Frozen Orb is incredibly clunky

Sorcerer
1

Hello There,

I just want to make my thoughts heard on the frozen orb skill.

I recently tested some builds with it (lvl 75 sorc) and it does perform quite well if you can get the explosion to hit anything, the fact it passes through all mobs before it stops and explodes (I was using the aspect also) makes it very hard to make usable. An example would be against suppressor mobs, you actually cant get the explosions to hit them because it goes to far away from them inside the bubble and it doesnt work outside the bubble. This is very poorly designed and would be much more viable if the orb would stop moving on contact with an enemy.

That is all, hopefully this gets looked at and reworked because until then frozen orb is a terribly designed skill.

3 Likes
2

It feels awkward to me in D4 because of the explosion. Itā€™s trying to simulate how Frozen Orb works in Diablo 2, but in D2 you can:

A) Teleport without a cooldown, meaning you can reposition instantly, constantly, anywhere on screen to give yourself a part chance of landing the explosion (like against particularly fast mobs, you can fire Orb, then teleport across your screen, and the mobs will turn around to chase your new position, thus running right along the Orbā€™s path)

B) D2 Slow effects are waaay more potent. Enemies are generally slower and fewer mobs have charges, leaps, etc. to close the distance. Frozen Orb in particular has one of the the most potent chill effects in the game, and the chill duration is 30+ seconds.

C) Instant freeze is more widely available. You can freeze in this, but it takes build up or Frost Nova. You donā€™t need to use a cooldown to freeze in D2, you just shoot Ice Blast or Glacial Spike. Here, your best bet would be to likeā€¦ Frost Nova a pack, then Teleport away from them, then start firing Orbs, I guess?

Iā€™d like to see big changes made, too, because itā€™s a favourite spell of mine and I think they did a much better job with the look and feel of it in this compared to Diablo 3.

2 Likes
3

I do like the explosion aspect but ALL the damage is on the explosion so when it passes through it does no damage. If you can get the explosions to hit it performs very well.

And yes the mobs in D4 are way more aggressive making it harder to constantly reposition to get just 1 explosion to hit.

Its very poorly designed for D4 and there is many many looming issues currently with Sorc and all classes, the game lacks massive amounts of polish and QoL unfortunatley.

But still fun nonetheless

4

It is fun, yeah. Just frustrating because there are so many little things that pile up, and sooo many areas that are like so close but not quite. Or the kernel of a great idea, but not explored thoroughly enough.

5

The release was quite obviously rushed, but nothing new from Blizzard on that front. We are just in Beta phase 3 thats all lol

2 Likes
6

Frozen Orb is working really well for me at level 60+ - not sure if you all just havenā€™t found out how to make it work. It does depend on what type of dungeon youā€™re doing and the mob density.

7

i have the same issue with my frozen orb build , i just canā€™t hit the surpressor mobs its a really poor design and i always die because i have to get in and then got a massive stunlock and do no damage to them because of the orb that just fly trought them

8

Iā€™m endgame +70 w frozen orb since lvl 6-8 when u unlocked it, itā€™s do able but like my other rant post in here, its not performing on par w other builds cus sorc in general gotdamn suck big time, i recently changed to charged bolt but i could make a vid for u to go through a build that works

9

I think it would be nice if frost orb exploded after hitting an enemy instead of after a certain distance.

1 Like
10

I wish frozen orb would be more like Diablo 2 version. Where instead of it being an orb with an explosion at the end, itā€™s an orb that shoots out a ton of frost bolts during itā€™s travel, with each frost bolt a projectile. Thatā€™s what made me fall in love with frozen orb instantly in D2, it looked amazing and could deal a ton more damage if you fire it close to an enemy, making them be hit by more of the frost bolts than if it was head on. The explosion is just so damn irritating to try to get mobs in, and if itā€™s a melee boss? Get ready for a 10 minute boss fight!

11

Yeah, I played around with it with the new patch. Even if the damage buff makes the numbers good, itā€™s so clunky to use compared to ice shards. Itā€™s lucky hit is also much worse than ice shards. That and blizzard/spikes way more satisfying to play.

12

Totally agree. It should slow down tremendously after hitting the first mob. Then explode after 1.5 seconds.

13

I leveled as a frozen orb and have been doing it end game to very good effect, even before the buff.

Suppressor could be better but hereā€™s a trade secret: Explode off of walls. I always kite suppressor or butcher to walls and then just throw my orb at the wall and my explosion damage hits them.

Hope this helps!

14

Most of the damage from the Diablo 2 frozen orb was from landing the orb on a monster from the end of its travel. The shards definitely were more significant, but the core damage/gameplay is the same as Diablo 2.

15

i tried it and itā€™s still subpar after ā€œbuffsā€

itā€™s suppose to be a replacement for iceshards? itā€™s a core skill on the same tree so you would think so.

iceshards still blows this away on single target, and also since ice shard ehchantments procs automatically on any frozen targets you are basically getting a ton of free damage for nothing.

16

Itā€™s not mutually exclusive with ice shards and you can technically use both. The strength of Frozen Orb is itā€™s mobility and chill/freeze application while also having really good vuln uptime. When Iā€™m speed clearing I know that itā€™s 1-2 orbs to freeze and apply vuln, and typically 1 more to kill. So Iā€™m able to kind of lob orbs at groups as Iā€™m moving/stutter stepping through/past them. So where Ice shards will kill elites and bosses faster, Frozen Orb barely has to stop moving so the clear times on farm are relatively similar. Ice shards definitely is less mobile and has to stand still as its doing its damage (aside from when you freeze as mentioned). Aside from having more single target damage, Ice shards has no positioning requirements. I believe these 2 strengths are really what makes Ice Shard more meta. Not having positional requirements makes it excel. However, that doesnā€™t make Frozen Orb garbage, in my opinion.

17

Frozen Orb Feedback.

Pros.

  • Excellent source of chill - One or two of these is all that is needed to get ice shards to start mass freezing and and sending out enchanted ice shards. (frost bolt enchant required)
  • Explosion does good damage
  • Both of the above can be acquired with a single point investment.

Cons.

  • The shards do meaningless damage, less than 1k when they donā€™t crit.
  • This is not a core skill, this is a fancy grenade and the only way to aim it is to keep evading backwards.
  • The viability of this skill as core damage is highly situational, this is because the shards do no meaningful damage, and the situation in which the explosion is effective is very limited.
  • The shard TTL and 90 degree angle inhibits it from effectively hitting mobs that it has passed through or will pass through. Itā€™s more like a small hurricane than an ice shard platform.

Thoughts.

  • The central damage of this skill should not be the explosion, but the shards. In D2 the explosion was actually a highly dense release of shards.
  • The shards should travel radially from the orb, like in D2, so that it can continue to hit things that it has already passed through.
  • I would rather the skill go the distance than stop short to cause an explosion.
  • If you keep the explosion donā€™t make us aim it by moving backwards through the dungeon.
2 Likes
18

Totally agreed. Frozen orb, and indeed the entire sorc kit in D4, seems as though it was balanced around the mechanics of D2. Apparently the devs never got the memo that this ISNā€™T D2 and what worked there is not going to work here.

I think a lot of how Actiblizz need to redesign the sorc (and yes, it needs more than just a ā€˜fixā€™, it needs a complete mechanical redesign from the ground up) can be paraphrased as ā€œlook at D2, make it work like thatā€.