Hello,
Could you balance out the other runes on arcane orb? Frozen orb is easily triple dmg of the other runes.
Thanks
5 Likes
As itās supposed to be due to the way hitboxes and damage calculation works in the game?
Itās a DMO specific rune for a reason.
Stop demanding nerfs for things that donāt need it.
Edit:
I mean, it literally says āDeals 950% Weapon Damage as Coldā but thatās been this way ever since the game released?
Thatās not true. They increased the damage of the Frozen Orb Rune at some point. And only the FO Rune. Increasing the skill damage of the other Runes accorndingly would be not so bad.
1 Like
But not at the cost of nerfing FO.
Look at the Obliteration Rune. That one deals 700% weapon damage but itās hardly ever used due to the lack of versatility.
The FO Rune is by far the best option. Itās basically the only real AoE Rune for that skill.
No. Before Frozen orb only dealt 393% weapon damage as cold before it was massively buffed in patch 2.6.1.
- Wizard Skills
- Arcane Orb
- Frozen Orb
- Create an orb of frozen death that shreds an area with ice bolts, dealing
393%950% weapon damage as Cold- Increased projectile travel distance from 30 to 40
Taken from 2.6.1 patch notes:
As you can see, only Frozen Orb was buffed. No other rune was buffed or seen any attention since.
Also, the OP didnāt say anything about nerfing Frozen Orb in their post. If anything theyāre requesting the other runes to be buffed, so that thereās more options to go for with Arcane Orb rather than solely cold.
7 Likes
I still wonder how such a beautiful magic as Arcane Orb doesnāt have developersā love at all for so long time. There is not special set for it though they could completely revamp Delsir under it. Lod-builds with the orb are not strong. A magician doesnāt have a normal build for the most magic-looking abilityā¦
2 Likes
Note. I never asked for a nerf. Buffing the other runes would balance things nicely. Calm down the attitude.
Frozen Orb does about 2000% wpn dmg. You get the ice shards, pass through, and explosion dmg.
2 Likes
It would be alright to nerf Frozen Orb, if Arcane Orbās Support Legendaries would receive a buff. That would buff all runes equally.
1 Like
Agreed. I would just like the pretty blue ones viable too. Adjust the scalars as you will.
1 Like
You are reminding me of what blizzard did to try and make HotA more viable. Specifically, when the buffed one of the legendaries to 800%.
It is really sad how some abilities, and runes, have been trod on. I remember using Ray of Frost with sleet storm when D3 first came out. I would love to be able to use it again.
1 Like
You technically can, just not on anything higher than T6 unless you have at least 3 primals or a lot of Paragon.
Among wizardās various, tremendously annoying stand-still-to-deal-damage channeling skills RoF/Sleet Storm is one of the select few that actually has the potential to become a mobile channeling build. At least if its current behavior would be changed in a way so that you move to the pointer while channeling. This should be an inherent ability of the rune itself. Not to mention that Light of Grace is a trash level item that could use some serious do-over as well.
but enough of that, itās a bit offtopic
As for OPās suggestionā¦ yes, very much so. Arcane Orb is overdue for a rune revision. I mean, they could do a lot. For example, why donāt we have a true Fireball skill for wizards. Looking at you, Scorch. What I would do, apart from pushing damage figures around, is a fundamental change to how some of the runes behave. For example:
Obliterate
Why the heck reduce the detonation radius so much? Something called āobliterateā should do better. But at the very least make is 10 yards and then add a chance to pierce targets once (so up to two detonations).
Scorch
this one should be flat out renamed to āFireballā. This is a must, itās iconic for D2 sorcs, such a skill (rune) should be there no questions asked. Fireball should explode on hit and have a larger aoe than the base skill (something around 20 yards sounds about right if base is 15 and Obliteration is made to hit 10 yards)ā¦
Spark
now this oneā¦ good heavens, this screams āBall Lightningā, so let it travel significantly faster, maybe a bit erratic and then have it zap nearby enemies along its path with lightning arcs/bolts. Finally it should detonate in an electromagnetic sphere (perhaps stun effect) or something like that. Maybe zapping (destroying, pulling in) nearby enemy projectiles or environment clutter stuff in the process. Whatever, at least not this wobbling joke of a visual.
3 Likes
Not sure if I remember the context to which you are referring to.
I remember that they massively buffed Fjord Cutter in a way that it only buffed the Cold rune on Seismic Slam, because buffing the whole skill would also buff the Rumble rune on SS too much, which was used in all Might of the Earth set builds.
Ever since then, all runes that are not Rumble (in MotE builds) or Permafrost (for LoD builds) are lacking behind.
But I agree they should aim to buff all runes equally.
Do you remember the āArcane Novaā rune from classic D3?
It increased the detonation radius to iirc 20 yards or even to 25 yards.
There is also the the animation of the unruned Arcane Orb from the beta or pre-beta, which had a larger AoE than the current Arcane Orb, which looked just absolutely amazing:
The devs could replace the Obliteration rune with Arcane Nova and give it the old unruned animation from the beta/pre-beta and everyone would be happy.
Yeah, Fireball is just too iconic to not have it in a Diablo game.
And yes, it totally should detonate on impact.
They also really should replace the giant black boulder missile with one of the many other Fireball animations that are in the game, like e.g. Agnidxās (Rift Guardian) Fireball or Adriaās Fireball.
https://imgur.com/IsPApM8
https://imgur.com/FTaKnjn
The giant black boulder just does not pass as a true Fireball.
And for the explosion they simply could reuse the detonation from the Scorch rune, which would work fine imo, just without the missile leaving behind a trial of fire and the missile being a giant black boulder.
https://imgur.com/NQqUSIl
The way you describe this makes it sound like the BFG 9000 from DOOM.
Was that what you were thinking about?
Yeah, it would be every enjoyable to play around with such a skill in D3.
And make these Lightning zaps Chain Lightnings that each jump to 2 additional targets after the first one, then we are talking about something that would be tremendously fun.
On top of that, the visuals of Spark need to fit the spell better, especially the giant black-blue orb.
There is an alternative visual that they could use, like the Ball Lightning that gets created by the āStorm Chaserā rune from Energy Twister, which imo looks great, so why not just reuse it and replace the current one with it?!
https://imgur.com/Vck6OIY
Honestly, Iām not too bothered by Scorch being a molten boulder, mostly because we have a fire ball (or bolt) in the form of magic missleās conflagrate rune.
If anything I would change Scorch so that most of the damage of the fire trail is lesser, while greatly buffing up the damage of the explosion impact itself. Then give Scorch the ability to detonate at the mouseās cursor, rather than at itās maximum travel distance or if it hits an object (like how the spark rune is currently able to do).
For Spark, Iād say rather than having the Wizard lob up a lightning ball that shocks nearby enemies and explode upon hitting the ground; to instead have the wizard throws out a ball of lightning that explodes when it hits the nearest enemy and then sends out a chain lightning that jumps onto 3-4 nearby enemies (pretty much like electrocute), and when it hits the last enemy, it explodes again on said enemy (so thereād be 4 explosions with the unstable scepter).
For Obliteration, it should do more damage and have a larger explosion radius. Probably give it a piercing effect and then give it the effect of exploding every time it passes through enemies. I mean, itās called Obliteration; itād be kind of awesome to see it obliterating a horde of enemies.
Iām not sure what should be done with arcane orbit, as I actually like the mechanic and function of the ability. Probably make it more of a defensive skill since it requires the wizard to be at a melee distance?
That would make Scorch already much better.
Though, it also could be a cool mechanic that could be used to replace Arcane Orbit.
Then the new Arcane Orbit rune would slightly increase the damage of Arcane Orb and explode at the targeted spot.
Sounds almost like the D2 Amazons Lightning Fury 
Yeah, indeed.
1 Like
Gavel of Judgement original had no bonus to HotA. They then added the fury return to it in a patch I cannot remember. In 2.6.1, they add the 800% damage increase for HotA. The extreme legendary damage increase there is what a lot of wizard spells and runes would need to match other builds.
I have always had a soft spot for Spark. It just is fun throwing balls of lighting into enemies. It, like all the other runes have base damage and effect issues. Frozen orb does the most damage (950%) and hits a large AoE area. Obliteration only has 700% damage and has a reduced AoE area.
They would need to raise the base damage for it at the same time they keep the numbers for Frozen Orb the same. They could leave Obliteration the same if they reduced the cost by a lot. Then its weakness would be not so bad and you could turn it into an empowered MM.
But yeah, there is so much that needs to be done to so many runes. And then legendaries to support the new runes.
1 Like
Some great input here. One common point Iād like to emphasize. Frozen orb does close to 2000% wpn dmg. Not the 950% shown. Iāll dbl check on D3 planned later. Could be remembering wrong I guess.
1 Like
Ah, okay, that is what you mean. Yeah, that was ages ago that started to implement these massive damage multipliers to specific skills on legendaries and sets. I personally would have preferred it if they gave legendaries and sets more universally useful powers, but that is now where we are.
For Arcane Orb, the Damage Multiplier on some of its support Legendaries could be increased further, e.g. on Wizardspike from 300-350% to 600-800% and give you a 75% chance to cast one additional Arcane Orb with the rune you have equippedā¦
ā¦ and on the Unstable Sept er the Damage Multiplier for Arcane Orb could be increased 350-450 to to e.g. 600-800% as well.
Then you could just nerf Frozen Orb down to what it was previously, or just nerf FO by half and buff the other runes to then match FO.
There also is this reddit thread that explain how FO works in D3 and the damage that all three parts of the orb do.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Wizards/comments/7cqc8x/frozen_orb_mechanics/
I have it bookmarked, maybe you (and everyone else for that matter) should too.
1 Like
Now that youāve mentioned it, yes itās very similar to the Amazonās Lightning Fury. Effective against crowds of enemies.
1 Like