Incinerate

@TrichocereusSP did you ever consider using incinerate as a totem skill? That seems to be the way it operates best for me. I know self casting is all the rage, but unless you can facetank your dps with incinerate is going to be low enough that you're better off using scorching ray. Same skill points, but a much higher dps simply because scorching ray stutter steps -- can even potentially knock off cast speed for burning damage for better scaling, you'll also need far less mana to pull it off to boot (my two main gripes with self casting incinerate, it doesn't stutter step for shit and the mana cost is way too damn high -- you practically need elreon rings to self cast it).

For the record, herald of ash does actually add to incinerates damage now, since it scales spell based fire damage. Anger also works with spell damage.

Can we buff this gem, GGG?

Just give it Eccho again.

Gem is still crap ....

The totem AI for the reworked Incinerate isn't great for clearing, since right now it releases the channel as soon as its target dies. What ends up happening is the closest 1-2 monsters die and the totem releases the channel, but the totem is at minimal stacks so the final burst area is low. Then the totem starts ramping up stacks as mobs move closer to it and the process repeats itself. Pre-rework Incinerate would keep its stacks up as it switched targets (as long as there were still targets in range), and IMO that would work far better. As it stands pre-rework Incinerate totems were way better than the current version.

i dont like the new incinerate no range. please bring back the projectile!

Is the final wave based on Incinerate's base gem damage? Or is it based on current incinerate stage?

In other words does the final wave do more damage if charged?

Enjoying the skill so far, totem + incinerate AI seems pretty good too. One thing I couldn't quite tell is if totems can re-aim mid channel? If there are multiple mobs and the currently targeted mob dies before reaching full charge, can the totem AI re-aim without releasing the current incinerate stage?

EDIT: OK, got to yellow maps with incinerate totems and it looks like they will stop casting as soon as their target dies. Final wave release helps with clear speed, but it'd be nice if they kept casting so long as an enemy was in their AoE until they reached max stages.

@lalib Incinerates final wave damage is multiplied by the stacks. So waiting to release will have significantly more damage -- pulsing might be enough to prolif ignites though.

Alright, I've done probably about 50 maps or so with the new incinerate and have mostly adapted to the changes. Here are my thoughts:

I love the fact that it ramps up almost instantly. This is a significant improvement over the four casts per stage that it used to have. It makes stutter stepping seem a lot more practical, which addresses one of my core concerns with incinerate previously. This is further addressed by the final wave, which actually rewards you for releasing the channel.

Speaking of the final wave, I have accepted the fluctuation of damage from my totems releasing on bosses surprisingly well. The large chunk of damage the final wave does is very satisfying, and with fast ramp up times very gratifying.

The change to AOE from projectile was a good move, because it makes incinerate more in line with other damage skills, being that most of its supports are now damage related. Increased area of effect can take the place of both GMP and faster proj, without sacrificing significant amounts of damage. Some might see this as a drawback though since projectiles potentially have more modifiers, although incinerate couldn't fork or chain previously anyway.

The mana cost is ridiculously low for a totem player, but still seems rather high for a self cast player -- I estimated still a roughly 110ish mana per second cost for self casting on my build (it would be more self cast because of a higher cast speed). This highly favors using elreon jewelry still, using a mana flask or just using a totem. But the increase damage of incinerate at least makes it feel like a worthwhile investment. I'm unsure whether or not to be happy about this change. But take my response here with a grain of salt since I haven't yet tested casting pure incinerate on a mana build. Perhaps this is more manageable on an MoM character with a large mana pool, the cost is significantly lower than it was previously.

Finally, the point I actually don't like is the new visual effect. While very pretty, it is literally blinding, even more so than the old incinerate. I don't see mobs so much as see a red spray of death leaving behind flaming corpses, and the blue incinerate mtx feels just the same.

Post Script: I think adding the base crit chance was probably a good move to synergize with using elemental overload for self casting. I don't think incinerate was ever meant to be a crit skill though so I'm a bit confused with this change, not to mention this also costs flame totem some of its superiority over incinerate totems (since incinerate totems now can scale just as effectively with crit).

I would appreciate if we get clarification on the number of Incinerate casts to reach the next stage?

Currently it looks like it takes 2 casts of incinerate to reach the next stage. I have almost 10 casts per second and it takes almost 2 seconds to reach 8 incinerate stages. I know the old incinerate required multiple casts to advance from one stage to the next, is that still the case?

I was super hyped about the incinerate change since it was one of my favourite gem (long time ago, before the 'channelling' system's nerf hammer destroyed it). However, Incinerate needs some changes imo.

- The base AoE is way too small, even with inc AoE and all of the AoE nodes from the tree, I barely reach 1/2 or 3/4 of the screen.
- The final wave moves too slow. I can run faster than the wave. :)

In the current version, it's not the preferred gem choice. For hit-based spells you have better options (Fireball/Magma Orb/etc), for Ignite-based spells you also have better options (Fireball/Flameblast/etc).

Anyone else notice that the skill's stages don't seem to scale with cast speed?