Hey guys. So I did a quick search and didn't see too much talk about Exploding Palm. Prior to release, it was talked about quite a bit and it seemed like a very interesting skill to me.
From my limited experience only getting through Nightmare so far (I like to take it very slow) I can conclude that it isn't very useful due to low HP of the monsters. I calculated 30% of some of the highest HP monsters I found and I usually hit harder, there are exceptions but I'm speaking on the majority of monsters.
So that leaves it for Inferno mostly, where a monster can have the amount of HP required to make the explosion powerful and where monsters can live long enough for the DoT to be effective.
Those criteria need to be met to make the skill an attractive choice and that is kind of off-putting. Regarding the DoT, usually you'll try to apply it late in a fight in order to guarantee killing the mob while it's bleeding. This means that if not timed perfectly, you're cutting the damage short. If that's the case, you're taking the skill for the explosion only.
So for the amount of effort needed to maximize the use of this skill, has anyone been using it successfully? Is the explosion powerful enough in Inferno? If you are using this skill, do you throw it on at the very end only, disregarding the DoT or do you find it easy to apply it at the "right time" to get 99% of the DoT damage and then kill the monster at the very last second?
I think you guys get the idea about my line of questioning, I just wanted this skill to be really fun and awesome before the game released but I'm not seeing it being very viable at all from my point of view at the moment.
I think it would be much better if the monster simply exploded after it died...period. So you could safely apply the DoT first so it can run it's course, and then it can explode later. I feel like a change like that would make it more worthy of a spot on a skill bar.
it is a really fun skill, i use it with Essence burn rune and i just watching all the mobs go boom boom boom, in rapid succession.
and it is better with lower HP mobs as one explosion in a group would lead to the rest exploding.
it is especially so when paired with crippling wave
The flesh is weak has some uses but other then that is exploding palm just not good enough to be worth picking up, it requires too much spirit to be worth the global in most cases.
I feel like the skill is very useful, provided the monsters have enough HP for the whole duration to tick. When you get the last rune (Don't remember the name), it is basicly insane when you encounter a bunch of low hp spiders or something similar.
For me it's not so much about the DoT as it is about the explosion and AoE damage. Great for clearing those low hp mobs but any AoE skill can do that. If you don't kill the marked target all you get is the DoT and your spirit is better spent on other big spenders for the guaranteed higher damage. To spend the effort to try and get the full 3 seconds to maximize damage will end up getting you killed. Turn on monster hp bars to help when there are packs.
Personally, I like to use the spirit generating EP rune so I can continue to chain cast on multiple mobs after I get the first kill. Much like essence burn but you are also generating a hell of a lot more spirit and spending it to proc trancendence. The 30% explosion doesn't seem to scale with the amount of characters in game so it's mostly on my bar when I'm solo.
IF you can get it to work on an elite or the big guy in the group, then it just blows everything up. So again, the DoT is great but don't hold your breath trying to achieve the full damage or you will miss out on the explosion...which is sort of the staying point with exploding palm isn't it?
It's a very fun skill. As someone said above, using it with Crippling Wave is nice.
I like to use different skills for different locations (mostly different acts) and Exploding Palm was a blast (da pun) in Act 3. Lots of mobs, most of them close together... rotation was mostly: Cyclone Strike > CW till some dude has low HP > EP > CW laughing.
All in all, I only used it for the big boom factor. For effectiveness, Air Ally+Sweeping Wind seemed better.
Gonna love testing EP out in late Hell/Inferno. Makes for some Necro nostalgia.
From my limited experience only getting through Nightmare so far (I like to take it very slow) I can conclude that it isn't very useful due to low HP of the monsters. I calculated 30% of some of the highest HP monsters I found and I usually hit harder, there are exceptions but I'm speaking on the majority of monsters.
So that leaves it for Inferno mostly, where a monster can have the amount of HP required to make the explosion powerful and where monsters can live long enough for the DoT to be effective.
Those criteria need to be met to make the skill an attractive choice and that is kind of off-putting. Regarding the DoT, usually you'll try to apply it late in a fight in order to guarantee killing the mob while it's bleeding. This means that if not timed perfectly, you're cutting the damage short. If that's the case, you're taking the skill for the explosion only.
So for the amount of effort needed to maximize the use of this skill, has anyone been using it successfully? Is the explosion powerful enough in Inferno? If you are using this skill, do you throw it on at the very end only, disregarding the DoT or do you find it easy to apply it at the "right time" to get 99% of the DoT damage and then kill the monster at the very last second?
I think you guys get the idea about my line of questioning, I just wanted this skill to be really fun and awesome before the game released but I'm not seeing it being very viable at all from my point of view at the moment.
I think it would be much better if the monster simply exploded after it died...period. So you could safely apply the DoT first so it can run it's course, and then it can explode later. I feel like a change like that would make it more worthy of a spot on a skill bar.
and it is better with lower HP mobs as one explosion in a group would lead to the rest exploding.
it is especially so when paired with crippling wave
Personally, I like to use the spirit generating EP rune so I can continue to chain cast on multiple mobs after I get the first kill. Much like essence burn but you are also generating a hell of a lot more spirit and spending it to proc trancendence. The 30% explosion doesn't seem to scale with the amount of characters in game so it's mostly on my bar when I'm solo.
IF you can get it to work on an elite or the big guy in the group, then it just blows everything up. So again, the DoT is great but don't hold your breath trying to achieve the full damage or you will miss out on the explosion...which is sort of the staying point with exploding palm isn't it?
I like to use different skills for different locations (mostly different acts) and Exploding Palm was a blast (da pun) in Act 3. Lots of mobs, most of them close together... rotation was mostly: Cyclone Strike > CW till some dude has low HP > EP > CW laughing.
All in all, I only used it for the big boom factor. For effectiveness, Air Ally+Sweeping Wind seemed better.
Gonna love testing EP out in late Hell/Inferno. Makes for some Necro nostalgia.