Shock Nova

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zerofault wrote:

The dead zone must be removed for this spell to ever be viable in any build... right now it is the second most frustrating skill in the game.

out of curiosity, what is the first most frustrating skill?

on topic though, i agree that either the deadzone needs to be flat out removed, which would sort of be a shame because that'd make the skill 'boring' like frost nova, but at least it'd be useable. or, the skill needs a buff to its stats, it needs to either cast faster, effect a larger area (outside of the deadzone, the hit box region is surprisingly small for having to deal with such a large area of useless space, making hitting more than 2 or 3 targets with this per cast extremely difficult even when surrounded), or inflict a great deal more damage (and perhaps have a cooldown to correspond).

i never use this skill, and it sucks because i absolutely loved my shock nova/glacial spike sorc from d2 (until around 55ish when it became nonviable due to poor damage scaling endgame for both skills), and i really want to use shock nova but its just not good enough to warrant the frustration of constantly missing enemies by millimeters and doing mediocre damage to the ones you manage to hit.

i'd also say the sound effect is.. unfitting, but that is a matter of personal preference.

Personally I'd like it best to see a quicker casting speed for shock nova. It needs to have some kind of advantage that frost nova does not (that one has the slowing effect from cold damage). Also, the area seems buggy at times - the enemy would clearly be in the middle of the ring, but take no damage at all because they were moving at the time the nova was cast. The deadzone is fine with me, it adds some uniqueness, but it's really buggy when attacking targets on the move.

Such a shame, because I love the skill otherwise.

My only beef w/ this skill is the dead zone.

This spell went from overpowered to overnerfed. I would try to replace the dead zone with maybe the dead zone will do only 1 damage instead of no damage, so at least it hits.

If it is still too weak, then dead zone should do 10% dmg and maybe just tweak the zone sizes a bit. The cast speed is fast enough. Maybe a slightly slower cast speed and remove the dead zone.

I guess if they get within the dead zone you can blast them w/ spark, but then thats just 1 more skill gem you have to equip to your already limited 8 total buttons you can push for skills.

Why must all Lightning spells but Spark be so gimp? Shock Nova, ruined by the dead zone. The word Nova itself implies a force that spreads outwards from a source, powerful at first, and losing power the further it goes.

This ability should work just like Freezing Pulse does. 120% damage at melee range dropping down to 40% at the edge, with a damage zone twice the size of it is now. With concentric circles of 20% damage intervals around the caster.

Would it get used? Yeah, it would. Would it be overused? Probably not, as it still requires you to facetank stuff, there's just not a stupid drawback to attempting it.

Stacking 40% damage buffs doesn't justify the base spells of lightning being trash. There appears to be designer bias for Cold spells, as there are twice the number of Cold spells for casters as there are for Fire and Lightning.

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Vipermagi wrote:

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elbicnivnimai wrote:

Stacking 40% damage buffs doesn't justify the base spells of lightning being trash. There appears to be designer bias for Cold spells, as there are twice the number of Cold spells for casters as there are for Fire and Lightning.

Not this again.

Lightning (4/5): Spark, Nova, Warp, Arc, (Tempest Shield)
Cold (5/6): Ice Spear, Freezing Pulse, Arctic Breath, Cold Snap, Ice Nova, (Frost Wall)
Fire (4/5): Fireball, Fire Trap, Firestorm, Flame Totem, (Molten Shell)

Skills in parentheses are gimmick/not damage/gimmick respectively.

Tempest Shield and Molten Shell don't count as Lightning or fire spells for CASTERS.

Oh look. It's 3 Lightning, 6 Cold, 3 Fire. Just like I said!

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Vipermagi wrote:

So you're not counting Molten Shell, which flat-out is a defensive Spell (and works pretty nicely on a caster; anything caught in it will die), but Frost Wall is fine? Additionally, even with that entirely skewed count, it would be 4/6/4 respectively.

Regardless, GGG is constantly working on more Spells.

Nah, it's still 3/6/3, because for some reason you're including Warp, which nobody uses because it sucks in every situation you could possibly want to use it in, and Fire Trap, which also sucks because it doesn't scale with caster passives. It has its own passives.

And I included Ice Wall because it's broken as hell how it gets monsters stuck inside walls and makes them unable to attack you while you just kill them.

warp hits twice a most of the time, fire trap is strongest fire skill currently still for a single hit burst damage, and ice wall barely damages but yes it is funny with totem linked.

It certainly could do without the deadzone, but other than that I've been fine with it. Its useful to clear space with if everything is trying to get too close to you and theres no sparks out yet.