In the context of
- half as much soul shard generation from Infernal
- 7.5 Chaos Bolt casts for a free one from Ritual of Ruin instead of 5
- half as much soul shard generation from Overfiend
- Chaos Bolt +40% damage
- Rain of Fire +35% damage
I’m happy with stronger, less-frequent spenders, but this has indirectly buffed Crashing Chaos and nerfed Rain of Chaos, so I think they need changes to compensate.
Crashing Chaos (on the next 8 Chaos Bolts +25% damage or Rain of Fire +35% damage) now represents significantly more damage, assuming you can get the casts off. The buff lasts 45 seconds, during which I can barely get all 8 Chaos Bolts off in single target on a training dummy. Should be reduced to 6 casts to be approximately its old power level.
Rain of Chaos lost value in that an 8 second Infernal was 1.6 soul shards towards a 1x damage Chaos Bolt, now it’s 0.8 soul shards towards a 1.4x damage Chaos Bolt (or a 1.35x Rain of Fire), so that component of its value was basically nerfed 30% (theoretically; I think we don’t actually get a couple ticks of soul shard generation during the spawn animation). In addition to an extra Infernal being less valuable, the average number of extra Infernals you get has gone down because of less soul shards to attempt to summon them with. I’d really like to see this talent be more consistent, so I think the spawn chance should be buffed. Ideally, change the functionality so you can guarantee multiple Infernals out at once because the talent is a huge letdown when that doesn’t happen (yes nerf Immolation damage if needed).
Also, buff Infernal melee damage, it’s goofy how soft it hits.