devtrackers.gg
Here's a breakdown of the changes i made and why
1) it just doesnt make sense that a Bow/minion hybrid unique doesnt work with Bow/Minion hybrid skills like Blink and Mirror arrow. Maloney's mechanism is the proof that triggering blink/mirror arrow is possible
all they need to do is change "...minion spells..." to " ... minion skills..."
2) the dexterity stacking mod needs to be addressed as well, 1% minion damage per 10 dex is nothing considering the insane leap in Minion damage on weapons. This would not only make minions better but your Bow's skills as well if you take "Spiritual aid"
3) Copying POTCG's Int mod would make the item nice "1% increased area of effect of you and your minions per 10 int". Especially since Minion patch made Minion aoe a thing
4) A fated version would definitively be great. a mod with a minion& on kill flavour would keep the thematic of the bow while being new and fresh ( now that i think about it, its D2's faith bows mod). Could work like the old Dominating blow minions, but have Dark&grey colouring to differentiate them
Extra:
The "On kill" aspect of the bow could be helped by :
- a Chance to spawn a worm on hitting a rare/boss enemy
or
- Dom blow like mechanic that grants you the kill if you have hit the target in the last 2seconds
Note: This is just how i would love to see this love given to the unique, you may bring your own ideas and discuss of what do you think of the state of this item in general
Posting since someone specifically requested my input. These views are my own opinions only, yada yada yada...
1) it just doesnt make sense that a Bow/minion hybrid unique doesnt work with Bow/Minion hybrid skills like Blink and Mirror arrow
Hard disagree from me. This is not just a general bow/minion hybrid unique, it is explicitly and intentionally an Int-minion-spell/Dex-bow-attack unique. The whole point of the item is creating a hybrid between two things that don't usually go together or have anything else that links them, in this case int minion spells and dex bow attacks (I believe in particular Zombies, which can be raised directly from the corpse, meshing with the on-kill trigger). It smooths over some of the hard edges of the conflict: triggering means no need to invest in cast speed as well as attack speed, and since the spells won't deal damage, your own damage bonuses can all be attack focused; rewards stacking dex while requiring extra int - the two attributes which you need for those two skill types), but leaves the details of how you combine them, and how much you focus on scaling your own attacks vs your minion spells up to you.
It's a good Johnny item in this respect in that it poses a challenge of how to make those parts work, leaving the rest up to the player. Blink/Mirror Arrow don't need a unique item to make them work in, or encourage trying them in, a bow attack build, because they inherently do already. The item exists to give people a reason to try mixing minion spells with bow attacks, which don't normally work together, by bridging those concepts just enough to make the weird combination tantilising. Making it work with the Clones would remove most the reason the item exists in the first place, and the item would then absolutely have to be balanced around that use case, which would likely make it much less usable for it's intended purpose, and remove a lot of it's unique identity, as it would be seen entirely as an item for those skills, not to encourage different builds.
A bow (or other unqiue) focused on cool interactions with the Clone skills is a potentially cool idea (note that the item would want to be focused on cool interactions, rather than just the concept of using them in a bow attack build, since they do that themselves), but forcing Null's into that role isn't, because it takes away all the reasons it does what it does. That's a different role, which would be better served by a different item.