Leap Attack barb improvement

General Discussion
1

I just made Leap Attack barb from level 1 to 84 and did Ubers with him, Leaping Ubers down.

On the journey I just always said to myself: “if I did more AoE dmg” “if I Leaped slightly faster”. In Normal and Nightmare difficulty the AoE is good enough. But falls of pretty hard in Hell, once you just max the Leap A. and Leap synergy.

And when as high level maxed Leaper I entered Normal difficulty Cows and started Leaping, and every Cow died on one jump - it was awesome feeling!

It fulfilled the fantasy of landing a big swing into earth and everything got crushed down.

I think we can get a 1/4 effect of that at least, by simply adding 2 mechanics to Leap attack scaling:

  1. AoE wave damage deals also 25% of weapon damage (plus any Enhanced damage modifier. But NOT Crushing blow, Open wounds or Deadly strike).
  2. Leaping is faster with more Faster Run/Walk. For each 2% FRW Leaping is 1% faster. Capped at 50% increased speed at maximum. Not more.

These two things would in my opinion make Leap Attack solid, but not overpowered build to play and have more fun.

5 Likes
2

I know the developers made good changes to Leap Attack, but the skill is still clunky. A new synergy for both LA and WW could be fun. Whirlwind strengthens AoE damage of Leap Attack and Leak Attack provides AR bonus to Whirlwind as follows:

Leap Attack

  • Leap: +10% Damage Per Level
  • Whirlwind: +10% Area Damage Per Level (only boosts AoE damage)

Whirlwind

  • Leap Attack: +5% Attack Rating Per Level

If a new synergy is out of the question, I really like your idea of AoE damage scaling off of weapon damage plus ED modifiers on gear.

2 Likes
3

My modification :slight_smile:

  • leaps faster based on skill level
  • better damage
  • always hits with main single target attack
  • area dmg works little bit differently, its releasing damage faster so it doesnt have issue to hit mobs as it has currently

Also improved normal leap :smiley: its almost fast as teleport with enough skill points :slight_smile:

6 Likes
4

This would be great. With a bit more AoE damage the leap attack barb could actually make Barb Combat GCs useful, and the build would be more viable.

I love how fast he leaps. It looks much more fluid and fun.

2 Likes
5

I really like this idea of increasing the leap speed with FRW. I also really like the AOE damage increase.

I had suggested in one of CharlesJT’s thread a long time ago about WW also having a synergy with War Cry, something like the AOE damage and potentially AOE range is increased by adding points to War Cry, and also switching one of the War Cry synergies with Leap/Leap Attack. Would make for a really cool budget singer Barb

6

I wonder if adding flat AR per level instead might be more useful, so the multipliers we already get from skills/mastery have more to multiply against?

That’s awesome! Also leap in town is awesome!

1 Like
7

There are a few issues with that.
First, Leap has knockback. How does it work on hostile players? Attack skills are blocked in town for a reason.
Second, Teleport is blocked in towb because of Act II Palace. If Leap was to be enabled in town, it must not allow such a shortcut.

8

Its mod for Offline, jumping would surely be not allowed online in town.

1 Like
9

Leap Attack barb became my favorite Barbarian build, and a staple of every ladder reset. Having a 40 point build that was viable as a starter build, lets me max find item , is not as item dependant as other melee builds and has great mobility is a lot of fun to play. For all of the mistakes Blizzard has made with D2R, they sure did a greath job with this build, thanks!

As for “improvements”, it would be difficult to make a 40 point investment even more powerful, but some ideas would be:

  • Make the AoE damage apply some modifiers like elemental/poison damage, and/or open wounds

  • Add Whirlwind as an additional Synergy

Here’s to another season plowing cows in Nightmare by jumping all around!

10

I would want to avoid too many synergies.
I would like to see the skill itself improved.

Like Whirlwind. It is good on its own (despite what many cry about being weak) without synergies.

I would like same for Leap attack. To have AoE scaling fixed with 25% weapon based damage from level 1 Leap attack straight-up. No increases per level, just 25%. This solidifies his weapon dependancy rather +skills dependancy.

Getting stronger weapons is better IMO than hunting +skills.

Looks funny :). I would say I like the modification on 75% and dont like on 25%. Basically just slightly change numbers to feel right in place.

I think AoE radius shouldnt be that big. Making it 4 yards at max could be the right amount. I would leave it be like it is.

The speed is pretty fast. The Leap speed you shown in second video is too much. And again I would like increased Leap speed to be direct mechanism, hidden or not. Scaling by how much FRW I have is the best I tought of. Would be funny to test on PTR the maximum FRW possible what it does and decide based on that if it would be capped or not.

Sure I agree with Elemental damages added to AoE. Could open possibility of a “multi-nova barb” stacking elemental stuff.
Open wounds probably not, because how easy would it be to proc Open wounds with always hitting wave.