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

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rflynn74 wrote:

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.

Well the Vaal Molten Shield's been very nice when I've been using it and the Vaal Fireball was rather useful when I was using it.

Personally I feel it's a little too early to call Vaal Gems useless.

Oh, and when you say no one's talking about Vaal Gems, you might want to just make sure.

Vaal Detonate Dead is useful for killing certain corruption bosses (Sunburst Queen comes to mind.)

"800lb Gorilla"? Is that some sort of expression, similar to "the elephant in the room?" o_0

And yeah, Vaal Gems were meant to be shiny, but completely useless. If they were useful, they'd be op. The way I see it, they are meant as a trump card to use on really hard Packs that you skip until the Zone/Map is cleared, and you go back and blow your Vaal "CD" on it.

I particularly like Vaal RoA and Ground Slam, very defensive skills..

Vaal Skills are pointless they should have just buffed the old spells to make them useful end game.

So maybe this means they're a noob trap, but I got some of my friends back into PoE (they've only gotten to like level 20ish previously) when this patch cmae out, and they're having a goddamn blast with vaal skills in ambush.

I mean who needs them to be good? They're crazy fun.

I love my vaal ground slam. I havent linked it to any other gem and it pushes everything away from you, even unique bosses. looks cool as well

Still not useful enough for me. But it's fun to see a room shut down with vaal coldsnap.

Vaal DD needs 96 souls, its a freaking joke, can use it like two times each map with pack size.

They are good but because they are inconsistent they aren't very viable. They also aren't essential. On my build I really don't have any free links. Everything needs to be 100% essential.

6l - flameblast
4l - curses/aura
4l - aura
4l - Cast on Stunned
2l - lightning warp
2l - skele totem

Even if I got a 6l armor I can't just drop lightning warp and skele totem on my body armor for it. And my flameblast already full clears screens, so there is no need for the damage from any vaal gem. Just not necessary at all and no room to put em in.

I'm in a lot more of an endgame position though.

I use Vaal Power Siphon linked with Item rarity for bosses and piety. Netted me some low tier uniques so far, but I am definitely seeing better/more items with it.

I also use vaal cold snap sometimes in my CwDT+IC+EC for a little freezing fun :)