Return Etched Sigil To Its Previous

PTR Feedback
46

Respectfully speaking, while you hadn’t, there were others who did, or at least would’ve in due time. For example there was a challenge rift where a wizard used both energy twister and etched sigil together (admittingly it lacked hydra, however the challenge rift was before Typhon’s addition as well as many of the hydra buffs that exist today).

Now if energy twister did lack usage, that only tells us that energy twister just didn’t pack enough damage and/or utility to warrant using (an issue that’s shared by any other underused skill). A strong enough buff to energy twisters existing items would’ve been more than enough to entice players into using the skill (unless you just didn’t like the skill), however Blizzard, choosing to use a hammer instead of a scalpel (like how they almost always do when it comes to our class), also went and broke many of our existing builds while trying to improve a few of our skills in return.

3 Likes
47

Which I believe is precisely why Blizzard changed Etched Sigil - In order to promote use of Energy Twister.

When combined with Ranslor’s Folly, Energy Twister is extremely powerful. Combine that with Typhon’s Veil & Frost Hyrda, The Endless Walk, and legendary gems Bane of the Trapped, Bane of the Powerful & Enforcer.

Trouble is, most everyone doesn’t like change, which is why they cry for Etched Sigil to be returned to it’s previous incarnation.

Chances are, everyone that wants that reversion have probably never even tried the new Etched Sigil and are simply parroting the complaints of other players without thinking.

48

If they wanted to promote its use, they should have buffed it, not removed the functionality from all the other abilities.

4 Likes
49

Here’s another thought:

Perhaps the functionality of Etched Sigil was changed in order to allow for the choice and use of OTHER Wizard orbs because just about everyone was using E.S, and the other orbs where left to the wayside?

50

Sure… which one, then? Currently we have

Winter Flurry (trash on live, still clunky/meh in 2.6.10 - Hydra only)
Triumvirate (Arcane Orb… whoever plays AO will use this regardless of ES)
Chantodo (Chantodo is Archon and one of the sources wizards abtually wear)
Mirrorball (Magic Missile, outdated, does not interfere because Signature skill)
Myken’s (Electrocute, same as Mirrorball)
Light of Grace (RoF only, underpowered, pretty much useless)
The Oculus (useless no matter how you look at it - just gimps your damage)
Cosmic Strand (as useless as Oculus, unless for niche use)
Primoridal Soul (Multi-Element… that playstyle was rendered useless by design)
Orb of Infinte Depth (requires EB, melee build, high DR but meager damage)
Tal Rasha / Firebird source… not worth it, both sets are underpowered

Now, tell me… exactly which source would you use instead of Etched Sigil that is remotely usable? If you play a signature build (both are underpowered, only fun use), then current live ES isn’t yours anyways. If you go for Arcane Orb, there are already better alternatives. The rest is questionable at best.

If they want to encourage us to use other sources, they should provide us with viable alternatives… instead they turned a working item into the same garbage we have for sources. Okay, unless we talk about specific builds that already have a viable item, we can now chose between junk, garbage, trash and rubbish and it doesn’t really matter. Yup, makes perfect sense…

6 Likes
51

As I already had said, they could’ve simply buffed either one of energy twister’s existing items, such the twisted sword, ranslor, or Valthek. Doing so would’ve produced the same result without killing any existing builds.

Here’s what you’re forgetting. Etched Sigil’s new change didn’t necessarily bring anything new. The build you keep talking about always existed, it just lacked damage, something that could’ve been fixed by buffing energy twister. Even if you didn’t think about it, others have.

Pre-2.6.10 Etched Sigil:
While channeling Arcane Torrent, Disintegrate, or Ray of Frost for at least 1 second, the damage of your Arcane Power Spenders is increased by 135%, and you also cast one of your other damaging Arcane Power Spenders every second.

2.6.10 Etched Sigil:
While channeling Arcane Torrent, Disintegrate, or Ray of Frost, the damage of your Energy Twister is increased by 200-250%, and you also cast Energy Twister every second.

Key Functions:

  • Autocast - Check (although 2.6.10 version only affects Energy Twister)
  • Damage Boost - Check (although 2.6.10 version only affects Energy Twister)

Besides the number of skills now affected, etched sigil’s mechanics remains mostly unchanged.

Also even with these new changes, or any potentially new change energy twister may receive in the future, I wouldn’t use the skill. It’s one of my least favorite wizard skill and no amount of damage or utility buff will change that. However instead of leaving etched sigil as it is so that I could at least have options of using different arcane spenders, blizzard change etched sigil, possibly, in hopes of forcing players into energy twister.

In that case, which orb would you suggest a player to use if they wanted to use the Wave of Force? Which orb would you suggest for a player who’s making a build centered around Blizzard or Black Hole (btw winter flurry doesn’t count as it doesn’t help Blizzard, it helps hydra using blizzard.)? Before there was at least etched sigil that helped those skills (even if the help wasn’t enough for some of them), however that’s no longer the case.

And what about our channeling skills? Which orb would help them? The old etched sigil at least gave our channeling skills a boost (and even then, they were still incredibly weak), but now that was taken away from them.

Yep pretty much this.

Hardly anyone would argue that we need more option to use for our orbs. However, for most of our skills, Blizzard didn’t provide more options, instead they took away options.

3 Likes
52

I agree. It was one of the very few cool Wizzard-Items, and that class is almost dead anyhow.

Leave Brittney alone!

3 Likes
53

I decided to try out a build similar to the one you described here in the ptr, the only difference is that I used the pre-2.6.10 etched sigil instead of the new one. Now let me first preface this by saying that this is nothing impressive and in fact I’m terrible at this and as such I’ll accept any mockery gladly.

However the purpose of this video is to showcase that changing etched sigil to affect only energy twister was completely unnecessary and perhaps moronic, especially when the loss power isn’t properly redistributed. All that was needed if they wanted to promote energy twister usage, was to just buff energy twister’s existing items. That at least wouldn’t leave wizard folks soured and the wizard class itself nearly mangled.

Anyway, enough of that, go ahead and enjoy this mockery of a run.

3 Likes
54

I liked the old Etched Sigil way more because it enabeled way more possibilities to play. It was a great help in early game as well. I would like to see it reverted back.

4 Likes
55

Mockery was not my intention.

In your video, I can’t tell if it’s in Kanai’s Cube or equipped, but I see you’re using “Aquila Cuirass” armor and “Convention of the Elements”.

When PTR 2.6.10 was announced, I also considered using A.C, but soon discovered that the new changes allowed me to move away from my usual balance of offense/defense by going for as much an attacking build as I could make.

This is my PTR 2.6.10 Wizard, Cassandra:

SKILLS
M1 : Electrocute + Chain Lightning
M2 : Arcane Torrent + Flame Ward
K1 : Hydra + Frost Hydra
K2 : Slow Time + Time Warp
K3 : Ice Armor + Chilling Aura
K4 : Magic Weapon + Force Weapon

PASSIVES
Galvanizing Wards
Unwavering Will
Power Hungry
Audacity

ITEMS
Shoulders : Mantle of Channeling
Head : Typhon’s Frons
Hands : Typhon’s Claws
Torso : Typhon’s Thorax
Wrists : Ranslors Folly + (Augment + 400Int)
Belt : Hergbrash’s Binding
Legs : Typhon’s Abdomen
Feet : Typhon’s Tarsus
Weapon : Serpents Sparker
Off Hand : Etched Sigil
Neck : The Traveller’s Pledge + [Bane of the Trapped 90] + (Augment + 425Int)
Finger : The Compass Rose + [Bane of the Stricken 65]
Finger : Unity + [Bane of the Powerful 40] (Unity on Follower also)

KANAI’S CUBE
1 Deathwish
2 The Magistrate / Crown of the Primus
3 Ring of Royal Grandeur
4 Tasker and Theo

Using that item/skill selection, I was able to go high as GR100 with only Paragon 982.

The only difference between Cassandra shown above and my non-PTR Wizard Hermione is that she uses the classic Etched Sigil with “Blizzard”+“Frozen Solid” to peak at GR105 with Paragon 1500+. Other than that, they are nearly identical.

With what I learned about Energy Twister from PTR, I changed Hermione’s Blizzard skill with “Energy Twister” + “Mistral Breese”. I also swapped out “Ashangarr’s Blood Bracer” with “Ranslor’s Folly”.

And as such was able to break the self-imposed GR105 cap by moving up to GR108. I’m not a pushing player, and like to take my time, but feel confident that GR110 or even higher is in the cards.

https://diablo.dzomlija.com/d3screens/PTR/Screenshot190.jpg
https://diablo.dzomlija.com/d3screens/PTR/Screenshot191.jpg

I’m really curious to see how far I can go with this build in Season 22 when it goes live.

Good luck to you too, btw. :slightly_smiling_face:

56

Worry not, I had not meant you specifically.

Regarding the build setup:

Skills:

  • M1: Arcane Torrent – Static Discharge
  • M2: Magic Weapon – Deflection
  • K1: Storm Armor – Power of the Storm
  • K2: Hydra – Frost Hydra
  • K3: Teleport – Wormhole
  • K4: Energy Twister – Raging Storm

Passives:

  • Power Hungry
  • Unstable Anomaly
  • Illusionist
  • Galvanizing Ward

Items:

  • Helm: Typhon’s Frons
  • Shoulders: Typhon’s Tibia
  • Armor: Aquila’s Cuirass
  • Gloves: Typhon’s Claws
  • Bracers: Ranslors Folly
  • Belt: Hergbrash’s Binding
  • Legs: Typhon’s Abdomen
  • Feet: Typhon’s Tarsus
  • Weapon: Deathwish
  • Off Hand: Etched Sigil (Pre-2.6.10 ver.)
  • Amulet: Squirt’s Necklace
  • Ring: Ring of Royal Grandeur
  • Ring: Convention of Elements

Legendary Gems:

  • Bane of the Trapped (Ranked 100)
  • Taeguk’s (Ranked 94)
  • Zei’s Stone of Vengenece (Ranked 89)

Kanai’s Cube:

  • Weapon Slot: Serpent’s Sparker
  • Armor Slot: The Magistrate
  • Jewelry Slot: Halo of Karini

No augments (as most of my gear was non-ancient) or Paragon points in Intellect, although given my paragon level, it wouldn’t had made much difference.

With a 4th cube slot, it would be possible for me to use one of the following:

  • Aether Walker: and gain a boost to mobility
  • Winter Flurry: for more Hydra damage, although that would require replacing a skill (likely teleport in my case), then I’d manually need to cast blizzard as the new etched sigil wouldn’t autocast blizzard. In otherwords a pretty clunky playstyle.
  • Tasker and Theo: for Increased Hydra attack speed
  • Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer: Improved Shielding durability

Lastly I think it’s worth mentioning that since the new Etched Sigil only buffs energy twister, that’s some damage lost for Hydras. All in all, when season rolls around, I’m not too sure How much further I’ll actually tinker with the build, as while it’s an interesting build, I’m not fond of energy twister, and etched sigil’s change still leaves me shaking my head at Blizzard. Most likely I’ll still be using my primary build which is Vyr’s Archon.

With that said:

Thank you, and best of luck to you as well.

57

The proposed change to Etched Sigil, if Blizzard follows through, would be extremely disappointing, to say the least. The change would, in fact, anger me. What they would remove is the eye candy Etched Sigil provides. It is simply fun watching it work. It is so cool to see black holes and meteors fall from the sky. They’re thinking of removing that and replacing it with boring tornadoes? Leave Etched Sigil alone and add another legendary–call it Engraved Sigil–item that achieves the same except for energy twisters. Leave the cool factor intact!

4 Likes
58

They actually don’t even need to do that. The old Etched Sigil does exactly what this new one does, except it affect nearly all skills and thus was better imo.

4 Likes
59

Well, after the latest announcement, how confident are you that they will reverse the Etched Sigil change?

Me… not very.

2 Likes
60

One thing one becomes accustom to when it comes Diablo news, is to never get your hopes up, and this includes Diablo 3 balancing.

So in short, I would like them to reverse the change, but I have no expectations of such thing happening.

1 Like
61

I’m confident they won’t. Etched Sigil is done for. Now I want them to update Mirrorball like this:

Mirrorball
Magic Missile gains the Charged Blast and Seeker runes effect, deals 500-600% more damage and fires two extra missiles. Your projectiles have a chance to pierce once.

62

Wizard is NOT a favored class of Blizzard’s devs and as such will ALWAYS be nerfed like this.

63

TBF, no, Wizard has been having a pretty great time. In fact it’s actually been the best. In the last 4 years (12 seasons, S9-S20; S21 pending), Wizard claimed:

  • the best solo build 7 times (includes S12 tie; would be 8 if not for broken Necro launch in S11)
  • a finalized group damage role 9 times

For comparison, the runner-up classes:

  • best solo build: Crusader, 3 times (includes S12 tie)
  • finalized group damage role: Necro, 8 times

And the worst classes in that period:

  • best solo build: tie DH/Monk, 0 times
  • finalized group damage role: tie Barb/Crusader/DH/Monk, all 0 times

[source: the d3resource site, seasons overview]

Still by no means is Wizard perfect but it’s had plenty of time in the spotlight and doesn’t need to stay there forever.

2 Likes
64

That’s like Chevy saying the Corvette has been on top for too long. Time to make it weak and put stronger parts in the Camaro so it can be top for awhile.

I don’t think Chevy would do that. They would continue to make the Corvette on top but add things to the Camaro so it can inch closer and closer to the 'vette.

Why can’t each class have a top build so they can wreck havoc? Not every person likes playing each class. That’s like saying the devs are burying the wiz on purpose so more people will change to Necro or another class.

Why do that and why care what I play. You want Engery Twister to be awesome? Create a whole another set for it. Don’t kill a player favorite. That will cause players to stop playing D3 altogether instead of going to another class or build within the wizard class.

I hope they do listen or read but… I’m not confident.

2 Likes
65

I’m not sure I agree with the Chevy analogy.

There’s only 1 best solo build and 1-2 group damage spots. Wizard has factually claimed BOTH of those things more than any other class.

I’m completely OK with buffs to other classes rather than nerfs to Wizard. A result, tho, should still be that Wizard stops being over-represented. And that Wizard mains get how well-off they’ve been.

Player favorites have been killed before, and in less productive ways than this. We always shift to another. What hurts player numbers is the collective state of the game.

In any case, as I’ve said in several threads, for sure let’s revert Sigil and limit Deathwish instead.