I really enjoy playing throw barb and I’m super excited about the recent throwing changes. However, while testing things in the PTR I noticed an issue that I believe is a bug.
The new changes to Throw Mastery grant a 2.5%/lvl chance to not consume any quantity when thrown. This equates to a 50% chance at level 20 and approximately a 75% chance at endgame (figuring a +10 to skills from torch and other gear). This is fantastic and means your ammo lasts almost 4x as long, which is almost the increase needed just by itself.
Additionally, the ability for Critical Strikes to replenish 1 quantity further addresses this issue. Since throw mastery yields ~30% critical strike, this means every third ammo thrown returns it’s ammo, thereforing making it free. I do wonder if Deadly Strikes also activate this…
This, combined with the previously mentioned change, means you only consume about 0.5 ammo per 3 shots. Or 1/6th. This is right about on par with the I believe it was 5.5x increase that we throw barbs had calculated based on durability testing.
Now, with all that in mind, here is the bug:
These abilities seem to function even when you don’t hit anything.
The ammo conservation makes sense to do so, but the replenish should not.
When throwing ammo wildly at no target with no enemies on screen, you will actually regenerate ammo instead of consume it, on the whole. Based on testing it feels like the “%Chance to Not Consume” affect is functioning as “%Chance to not consume and instead retore 1”.
Without throw mastery, each throw should consume 1 ammo.
When throw mastery activates, the throw should consume 0 ammo.
Currently, when throw mastery activates, it consumes -1 ammo - that is, it replenishes!
It’s possible what is happening is that the Critical Strike replenish is rolling for a replenish check when thrown and not when it hits, therefore with high critical strike chance it can replenish when thrown at no target. If this is the case then the check needs to be moved to on target hit. If you are afraid that the pierce feature will allow too much replenish, then make it a chance to replenish on critical strike, not guaranteed.
Now, as a throwing barb I’m certainly not complaining that I have unlimited ammo and that it is literally impossible to consume non replenishing ethereal throwing items, however, I do believe this is a slight oversight. It makes all replenish affects (including those on unique weapons) irrelevant. It also makes all throwing items - including ethereals - effectively indestrucible.
IMO, in the ideal situation, ammo should be consumed, just very slowly. And then when an item has a fast replenish like Deathbit, Warshrikes, or Lacerator - only then can you have unlimited ammo.
In other words, I think you might want to doublecheck the code of this new feature just to make sure the math is working how intended.