Mechanics Testing:
Stone of Jordan
- Added power: Each of your elemental’s damage bonus is equal to your highest static elemental bonus to skill.
Result: Your highest static elemental % increases all default elements for your particular class to that amount. Increases from other indiviual elements do not increase this value. (Example: on wizard 40% cold and 20% fire results in 40% to arcane, cold, lightning, and fire.)
Dynamic abilities such as flame blades and Absolute zero do not increase all elements, only the element they regularly increase (as expected).
- Issue: Off class elements do not appear to benefit from the new bonus. (Example: On wizard, if you equip Poison% or Holy%, these do not increase your maximum static elemental % for Fire, Lightning, Cold and Arcane). Note that this means the reverse should also be true; Physical% and Holy% on a wizard should be increased to maximum if you are wearing cold% on gear, so as to allow items like Pain Enhancer or Mirinae to deal more damage.
Testing with vyr2pc +4pc and 40% cold on gear shows:
- Issue: Casting Slow Time (cold) runed archon results in arcane element for archon abilities. This is an issue, because we want to be able choose what element we run, not have it default to arcane.
Mechanics Note: For those who don’t know, there is a default priority for vyr2 when elements are equal, and arcane is at the top of the list. When the current power on [2.6.9 PTR] SoJ increases all elements is in effect, this causes archon and Chantodo (if no dynamic increases are in play) to assume arcane.
Chantodo Wave of Destruction element switches to the dynamic maximum, which because they are all equal, is arcane.
Chantodo Wave of destruction still dynamically adjusts based on maximum element (as expected). Example: So if you cast Flame blades to maximum of 30% when at 20% cold on gear and SoJ equipped, Chantodo will still change to Fire% because that is the maximum dynamic element.
Items such as Frostburns, Magefist, Cindercoat, etc. are counted as static and do increase maximum static elemental % if they are added to the maxmimum elemental type you have currently equipped. Note: If you notice any items that Aren’t working, please report these as a bug.
Chantodo damage from the wave of destruction is being increased by SoJ (as expected). Example: 40% cold on gear wearing SoJ, results in an arcane elemental damage type for Wave of Destruction and a 40% increase to arcane damage of the WoD (damage portion is working as expected).
Tested: v2.6.9.68331
Feedback:
I like that this bonus is a great start for allowing multielement builds to function and compete in the game. I like what it provides, however, there are still a few issues:
- It feels like it doesn’t empower multielement builds to function as much as it could.
- The power itself feels misplaced on Stone of Jordan.
Below I have some suggestions.
Suggestions:
- This new legendary power should be affixed to Convention of Elements, not Stone of Jordan.
As a secondary legendary affix, the current proposed power does not increase the damage of a great majority single skill, single target builds. This mutual exclusivity means you can readily place it onto another power, and generally have only multielement and hybrid style builds benefit. You could even modify this secondary legendary power, as long as it meets this requirement.
Placement on SoJ creates a separate item that multielement and hybrid builds have to gear for; they already have a hard time fitting multiple skill item affixes and skill based legendary item multipliers into their build compositions. Placement on SoJ and not CoE would make it even harder for multielement builds to compete with single element builds.
CoE is already multielement themed supporting item and would be highly desireable for ANY multielement build. Therefore, it is the perfect place to affix this new legendary power or powers that would support multielement and hybrid builds.
- In addition to the already proposed power (for CoE), add an additional legendary power to CoE:
Killing enemies with more than one element within x#s enables a multiplier for your maxmimum static elemental %. Lasts y#s.
How this would function is: the game would be tracking which element you kill each enemy with. killing an enemy with a different element would start an hidden timer (with duration x#s). If you kill again within that timer’s limit, but with a different element, a buff is provided (or refreshed). Lasts y#s.
The killing of enemies is key because that’s really one of the only ways to ensure we are increasing the damage of multielement builds with this power in comparision to single element builds.
Yes, there is an off-chance that a signature ability would kill off small trash mobs or finish off other monsters and therefore proc this bonus for single element focused builds as well, but that chance is lessened as you increase GR level, and less desirable to attempt at the expense of dps.
- Add support for Multielement, Single skill builds.
Select more than one rune for a single chosen damaging skill, and place both runes on your bar as separate functional skills.
Note: this legendary power suggestion could be for a different item entirely, if desired, or could be additionally affixed to the Convention of Elements.
You may now select a second rune of one skill, and assign each rune of said skill to your skillbar. This would allow the player to use whatever element of that skill they want, and they would only have to gear for that single skill.
This would allow for more multielement, single skill builds, similar to multielement vyr chantodo.
Can you imagine placing down different runes of Hydra on the battlefield, or using Frozen orb AND arcane orbit? That would be awesome!
The tradeoff of having to take up two skill slots when opting to use this bonus is also great, because it still leaves single element, single skill builds highly desirable.
- Fix Manald Heal so that it can benefit from Lightning% elemental on gear.
MH currently does not scale with Lightning%. Fixing this would allow Wizards to build into multielement hybrids that include MH.
- Would be nice to see some interaction with this bonus and the Seasonal Theme.
If off-elements such as poison and holy% boosted all elemental damage, all classes could receive benefits for arcane, cold, lightning, and fire.
Additionally, if the storm elements created by the seasonal bonus also scaled with elemental% from gear, this would create a really interesting interaction.
Just a thought to make the seasonal bonus more engaging itemization wise. This of course highly favors using a CoE (assuming the power gets moved where it should be), but I feel it could be a decision that’s okay for most builds to contend with.
Supplemental Video: [2.6.9 PTR] Multielement & Hybrid Builds, The state of D3, and the soulbinds of SoJ, CoE.
Timestamp 10:43 to skip to suggestions. Note: After testing PTR, Absolute Zero and Flame blades do not increase maximum bonus via SoJ, because these are not dynamic (so disregard that part of my example in the video).