Let's talk about the 800LB gorilla, Vaal Gems

No one seems to be talking about Vaal Gems, very bluntly put. They aren't very good, and they seem to be a waste of skill gem space.

What are everyone's thoughts on improving them? Should they do more damage? Are they even worth it to attempt to try and break? I'm just very disappointed that they're not as useful as I thought they should be.

I believe their main purpose is to be used with strongboxes in ambush. I have found Vaal Frost Nova to be VERY effective in dealing with large mobs popping up at me from the void.

In addition to lvling there really really fun for lvling lol

Vaal Gems are fun while leveling

Vaal Frost Nova is great when opening lockboxes

Vaal Cyclone is great for melee classes, I've seen then do some serious damage in maps.

I haven't really noticed or played around with any others.

forget weapon vaal gems , the vaal spell gems are for spell casters as they are essentailly nukes.


i used 2 vaal fireballs to kill corruption bosses in normal.

vaalfireball+ lmp is amazing.



But the assessment that they are for leveling is accurate since no one in their right mind would use them as a main skill and therefore dedicate more than a 4l to them.

but a 4l vaal fireball is pretty good

lmp conc effect makes a good 3l as well

The skills are powerful enough to make them tempting to use occasionally... but you don't build around them. If you have a build that's capable, you don't need them, and if your build is not capable, you can't use them. Thus they're simply nice to play with from time to time but never really "used".

The mechanic of dropping all the charges when you enter a new instance is there to keep people from using them to break a staged encounter. We get that. But that's the only place I could see myself wanting to use one. So responsible users have to put up with restrictions put in place to keep people from abusing them. Sigh.

"

Antnee wrote:

I believe their main purpose is to be used with strongboxes in ambush. I have found Vaal Frost Nova to be VERY effective in dealing with large mobs popping up at me from the void.

I prefer to leap/warp away instead.

"

Antnee wrote:

I believe their main purpose is to be used with strongboxes in ambush. I have found Vaal Frost Nova to be VERY effective in dealing with large mobs popping up at me from the void.

You might be right, I think people were expecting to get a little bit more out of them than just a 1 shot deal here or there.

I like my vaal skills, but I would prefer an 800 lb gorilla.

I found Vaal Cold Snap while leveling and it's a great "oh shit" mechanism, which would also apply to strongboxes, I guess. I'm using it very rarely since I'm playing as safely as I can and there are no "oh shit" situations to speak of, but it still has its purpose. Also, doesn't require any support gems, works fine as-is.

Most other vaal spells, however, seem completely worthless.