Firestorm
|
Despite its 20% Damage Effectiveness, a simple +Lightning damage support makes quite a noticable difference in my experience, so the Chaos damage support should work out well.
Added Duration makes Firestorm a lot more powerful; essentially increases damage output per cast by 50%. Concentrated Effect too is pretty powerful with Firestorm, especially if you counteract it with some +AoE. Burn Damage, on the other hand, is largely pointless. Burn damage depends on the damage of the hit that caused it, and Firestorm does not hit hard, just often. |
|
|
Using the unique staff that increments its level by 2, iron will with 368 strength, added chaos damage, decreased area of effect, and increased duration - I can barely get this thing over 120 dps at my current level. It takes roughly 10 seconds of constantly channeling this spell to kill small groups of stupid merciless fellshire zombies or ledge skeletons.
Granted, I'm a Marauder here, but I did pick up +9% casting speed, +10% spell damage, +18% fire damage and +30% burn duration. In addition to my +spell damage/casting speed/burn damage from my unique staff. I'm not convinced this spell is very good, especially in comparison to freezing pulse - but please demonstrate that I'm wrong. Does anyone know a Witch or a Shadow or a Templar of some kind who is using this spell over freezing pulse, or some other AOE, and can demonstrate the merits of its damage and utility? Because I don't see any. What kind of dps can you get with this spell at 60? My 62 Shadow currently has 1325~ DPS on freezing pulse before elemental weakness and resists and he hardly has amazing gear. My Keystone Ideas: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/744282 Last edited by anubite#0701 on Aug 20, 2012, 5:21:09 PM
|
|
|
Note that the listed DPS is per fireball; not that big a deal, but notable enough. Intended to mention this last post. Didn't, because I'm forgetful like that.
I did notice the mechanics once again changed since my last using it. Doesn't stack all the fireballs in the center anymore. I too am curious if anyone made it work with the new mechanics? DPS numbers in general don't really mean much tbh. For example, on your Frozen Pulse shadow, that DPS is per missile.. Assuming it hits for full damage, which it never does. Then there's the stacking missiles and Elemental Weakness (actually, do you use EW on your Mara? I hope so). For Firestorm, the DPS is per fireball. Not every fireball is going to hit the same target, and if you group the enemies somewhat tightly, they're going to hit multiple. Even if you multiply the DPS by the fireballs per second, it's utterly unreliable and frankly useless. On Lightning Warp, Shield Charge and Leap Slam, the hit rate depends on the distance. DPS is pretty much always wrong. Tempest shield, depends on the enemies attacking. So on, so forth. Blegh. The DPS counter is a pox. Go to post one simple thing on Firestorm's DPS, end up rambling. e@Urist; I guess that's true. So clearly, to fix Firestorm they need to multiply the DPS display by, say, 10. ;) Last edited by Vipermagi#0984 on Aug 21, 2012, 1:25:53 PM
|
|
|
Bragging about artificially inflated stats that don't actually reflect effectiveness is a favorite passtime the world over, if you think about it. I find it comforting that this carries over to PoE, personally.
Urist McDwarfy has been happy lately. He admired an exceptional ARPG recently. He took joy in slaughter lately. He has been attacked by the dead recently.
Check out the Path of Exile wiki: http://en.pathofexilewiki.com |
|
|
I didn't read all the comments to this skill (11 pages, overload), but in it's current concept this skill seems to be only useful in specialized builds.
Some ways to power this skill up without screwing the balance: - Split the damage to physical damage and fire damage so it can be boosted by the "add fire damage" gem. Hell, these are burning boulders raining from sky, they should particularly crush you and afterwards burn you. - Link the number of projectiles to an area so that the drop density stays constant and the skill can actually profit of greater AoE. Currently, if you use passive skills that boost your AoE then you have almost no use of this skill, as the number of projectiles stays constant and theres even less chance to hit an enemy. - Radical approach - Change the skill to an "click-and-hold" skill, more like Fire Fury is using it. With adjusted mana consumption per second and maybe higher projectile drop rate it would be a excellent skill for the team supporter (or summoner), as you are quite vulnerable while you're casting (can't move) but deal quite a high damage to a medium area (high mana comsumption and maybe a cast delay should prevent this to become an uber-skill) My thoughts on this. How I am using the skill: I am playing an necomancer, spamming the enemies with zombies and skeletons while I try to stay outside the combat area and support my evil minions with high AoE damage (fire traps) and high single target damage (triple fire ball). Using this spell is mostly button mashing to get acceptable damage thrown at the enemy hordes. It would be much easier, while more effective, to just throw a fire trap but it's much cooler to cast down armageddon on your foes. Vanity not sanity, because FU hostile mob :) |
|
"The area of each projectile's explosion is increased as well, keeping chance to hit a particular enemy the same. | |
" This isn't actually true due to the monster hitbox size being variable. Build of the week #9 - Breaking your face with style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_EcQDOUN9Y
IGN: Poltun |
|
|
i gotten a new character to lv 17 and it has 36% AoE radius increase. from pre patch testing (before the spread random fix and before the radius editing) the spred's range was insane from a lv 5 gem and up. now a lv 5 firestorm with the listed boost amount i mentioned, doesn't go out as far, proper even spread of bolts, and the bursts "catch up" to the size increasing.
that said, i still only hit a single foe 3 to 6 times out of the base 8 bolts. but that was a major improvement from 1 to 3 times. |
|
|
The spell is reasonable for me but I'm supporting it with Chance to Ignite and Elemental Proliferation, using Elemental Weakness curse, and I have Immolation, Fire Walker, and Pyromaniac passives. It was lackluster before I got my EP gem. The combo of EP/EW curse really shines because it takes me to 48% chance to ignite with my level 12 skill gems.
I typically send in minions, curse, then firestorm a couple times to help the minions finish things off. Open beta is still BETA.
|
|
|
This isn't really a good spell to ignite foes with, since burn damage is 1/3 the initial damage dealt and each projectile is only 20% damage effective. Your burn will be 6.66% damage effective per second, totaling 26.66% damage over 4 seconds.
You'd be much better off igniting with Fireball (where each % quality will add a 1% chance to ignite), switching EW for Vulnerability, and using Firestorm for "sloppy" AoE while fireball's burn does its magic. Devolving Wilds Land “T, Sacrifice Devolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and reveal it. Then shuffle your library.” Last edited by CanHasPants#3515 on Aug 29, 2012, 6:38:03 PM
|
|
