Grimwold (Amulet) Thoughts

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Strange Device feels a bit better with slightly higher starting damage. I’d still love to see the Microwave get to be an actual weapon with actual interactivity, but this is still good.

This has been bouncing around my head for several months so I figured it’s time to finally put it on paper.

TL;DR Grimwold Amulet feels far too single-note for a utility item in a slot with items that provide more consistent and/or more substantial value. I’d argue that it’s borderline a dead slot even in the best of situations and depends far too heavily on the enemy team not having any engage tools or not knowing how to use them. There’s no reason I would pick it for a Shattered build, since virtually every other amulet in the game provides more consistent value in far more situations.

Grimwold Amulet feels dead and IMO it always has. Maybe we’ve always been in too much of a melee meta, maybe there’s not enough people running ranged, maybe maybe maybe. Even when I’ve had full Grimwold vs. a team with any form of ranged, it hasn’t felt like the barrier was actually providing that much largely because teams simply aren’t burning anything more than putting ranged LMBs into it. Since most teams I run into are running at least some melee, though, most teams just don’t care about the barrier; they either go around or go through.

In the first case, enemy teams reposition regardless, and a Grimwold sitting there with turret + charged rings LMB is typically enough on its own to force people to take a different path.

In the second case, the barrier isn’t doing much anyway unless the enemy team is exclusively ranged weapons, because the barrier is liable to not block anything, CC or otherwise, since so many ranged abilities and so much CC are ground-targeted and therefore entirely bypass the barrier regardless.

The only thing it’s going to block are RMBs that people won’t willingly use into it anyway, which to some extent reduces it a glorified Leodin Spear RMB. Predominately melee teams will, largely, just engage as they please and force me to leave the barrier behind, especially if Leodin, Rynshi, Dahla, or even Karriv are involved. Even predominately ranged teams still have sufficient ways of bypassing it.

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Hm, maybe it needs a Buff/Adjustments?

E.g.:

  • Friendly Projectiles passing through the Gate could receive increased damage or another bonus effect?

I agree that it’s currently a niche pick for Shattered builds and doesn’t feel very valuable right now, especially with how strong the melee meta is. However, I think this could change as more ranged Eternals are introduced.

Ive had quite a few occasions where the Gate blocked important projectiles, so it does have its uses atm.

Though - giving friendly projectiles that pass through the Gate an additional effect (or damage) would make the item instantly more appealing and create stronger synergy with ranged builds.

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I, overall, disagree. I think that whether Grimwold Barrier becomes more or less relevant, outside of changes to the item, is more dependent on whether future Eternals have ranged abilities that are ground-targeted (e.x.: Rynshi amulet, Hollow staff and sneklan RMB) vs. projectiles (e.x.: Hollow amulet, Edani hooks) than on whether those Eternals are ranged vs. melee.

If more ranged abilities were projectiles rather than ground-targeted, then Grimwold Barrier might not even need changes to be relevant as-is since you could plop it down mid-fight, regardless of what the enemy team has or what range they’re at, and end up denying something. While there are some projectiles, some of which are quite high value to deny, I don’t think it’s really enough to warrant running the barrier.

But if more ground-targeted abilities get added, then the Barrier will likely need changes of literally any kind since being able to block projectiles won’t really matter if more and more abilities can just bypass the anti-projectile wall.

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What would you think about grim amulet giving a speed buff to allies passing through it, and a slow to enemies passing through it? also, what would you think about strange device m1/basic attack doing searing damage?

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I think it would help its identity significantly. Would give the kit more CC and team utility.

As much of a non-answer as it is, I think it’d be worth testing.
If nothing else, it means searing damage would exist outside of Karriv which IMO would be good.

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for sure. I think strange device having searing damage would give it at least a gimmick use case that you’d want to use it in over charged rings (close range + no fort) and the amulet would be like a mini version of his ult almost. it’d make it an item that isn’t troll as hell to pick up before 4 piece as well

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