Firestorm

Don't like the randomness of hitting

need another fire based spell

'ring of fire'

??

I'll be honest, I haven't read all 11 pages.

I think it's a fun spell and helpfull in some situations. It's not usefull as a main nuke, but that is also not purpose of the spell.

The thing I don't like about the spell is the fact that I don't realy know how big the area is that I'm hitting.

I think some sort of area indicator/aiming help like in World of Warcraft would be very helpfull (e.g. mage blizzard spell).

i noticed something unique when using trap and mine support gems.

i've stacked 3 or 5 firstorms respectively of support in one spot, all firestorms have exact same "random" spread of bolts when triggered.

i consider it a bug that can be a featur. while i prefer all firestorms to be random (they are not so that is why i call it a bug), the current happening is more along lines of a common user's intentions of damage stacking because all 3 or 5 are hitting at once to multiply damage.

I think this skills works well, the randomness is good...

The only thing is if it crits all the meteors in one firestorm will crit but they wont crit individually which I think would be more balanced and better

Is firestorm all or nothing when it crits? I've noticed that when I "channel" it I get long periods of "normal" then later its like someone threw in a box of grenades, then nothing again.

Are each fire ball falling for the spell's duration an "individual" fire ball or are all of them just "1 spell"?

I ask because something weird happened when I added a lightning support gem to it. I checked the damage on the hotkey slot and it was "does 0-4 lightning damage". The same happened when I add cold damage to it.

I'm guessing this means each fire ball falling is its own spell and any additional damage is divided among all the fire balls. Is this right?

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c2games wrote:

Is firestorm all or nothing when it crits? I've noticed that when I "channel" it I get long periods of "normal" then later its like someone threw in a box of grenades, then nothing again.

Yes it is all or nothing which doesn't seem how it should be to me

This spell is problematic. I've played around with different setups on my Marauder using iron will. I'm using a unique staff which is giving my firestorm +2 levels to it. Firestorm was enough to carry me from 1-40, but 40+ I'm finding Firestorm to just not be up to snuff. It has fairly lame damage scaling compared to freezing pulse, especially when you consider its annoying random factor.

Compare freezing pulse, firestorm and shock nova. I'm aware shock nova was horrendously OP a while back, and got nerfed as a result, but I haven't seen that skill perform well. Firestorm is in a better state than shock nova, but it just isn't comparable to freezing pulse.

Freezing pulse can be upgraded to hit a HUGE area with projectile speed, +quality (which furthers its range even more), and multiple projetiles.
Freezing pulse also chills and freezes, while fire only sometimes burns and fears. The damage output isn't significant enough to warrant going pure fire.

Now, granted, I'm talking from a relatively unusual place - a Marauder-firemage, but I assure you it's solid. I'm using blood magic, so mana is of no worry. I have so much life regen I can spam firestorm ad infinitum. I have it supported by iron will and I have 380 strength, so it's currently getting +76% damage bonus. It also at +2 levels and I have invested in the +fire damage cluster near the Marauder, for +30% burn duration and +30% fire damage. Yet, I'm still sitting at 105 DPS, and even with 2 diamond flasks, I have major issues clearing large groups with firestorm. Level 48 taking on level 50 monsters on Act 1 the Ledge. I am planning to support firestorm with faster casting, increased duration and added chaos damage, but I don't know if that will be enough for maps.

Firstly, I think the 20% damage effectiveness is overkill. You should raise it to base 30-40% at least. Or let it get better with level.

Secondly... I'd slightly raise its base damage.

You can tell firestorm is rather weak, look at the monsters that use firestorm. Megera I think, is a boss in a level 61 map (Crematorium I think?). I took on two of them at once as my 61 Shadow. It was a cake walk, and I don't even have decent gear. I think I have less than 25% fire resist. Nobody cares about fire resist in PVE. The only people who even stack fire ressist are righteous fire users.

This skill needs some tweaking. If not more base damage, than an added effect. Or increased crit chance. Shock nova should also be investigated. I don't understand why it has a base crit of 3%. It's nothing like it was at the start of the beta.