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As part of our targeted improvements to Bows in 3.9.0, we're introducing three new Support Gems that work with Bow skills: Arrow Nova Support, Greater Volley Support and Barrage Support.
Arrow Nova Support
The Arrow Nova support turns a forward firing arrow skill into an upward firing payload arrow, which lands at a targeted location. When the arrow hits the ground, it bursts into a nova of the skill's projectiles. This support is available at level 8 for the Ranger, opening up interesting new ways to spread your arrow effects over an area.
Ground targeted projectiles like Caustic Arrow, Vaal Burning Arrow and Tornado Shot will explode a fixed distance from the Nova location, creating a wide damage area if they don't explode on a closer target first. For Caustic Arrow, this lets you spread caustic ground over a very large area with ease.
Greater Volley Support
Knowledgeable players will know that the Greater Volley Support already exists on the Reach of the Council unique bow. We have decided it would be interesting if it became its own support gem. Because of this change, Reach of the Council will be improved. This support is available at level 38.
Greater Volley comes with a slightly lower damage multiplier than Greater Multiple Projectiles, given that the damage shape is less desirable for most projectile skills.
Lesser Multiple Projectiles and Volley supports have been often left by the wayside in favour of Greater Multiple Projectiles at end-game - both of these supports will have lower damage multipliers than they currently do, making them more attractive both for levelling and as endgame options.
Barrage Support
This support gem causes skills to fire wand and bow skill projectiles sequentially. Each projectile adds a little bit of attack time, so the skill isn’t unreasonable with skills that inherently have a lot of additional projectiles like Split Arrow and Power Siphon. You will be able to cancel out of a Barrage once it has started, so too many projectiles won't lock you in place for a long time. This support is available at level 38.
The Barrage skill gem hasn't changed significantly. It has functionally the same behaviour as the Barrage Support but does not have more attack time per extra projectile. This makes extra projectiles relatively more valuable compared to other Bow skills supported by Barrage.The Volley Fire threshold jewel will now be limited to 1 (from 3) and grant 6 additional projectiles to the first and final attacks (up from 2), giving you much more value for the socket cost.
Separate to these changes, Shrapnel Shot has been adjusted and renamed Galvanic Arrow. It is especially interesting with the Barrage Support, with each sequential projectile repeating the area damage cone. We'll talk more about the Galvanic Arrow changes soon when we go over all reworked and rebalanced skills.
Support Gem Combinations
Any arrow-firing Skill + Barrage + Arrow Nova
This causes the projectiles from the skill to spiral around the impact point, both looking cool and letting you deal high damage to enemies near the target location.
Any Arrow + Barrage + Greater Volley
This causes a sequential volley to fire in a line from side to side, damaging a condensed area that can hit enemies many times.
Check out a video preview below!
There are other interesting combinations to discover with existing support gems and certain bow skills, including other reworked and improved bow skills. We'll be going over these reworked bow skills soon, so stay tuned.
