Here is an update to the same exact build as I post prior before patch. I gained 2+ levels since then but saw a significant speed difference after the update. The new completed time was 13:34 for 20 level difference (tier 40) and was super casual compared to my last video which was much more stressful and took around 16.5 min to clear 20 level difference (tier38) at level 72.
Before patch I was capped at about 34k max damage. Now It seems to be capped at 50k and randomly 80k but not sure where the 80k procs are coming from after the patch (maybe combustion working properly now).
It still looks like it still could use some more buffs or proc’ing vuln off another fire skill would probably do the trick. If fireball or meteor could proc vuln I could replace frost nova with firewall and that should amplify the damage properly for this build.
The tankiness of the build definitely outshines other sorc builds and is understandable why the dmg may be lower. I was able to clear 3/4 of tier 49 (30 level difference) fairly easily until I had issues with a pair of cc elites I could not get past.
Seems like they design philosophy for Sorc is Ice = Vulberable, Fire = Burning, and Lightning = Stun
Cool. Too bad one of those three leads to a massive amount of damage compared to the other two.
How many problems could be solved for fire builds if Core and Mastery fire skills applied vulnerable to burning enemies when they are directly hit with one?
Could the same be said for lightning? Directly hitting a stunned enemy with a shock skill applies vulnerable.
I don’t think this makes Sorc OP. Fire and Lightning would need to trigger an effect, then land a spell to apply vulnerable. This means three cast before it’s applied. Ice can do it one cast still.
Ice and Lightning have super easy access to burning damage application through the passive effect of the fire bolt enchant, and all of the benefits that come with that. It’s a crazy powerful enchant, which is cool.
Yet fire Sorc doesn’t have any sort of equivalent enchant to passively tap into the powers of the other two elements.
Just seems like if you play Sorc, Ice is gonna be way better in terms of damage output and gameplay.
Glad your having fun but I have to say frost builds that simply slot in blizzard are “tankier” then anything incinerate can offer it’s simply sadly a bad skill in its current form. Blizzard before had an aspect that gave them 15% damage reduction while standing in it and it got buffed today to 20-25% while incinerate decreases the damage an enemy does by 20% I really and personally have not felt a stark difference between personal dr vs enemy damage decrease. All on top of the fact that a frost build with blizzard slotted in will have nearly everything frozen
Blizzard for your hydra and either tp for inferno or deep freeze for inferno which is wildly better then inferno sadly. The real main thing that will make any burn build “technically” tanky compared to frost is that they can afford to dip heavier into hp.
Frost already runs the burning board in its meta builds sadly because of that very reason plus its insanely easy for them to get burning on targets with firebolt enchant . I imagine with a tanky variant it would do the same exact thing
Are you using the (revised in the patch) Aspect of Singed Extremities?
I ask because I would think you could save yourself a bit of damage by the monsters being heavily slowed after being immobilized and you simply stepping back some.
I see a lot of people falling into this trap, and honestly it looks like so did the devs (but for them there is no excuse because they designed this game and should know better).
Ice applies the Freeze status effect. Fire applies Paralyze. Shock applies Stun. Vulnerable is its own separate mechanic and a unique damage multiplier that Ice has access to on top of its inherent elemental status effect. That’s why it’s so much better than the other 2 elements.
Sure Fire has Burning but you don’t need to play Fire to get things burning. All you need to do is slot the Firebolt enchantment. Fire and Shock have no way to apply Vulnerable outside of Frost Nova, which has a terrible uptime because of its long cooldown and short debuff duration.
It’s a fundamental imbalance and until it’s addressed the three elements will never be equal.
More to you if you’re enjoying this build. I definitely respect that and pushing nm 40 with it is cool.
Personally I think incinerate is lazy skill design by Blizz and what makes matters worse is that elemental dmg seems so unbalanced right now. Many of the skills they’ve created with cooldowns, large mana cost, constant shields…It just feels so narrow overall.
I’d like to see a 3rd enchantment slot or allow our ultimate to be a seperate button altogether along with buffs/changes. Open up build options…
Thank you for clarifying the error when I said that Ice = Vulnerable. You’re correct, it applies freeze, and has direct application of vulnerable with it’s core skill(s) and frost nova.
Did you skip over everything else I typed out after that?
Nope, I just didn’t quote it because I was going to reiterate it anyway so it seemed unnecessary. We agree, I just wanted to clarify something I see a lot of people getting confused about. It’s also a glaring problem that the devs should have never allowed to happen in the first place and now that we’re here it needs to be a top priority but it’s not. I am just trying to draw more attention to it.
Each have a mechanic to boost damage considerably. However, the person who started this likely quit and they never filled the role. Lol. Cause…. Ice having vulnerable is worlds ahead of the other two. The benefit to getting a good crit on immobile enemies is a joke compared to vulnerable. I suspect this was the original line of thought, but it never got threshed out well and now they simply are gimped since vulnerable state is hard to come by. If this was the intention, then not having exploit apply vulnerable makes since. Lightning has a stun mechanic that could deal crazy bonus damage. But it’s way too point heavy and it’s not near a multiplier. Then again, if the stun proc added 100% dmg at a high frequency it would be crazy damage. Especially with stagger. Again, it’s simply not in the mechanics that I can see as is.
Perhaps if burning instinct was a multiplier that had synergy with the fire passive that multiplies crit damage burn damage would be right with the other builds. I truly believe this was the intention originally. The math works out. But then if you consider vulnerable on top perhaps it’s too much (though probably not compared to other classes)
Just my random thoughts. The more I think about it, the more the game seems like it was started; paused; and then picked back up by different people loosing some of the original vision.
Naw this won’t be that helpful. Its better to stand still to increase dmg and take as many hits as possible to proc a refresh on barriers. I only try to avoid attacks when both of my barriers are on cd. The longer I can channel incinerate the better as it scales higher dps every second I am channeling it.
Nominally that’s the case, but ice skills are the only ones who have the ability to proc vulnerable. Ice shards, frost bolt, frost nova, and ice blades are the only skills that apply vulnerable out of the sorcerer arsenal.
Even more, the avalanche, icy touch, and frigid breeze passives all revolve around using vulnerable. These are all cold.
No other fire or lightning skills do anything with vulnerable, only ice ones.
So honestly he was spot on. Clearly blizzard intended ice skills to be the ones applying vulnerable, and that’s why ice is at the top of the meta right now because vulnerable is OP.
So here is the funny thing. I had already started a second Sorcerer since building and re-gearing can be quite a chore at level 100, so why not do it on a new character?
Well, recall that discussion we had about being technically correct and how Cold skills apply chill/freeze and not vulnerable directly?
Well, as I’m playing I realize why applying chill/freeze and vulnerable via those two is actually even better than just applying vulnerable.
When I was playing fire, and burning everything, I could regenerate mana via prodigy aspect and my cooldowns, lucky hit, lucky hit combined with elemental attunement, and the Umbral aspect combined with crowd controlling enemies. Crippling flames could do this passively, as it would have a 15% chance on lucky hit to immobilize an enemy if maxed out.
And that’s where the catch is. My blizzard just applies chill passively passively, and doesn’t rely on lucky hits to apply freeze. Just due to the passive nature of chill/freeze, I can trigger the Umbral aspect with much greater ease than I could on my Pyro build. My mana regen on Cold is so much better so much earlier.
Just one more knock on our Fire/Pyro builds. They need help bad.
Why is it hard to watch? It seems to be in line with most other chars at this level. Im trying to find youtube videos of people that are actually trying hard content this but most are either level 100 builds doing easy content or t100, or lower level builds doing the easiest content. This is video is showing the exact equivalent of a level 100 doing a t70 run.
