Whirling Blades is a pretty awesome skill conceptually and visually, and a lot of players enjoy the highly mobile playstyle it encourages. However, Whirling Blades is currently pretty near useless as a primary damage-dealing skill compared to any of the alternatives. I'm going to do some in-depth analysis comparing Whirling Blades to what I consider the most similar skill in the game, then explain my ideas for what to do about the discrepancy. Feel free to skip ahead to the actual suggestions at the bottom.



First, I'd like to head off discussion about Cyclone as a comparison before it gets started. Cyclone is a great skill, and yes it is a movement skill that spins you around, but it's actually quite different mechanically from Whirling Blades (many weak hits vs single hit per target, different movement speeds, different utility uses, etc.).



What I'd really like to discuss is how Whirling Blades stacks up against Leap Slam. (Some information taken from the wiki, please correct anything I got wrong.) Starting with how they are similar:



* Both have the Movement, Attack, and Melee keywords.

* Both move you over/through foes, allowing you to escape bad situations or travel quickly.

* Both deal weapon damage once, potentially to multiple foes

* They appear to have the same base animation time/attack speed - 1.4 seconds, modified by your weapon and attack speed bonuses (exact formula is unclear, anyone/devs know what it is?). NB: Whirling Blades' tooltip appears to list double its actual attack time for no reason.

* Both have a bonus to physical damage that scales with gem level.



Now, how are they different?



* Leap Slam deals 100% of base damage, Whirling only does 80%.

* Leap Slam scales to 76% increased phys damage with gem level, Whirling only 57%.

* Leap Slam works with all 2-handers and some one-handers (axe, mace, sword). Whirling only works with one-handed swords, daggers, and claws. (i.e. Leap Slam wins on build versatility).

* Leap Slam can travel further per cast than Whirling Blades, if you hold the attack-in-place button (default: shift) and click the edge of the screen.

* Leap Slam can traverse barriers and height differences, Whirling cannot.

* Leap Slam can travel less than the maximum distance if you click closer to yourself, Whirling cannot.

* Whirling Blades has a lower mana cost (hooray?).

* Leap Slam, being an AoE, can be supported by Increased AoE gem and nodes, providing an option to improve the potential number of targets hit. Whirling Blades has no such option (unless weapon range matters to it? Anyone know?).

* Every support that Whirling Blades can use, Leap Slam can too. Additionally, Leap Slam can use Concentrated Effect and Multistrike if desired, which Whirling cannot.

* Leap Slam's quality bonus is Stun Duration. Whirling's is Attack Speed. In this case, Whirling actually comes out on top for once, in my opinion, but it's nearly irrelevant given that most players spend most of their playtime without quality gems.

* Different attribute requirements and initial required level (essentially irrelevant, in my opinion).

* When Dual Wielding, Leap Slam only uses the main hand weapon, while Whirling Blades randomly picks a hand to hit with. This is actually a point in Leap Slam's favor, as you have the option to equip an off-hand weapon purely for the dual-wield attack speed bonus without worrying about whether or not that weapon does good damage.

* Leap Slam hits a circular area, while Whirling Blades hits each foe along its line of travel. In general, this is not a quantifiable attribute, but at least in my experience Leap Slam is easier to aim to consistently hit the same group of foes multiple times in a row.



It should be clear from the above list that Leap Slam outshines Whirling Blades in almost every way that matters. On top of that, the few advantages Whirling Blades has (quality bonus, mana cost) are either too insignificant or too difficult to meaningfully take advantage of. There is no clearer case in this game of two skills that fit the same niche yet have such wildly different power levels. This leads me to the following conclusion:



EITHER...



Leap Slam is massively overpowered for such a useful mobility skill and needs to be nerfed,



OR...



Whirling Blades is distinctly underpowered and needs to be buffed.



Personally, I'd far prefer the second solution. Leap Slam is fun! Let's keep Leap Slam how it is and find a way to make Whirling Blades more usable.



Here are my suggestions. I don't expect them all to be implemented, but I wanted to provide a variety of ideas.



* Set Whirling Blades damage effectiveness to 100%, or possibly even slightly higher.

* Allow Whirling Blades to benefit substantially from Dual Wielding, (such as allowing both weapons to hit once each), in order to give it a niche use distinct from Leap Slam.

* Allow Weapon Range modifiers to increase the width and/or range of Whirling Blades, if they don't already.

* Allow the Melee Splash gem to function with Whirling Blades, giving it much better AoE damage potential.

* Give Whirling Blades the AoE keyword (though this starts to step on Cyclone's toes).

* Raise the mana cost as needed to compensate for the increased power level.



Anywho, that's all I've got to say for now. Thoughts/comments/suggestions? Anything I got wrong? I want to hear from you!



TL;DR: WB sux, Shield Charg OP, nerf Lighting Wrap pl0x! Last edited by Blue_Phoenix on Feb 19, 2014, 8:51:08 PM