Buffing skills that are mostly useless on Hell seems odd. Most build spec out of fire before hell. Unless you change imunes to be more equal around the game in terms of locations so all elements can work in hell, then buffing those dont do much rather than speeding up leveling in normal and early nightmare.
1 Like
They’re buffing the fire skills which aren’t used due to being underpowered especially in higher difficulties, the Sorceress Hydra being a good example. The main purpose of the buffs for all of the classes is to open up more viable build possibilities.
Right now as far as Sorceress, almost everyone is familiar with the fire/cold dual element build, fireball/meteor/frozen orb. Fire is the main damage element, and frozen orb is the supplemental element to handle fire immunes, or spamkill weak non-cold immune monsters.
With the changes to hydra, I’m anxious to try out a Hydra+Frozen Orb build to see how well it stacks up in various situations compared to the well known MeteOrb sorc.
3 Likes
I think the main advantage is they are reducing the synergies for a lot of builds, so going dual spec is going to work better. You might be able to make something like a lightning/fire build now.
3 Likes
Some skills are under-used in general, so buffing these aren’t bad and would help make the game more pleasant for some who wanna walk around spitting fire out of their mouths.
However, we’ll have to wait to see what exactly the changes will be. I do not think anybody here knows the directions blizzard will take. I do know a lot of these changes seem to be what LlamaSC wanted, so it’s possible they’re coordinating with him and perhaps other streamers for fresh ideas that the d2 community would like.
For instance, there was a streamer that spoke about lowering the fire mastery dmg and tacking on a lower fire resist or adding a fire penetration in it, thereby, not nerfing it, but at the same time making it more relevant and perhaps, with items, allowing it to break fire immunities.
Whether or not this will happen would be speculation at this point.
A few of Carbots ideas seemed to be in there as well, so I think they are definitely listening to streamers and players. All in all, I’m quite happy about what I heard. Can’t wait to get on the PTR and give feedback.
2 Likes
Too early to tell. Note that aside from the skill buff, new runewords may make using certain skills even more viable, we just don’t know yet.
youve got a point. there’s probably too many fire immunes for fire to be popular even if made extra strong.
applies to druid buffs as well.
It sounds like they are tweaking Lightning and Fire trees enough that hybrids will become more common, which is good.
Hydra/Orb?
Hydra/Nova?
Could be interesting…
2 Likes
The only skill they announced removing synergy for is Blaze.
Two are currently slated to be added to Nova (Static Field and Thunderstorm).
Overall they are adding synergies, not removing them.
Lightning / Fire is possible but options are limited. You’d have to go Charged bolt and either Blaze or Fire Wall. That doesn’t sound appealing. And even if it was, it’s still only one option.
Keep in mind both trees have masteries which require 20 additional points to max, aside from synergies and main skill. Nova will go from 40 points required to 80. Seems more like a pure element build to me.
I will give this feedback on PTR if it plays as bad as it sounds for Hybrid element builds. 60 points would be a better sweet spot for Nova, at least on paper.
P.S.: are Charged Bolt, Lightning, and Chain Lightning a prerequisite for Thunderstorm? None of these skills will synergize with Thunderstorm, but Thunderstorm will for Nova. What a waste of three points.
They are removing for other classes too
Wanna see how firedruid will be viable
Ah yes! I’m looking forward to playing a Fire Elemental Druid with the GCDs lessened and synergies perhaps loosened.
Fixing Fire claw synergies is also pretty good, those are ridiculous.
Hopefully they loosen the pre-requisites there too, having to go down all of hurricane side to pick up armageddon is kinda irksome.
2 Likes
I was thinking the same thing. I’m hoping they added some runewords that could possibly deal with fire immunes or that the lower resist from plague could help some.
1 Like
I already have my own Hydra/Orb build. It’s already pretty decent but Hydra is really really slow… and I still use it as it is great to target things over a moat or around a corner. Very usefull to scout for dolls and souls as well. But lacks any meaningful damage.
Looking forward to that change… tho if it requires any synergies to benefit from said change? then the change is moot as I am already taxed for skillpoints and I didnt waste any either (tho as usuall +10 to skill gear and one point in each one will have to do the trick if that is the case)
And thats why they are buffing them lol.
They are also increasing some areas so fire might be viable in more places.
1 Like
Buffing fire skills seems odd
Sure, if you specifically set out to obscure the main skill they’re buffing from the fire tree.
Let’s just say buffing the fire and cold skills might have a point…
If I were You, I’d expect a new item or runeword with functionality sort of like “Infinity” but with a higher power/efficiency and requiring either a cham or zod or both, among others in order to make it work. this will item will seposedly work for everyone including other than act2 mercs. Said item, coupled with Medusa’s Gaze “when struck” proc, would take down roughly 80-95% of all ingame immunities… I already made a thread on this matter, and it seemes devs took a private note of it with a tag like “Steeve, look into this ASAP, cheers -forum mod team”. I’m not sure evetything is going to be copied 1:1, but i guess a lot from it is going to get trhough some QA team, and slip right into the game…
My apologies, I overlooked some Hybrid combos for the Sorceress.
This list is of skills and combinations that don’t compromise on DPS. The only reason I included Blizzard is because it gets -Res against non cold immunes without having to need Infinity. With Infinity, you might be able to Hybrid Lightning / CL or even Meteor + Fire Ball , or Hydra + Fire Ball. Infinity is so expensive though, and those pure builds require so many points. You’d need an end game character at level 95+ to make that setup work.
Best pre-2.4 PTR options after thinking:
Cold:
- Blizzard (2/3 synergized): 61 points
- Frost Nova: 61
- Frozen Orb: 41
Lightning:
- Charged Bolt: 60
- Thunderstorm: ?
- Nova: 80 (if reduced to 60, possible)
Fire
- Blaze: 40?
- Fire Wall: 60
- Inferno: 60
- Enchant: 60
Thoughts:
As you can see, Nova at 80 points just doesn’t fit. we only have 110 points total to work with on a 99 character anyways. It would need to be 60 max to fit a decent Hybrid, and having Nova as an option increases potential combinations.
Combinations below assume Nova at 60 max required.
Frost Nova could use some removal of synergy requirements too. Hopefully this is being considered. A 41 point Frost Nova would be much better than a 61 point required.
Thunderstorm is a big ?. Hopefully it’s staying 40 required, but if it goes up to 60, the combos below diminish significantly. Also a bad thing.
Light / Fire:
- Charged Bolt + Blaze
- Nova + Blaze
- Enchant + Blaze + Thunderstorm (Storm+Merc off element)
- Thunderstorm + Inferno + Blaze (for utility)
Cold / Light:
- Blizzard + Thunderstorm
- Frost Nova + Thunderstorm
- Frozen Orb + Charged Bolt
- Frozen Orb + Nova
- Frozen Orb + Thunderstorm
Cold / Fire:
- Blizzard + Blaze
- Frost Nova + Blaze
- Frozen Orb + Fire Wall
- Frozen Orb + Blaze
- Frozen Orb + Inferno
- Frozen Orb + Enchant
Overall this list is long, but if you take out nova and thunderstorm, it goes from 15 down to 8, and the larger portion of Hybrids would be Cold / Fire by a large margin.
During PTR let’s cater for reduce required synergies for:
- Nova
- Frost Nova
- Thunderstorm
I also think it might be nice to change Lightning and Fire Mastery to also reduce enemy res, similar to cold mastery (but maybe different value). This would free up the requirement to place max points in these skills, and allow for many more Hybrid combinations.
Combinations that are possible with giving up DPS of one of the two Hybrid Skills:
- Nova + Fire Wall
- Nova + Inferno
- Lightning / CL + Blaze
- Nova + Frost Nova
- Nova + Blizzard (2/3)
- Charged Bolt + Frost Nova
- Lightning / CL + Frozen Orb
- Hydra + Nova
- Hydra + Frozen Orb
- Hydra + Thunderstorm
- Meteor + Frozen Orb
- Meteor + Thunderstorm
- Frost Nova + Fire Wall
- Frost Nova + Inferno
Some of these are more feasible than others. Some are already in use in the game. It would be great if they were all potentials though.
1 Like
You mean, I could have 2! volcanoes up at the same time??
MADNESS!
1 Like
20 in orb, 10 in mastery, rest in nova will work fine.
or 20/10 and Hydras should be good too.
Seems like a great idea to me. More build diversity is always a good thing