The easiest solution to this would be to have ST chain lightning bounce on the player with Axial conduit equipped. The damage should multiply each time after bouncing on the player to justify a single CL costing 66+(<=35) MANA against a ST and to allow the recharging aspect to function. Or simply multiply its damage if it orbits the player after only striking once, but you’d have to add a mana regen to the orbit. Unless the expectation is to need to switch pants everytime we face a boss, locking the build out of solo Pits, and handicapping the entire build. Currently I can pop my ultimate and barely make the the bosses HP bar move despite every slot being 8/8 w/GAs & GA Ubers. Great for speed farming.
Chain lightnings this expensive per cast should = 1/3 of a regular bone spirit or more. With the crown of Lucian, this build should be able to throw out lightning bone spirits using their entire mana pool.
They really need to address this fast because ST/Bossing/Endgame in general is actually impossible with that unique. It’s on the precipice of being such a great item.
I’m actually shocked that this unique wasn’t tested against an endgame boss! I’m also embarrassed that I’ve invested so much time & resources into a fundamentally broken build. Consider the season on hiatus for myself.
EDIT: many of the builds online look completely diff from day 1 ofc, so now it appears to be that we were never supposed to invest into chain lightning with this unique, and that instead we need to go in the Dot+Lucky hit direction, which explains why staffs have dot implicit. I’ll grind the new items as lightning spear until I can switch back and see if Andy’s visage was the missing piece, I’d rather not give up on my axial conduit because it’s 3GA.
I’m betting there’s an optimal build that uses a different skill for single target DPS rather than just trying to make CL do both. Meteor maybe, without the helm. Or lean into unstable currents.
Been steam rollin with CL so far, though im no ‘end game - meta player’. Not sure how you can fix whats not broke. I don’t find anything wrong with the unique at all. No bugs, It does what its supposed to quite well.
the mana regen + max affix is broken, at the very least in how it’s reflected in the UI.
i’m also not fully convinced that the chance for a double cast works. i’ve got just barely under 100% chance and i’m not seeing them as often as i expect.
I was excited for it to finally drop when I was speced CL… used it for a boss fight or two then removed it. It just gobbles up too much mana… and thats saying something since my CL only costs 12 to cast. I’d rather have unlimited casting over being a dead-stick every few moments.
I don’t think the Community manager understands how much I would appreciate an acknowledgement, or that this item is being looked at. Currently I have to switch off those pants specially made for CL and put on the crown of Lucion just to kill a boss, losing a ton of important stats.
Also the shadow resist on the Crown of Lucian should be implicit like with Andariel, no one needs that much shadow resistance. Replace with Core skill please!
I hope they don’t change it. We need more builds that are actually builds and not just, “I put on every item and aspect that says Chain Lightning.” Axial Conduit gives a lot of power in its current form, but you have to build it differently than you would a build that tries to spam CL.
For example, mana cost reduction doesn’t apply to the Axial Conduit drain, so you are better off with regen than cost reduction. You also don’t want to just constantly spam CLs,
because you want them to be able to explode, so that means you have extra attacks available for other skills and you can more easily run around all the time. I think they should lean into this type of design.
In order for CL to do any damage in endgame content, you have to invest into it. This is especially the case when it doesn’t benefit from as many multipliers as other abilities can. This is NOT about spamming CL. A single cast of chain lightning cast on a single target costs 101 mana if you gear towards regen, and ~88+ if you mix reduction in there. The amount of damage it deals hitting the boss 10 times (draining 6 each time) is minuscule and does not at all justify pressing it even once.
I DONT want to spam CL against bosses, I’d rather the damage ramp up with each orbit or bounce if it’s against ST. It should be hitting like a mini bone spirit with how much mana is drained. Not being able to press your core skill against bosses is sadge. If we’re meant to use another core skill with the build then the pants should boost ranks of all shock abilities.
What multipliers do you have that apply only to shock skills? There are plenty of skills you can invest in alongside CL without taking any of the CL-specific slots.
I mean, neither does spamming CL with the pants on, right? So if they are going to fix something, then why not fix it in a way that is much more interesting? Having Axial Conduit CL be different than Unbroken Tether CL would be better than trying to meld the two into just a single CL build.
You’re missing the point…even if you cast CL slowly, even if you have max resource as high as the game allows, even if you had unlimited unstable currents, the damage barely goes through the DR inherent to boss type mobs. You’d find it near impossible to beat a 101 pit boss on time. That’s even if you’re spamming the ability, pacing yourself slowly, or mixing with other skills.
Are you currently able to kill a tormented with your axial conduit build? How long did it take? Genuinely curious because if there’s some hidden solution to this that I haven’t found please enlighten me.
FYI I don’t and ik you don’t spam CL with these pants. You find the # of active CL your mana can handle and ride it there. Mine is 7.
I haven’t even started that kinda content yet. To answer that question. As for the pants, if they dont prove useful at that level, perhaps there is another build / method. I still dont really see a problem with the unique *per se, but if the problem is, it is expected to crush content it cant, maybe it was never intended to do so? I know i don’t expect every unique i find to be a game ending be all.
Additionally, it has never been my experience , that ‘every’ build can power through end game content with ease. Not even remotely. Perhaps CL is not supposed to, or has not been designed (balanced) to push that level of content.
At any rate, as i mentioned previously, i am not in the tier of players, so i cant comment on that aspect at all. As for general content / T4, the unique crushed stuff. I will see what i see when (if - lol) i ever get there.
I’m wearing a max rolled one I’ll just have to switch to frozen orb or lightning spear till they fix it. It just sucks because all of my gear has at least 1 if not 2 great GAs. The foundation of this unique itself doesn’t allow to us kill bosses at the end of pits, tormented, horde, and even NM 100 if you’re not far beyond the gearing requirements that exist for any other sorc build to do T100 because you’re compensating for no ST. Well geared enough players will be able to tell when fighting bosses that it doesn’t feel underpowered, but wrong.
Maybe I’m wrong and these are pants you’re supposed to take on and off constantly when running through any content that involves bosses. If that is the case then it’s quite the underwhelming new unique. I’ll try putting on an Andy’s and move from crit to lucky+vuln
I’ll just have to switch to frozen orb or lightning spear till they fix it. It just sucks because all of my gear has at least 1 if not 2 great GAs. The foundation of this unique itself doesn’t allow to us kill bosses at the end of pits, tormented, horde, and even NM 100 if you’re not far beyond the gearing requirements that exist for any other sorc build to do T100 because you’re compensating for no ST. Well geared enough players will be able to tell when fighting bosses that it doesn’t feel underpowered, but wrong.