or the Mythical Pack of Treacherous Means). This will roughly add 150-200 flat pierce damage to Forcewave, besides Rending Force.
Furthermore…
Arcane Empowerment adds pierce damage to your weapon.
The inquisitor can reliably debuff pierce damage (-25%).
Assassin’s mark debuffs both physical and pierce.
Ergo, the +3 to Aura of Conviction is nowhere near as bad as what the Runebinder’s Spellthrower gives you.
Hmm, interesting idea. I think Sideliner would be a great pistol for this, since it converts 33% to Pierce and adds a lot of good bonuses.
However, this is a different build after all. And with Pierce conversion wouldn’t Candence be better for damage? It gives way more Weapon and Physical Damage, and a crapload of it converts to Pierce, amplifying it more than Forcewave would. This, in turn, nullifies the usefulness of the entire set.
EDIT: Yeah, it’s not even comparable, Cadence also supports Pierce damage much more than Forcewave. So for Pierce builds it’s the optimal way to go. Still no sense in AoC for bein on Octavius Set with Trauma focus.
It seems to me that for a lot of the high end legendaries, you get a collection of abilities, one of which isn’t really usable in combination with the other additions. The one that’s unusable varies depending on what you’re going for; it’s like how a lot of these provide skill bonuses across 3 classes. Seems like a design choice, and in theory I approve of it, since it allows an item to fulfill multiple niches depending on what build it’s in (boosts diversity) - but it might annoy some people to be unable to really take advantage of all the aspects of an item or set.
