Been thinking about Inferno some more and what would be needed to make it usable.
Faster Cast not effecting it is still a major issue that needs to be addressed, but I thought of a few more ideas:
1: Add a Monster Flees effect
Specifically, monster flees when taking damage (so Fire Immunes not effected). This helps with a lot of the problems using Inferno, in that you can’t move while the monster comes up to hit you. It makes sense thematically, as Inferno is basically a Flamethrower, and one of the main uses of a Flamethrower was as a terror weapon to make people run away. It would also give Inferno some use as a utility skill for crowd control, the way Howl is used on the Barbarian. Allowing a Fire Sorceress to have some crowd control instead of always having to use Cold Skills for crowd control could be useful. Would also make +Inferno O-skills more useful. Even if it doesn’t do significant damage, it can be used for the flee effect.
2: Add “On Fire” as a damage over time effect
Inferno gives its damage as an average overtime, but that’s really just the average damage done to a monster in the line of fire. What if each plume of flame was treated like napalm or Greek fire? It “sticks” to the monster and then continues to do damage over a specific length of time, say 3 seconds? This would synergize extremely well with the Monster Flees effect. Basically, you hit the monster with sticky flame that causes it to run away while on fire, once the fire runs out it stops running away. This would also help the spell work with groups, as each monster runs away it opens up a lane to hit the next monster behind it.
Assuming we use the current damage of Inferno and apply that over the full 3 seconds that should be enough handle most monsters (depending on equipment). But Bosses would be a problem, (especially since they don’t flee). Unless the effect stacks, IE you hit the monster with 3 plumes, and then each of those plumes does the displayed damage for three seconds, that should allow an Inferno sorceress to handle a Boss. Might need to do some play testing to get the right damage for balance. This would also make the effect of Faster Cast rather important.
3: Add a damage to Fire Resistance effect
Basically, each plume that hits a monster damages the monster’s Fire Resistance by -X%. I’d also recommend letting this break immunities. Make it something like -5% and that means for immune monsters it only reduces resistance by -1%. That means for a Monster with 120 Fire Resistance you’d have to hit him with 21 Inferno Plumes to break his immunity. That way it’s not really useful against highly immune monsters, but against something just barely immune, like 100% Fire Resistance, or 105% Fire Resistance, Inferno can “burn through” the immunity and start letting you damage them. And if you are willing to stand your ground and cast Inferno at a 145% Fire Immune Pit Lord long enough to hit him with 46 Inferno plumes, I say hats off to you, and let the crazy Sorceress do some Fire Damage.
I know breaking Immunities is a sensitive topic, but there are so many Fire Immunes, that adding one additional skill that can break Fire Immunes can certainly help the game be less limiting on where a Fire character can play. Especially if it’s a skill that requires significant amount of effort and skill to apply. I mean, this isn’t like Conviction or even Lower Resist in how easy it is to apply the effect to a target.
Adding those three effects to Inferno would certainly make Inferno a skill that would see some use. Both as a utility skill, but also as a viable build that would play very differently than all the other Sorceress builds. And that would be a lot of fun.