Firestorm

I'm curious if using this spell is viable at all anymore without putting it on a totem.

My current templar build seems completely broken.

I'm level 35, its my third reroll to try out firestorm build between both templar and witch.

In the last 5 levels not only am I now starting to get raped (because I've invested 100% into spell dmg, +1 totem summonable passives and very little into life, shield block)....but my firestorm is weak as hell.

Compared to lightning strike templar i had previously - doing 800'ish DPS and one-shotting everything, my firestorm templar runs out of mana just trying to kill a blue mob now with firestorm.

I have "concentrated effect" gem on it, and even added lightning damage and iron will (with about 140 str)...
it still is so weak im really losing hope.
going to have to make another templar now and just give up on the idea of a firestorm AoE / fireball DD, spellcasting build.
It obviously is just a gimp way to play.

Sad thing is - all these tweaks of late have definitely made it a viable spell for early game.
But after level 25 or so, firestorm seems as if it was ignored and wasnt scaled properly for further difficulties.

Shame...

I also have noticed that firestorm performs somewhat adequately 1-25. My level 40 witch is using it with 600% critical multiplier and concentrated effect, and even when it crits... it's the burn damage that kills most monsters. The direct damage is just that pitiful. Or maybe I'm just exaggerating. But shock nova with this same build is quite a bit better.

If firestorm isn't going to get more damage, it needs more utility, and/or a way to increase the radius of its effect (and not the AOE of each fireball).

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mythal wrote:

I'm curious if using this spell is viable at all anymore without putting it on a totem.

My current templar build seems completely broken.

I'm level 35, its my third reroll to try out firestorm build between both templar and witch.

In the last 5 levels not only am I now starting to get raped (because I've invested 100% into spell dmg, +1 totem summonable passives and very little into life, shield block)....but my firestorm is weak as hell.

Compared to lightning strike templar i had previously - doing 800'ish DPS and one-shotting everything, my firestorm templar runs out of mana just trying to kill a blue mob now with firestorm.

I have "concentrated effect" gem on it, and even added lightning damage and iron will (with about 140 str)...
it still is so weak im really losing hope.
going to have to make another templar now and just give up on the idea of a firestorm AoE / fireball DD, spellcasting build.
It obviously is just a gimp way to play.

Sad thing is - all these tweaks of late have definitely made it a viable spell for early game.
But after level 25 or so, firestorm seems as if it was ignored and wasnt scaled properly for further difficulties.

Shame...

this skill is directed to crowd control more than single enemy. link it to concentrated effect seems to me a bad idea. it is like to use sweep on a single enemy with concentrated effect. sounds bad... if you deal X damage to single enemy you obtain X damage. if you deal X damage to 100 enemy you obtain 100*X damage. This skill has to pair off with a single hit/close distance skill in a good gameplay strategy.

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this skill is directed to crowd control more than single enemy. link it to concentrated effect seems to me a bad idea. it is like to use sweep on a single enemy with concentrated effect. sounds bad...[ if you deal X damage to single enemy you obtain X damage. if you deal X damage to 100 enemy you obtain 100*X damage. This skill has to pair off with a single hit/close distance skill in a good gameplay strategy.

It may "sound bad" but you clearly have never tried it. All conc effect does is reduce the AoE of each individual fireball. Each individual fireball is only going to hit one enemy, maybe two if you're really lucky. There are many fireballs per wave, so using conc effect is absolutely necessary to get dps out of this skill.

Anyway, I just hit merciless with my firestorm Witch and I just hit a brick wall. This spell is basically useless after a certain point. 600% crit multiplier crit waves don't gaurantee more than half of a wave of Ledge skeleton's life.

The mana on this skill is ridiculous too, 77 mana with only conc effect, +crit strike damage and +cast speed. It's more expensive to cast than freezing pulse, has signiicantly less damage and utility, and seldom hits as many enemis as FP can.

"

anubite wrote:

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this skill is directed to crowd control more than single enemy. link it to concentrated effect seems to me a bad idea. it is like to use sweep on a single enemy with concentrated effect. sounds bad...[ if you deal X damage to single enemy you obtain X damage. if you deal X damage to 100 enemy you obtain 100*X damage. This skill has to pair off with a single hit/close distance skill in a good gameplay strategy.

It may "sound bad" but you clearly have never tried it. All conc effect does is reduce the AoE of each individual fireball. Each individual fireball is only going to hit one enemy, maybe two if you're really lucky. There are many fireballs per wave, so using conc effect is absolutely necessary to get dps out of this skill.

Anyway, I just hit merciless with my firestorm Witch and I just hit a brick wall. This spell is basically useless after a certain point. 600% crit multiplier crit waves don't gaurantee more than half of a wave of Ledge skeleton's life.

The mana on this skill is ridiculous too, 77 mana with only conc effect, +crit strike damage and +cast speed. It's more expensive to cast than freezing pulse, has signiicantly less damage and utility, and seldom hits as many enemis as FP can.

why are you using con effect when you want it to hit multiple things... AoE changes to the skill changes the spread and the bolt sizes.. with 40% AoE boost, my templar can hit more than 1 monster per bolt... but due to the spread it doesn't always get all bolts "used", which was the old debate and still might be in question even though its better now than before.

Because I don't have any AOE increase passives on my Witch, #1, #2, the cost to use the increased AOE support gem for firestorm is insanely expensive, it's just not viable with an average mana pool. #3, the support gem would give a marginal increase in AOE, perhaps enough for a fireball to "occasionally" hit 3 enemies.

Concentrated Effect gives 50%+ MORE area damage (more is multiplicative, not additive, so this is a massive dps increase) and you will hit multiple enemies with the spell due to the many fireballs being created regardless of their individual AOEs. I've tried not using concentrated effect and it is simply less effective.

Perhaps firestorm is viable with lots of AOE increases, but I can't afford to grab those with my Witch's build.

Besides, I'm attacking relatively small clusters of enemies with firestorm right now anyway, increased AOE would hardly help me at all.

You should try concentrated effect yourself and see if it's not better for you.

"

anubite wrote:

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ok i'll level my pure caster templar a bit more to grab concentrated (to get 22% AoE instead of 52% by that time). his planned passive has enough damage nodes and half of his build is getting es boosts and the AoE, which is increasing his damage along the way. might end up giving concentrated to detonate dead instead though either way... he currently has 40% AoE boost. edit: lv 22 61% spell damage boost not counting weapon.

"

anubite wrote:

Anyway, I just hit merciless with my firestorm Witch and I just hit a brick wall. This spell is basically useless after a certain point. 600% crit multiplier crit waves don't gaurantee more than half of a wave of Ledge skeleton's life.

The mana on this skill is ridiculous too, 77 mana with only conc effect, +crit strike damage and +cast speed. It's more expensive to cast than freezing pulse, has signiicantly less damage and utility, and seldom hits as many enemis as FP can.

Thats exactly what I'm talking about.

Firestorm is a great, fun, early game spell.
It becomes observantly weak in cruel, a complete pain in the ass in ruthless, and if youre still using it in merciless I seriously dont know how.

Enjoy normal with it, and throw it away.

That is all it is capable of right now.

My advice to GGG
You invented a new AoE type of spell that you think is cool, and interesting in the way that it deals out damage, in specific area hotspots with each fireball, etc. -- but its broken.

The animation and "concept" is great, we love it, thats why most of us use it until we cant anymore (because its too weak).

But the way you've created this wide zone where each fireball hits its own area, and its completely random, has resulted in the creation of a spell that simply doesnt work in the game youve built it for.

This is an action RPG. You built a spell that has mechanics much more suited for a turn-based strategy game.

The power of the spell is also ridiculous. As it scales it becomes completely worthless, outclassed by all other spells.

Fire should be the single, most damaging, spell line available. It doesnt bring with it shock effects like lightning has, it doesnt get OP disabling effects like cold does - it relies on brute force destruction.

Make us a line of fire spells that will make it possible to create fire casters.

Thank you.

Firestorm is broken?


Hmm... didn't knew that. I wonder how I'm easily clearing end-game maps using Firestorm and some summons though...

Probably a bug I guess, that I can do that.

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Serika wrote:

some summons though...

That might be it. Though do post your items and passive build and be constructive, instead of making statements which might undermine the movement to make firestorm actually a good spell.