Exploding Palm's gone through some interesting changes over the PTR - imo, the switch from monster life to weapon damage is a good one. While it'll largely kill off support monk, it's still better for making Exploding Palm more competitive without making it too strong for Greater Rifts and Leaderboards.
However, the main problem with Exploding Palm hasn't really been its damage output - the main problem is its wonky mechanic that feels out of place in an ARPG.
Exploding Palm is a single target dot with a significant resource cost, even taking the Spirit generation improvements into account. Casting EP on an already affected target only refreshes the duration, which is generally a waste of time and Spirit. Trying to avoid recasting it on the same target requires significant effort, and with the creature density and mobility of D3, is generally a futile one.
IMO, EP should be changed in a way to avoid this pitfall. I have a number of suggestions.
1) QOL improvement - the game should prevent you from reapplying EP until it's within 1 or 2 seconds of expiring. If you're clicking on an already affected monster, it should retarget your EP to the next closest unaffected mob.
2) Mechanic change - Reapplying EP should refund half the spirit cost back, since the only benefit you're getting out of it is refreshing the DoT.
3) Rework - When reapplying EP, not only does it refresh the DoT, it immediately deals damage to the target (ONLY the target) equal to, say, 50% of the remaining DoT damage. So if you cast an unruned EP, let it tick for 3 seconds, you would do about 200% weapon damage to the target only. This makes accidentally recasting EP on the same target less punishing, and makes it more effective against single targets, making it more of a true spender.
I would tend to agree with the suggestion for a QOL change (although I don't see it as being a massive problem for me personally). This would need a range limit so that it cannot be abused (next closest mob could be off-screen). As for the other suggestions, I have never seen re-apply as being an issue, as mobs tend to be dead long before EP expires. Perhaps this is more of a GRift problem, which I cannot say I have thoroughly explored (not a fan of current High GRift (30+) rewards - higher % chance to succeed on gem being the main benefit it seems, with lower GRift still offering a chance to succeed and without outrageous mob hp). As far as the 3rd suggestion is concerned, I cannot see this being implemented. In fact Blizzard went out of their way to remove this effect on the recently reworked fire rune (also removing the extended blast - mobs burned by EP explosion would also explode. This was fair considering the new lightning rune). Your suggestion is more fair however, as the fire rune has an aoe effect, while your option specifies that only the target should be affected.
I think that exploding palm now can work really good with cold rune and az'turrasq fist you can do 12,000% dmg for each enemie that dies having the palm over him... So if you grab a mob and use seven strike sides (with madstone) you have around 5-7 palms around you which can turn to a 60,000% weapon damage... Isn't it great?
Maybe it isn't 50% life of the monster at higher grift but it still something usefull.
And now the play style is to grab easy monsters and kill and not to grab hard monsters and kill them, since killing a hard one vs a easy one does the same damage at the explosion.
I think that exploding palm now can work really good with cold rune and az'turrasq fist you can do 12,000% dmg for each enemie that dies having the palm over him... So if you grab a mob and use seven strike sides (with madstone) you have around 5-7 palms around you which can turn to a 60,000% weapon damage... Isn't it great?
Maybe it isn't 50% life of the monster at higher grift but it still something usefull.
And now the play style is to grab easy monsters and kill and not to grab hard monsters and kill them, since killing a hard one vs a easy one does the same damage at the explosion.
My post wasn't debating whether the damage changes to EP were good; I was posting about changing the way it targets or works on already affected targets.
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Exploding Palm's gone through some interesting changes over the PTR - imo, the switch from monster life to weapon damage is a good one. While it'll largely kill off support monk, it's still better for making Exploding Palm more competitive without making it too strong for Greater Rifts and Leaderboards.
However, the main problem with Exploding Palm hasn't really been its damage output - the main problem is its wonky mechanic that feels out of place in an ARPG.
Exploding Palm is a single target dot with a significant resource cost, even taking the Spirit generation improvements into account. Casting EP on an already affected target only refreshes the duration, which is generally a waste of time and Spirit. Trying to avoid recasting it on the same target requires significant effort, and with the creature density and mobility of D3, is generally a futile one.
IMO, EP should be changed in a way to avoid this pitfall. I have a number of suggestions.
1) QOL improvement - the game should prevent you from reapplying EP until it's within 1 or 2 seconds of expiring. If you're clicking on an already affected monster, it should retarget your EP to the next closest unaffected mob.
2) Mechanic change - Reapplying EP should refund half the spirit cost back, since the only benefit you're getting out of it is refreshing the DoT.
3) Rework - When reapplying EP, not only does it refresh the DoT, it immediately deals damage to the target (ONLY the target) equal to, say, 50% of the remaining DoT damage. So if you cast an unruned EP, let it tick for 3 seconds, you would do about 200% weapon damage to the target only. This makes accidentally recasting EP on the same target less punishing, and makes it more effective against single targets, making it more of a true spender.
Maybe it isn't 50% life of the monster at higher grift but it still something usefull.
And now the play style is to grab easy monsters and kill and not to grab hard monsters and kill them, since killing a hard one vs a easy one does the same damage at the explosion.
Just found where to place my opinion.