Tempest Shield

Was also considering Molten Shell base damage, which doesn't require you to get block passives.
You can jump in the middle of an Archer group with Molten Shell up by the way.

Since Tempest Shield costs a fixed mana percentage, you can't link to whatever you want. Iron Will if you have some Strength or Elemental Proliferation (but increased mana reservation)

Just take a look at its scaling.
From lvl 1 to 20, its damage is multiplied by 15.
Fireball/Spark/EK/Freezing Pulse has their damage multiplied by at least 50 between lvl 1 and 20.

Not asking for something that could clear entire maps on itself, but at least its damage should justify its mana reservation. The additional block chance doesn't alone. Damage is close to none, since it scales on ennemy attack speed, which is low anyway.

Reworking its scaling could net this skill valuable.
Currently, its damage is ignorable thus nearly every single player just forget that this skill exists, apart from its visuals.

Fund a 17% quality gem when the game came out. Used it since then and it's decent. The bonus lightning damage the quality gives would be much more better if it applied to all of the attacks not just the damage temepest shield does, since the damaga is low.

I'm level 79 on default, tank marauder with 70% shield block(with tempest shield), 3800 hp, around 240 hp/s with vitality, 10k+ armour with determination and 80% elemental resistance.

I'm using tempest shield with elemental proliferation, iron will and reduced mana.

I can for instance go to start of act 3 and go afk, the white mobs will kill themselves, magic mobs and rares can kill me depending on their stats. Likewise i can't afk kill mobs with regenerate life. The afk killspeed is slow and poses some threat to losing experience (died twice while being alt tabed and reading forums). So it is possible but really not worth it since there's no experience to be gained and not really god for farming.


Elemental proliferation works for white mobs, sometimes for blues but i don't think i've ever since the debuf on rares or boses (I am using Static Blows).


I wouldn't mind a bump in damage so i could actually spread shock stacks on rare mobs and maybe uniques aswell. A bump from 4% to 6% wouldn't hurt and the mana reserve could be like 20%.

If they plan to keep the skill as it is then I would suggest more like 100 mana instead of a %....so many other skills have more value and don't take such a huge %

Also after playing around it looks like not much boosts tempest shields dmg or block :(

"

Therian wrote:

If they plan to keep the skill as it is then I would suggest more like 100 mana instead of a %....so many other skills have more value and don't take such a huge %

Also after playing around it looks like not much boosts tempest shields dmg or block :(

Quote, it's nosense that this skill cost 25% of total mana (or life) when there are a lot of more usefull skills (or auras) that cost x mana. This skill should be totally revamped: the damage and the block chance are too low.

I also suggest, like others, to apply the quality bonus to all lightning sources, not only to the tempest shield one.

I really like the concept of the Tempest Shield and of course it looks amazing but using it with Wrath aura really drains all the mana from my Lightning Paladin and benefit from using it is very marginal.

Devs should really work to make this skill viable to play.

I agree with Therian, if they plan to keep it as it is they should reduce mana consumption.

Some new side effect (that would be easy to code) could fix it too, like Tempest Shield would give x % boost to energy shield, block change bonus could be tied to Tempest Shield lvl giving more bonus in high levels, adding Tempest Shield damage to Shield Charge or some thing...

I really like the spell but it needs buffed if only there was a way to buff it for melee only

I really love this skill but the block chance% and/or damage scaling just is not enough especially for the ammount of mana you need to reserve.

Please revamp this skill next patch and make taking a shield and block passives more viable.

"

Mikeysax wrote:

I really love this skill but the block chance% and/or damage scaling just is not enough especially for the ammount of mana you need to reserve.

Please revamp this skill next patch and make taking a shield and block passives more viable.

+1

Currently using it on my RF/PA build. It is linked to life leech and iron will, and the damage even with RF, PA and Iron Will bonuses is around 1.8k damage for a 20% Level 17 gem. Estimated damage at Level 20 would be around 2300-2400 or so, which seems a little underwhelming imo.

Mobs who get blocked get damaged, but most of the time the damage isn't substantial enough to stun them, thus adding no extra defensive benefit other than the block chance.

4% additional block chance does seem a little underwhelming for 25% mana reserved.
Considering the recent change whereby quality on shields no longer granted them extra block chance, I feel that the 4% bonus on this skill should also hence be buffed to 7% in order to make it more useful and also to help compensate for the shield-block nerf.

Regarding the mana reservation aspect of it, it would be nice if it could be reduced to 20%, and then altered in a way such that supports with mana cost multipliers would have no effect on it. Eg. Reduced Mana, Life Leech etc. This would help open up an increased variety/range of supports that can be used with Tempest Shield. As it is now though, the lack of supports that can be used with it renders it a very unpopular skill.

Okay, I like this skill, while agreeing it needs something more.

Since the Devs don't seem to like the idea of boosting either the damage or that base block percentage, how do you all like this idea instead?

In addition to the 4% block, it granted...33% projectile and spell block (ie, if your base block is 26+4 for the shield, you'd also have a 10% chance to block projectiles and spells, and to trigger the damage from the shield), and let it stack with similar passive and equipment buffs. Most builds that use the skill get close to the 75% block rate, and functionally avoiding an extra 25% of the ranged damage coming my way while I deal with the mob in front of me seems worthwhile.

Edit: I used 33% to play nicely with the 75% max block rate. If you'd like it at a different rate, you won't get an argument from me.

Another idea is to let it boost elemental resistance by 4% as well, on top of the 75% standard max.