Firestorm

I'm finding that Firestorm actually got a good buff in this patch, indirectly.
That being the Skill Effect Duration passives. With the Increased duration support gem it increases the base duration from 1.10 seconds to over 3 (still leveling, but I calculate it will be around 3.5 seconds at higher levels at least)

By tripling the duration like this, and combining it with faster casting speeds (+spell echo) and more AOE, I'm finding that I can saturate a very large area with Firestorms. After a couple of casts everything in that area is going to die, allowing you to just move on to the next batch. You can also shoot and scoot rather well too.


The increased duration helps it overcome it's inherit RNG problems by being able to throw out 3x times more projectiles over the course of a single cast, and so you make up for it in shear volume.
While other AOE's might have steady and reliable damage output, this setup tends to stack damage causing it to rapidly ramp up as you build up Firestorm stacks. The trick it seems is to figure out how many casts you need to make before moving on to the next group, since unless they are very fast enemies, you can be reasonable assured that enough stacks will incinerate everything in the area.

Large boss enemies are esp weak to it since they are far more likely to get hit, and take several times more damage then normal enemies.

But bottom line is that if you really want to use this skill, Increased Duration is the way to go.

Were they? I didn't even knew they existed.
They must have been tucked away somewhere out of the way. At the very least their placement is much more accessible, and has a lot of good stuff around them to pick up.

But my point stands, +90% skill effect duration is very strong for Firestorm.


Also, are you saying that their we're only 3 +15% SED nodes?
Because if that was the case, then I was right and they were buffed, as their is a total of +90% now.
Two clusters of x2 10% + x1 25% nodes (x4 10% + x2 25%) = 90%

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Vipermagi wrote:

They are also in the exact same position as they always used to be.
I meant the clusters used to be 3x 15%, yeah. Always been 90% total. It's beautiful how so many people seem to have completely missed their existence.

well, to be fair, two of the three groups only worked on buffs/debuffs (not firestorm) AND one of the groups was removed but the total amount boosted was still 90%

Pretty sure their position is different, I would have remembered if there was one right under the Scion starter line. That's most certainly different.

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YohSL wrote:

Pretty sure their position is different, I would have remembered if there was one right under the Scion starter line. That's most certainly different.

that one was always under scion, it's just now on the left instead of right. there was one above and left, removed. then the third was right above resolute tech, still there.

I retried this skill with increased duration. It does good damage, but it is also a noobtrap.
Arc takes me 2 seconds to wipe a group. Firestorm with increased duration does the same trick. I also have to cast 2 seconds, but I have to wait about 3-4 seconds after casting for 2 seconds. So a group takes 5-6 seconds to die and have 3-4 seconds more to do me harm.
This doesn't sounds like a lot, but with endgame grinding this is makes your build 2 times more slowly than other builds and you also need more defense.

And the graphical clutter is just terrible. When I cast a few firestorms a second when 3 groups attack me, the entire screen is covered in falling fireballs and nothing is left to see.

So on paper nice DPS, but in reality this skill isn't that likable.