Ball Lightning or Nether Tentacles

**Yggdrasil** · 29-05-2012, 14:03

Hi everybody,

I was wondering why everybody seems to prefer nether tentacles to ball lightning, sinc BL seems to have a wider effect than
NT. Then for the life leech on NT, I just search for weapons with life leech, and I go with BL.

So do you guys can explain the advantages of NT over BL (I may be missing something)?

Thank you

**Echion** · 29-05-2012, 15:39

NT hits 2-3 times, even more if you play with your kiting, and can replace your AOE since it goes so slow.

Edit: I forgot, you want to use it with sharpshooter because your 100% crit is applied to the slow moving attacks so if you get 7 of them off before the first hits they all have 100% crit which for me = 140kDPS per mob and NT blob. So if you get 5 off that = over 500k dps.

**Oakae** · 29-05-2012, 17:29

Haven't went back to ball lightning since I got nether, it just hits too much harder.

**Yggdrasil** · 29-05-2012, 17:41

I guess I am gonna take another look to it tonight... But what I think now is : same damage for both, same speed for both, but better AoE for BL, so I tend to think that BL hits more time for singletarget, and more foes on AoE.

So unless someone points that NT is definitly better because of its damage or because it hits more, I continue to think BL>NT.

**speedloader** · 29-05-2012, 17:55

Nether tentacles doesn't fear electrified elite trait. Wearing a weapon with +arcane or sacred dmgs is way more effective with nether overall. (just go fight azmodan or belial with a sacred dmg weapon and try both skills)

**lucidlore** · 29-05-2012, 18:00

Originally Posted by Yggdrasil

So unless someone points that NT is definitly better because of its damage or because it hits more, I continue to think BL>NT.

This is indeed the case. Nether tentacles, when it hits, hits for full damage. Ball lightning only does half damage per hit, nether does full damage each hit.

**Yggdrasil** · 30-05-2012, 01:29

Tried it again tonight... It deals definitely more damages on single targets, hits harder than BL, so I am ging to keep it I guess. I just have to make sure to spam it on slightly different directions when going into a huge pack, I'm still used to just send 3-4 BL in a row and watch every white mob die, even those around/behind me.

Thank you guys

**Echion** · 30-05-2012, 02:38

Originally Posted by Yggdrasil

Tried it again tonight... It deals definitely more damages on single targets, hits harder than BL, so I am ging to keep it I guess. I just have to make sure to spam it on slightly different directions when going into a huge pack, I'm still used to just send 3-4 BL in a row and watch every white mob die, even those around/behind me.

Thank you guys

Did you even read my post. 500k dps for BL on your first pull and any extended kiting you have to do while sharpshooter regens.

NT>BL no argument.

**saint_of_killers** · 30-05-2012, 05:13

why can't either be arrows!??! I don't want to shoot balls...

**Yggdrasil** · 30-05-2012, 14:29

Originally Posted by Echion

Did you even read my post. 500k dps for BL on your first pull and any extended kiting you have to do while sharpshooter regens.

NT>BL no argument.

Did you ever read mine? (I guess it was quiet difficult to understand) I do not precise, but I was speaking of keeping using NL :

"It deals definitely more damages on single targets, hits harder than BL, so I am going to keep it I guess."

I don't see how I could have been speaking of BL, saying it's better than BL?

I think it's better in all the ways, except the aoe, but it do not really matter, you just have to get used to it.

BTW, agree with Saint Of Killers, need an arrow design like the non runed elemental arrow or even the frost arrow, not a weird orb like D2 sorc...