I can’t be the only one who isn’t excited at all that they’re forcing this fundamentally bad spell onto the hydra build with new Winter Flurry. There’s a reason why no one uses Blizzard besides it not having a damage modifier. You could give it 10x damage mod and people would probably still use Black Hole or anything that actually does something.
Winter Flurry needs to do more to Blizzard to make this appealing, arcane reduction, more overall damage buff, attack speed to hydras…anything!
A 10 times buff does zilch, in all honesty. Nobody would use it for the damage part unless you slap something like x75 (no joke, I’m serious here) on it. And even then, it’s still unreliable. That’s how bad Blizzard actually is.
As for Winter Flurry - I’m still gonna salvage it, no joke. This kind of mechanic is similar to the clunky playstyle of DMO, just replace Slow Time with Blizzard, except it’s way worse, because DMO persists some time after mobs leave the bubble. But Blizzard? It doesn’t stack, all it does is increase the mobs cc resistance for nothing. Plus, except Apocalypse, it doesn’t cover a large enough area to be considered remotely cost-efficient - and most mobs will simply run out of its area of effect.
Man, this change to Winter Flurry feels just pathetic…
Yeah, we really need to changed to work with Frost nova. That has exciting possibilities when combining with Arlyse over the (currently de facto) Karini. If Cold Vyr opted for Winter Flurry in their cube slot, we would have a viable speed Archon build on par with other stuff, which would be amazing.
The other option is some kind of support item when you cast Blizzard, but that’s not nearly as exciting unless it’s going to be 100% damage for the entire group or something. Even if it was, I doubt you’d see a successful Wizard support build.
Clamor loud and long to have it tweaked from Blizzard to Frost Nova when the PTR opens, and we might have a speed build, Viable Vyr push, and a much more elegant item.Agreed, they have to do something more here. I hope more wizards will try the Blizzard / Winter Flurry interaction because on paper it looks awful. What would really be wrong with giving us more global damage buff with this like Etched Sigil? Let’s face it, wizard needs a huge catch up here.
It reminds me of the Don Vu era, when we had to work two or three times as hard as other classes to get the same effect. Like DMO, and Firebird’s, and Tal Rasha’s. I thought we were past his torturous mechanics and carpal-tunnel inducing idea of fun.
Vu might be my own personal boogeyman, I finger him as responsible for how bad the Wizard class turned out to be, but maybe I'm not being fair to the man.Not sure I like Frost Nova either, too area restrictive. Works for 4 player GR with mob gathering, but no other good use really going through rifts. Also we cannot be spamming Blizzard here.
Maybe it can double it’s duration, increased damage by 150% , double for hydras… idk something…this isn’t going to work well we already know.
Imo it can either be:
Cold skills release a blizzard upon impact. Enemies in a blizzard take 100% more damage from you. This bonus is doubled for Cold attacks.
Frost Nova gains the Frozen Mist rune. Enemies hit by frost nova take 150% more damage for 10 seconds.
Or
Frost Novas occur periodically within a blizzard, novas created by a blizzard deal 50% of blizzard’s total damage to nearby enemies. Blizzard deals xxx% more damage.
That said, tying winter flurry damage modifier exclusively to hydra is a mistake imo.
I like that idea besides the cold thing, that forces Frost Hydra. It’s okay to force Cold use on Blizzard because…yeah it’s a Blizzard.
That’s a terrible idea. Wow. Delete that and go back to the drawing board. I can’t even look at you right now. 
Truthfully, I’m thinking outside of hydras, so that skills like cold meteor, ray of frost, and just about any other cold variant skill can greatly benefit. If the cold bonus wasn’t there, then I’m certain that non-cold builds would benefit more than actual cold builds which would be a tad odd imo, considering the item’s name.
Haha what terrible idea? I’m not trying to tie it to another skill here it’s just duration and damage Honestly yes of course Frost Nova has better rune choices, but it works best with short range skills like you know EB… we all remember that great synergy…not so much with hydra.
That’s the point! The duration and damage are trivial.
I don’t think so, duration means less casts of blizzard and more casts for hydra/primary. But I’d prefer range increase over duration. Also could say Enemies effected by Blizzard take 100% more damage, this effect is doubled for hydras.
I mean damage in that sense, not damage for the useless Blizzard damage 
Add a mechanic wherein Blizzard is cast in the location where the hydra is cast.
Just throwing out a few ideas that are more universal or involve cold specifically. Numbers and durations (if mentioned) are examples of course and can be tuned.
Notably, something involving elemental % damage might fit better on CoE / SoJ.
I love this one in particular. It matches the items name and also the idea of making blizzard a good skill for stacking it (if every damage tick would stack it)
maybe even put the whole bonus of the item to that mechanic because as it is right there it has effectively 3 properties. maybe a bit overwhelming.
Double freeze duration also makes sense and would synergize well with Halo of Arlyse maybe making it a more interesting choice again.
Those are some great ideas Cratic, so I’m assuming you want to nix the Blizzard requirement all together? I Don’t think they’re going to go for that…I think Blizzard has made up their mind on Blizzard 
I’d be pleasantly surprised if they revert it though, everyone seems to want Frost Nova back. It’s got away better runes of course than Blizzard. I cannot believe not even one Blizzard rune has increased cold damage % wth? I just personally don’t think it fits well with Hydra traditionally being a ranged spell. Messes up the synergy / fantasy. One thing I’ve learned is you gotta think a bit like them to work with them!
These updates are just pigeon hole splatter.
I’m not sure I’m sold on the idea that Blizzard as a debuff will feel good. When other players were mentioning Blizzard as a candidate for reworks, I think most (myself included) were thinking it would be used as a damage dealer, not strictly as a debuff.
Personally it was lower on the list of skills I’d prefer see changes, but I can see the appeal.
That said, I’m more than willing to try it out! Could be the debuff style feels good, and I just don’t know I like it yet.
I’d prefer it be a more global debuff rather than requiring a skill slot and a GCD. So if it must be a Blizzard specific debuff, why not have the item auto proc the base rune (or other runes) of Blizzard for us based on some other more global class metric, or combination of metrics (chills, freezes, amounts of AP spent, maintaining or generating certain amounts of AP, generator or spender stacks, crit proc, etc.)?
You could even tune the Blizzard casts that auto proc so that they do nothing but debuff, that way there’s no extra damage instances going out that could cause latency issues.
You’re right about Frost nova, I think it makes much more sense to use or expand on as a buff / debuff, if we’re specifying a skill. I do like the potential for interaction with existing items (Arlyse) too.
Thanks! I like quite a few of the ideas. You are correct that some are simpler, or could be split apart, or recombined even, since they are multipart.
Issues could be that current builds that do have space for them could tack them on for more power (Cold Vyr Chantodo)? But then again, perhaps even that build could use a slight increase. Would be nice to have a less restrictive option too, if it must be a weapon / source slot.
Why does every damage or defensive weapon / source have to be tied to a specific skill or skills?
I actually really like Primordial Soul and Elemental exposure interacting for example, but PS doesn’t offer enough in terms of damage, toughness, or utility.
Guess I’ve just been enjoying Necromancer itemization a tad too much. 