Added Lightning Damage

Just got this on my witch. Linked it to ice nova to make a bit larger AoE splash with her. I didnt happen to note the damage increase from level 1 to level 2, however upon leveling it to 3 I noticed the damage upgrade was quite minimal.

Level 1 damage: 1-15
Level 2 damage: 1-19
Level 3 damage: 1-21

Is the scaling on this gem just extremely low or are these numbers out of whack?

I read in the patch notes the support gem mana gain was lower (or in cases completely gone).. but for my skill it still puts a 23 mana cold snap up to a 32 cost with this linked. a 50% mana increase doesnt seem to go well with the stated mana decrease of supports

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Scaling on support gems is supposed to be low - it's intentional that in general they give you most of the effect at level one, and increase it slowly as they level up, so that we can have them balanced without the mana cost increasing with level.

With the new gem requirements (since last patch) and the "most of the gem's effect at level one" i fear any character will be able to use any gem, specially with +stat items (not that assigning +3 stat nodes would kill the character), what happened with character specialization?
IIRC some skill gems with high level requirement required very low stats (100int for a gem with a requirement of lvl50)

I understand having the mana rise with damage increasing supports, but for this one its 50% increase cost for a base 2-36 lightning damage increase :/ with passives its like 4-74, and im guessing it averages out at around 37

linked with cold snap which does 145-219, averaging at 182. Its only 20% damage for 50% mana, but i guess thats what you have in mind. Not sure which supports you would keep free though... While not in direct damage, alot, if not most, supports have offensive uses

I think what they're trying to do with this is to try to balance this with specific builds in mind and when you don't choose that build (or certain passive skills) then it doesn't work out very well for you (the player) at all. However, if they balanced the damage - cost ratio for builds that did not include above certain passive skills it would become OP.

I don't think it's possible to balance each skill for every build, so I guess they're balancing it with the frame of mind that the player will choose a certain skillset which will be the best possible combination for a certain skill - support combination.

The problem with that is, that when players don't choose this specific set of skills to complement the skill gems / supports they have, then it not only doesn't work out for them - it downright sucks.

One example would be with this added lightning damage support gem giving a +20% avg dmg increase - to a +50% added cost. This ratio seems absurd at first glance, but if you take specific passives (namely the ones that reduce mana cost of skills by a % or increase your max mana by a %), then it might work out beautifully.

Another problem is that skills are also balanced with support gems in mind, but many players simply aren't able to find, or aren't lucky enough to find, or acquire certain support gems which would bring their build in-line with their current level. This also causes some players to accuse the skill they are using of being underpowered.

I think the current balance 'climate', if you will, is set up as follows:

* poor builds are extremely underpowered
* ok-builds are a little underpowered
* great builds are good / fun

this type of scale really only rewards those players with the best builds - and while it's tolerable to have just an ok-build, it is not as fun as it could/should be.

I think it should be like this:

* poor builds are a little underpowered
* ok-builds are good / fun
* great builds are a little 'overpowered' (meaning they make you feel superior to enemies of your level range)

this way, players who do 'alright' but don't have the absolute best are still rewarded with enjoyable, non-grindy, gameplay throughout the game, and players who find the absolute best, fine-tuned builds for their class / role are able to really excel. poor builds are still punished by being behind the curve and encourage players to try to do better.

I realize these are very high-level observations and don't really translate into practical suggestions, but these are just my feelings on the current state of affairs in the game as far as balance of skills goes.

Also, I feel as if the cost on added lightning damage is too high currently.

I believe it adds 10 mana cost or something like that initially for an average dmg increase of 8 ... I mean... wth.. lol? It's like we're being punished for using it.

Just wondering if the increased elemental damage on weapons has any effect on this used in conjunction with frenzy?