Does any one know if the effect of the Thul includes the “and increase the damage they take from you by 15%x for 4 seconds”?
Yes, you do x15% more damage to frozen enemies even without putting a point in frost nova. You can even temper the size of the frost nova. That version also makes bosses vulnerable.
3 Likes
The targets don’t even have to be frozen. It literally applies a debuff that makes them take 15% more damage. The Mystical Frost Nova from the Thul rune works exactly like Warcry from the Ohm rune but it’s a debuff on the target instead of a buff on you. The two are basically mandatory for all builds because it’s an extra 30% multiplicative damage with virtually 100% uptime.
It’s kinda lame, tbh, even if it is very effective because it significantly limits the entire rune system, on top of the already limited aspect slots which stifle build diversity. We have far too many auto-includes which is essentially a repeat of the D3 sets.
1 Like
I was gonna say exactly that when I read @CrazyMage response. Unless you need some other rune effect for the build, those are the default.
And I agreed, it’s lame.
2 Likes
I would disagree. Vex is a strong contender, as well as GAR.
If our spell damage ever scales correctly, it’ll be a choice between OHM or THUL and likely a choice between Gar, Vex, or even TON, if they ever fix THAT particular balance issue.
3 Likes
You’re absolutely right—each rune has its own unique strengths. For example, my current dash Rogue (not using Beastfall boots) requires the Qax rune, and my EQ Barb similarly benefits from the Tec rune, along with several others. It all comes down to what you’re trying to achieve with your build.
Vex is fantastic for certain skill builds, but it can go even further. For instance, with aspects like Shadowslicer, your Shadow Clone gains damage based on your Dash damage. If you stack skill ranks, you’ll get damage boosts for both your Shadow Clone and Dash. Combine that with agility-based damage affixes, Cutthroat damage in the Paragon Board, or skill multipliers like Edgemasters or Aspect of Synergy, and it all synergizes beautifully for some incredible damage potential.
1 Like
With most builds I proc frost nova via enchant. I compensate for it with attack speed. Vex and Ohm are my go to. Vex also lowers all cooldowns which is a huge quality of life.
Gar is only useful until you can cap your crit chance which is very easy to do, especially now with the changes to Esu’s Ferocity. Vex requires way too much ramp up and frankly 3 ranks isn’t all that much damage. It would be if we could focus on more than one skill as a main source of damage but we can’t due to the limited number of aspects and gear slots. Ton is completely useless, unless I am missing something. I play a Meteor/Meteorite build and the meteorites from Ton don’t seem to interact with either of the two relevant aspects so you can’t even make use of that rune on a dedicated meteorite build. I can’t imagine how any other build could make any use of it.
At the end of the day we have like 30 or so invocation runes and out of those maybe half a dozen are useful. I’d call that a pretty limited system.
1 Like
I prefer Thul, myself, unless I am speeding.
In pits, thul > ohm for sure.