I am trying to figure out how the devs intended Glacial Advance to be used now that class development is basically over.
I hit dummys and played the following build in a dungeon which was actually pretty fun. Did decent dps but could use a shattering strike buff to make it work.
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Basically I used Glacial Advance in place of frost strike until I had stacks for shattering strikes. With the aid of Avalanche applying razor ice I could get up to 5 stacks pretty quick.
The problem is, Shattering Strikes does not hit hard enough to justify that playstyle. It would be pretty awesome to have Frost Strike behave as a mini nuke. What would be the best way to buff shattering strikes so this could work?
- Straight giant shattering strike buff where DW can benefit also?
- If 2h is equipped shattering strike will deal and additional 200%(spit balling a number) damage?
- If GA is talented shattering strike will deal and additional 200%(spit balling a number) damage?
- Much better idea from someone else?
Or am I missing the mark completely? Is GA in the same boat as Frostscythe and relegated to niche play at best?
Based on Tooltip: Glacial Advance needs to work with Ice Cap! (Cannot remember if it worked in game and not in front of my computer to check)
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I don’t think you’d want to build on this synergy. Glacial Advance is for applying Razorice in AoE as well as building stacks in single target for 2H builds.
Shattering Strike is for builds that use Razorice on the weapon, building stacks significantly faster so that you can actually consume them.
GA is mainly an AoE ability that does serve a niche of building stacks for 2H builds.
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It’s a runic power spender aoe ability? I’d really only use it as such because I’d be applying aoe razorice through rime procs.
Yeah AoE is it’s only purpose, bar tuning of course.
I really wish GA had more of a cone effect and improved visual. It’s very underwhelming, especially as it occupies a zero progression talent node.
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And it probably wont because more and more sources of damage is being added spreading the damage of abilities thin. When someone has so many different sources of damage and people have the option to pick up all of those options as well, then it has to be balanced around that and nothing else can be buffed because its tuned for all these things to be in place.
I have been saying this for years, but was called a troll and blah bla blah bla blah.
Right! There is synergy and GA is used as a niche for building stacks for 2h builds… like the one I linked. I also understand shattering favors razor ice on the weapon.
This is why I was making suggestions which would take GA from meme niche to competitive. “When Frost strike damages… deal an additional 60% damage or additional 200%(or some reasonable number) if the target has taken damage from your Glacial Advance.”
I am tired of Glacial Advance and Frostscythe being useless outside “niche” play. Trying to come up with an easy solution now that things are close to nailed down. Just pipe dreaming.
At the least it should work with Ice Cap right?
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Always been a fan of the cone concept and improved visual.
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Yeah I feel like the visual is old and clunky and something like a frosty runic powered wave would feel more impactful. but its usage i would spam it untill I had 5stacks of razor ice then never use it again unless RI was going to fall off but I feel like avalanche would probably keep it going most the fight. I wish I had beta to try out the build but I love the Shattering Blade talent and how it mixes things up
There’s a post on this forum where someone linked the old beta animation for it, it was significantly more awesome.
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I just wish GA was replaced by the current Frost 4 set, it feels so much better woven into obliterate rather than the clunky talent it currently is.
Tested this build out in the way described in the OP after the Shattering Blade buff:
Horn of winter is basically a dead talent, but it was the most efficient way I could line up ERW every min for mini lust and max out Howling blast damage.
It seriously works lol. Was getting 50k+/- Frost Strike hits. Playstyle kept up with many of the other builds I tried on dummies and in heroic dungeons.
Mock all you want but I rather liked it. Made the spec a little more challenging.
interesting that shattering blade isn’t a dead talent. then again base was buffed by 20% and the talent itself was buffed by 40% to reach 100%.
100% paired with 2h modifiers… FS was hitting pretty damn hard lol.
doesn’t 2h only effect oblit?
Some abilities have different scaling depends on weapon choice.
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