how does "singular focus" work?

[liathaneo]

im a little confused by singular focus rune i just unlocked. It seems like I can run the same skill multiple times so i could say have a million skeletons which seems kinda cool but is that how its supposed to work?

The way I read the description is more I should buy the same skill over and over and replace the old version of that same skill to make it stronger, but if thats the case i cant see the improvements. What am i missing?

[aruan]

Hi liathaneo! Let's say you start a game with singular focus and you want to have 7 "copies" or ("instance") of the Burst of Lead skill. if you have only 1 copy of burst of lead, every power up that "enhances a specific skill" which are upgrades like the legendary multicast, for example that says "increased the multicast chance of the skill burst of lead" by 60%, it will upgrade that one copy of burst of lead you have.

Once you have two copies of Burst of Lead, once you take a upgrade that specifically upgrades burst of lead, it will randomly choose between the two copies to apply that upgrade to and so on. When you hover over the skill-specific upgrade, the game will actually show you which skill will get it, by highlighting the "copy" that will get it with a glowing yellow border.

This means that, the non-skill-specific upgrades, such as area of effect, multi-cast, damage and etc WILL apply to all "copies" of that skill.

If you have all 7 slots filled with a copy of "Burst of Lead" and replace one with a new "copy" the new copy will not start at level 1. The reason behind this is purely for balancing reasons.

[liathaneo]

a little confusing but i think i get it...do people find this rune useful then besides for challenge builds?

[Mokkun]

It's less challenge builds than meme builds. Singular Focus is never optimal, but there is far more fun to be had making silly builds, than making ultra powerful ones. At least imo. And Singular Focus massively opens up the variety of build options you can theoretically make.

[MaddogDino]

I'd like to give a nod here to the Assassin with 3 Twin Blades and 2 Back Stabs.
A crazy fast killing machine that builds up speed like a dynamo.
A must try.

[Lasher]

Rabbits. Lots of Rabbits. That's all there is to say...

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by Mokkun:

It's less challenge builds than meme builds. Singular Focus is never optimal, but there is far more fun to be had making silly builds, than making ultra powerful ones. At least imo. And Singular Focus massively opens up the variety of build options you can theoretically make.

I'd argue that the only thing making it suboptimal is the fact that it's the most expensive rune in the game. Well, that and the fact that it's now possible to actually limit yourself to one weapon.

[Mokkun]

Originally posted by HeraldOfOpera:

I'd argue that the only thing making it suboptimal is the fact that it's the most expensive rune in the game. Well, that and the fact that it's now possible to actually limit yourself to one weapon.

Due to the power of stacking buffs, debuffs, and chaining abilities, when used in concert with each other, Singular Focus limits the amount of nearly all of that that you can accomplish. It is therefore sub optimal in terms of power. It can however create some very fun/funny builds.

[Ulyaoth]

But let us never forget the old days...
6x Beam of Light with endless Brittle Stacking over the entire map.

It was the most broken thing back then before chaining was a thing...