Frostbolt

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Vipermagi wrote:

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johnce6 wrote:

1-40 with frostbolt and it is awesome. Screw freezing pulse. No idea what people complaining about. Can't wait to hook it up with chain and lots of crit.

A Projectile with 100% chance to Pierce can never Chain, because Pierce is checked before (Fork and) Chain.

Ok thanks to confirm that.

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Yes Frostbolt is a little slow and to be good in combo with vortex need projectile speed so with lmp (lesser more projectiles ) and faster projectiles it is perfect , i add faster casting so no need to wait between cast frostbolt and vortex.

I hope that GGG eventually adds a bit more projectile speed to this skill. with the current "destroy everything as fast as possible" meta, this skill isn't a good delivery system with out 40-50% projectile speed (and even then a quick character could still out run the projectiles).

Not sure where the "bolt" in Frostbolt comes from. It's a ball. A very slow moving one which has very limited area of effect. It is a slightly better version of Freezing pulse, but doesn't degrade over distance. It does travel a longer distance, so it can be a plus.

To be honest, i think it's boring, stripped down version of ball lightning.

I'd much rather use wild strike (yes, I have one) because i can find a build that it works well with. But, damn, I can't find a use for frostbolt.

Another crapware skill gem from the series "Not worthy a sh*t cold skills".
GGG totally destroy my fun as a fully cold walker. Thanks guys! I tough I would play this game indefinately long, but my fun seems doomed with your constantly nerfing to the roots the cold spells in a favor of some messy cross-builds.

I were expecting to play something clean cold, but seems like 2.3 is DEFINITELY NOT MY PATCH.
Please notify my if you someday decide to redo the game as a funny one - as it were before 1.3.

Thanks for killing my fun.

played a frostbolt-ice nova char this league - my 2 cents:

Frostbolt is great single target, with faster projectiles it goes about as fast as yourself with 30% ms, which is fine for aiming purposes.

Ice Nova is interesting for frostbolt over vortex in three ways:
1) Ice Nova's area is bigger, so its easier to keep frostbolt without extra projectiles and be a good single target skill.
2) Ice Nova doesnt consume the projectile like vortex does. This means you can cast several ice novas on each bolt should you so desire. This also means the damage of frostbolt is delivered, making the opportunity cost of a ranged nova a lot less.
3) Most interestingly, echo on ice nova spaces out the nova's for even more coverage, and this interaction makes it actually quicker than delivering ice nova yourself in some situations, along with it being much safer.

I'm currently tinkering around with the spacing of the echo-nova's, more projectile speed (from jewels) spaces out the nova's more, while adding cast speed brings them close together, its a nice balance.

Also do note i played this build with a +2 cold staff and a carcass jack so you can use two five-links. Its also an elementalist of course, this much aoe with conflux and prolif works wonders (though it will burn your pc)

I'm mostly number crunching rather than running a build, but through minimal tests, the combos linked to this skill don't seem fun in their current form.

I don't mind Frostbolt itself. Actually, I'm thinking of making a build based on the slow projectile nature of the skill, only Ball Lightning may suit my needs better. It'd be a melee build based on casting a Frostbolt into battle, running in, and causing a ruckus with a previously-cast Frostbolt to mix in a powerful early blast. Would try CoC with only Vortex or Ice Nova on top, but IN seems a bit lacking in damage, and why make Vortex do that when it'll just result in a melee Vortex, eating my Frostbolt meanwhile?

Vortex is a nice power skill, as well. In fact, in the typical way I see it used, maybe more power than it should be allotted, even to the point that trying to get its interaction to be viable, a lot more power has been sunk into it that made melee usage overpowered.

And Ice Nova is formidable in itself. About the same damage as Vortex before the DoT, but it instead gets better cast speed, crit, and it would appear far superior AoE, while maintaining a similar power of Vortex on freeze builds. I'd say it's overall underwhelming as a melee skill, but I've seen it done.

However, the combos just don't seem to justify it in a good way.

Ice Nova + Frostbolt is just too meager on damage, I think. It's a powerful bolt running through a crowd, and then pulsing (as you cast it) a half-power nova over the enemies. I feel GMP on Frostbolt would be similarly effective in damage, and then not require as much micromanaging to completely wipe an area. Less single-target, but then again, I don't think FB + IN + IN + IN would result in that high of single-target DPS, either, especially when Ice Nova could already reach the sides of the screen without offsetting the center.

Vortex + Frostbolt instead has its own set of problems. The damage is definitely not bad on its own, outscaling Frostbolt by a decent margin, should you keep an enemy in its radius. However, you once again have a micromanagement issue where you won't at times deal Frostbolt damage at all, especially because the majority of the time you'll want to be leading the enemy (proccing Vortex before Frostbolt hits). This is because you'll have a better chance of keeping approaching enemies in your DoT effect when you lead ahead of them. So, essentially, you're casting 2 spells for 1 vortex that's offset a bit, when the vast AoE for this skill also makes a melee blast plenty safe when built to do so.

It is interesting to make a ranged skill turn melee skills into ranged nukes. However, I feel that this new balancing gimmick is going to mostly just ruin a couple of the limited amount of melee caster skills that are available.

If I were trying to make this work as a skill gem combination, I'd actually flip the interactions a little bit:

1. Make Ice Nova burst Frostbolt instead of Vortex, adopting some of Frostbolt's damage (or at least some damage increase) to justify such an interaction, possibly with some Conc effect in it naturally to limit the AoE to precisely where you want the Ice Nova. This should add stronger chill/freeze you'd expect from Ice Nova, and without a DoT, it is much better justification for consuming Frostbolt after hitting the enemy with it.

2. Make Vortex a good deal weaker, possibly with no initial damage to force Frostbolt aiming if you want on-hit effects, make it not consume the bolt, and (if they don't already... not entirely sure) make multiple Vortex pools not stack over one another, limiting effectiveness of overlapping Vortexes. Possibly increase Vortex's initial AoE to Ice Nova's size, and make interactions with Frostbolt decrease the AoE to a more reasonable sniper size, as mentioned in #1. I feel a weakened Vortex would still be quite viable melee, as a degen effect sitting under a potential battle. Right now it's being played as a cast-and-run spell, and I think it needs more interaction.

Those interactions would feel better, in my opinion.

I really wish Vortex worked with Frostbolts fired from a totem.

it kinda makes sense that they don't but it also sucks cause it'd make using frostbolt totems far better (and safer) or allow a caster to use frostbolt on a totem without having to deal with the change between spells.

it's just kinda.... silly that it doesnt.... it makes a bit of sense but it's still.... silly. and REALLY annoying... ah well

I feel like this skill direly needs to be able to interact with vortex/ice nova totems. Currently I am trying to use 6l ice nova main with slower projectiles greater multiple projectiles frostbolt and it is really clunky to use without the ability of totems. I think totems should be able to cast ice nova on the frostbolt because it allows for more flexible play and leaves you able to defend yourself. Please consider this change.

Frostbolt has serious issues with collision detection.

In maps like crematorium or tower, I've found myself very often in situations where a ranged mob was shooting and hitting me with projectiles (not arc or aoe, definitely projectiles ...) from behind a door way/pillar/cage bars/... and when I namelocked and started shooting back, my projectiles could not get past the barrier.

One of the most extreme cases of this fault collision detection was in Tower, where I was standing in front of a doorway, shooting away from the doorway, and all my projectiles collided with that doorway (the only obstacle nearby) the instant they were casted. I checked with /oos to be sure that I was not desynced.

Alright. New jewels came out and I figured why not to try it.
Here is my feedback:

Frostbolt collision box is frustratingly large. Can't shoot it through doorways. Often even when my character is in the doorway, not to mention trying to shoot them through it.
When there is object standing next to my character sometimes projectiles crash into it even if I am not aiming aiming at the direction of it.
These mechanics make the skill frustrating to use in areas with a lot of obstacles. Narrow indoor areas are torture.

The projectile speed is somewhat acceptable with new jewel combined with projectile speed mod on wand now at least.

But I will probably end up abandoning the character or the skill sooner or later when I lose patience with how it collides into everything. It is just infuriating. Monsters in line of sight can shoot me with their arrows but I can't shoot them. Makes the skill extremely unreliable and to extent unresponsive when you try to cast something but no projectiles are created.


Suggestion: reduce projectile collision box to something like arrows have (and make it look like an actual frostbolt while at it).