Hello
Yes, a rather long title… fitting for quite a lengthy post.
Again, this is a “small” collection of ideas, especially in hindsight of the latest changes for S22 around Hydra. But I added a bit more to this - so take it as concept for future changes and how they would affect wizards.
To start things, when I first looked at the recent change to Fragment of Destiny, I immediately wondered why they had not added the signature/primary skills to the Typhon’s set right away. Doing that alone would not be sufficient, oviously, but it would have made much more sense… yet, it needs a little more than that. So let me share a few ideas here, that will also make primary skills into something to be reckoned with:
Fragment of Destiny:
Your Signature Spells attack 50% faster and deal triple damage. You gain a Spectral buff whenever you land an attack with a Signature Spell.HydrasYour Force skills deal [25-35]% increased damage for each Spectral stack. Max 10 stacks.
Shame of Delsere:
Your Signature Spells deal triple damage, attack 50% faster and restore [9-12] Arcane Power.
So much for the common stuff on signature skills. That would already help, but the primary skills barely have dedicated item support now, Electrocute aside. As for those I suggest we first take a look at our sources. We have two, namely Mirrorball and Myken’s Ball of Hate - both are outdated and need love, so I will suggest to update them and then add two more or replace the affix on one of the least used sources. The goal is to get offhands for all primary skills:
Mirrorball:
Magic Missile gains the Charged Blast and Seeker rune effects, deals XXX% more damage and fires 2 extra missiles.
Mykens Ball of Hate:
Electrocute gains the Chain Lightning rune, deals XXX% more damage and can chain to enemies that have already been hit. Failing to chain to a new target releases half the outstanding damage of all remaining jumps on the last target you hit.
Orb of Blades: [new legendary source] [Alternatively => replace the useless effect on Oculus!]
Spectral Blade gains the Barrier Blades rune effect, deals triple damage and strikes twice. Attacking with Spectral Blade within 50 yards now teleports you to the target. The latter effect has a [4-6] seconds cooldown.
Shock Sphere: [new legendary source]
Quintuples the number of Shock Pulse projectiles, releases the bolts in a 360 degree angle around you and increases their damage dealt by XXX%. Whenever Shock Pulse bolts hit an enemy, nearby bolts will be drawn to the same target.
As I already suggested to update Mykens… there’s also a hat for Electrocute, and while I’m at it - yes, lots of other wizard hats could use an update as well. I will only post ideas for some of those here, though. Those that fit the concept:
Velvet Camaral:
Doubles the number of enemies your Electrocute jumps to and quadruples the damage dealt by the arc.
Archmage’s Vicalyke:
Mirror Images stay nearby, no longer take damage and their damage dealt is quadrupled. Whenever you attack with a projectile skill, so will your Mirror Images.
Dark Mage’s Shade:
Diamond Skin gains the effect of every rune and has it’s cooldown halved. You automatically cast Diamond Skin when you fall below 30% Life. The latter effect may occur once every [15-20] seconds.
Crown of the Primus:
Slow Time gains the effect of every rune and a permanent Slow Time follows you. Half your pickup radius increases the area of effect.
Okay, that’s the hats covered. Now I’m going to suggest adding a yet missing “Halo” ring for Energy Armor - and have it linked to Mirror Images. The general idea is that when you have Mirror Images then you’d gain up to 80% DR through the effect. Since it’s very strong and pretty much unconditional, you will need at two items (ring+hat) for that effect, so it’s not completely OP:
Halo of Krede: [new legendary ring] [Wizard only]
Energy Armor gains the Energy Tap and Force Armor runes effect. While your armor spell is active, Mirror Images last until they are killed and all damage taken is shared between you and your Mirror Images.
Then I’d also like to suggest something for “Bastions of Will”. Focus/Restraint are nice for builds around signature/primary skills, so let’s have a short look at it. I always wondered why the set has no defensive power at all although it blocks two ring slots. I think it would be reasonable to add damage reduction to the set buff and maybe even up the damage a bit - here’s my suggestion for this:
Bastion of Wills:
(2) Set:
When you hit with a resource-generating attack or primary skill, deal 60% more and take 30% less damage for 5 seconds.
(2) Set:
When you hit with a resource-spending attack, deal 60% more and take 30% less damage for 5 seconds.
This would slightly increase the damage buff from x2.25 to x2.56 and grant 51% damage reduction. The figures are meant to be dicussed, but I guess they are not overdoing it.
Now, finally, let me come to Typhon’s Veil. A set that’s only for one skill is very restrictive already. So, why did you devs link a one-skill-set to signature skills and one of our worst spenders (through Winter Flurry)… it’s really beyond me. Do you seriously think, that this mechanic is fun? Okay, I won’t put up a discussion around Winter Flurry here, let me just say this:
To change WF like this just for the sake of having a Hydra source is no good. I want winter themed source to focus on cold damage and/or Blizzard alone… so that Blizzard itself becomes an option. Not like this… reconsider this, please. It’s suffocating and awkward to play like that.
Okay, now back to Typhons - I’ll keep it brief, the post is already long enough and will even continue a bit after this:
The Typhon’s Veil:
(2) Set:
Your Signature skills now hit enemies twice and your Hydra lasts twice as long. Multi-headed Hydras also gain 2 additional heads.
(4) Set:
50% of all damage taken is shared to your Hydra but whenever you take damage a Hydra head dies. A Hydra head can die only once every two seconds.
(6) Set:
Hydra and Primary skills deal 2500% increased damage per active Hydra head. Your Hydra now also attacks with your signature skills whenever you do and deals double your damage with them.
The gist of this is having primary skills included. I find it rather bothersome how disjointed the latest changes aroung Hydra look. Like you attack with a signature skill to buff Hydra… but the signature skills on their own are left in the dust. Not good. So, why not add them to Typhons? Where’s the issue with that? With the change to Fragment and my suggested offhands this would make a lot more sense and it would also remove the “there’s no Hydra source” issue… just use a Signature source now, and you even have choices now. I’d call this a win-win.
Weeeeell, finally, let me also repost a small idea I had quite some time ago and shared again recently in a topic about historic things removed from the game (for various reason). Since this idea fits in so nicely, let me also add it to long list of suggestions:
Seasoned players will remember what I talk about speaking of the “Venom Hydra”. It’s a skill rune that once existed but got removed from the game when the elemental damage types were restructured and brought in line across all classes. It was a green Hydra dealing poison damage and since poison is nothing you’d expect from wizards these days, it might sound weird to suggest this. Nevertheless Venom Hydra was fun. So, I always thought “why not bring it back” somehow? It would have been great through a set bonus on Typhons, but since that’s not happening, I’m going back to my original idea for an item:
My suggestion is to either use the Oroboros amulet which has yet to see a legendary power… or to introduce a new item. The amulet would surely fit the poison/snake theme pretty well. Then again, the other idea is to bring an iconic Diablo item on the table - the unique “Skin of the Vipermagi” which would also fit the requirements pretty well. I will use the latter one for my idea:
Skin of the Vipermagi: [new legendary chest armor] [Wizard only]
Poison skills deal 15-20% more damage [additional fifth primary, rerollable]
Hydra deals XXX% more damage, ignores every rune and summons a Venom Hydra instead. Every static elemental bonus to skill also increases your Poison damage dealt and poisoned enemies take triple damage from your Primary, Secondary and Force skills…
So, there you have it. Take all % figures, damage values and multipliers with a grain of salt. Maths should be done by those who have way more insight than me. This collection is meant as a rough concept for future wizard changes and I believe doing something like this could prove fun. Obviously there’s the mobility issue, our lacking sets and whatever else is su-par right now, but I will end my post here for now.
So, anyhow, comments appreciated.
