So there is the talent for Ice Shards called Greater Ice Shards: “While you have a Barrier active, casts of Ice Shards treat enemies enemies as if they were Frozen.”
Then, if you decide to put Ice Shards in one of the Enhancements slots, it gives the passive: “Ice Shards automatically conjure and fly towards Frozen enemies.”
So my question is, if the two passives are equipped, wouldn’t it mean that when I cast a Barrier, Ice Shard should start flying during the duration of that Barrier? Since enemies are treated as Frozen when I have a Barrier active, and Frozen enemies should have Ice Shard flying towards them automatically.
Based on the description of the passives, there is no indication that this synergy shouldn’t work, yet in-game it doesn’t. Only on Frozen enemies, i. e. after Frost Nova.
An official Blizzard clarification would be appreciated
I came here to ask the same question–I think the ice shards enchantment procs when I have Ice Block up, but I don’t know if I’ve seen those ice shards ricochet (which they should do if the enemies are “frozen” when my barrier is active).
It doesn’t seem blatantly obvious if that synergy is happening or not.
I just did a quick test and can confirm that when I cast Ice Block and do nothing, Ice Shards will fly out to enemies because of that synergy. However, the enchantment shards didn’t seem to shoot nearly as often as when an enemy is actually frozen, and I didn’t see any ricochets.
The key word in the first sentence is “casts”. You have to cast at an enemy while you have a barrier to get the “as frozen” effect (bouncing).
The second effect specifies the enemy has to be Frozen–really, truly Frozen–to get free Ice Shards. There is nothing that says it triggers because your cast Ice Shards would consider the target Frozen if you had a barrier up. You are making a logical leap that is not there.
Agree with post above. It only treats the cast as if it were hitting a frozen mob. It doesn’t make other mobs frozen for the purposes of the passive. It should still ricochet 100% of the time, do more damage, and use all your +dam to frozen modifiers while barrier active.
I’m just gonna think out loud here–these are the three items in question:
Enhanced Ice Shards: Ice Shards have a 40% chance to ricochet to another enemy. Ice Shards always ricochet off of Frozen enemies.
Greater Ice Shards: While you have a Barrier active, casts of Ice Shards treat enemies as if they were Frozen.
Enchantment Effect: Ice Shards automatically conjure and fly towards Frozen enemies.
So the ice shards enchantment is “conjure” and the ice shards upgrade is “casts”.
But when I cast Ice Armor and do nothing, Ice Shards do shoot out as if the enemies were frozen–I’m not saying a barrier should actually freeze enemies, but if ice shards shoot out as if the enemy were frozen, then they should also ricochet as if the enemy were frozen?
If we go by the logic of the wording of those 3 abilities then shards shouldn’t be shooting out when you only have a barrier active. So that in itself could be a bug. I tested it myself and not seeing that behavior at all.
As for ricochet, its a moot point if the shards/barrier behavior is a bug. But if the devs intended it to work that way, and I’m seeing a bug of it not shooting out, and the skills wording is not correct, then yeah I would think they should ricochet. But my money is with the behavior you’re seeing is not intended. Just a guess at this point.
Hmmm, yeah I can see that. It’s also possible the shards firing while Ice Armor was active is because I was getting hit–so maybe nothing was happening as I wasn’t attacking anything, but when I got hit it registered an enemy, treated it as frozen, and conjured a shard. That might explain why it didn’t seem to happen as often as it does with an actual frozen enemy.
I’m (unfortunately) away from the game so I can’t test again.
Wait so none of you guys read the icy veins website Ice Shard build guild? First off, OP you are correct, the game tool tip is really weird and doesn’t make sense in context, but here’s what it means:
Take Teleport to blink into a group of enemies (optional, but fun)
Use Frost Nova
Use Ice Shards
???
Everything is dead, because you get tons of free casts of ice shards on all enemies hit by frost nova, plus the ice shards you’re casting as well.
P.S. be sure to add the legendary Ice Shard affix to your weapon for even more carnage.
Its pretty wonky. Some stuff works and some not. The Aspect “Shards can pierce enemies” will work with the Enchantment Ice Shard. The auto cast will pierce the enemy.
But the skill upgrade will not.
Then there is Frost Orb Apspect. It stays in place and will explode twice. This will not work with the Frost Orb in the Enchanment slot.
In the end, i think skill upgrades in the skill tree dont buff the enchanment stuff but Aspects do work or should work.
