Regarding Skill Balancing

[vaudeville]

My 2 cents for now

Note that the following will focus for the time being on the Physical Amazon.

So I've been recently trying to mess with all builds as much as possible, and I just realized in the specific case of the Physical Amazon, she doesn't really have any other skills to put points on once she has maxed Valkyrie, Decoy (just to give Valkyries more life), Impale (which I may get to later), and Fend. I think its safe to say that Jab will be ignored if you're going to be using impale (for single enemies) and Fend for mobs although even if you also max Jab (for whatever reason), you should still have a few points left over, and it doesn't seem that worthwhile to put them on anything else (1 point on Avoid, Dodge, Evade, Penetrate, Critical Strike, Innersight, and Slow missiles should be good enough).

With the above said, I think the following ought to be considered:

1) That there ought to be synergy boosts (both in terms of a slight damage boost and some other kind of modifier not including AR) from Jab to either (or both) Impale and Fend.

a) the other modifier ought to give some base stat (maybe at least 10% at level ?) to deadly strike, open wounds, increased attack speed, or even life steal followed by some extra percent to that modifier based on the number of levels on that skill or another (similar formula like ravens when it comes to doing crushing blow)

b) Another possibility could be that points toward Jab (or maybe another skill) can slightly increase the attack of Impale

2) Inner Sight ought to lower enemy defenses by a percentage (my impression is that right now its based on a number integer which pretty much makes inner sight worthless) like the Barbarian war cries (such as taunt) though I think it should be clearly less than those used by Barbarians.

[Game]

My 2 cents for now

Note that the following will focus for the time being on the Physical Amazon.

So I've been recently trying to mess with all builds as much as possible, and I just realized in the specific case of the Physical Amazon, she doesn't really have any other skills to put points on once she has maxed Valkyrie, Decoy (just to give Valkyries more life), Impale (which I may get to later), and Fend. I think its safe to say that Jab will be ignored if you're going to be using impale (for single enemies) and Fend for mobs although even if you also max Jab (for whatever reason), you should still have a few points left over, and it doesn't seem that worthwhile to put them on anything else (1 point on Avoid, Dodge, Evade, Penetrate, Critical Strike, Innersight, and Slow missiles should be good enough).

With the above said, I think the following ought to be considered:

1) That there ought to be synergy boosts (both in terms of a slight damage boost and some other kind of modifier not including AR) from Jab to either (or both) Impale and Fend.

a) the other modifier ought to give some base stat (maybe at least 10% at level ?) to deadly strike, open wounds, increased attack speed, or even life steal followed by some extra percent to that modifier based on the number of levels on that skill or another (similar formula like ravens when it comes to doing crushing blow)

b) Another possibility could be that points toward Jab (or maybe another skill) can slightly increase the attack of Impale

2) Inner Sight ought to lower enemy defenses by a percentage (my impression is that right now its based on a number integer which pretty much makes inner sight worthless) like the Barbarian war cries (such as taunt) though I think it should be clearly less than those used by Barbarians.

I'm just going to throw this out there, I think your points could be spent much better in passives rather than Valkyrie and decoy. Also Lightning Arc (despite its name) does WAYYYY more physical damage, and should be used in almost all scenarios over Jab. I think the skill is highly underrated, most people are not aware but Lightning Arc actually does 125% weapon damage, when literally almost every other skill in the game only does 100% or less.

[vaudeville]

Yeah, I forgot about that with lightning arc, and with twins that would be a good skill on the physical side. I might use my bowzon to mess around with that since I sold some of her gear. The other nice thing is that you set it up where lightning arc does gets a bonus from Jab.

As for the other passive skills, I definitely can't agree. In the case of avoid, dodge, and evade you barely see an increase in your ability to not get hit by certain attacks. Same situation for critical strike which isn't that worthwhile after level 13 which plus skills should cover. Penetrate would be helpful though if you need AR. That should give with all the stuff I mentioned above should leave 13 more skill points left. I suppose points should be diverted from decoy to lightning fury to buff lightning arc more and the rest could be given to decoy then to buff Valkyrie if wanted. I'll give that a try. I was suspecting the Physical Amazon should focus on the Impale and Fend skills.

[Game]

Yeah, I forgot about that with lightning arc, and with twins that would be a good skill on the physical side. I might use my bowzon to mess around with that since I sold some of her gear. The other nice thing is that you set it up where lightning arc does gets a bonus from Jab.

As for the other passive skills, I definitely can't agree. In the case of avoid, dodge, and evade you barely see an increase in your ability to not get hit by certain attacks. Same situation for critical strike which isn't that worthwhile after level 13 which plus skills should cover. Penetrate would be helpful though if you need AR. That should give with all the stuff I mentioned above should leave 13 more skill points left. I suppose points should be diverted from decoy to lightning fury to buff lightning arc more and the rest could be given to decoy then to buff Valkyrie if wanted. I'll give that a try. I was suspecting the Physical Amazon should focus on the Impale and Fend skills.

If you have a lot of +skills I suppose it would be enough to make the diminishing returns on passives not worth more than 1 point, but at the same time I don't think the valkyrie is worth them either. Tough decision!

[vaudeville]

An amazon should get more than enough +1 to all skills to reap enough benefits from almost all passive skills. That’s why I feel the Physical Amazon sort of feels empty with regard to skill points. Perhaps something to consider in the future.

[rrra]

Jab +lightning arc is pretty strong for a physical zon. Arc is great for clearing out groups and jabs high attack speed is great for bosses. I would advise against using impale as I believe it is the slowest attack in the game. Its so slow that its high damage doesnt matter much. If the attack speed were at all decent, it would be pretty strong. Fend isnt bad. But jab is better vs single-targets and lightning arc is better vs groups. So its not worth getting and buffing it probably wont help it much.

The best way to buff a physical zon imo is to buff the base damage of jab. You whittle stuff down really fast with high attack speed and crushing blow and then the last sliver of health takes FOREVER. Its like a smiter with last wish.

Id recommend maxing jab, lightning arc, lightning fury (arc synergy), and valkyrie. Then put one point into all the other passives and then I prefer to max penetrate for the attack rating.