Arctic Breath

AB is primarily a utility spell, at least that is how it seems to me (as it does not seem to deal a great deal of damage). Using multi projectiles increased duration and possibly the "Buff Duration" passives in the center (I have yet to try that) should prove optimal for this purpose.

I used it on the Alpha server (it did not lag for me) with Spark, as it has similar limitations, by firing in front of me every screens length to test the waters, so to speak. It made it possible to not use minions in areas without ranged enemies, as firing towards enemies and then towards where you desire to flee, provides for an instant escape route.

Having it pierce (without the support), would make it too much like Freezing Pulse and Ice Spear... GGG clearly wanted something different with AB; my guess would be as I have already suggested a utility skill that enables you to go without minions, if necessary, as you can flee from trouble with it.

This skill isn't very good, I can't replace freezing pulse or ice spear with it. Yeah, I know that sounds wierd, but that seems to be what its designed for in addition to its ground-slow utility, and it falls horribly short of that.

Nobody uses cold snap, and only builds dedicated to ice nova, preferably with rime gaze, use ice nova. Likewise, I don't think anyone will use arctic breath, as it just doesn't do anything worth using it for.

I get more damage out of freezing pulse, I don't see a need for the groundslow as everything is instantly chilled with my first freezing pulse, and as others have mentioned it causes a significant FPS hit which is wierd, you should probably reduce the polycount significantly on the ground-ice and the projectile/explosion itself.

Furthermore, in terms of damage to mana this ability is awful. I'll consistently get more with freezing pulse or ice spear, making it try to fit into a niche that is already filled by better spells.

I'd suggest adding a cooldown of 3 seconds, increasing the ice-on-ground duration to 2 seconds, and increasing its overall damage by about 15%, as well as making it pierce at roughly the same range as ice spear without exploding until it reaches that 'shatter' form. In its current state, this spell is as useless as cold snap.

i us this on a summoner(low crit) for the slow effect.
it works well gets about the same dps as fireball

would be much nicer if it pierced or bounced

as for the ice witches i dont see it repacing pulse(much faster cs and pierce) or spear(crit)

Any particular reason this skill cant be used downhill/stairs?

For example I'm on stairs with a drop down that spiders usualy crawl up from. I can shoot freezing pulse over the gap, but AB just explodes as soon as it 'hits' the gap.

Artic breath cant go over a lot of things that FP/IS can, weakening its potential a lot.

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Waves_blade wrote:

Any particular reason this skill cant be used downhill/stairs?

For example I'm on stairs with a drop down that spiders usualy crawl up from. I can shoot freezing pulse over the gap, but AB just explodes as soon as it 'hits' the gap.

Arctic breath cant go over a lot of things that FP/IS can, weakening its potential a lot.

i agree with this. it's potential can be better if it can cross over stuff but it is still a very strong spell. i am currently using it as my boss killer because the radius is so big i can focus 3 of them on 1 unit dealing massive damage all while not having to close unlike freezing pulse does. all in all, it's pretty strong even if it doesn't go over things. it just makes you position yourself better which is what you should be going anyways.

using this

To be honest, when I first heard of this spell I expected it to be like the ice breath of Merveil's Daughters. Do we really need another ice projectile?

very rime gaze specific tbh, doesnt compete at lower-levels with comparable skills.

So, if I use a high level Ice to Fire, shouldn't I get burning ground?^^

I've used this skill for only a couple minutes and on a non caster, just to see how it looks and behaves. I agree, the ground ice seems limited in use, only when there are mobs peripheral to the target (rarely occurs when using L/GMP). Piercing would add to the utility of having the ground ice.. But this just doesn't feel like it should pierce. What if instead, it were to knock mobs out of the way (not knock back, but knock down or to the side) and continue traveling to its maximum range? It would put ground ice around and behind monsters (lacking which, is why the ground ice doesn't seem to serve a purpose currently) while maintaining the feel of the spell. And the feel, by the way, is that of a yeti's fist bitch slapping mobs into submission. Pure awesome!

Edit: Also, this

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UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

So, if I use a high level Ice to Fire, shouldn't I get burning ground?^^

Would be awesome!

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UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

So, if I use a high level Ice to Fire, shouldn't I get burning ground?^^

Please make this happen.