VAULT - how to make all runes viable

[tomaszk]

I have posted this on official forums but would like to know what you guys think about how to make all Vault runes viable.

Quote:

"Hi devs !

Like one of the posters above I have changed my build and started using different skills after 1.0.4. Trail of cinders become my movement skill joined with tactical advantage it provides good damage whilst escaping danger and puts you far away.

Instead of Nerfing Trail of cinders to the ground all vault runes should be amended as at this moment in time there was and is still only one very very dominant one. It used to be tumble now it is Trail of cinders. There is no incentive to use anything else really. It looks good and varied on paper but means not a lot in real game.

Now smoke screen gas Cloud gives 700% damage and i think its fine.
None of the vault runes gives you Root breaking ability - why not? You can still die in a middle of a vault so some people will prefer smoke screen anytime of the day but why not give one rune root breaking ability?

What about runes set up in such way:

1. Action shot - damage is way to low for this rune to ever be used I would add a run speed around tactial advantage % so that if you are using only one skill that tactical advantage supports and it is vault you do not waste a passive on just run speed. Allows greater flexibility and against fast mobs just a vault is not good enough. You have to run away. Say give it good 50-60% run speed and maybe even buff Tactical advantage at the same time?

2. Rattling doll - why enemies at the start of the roll do not get stunned? If I am vaulting away from them I do not care about destination as I will be vaulting into a clear area. If I vault into the enemies to inflict damage then that is fine but why not have both in one rune?

3. Tumble - this one is actually fine as is unless one of the others becomes extremely dominant as Trail of cinders is now

4. Acrobatics - no cost is fine but 15 sec cooldown means it is unusable. Give it a root breaking ability and a smaller cooldown so it is usable but if you do not make an improvement in your playstyle after getting jailed/frozen you will die. What about 5-7 seconds cooldown and a root breaking ability?

5. Trail of cinders - reduce damage to something around smoke screens gas cloud 700% or so.

I care passionately about this game and hope someone reads this and maybe gets an inspiration .

Take care,

Kilthar"

[lanceuppercut]

#1, how about make action shot arrows, stun (or fear?) targets on hit for X seconds but otherwise leave the skill how it is now.

#2, good point, noone sane will be vaulting into stuff to use the stun (and if you are, you have balls of steel!), stun at point where you currently are would be better.

#4 is quite interesting but that would renders SS a bit useless if it's not used as a CC breaker (which is all I use it for, 1 sec invulnerability is pointless to the general masses), maybe keep the cooldown and have it break some (..not all! maybe jailer and waller) CC's that way it can be used as a lower cost CC breaker but doesn't make it as universal as SS.

#5, with a damage reduction down to 700, i'd take a longer duration trail (5 secs?) and make the trail go as far as you vault as it doesn't seem to at this point which is quite annoying.

[SixteenTons]

#2, good point, noone sane will be vaulting into stuff to use the stun (and if you are, you have balls of steel!), stun at point where you currently are would be better.

I'm running a tank DH, so I actually tried this - in theory, it would be great: Vault into a mob, they're all knocked back and stunned while I drop Caltrops and Spike Traps then star spamming Grenades. In reality, the radius is far too small - unless you've got a really tightly packed mob halfway across the screen, it's not very useful. It also works great on slow moving stuff you don't need to bother stunning, and is pretty much worthless against anything quick. The massive Crowd Control reductions in Inferno also kill it.

So, yeah - this is worthless as-is, and needs something to make it worthwhile. Maybe with the recently-proposed changes to CC Blizz will give it a reasonable range and duration, either at origin or destination. This could be great with something like a 20-yard range and 4-second stun, but a 20-second cool down on stun to prevent spamming. That would let it be used for the intended effect (time to reposition/CC/heal/prep) without it being "overpowered".