DMO Frozen Orb Feedback

PTR Feedback
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DMO Frozen Orb is a blast with the relic power this upcoming season. The spending of 4 orbs at once definitely changes the playstyle and makes for some interesting compositions.

Test Build: https://d3.maxroll.gg/d3planner/454580481
Clear and review (very lengthy… but if you want to see): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1548511374

Cleared GR139 in 14:54, ~1950 paragon. Pretty good rift and focused clear, so near the top of this build’s range, even still, could probably do at least GR140 with power pylon + RG.

The sanctified power allows us to drop APoC / Shame of Delsere and potentially run either Ashnagarr’s or Aquila (I chose Ranslor though). We do not worry as much about resource and it requires less time actively throwing out orbs. As a result, we worry less about attack speed, we only care about Area Damage, this frees up gear affix slots for synergy with the Guardian 2pc.

Guardian’s works well to boost base VIT enough to keep squirt’s up (my current build runs Karini, Blur).

I tested Arcane Dynamo and while it does increase the damage of the sanctified orbs that proc, the setup for using it just is not worthwhile in an Bastions+Squirt’s+Karini composition. With a CoE build, I can see using Dynamo to advantage, but with my test setup, we don’t have a 16s cycle to work around, which feels nice. I get more pulls in per unit of time, and can spam orbs more readily, while mostly preserving Squirt’s.

I think this is great as it means Arcane Dynamo is not a requirement for every build, even though it presents a huge advantage and synergy with the stacking mechanic. In general I found arcane dynamo play with the ranged build frustrating, as it was difficult to not consume stacks, pull, and still have targets in the perfect location at the perfect time.

To review, Dynamo you’d have to: stack up to 4, cast Black Hole (or Twister…whichever you are using), cast signature, line up your targets and cast Frozen Orb. It’s a lot of setup that just doesn’t work as well with the Ranslor’s Folly Pull. Ranslor setup works best with being able to instantly DPS after pixel pull, and the Bastions synergizes well for a run&gun playstyle where you can land your shots a lot easier with force move to optimize aim.

Minor annoyance with not getting DR from the 4pc because you haven’t hit an enemy to spawn a slow time at the start of the rift and after death, but other than that, I really enjoy not having to place slow time on the skill bar.

I do not like the DMO 2pc ICD. The 2pc itself where it spawns an slow time on an enemy feels great, but the ICD ruins it for this ranged build on occasion. You’ll get stuck outside of a slow time, with Teleport off Cooldown and the ICD is preventing the bubble from being created. Very frustrating.

True, I’m not testing with Illusionist, which would improve the mobility and feel of the push build, but I shouldn’t have to, if I don’t want it.

This ICD needs to be significantly lowered.

Primus isn’t really something you want to wear for any of these builds typically, because the stun rune on the slow time ruins monster CC reductions. The Primus helm is really only useful for Ancient Parthan Defender configs or multielement Vyr Chantodo, and those are rare nowadays.

On top of that, in a speed configuration, even if you use the Primus helm, the Teleport isn’t 0 Cooldown, it still has normal cooldown. It’s very slow. My understanding was that wearing Primus would function as good as Aether Walker for DMO. Not the case.

I didn’t test it, but slow time from archon should function theoretically to reset teleport as well. If it’s not this is also an oversight.

In summary, it’s definitely a fun push build that I’ll be playing. Some annoyances with the DMO 2pc ICD. The Ranslor + Bastions with tanky Guardian 2pc makes up for it though, very smoothe, slick, clean gameplay.

In Speeds, I’d like to see Primus get adjustment to only equip Point of no return rune if that rune is on your skill bar. I’d also like to see the cooldown resets work with Primus. DMO speeds are much less desireable without these changes.

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If Primus works with the 2p, it’d actually be better than Aether Walker. The cooldown on teleport is pretty much instantly reset when in a Slow Time. You don’t get that 0.5 second cooldown like you do with Aether Walker.

If you try doing a series of very short teleports inside a manual Slow Time, it’s actually quite a bit faster than Aether Walker.

If the Primus + 2p DMO combo worked, it would be AMAZING.

Did you try DMO Orb GR speeds at all? I was hopeful and I tried it briefly, but it was strictly worse than Firebird’s. Without the Primus + 2p DMO combo working, it really just isn’t fast enough because you get stretches were you don’t get teleport resets. Making the Primus + 2p DMO combo work would really help DMO out for speeds.

I tried that, it didn’t work. At least for the first PTR patch anyway, I haven’t tried it since the update but I’m assuming the behaviour did not change.

I don’t know if you noticed, but Primus + regular Slow Time very briefly stack. You get 20 IAS for a split second, it doesn’t stack for the full duration though. You also lose the IAS when you walk out.

E.g. it’s 10 IAS when you have Primus but are outside a manual/DMO2 Slow Time, 20 for a split second when you walk into the manual/DMO2 Slow Time, then drops back to 10. It then drops for a split second to 0 when you walk out before it kicks back in again.

It’s like it does a check and they stack briefly before the check goes through, then the manual/DMO2 Slow Time takes priority. Then when you walk back out you lose the buff from the manual/DMO2 Slow Time and have no IAS buff for a split second before it checks again and activates the buff from the Primus Slow Time again. Odd behaviour. The window is so brief I don’t think it’s really a big issue though.

Manual vs. DMO2 bubbles do not seem to exhibit this behaviour. They are treated the same, so there is no stacking and no brief window of gain/loss of the buff when you have both manual and DMO2 bubbles out. It’s only when the Primus and manual/DMO2 bubbles interact that you get this effect.

I agree you shouldn’t need it to make the build feel good. A big benefit of free bubbles and the teleport resets should be that you don’t need Illusionist and can take Blur/Arcane Dynamo/Cold Blooded instead. It feels kinda bad when you consider running Illusionist anyway to get around a bit of the clunkiness.

I don’t see an ICD on it. At least not a very long one. As long as you mouse over an enemy not in a Slow Time, I seem to always get a bubble when I expect, even if I just had one proc.

Is it the mouse over behaviour that you are seeing some weirdness with? A bubble won’t spawn unless you are mousing over an enemy, even if you hit an enemy with the skill. It’s where your mouse is when you cast that matters, in order to get a bubble all you need to do is be mousing over an enemy (or a destructible) not already in a Slow Time as far as I can tell.

I found it pretty clunky at first, I had to adapt my playstyle a bit and make sure I moused over enemies instead of just throwing orbs in the general direction of enemies. But I’m not seeing any ICD, or if there is one it’s shorter than 0.6-0.7 seconds or so. I can get two bubbles reliably on successive skill casts at 1.8 APS.

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Thanks for those insights! I’ll retest DMO, perhaps what I was assuming was an ICD was just DMO requiring a target under a cursor.

If this is the case, it’s just as bad though, because it really can be hard to do while performing a complex rotation, targeting at range, or maneuvering. Especially silly when your AoE attack or Signature doesn’t spawn a bubble against an enemy right in front of the character. :roll_eyes: :person_facepalming:

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