Firestorm

I've been using firestorm exclusively on my marauder, currently lvl 49 prison merciless. Its supported by increased duration, concentrated area, faster cast rate. I believe im using elemental weakness as the curse. It's actually going surprisingly well, as the firestorms stack quite well (my +%damage equipment is weak). I kill faster than my ice/minion witch, though admittedly i specced more for survival than damage output.

The problem is, I can't see a witch being able to self tank, or minions being reliable/survivable enough to tank properly. The minions would spread the enemies out too much to make firestorm hit reliably. I'm not sure on a witch build that would make it work.

I am still currently leveling fireball, detonate, and shock nova, and for comparison purposes.

I have ice nova leveled, but I dont bother to cast it. I also want to get an armor with 5 or 6 linked sockets of the right colors to see how much better I can make firestorm, but it is feasible to use in its current form, however it requires a fair bit of support.

Well, it's just not a Witch spell. I've said this before, I'll say it again - the new two int spell feel like they benefit Templar style casting more than Witch style casting.

Ok I've been playing skyrim since it released so I haven't played any POE since. So I missed 1.3 completely. I logged in today for the first time since and decided I'd make a fire witch because of the new spell. Well I'm lvl 13 and I already regret it.

Firestorm is clunky. The duration is so short that you pretty much need to decide between casting fireball and firestorm. Why cast firestorm when you can cast fireball? Firestorm doesn't knock enemies back when it crits. Its not accurate. It doesn't even do as much damage as fireball.

Funny thing is I thought I'd grab the radius of aoe spells passives because fireball's radius sucks. Well after I did I noticed the area of firestorm got bigger but the same amount of projectiles came down. So it actually became weaker when I did that. It is now MORE inaccurate.

Also its very confusing on what it actually hits. I find myself mousing over monsters a lot to see if it something. There needs to be a sound or a slight knock back. Some kind of hit indication other then thing setting on fire win it crits.

So now the question is how to make firestorm viable...

One idea is to raise the duration of Firestorm (maybe add a cooldown?!?!). This way you can cast it once or twice and have it raining down while you spam fireballs. This way you don't have to choose between fireball and firestorm. It would be a tool to use while you spam fireball.

Another idea is to have it leave fire behind wherever it hits the ground for a duration (ontop of the initial dmg). The fire does dmg over time to enemies standing on it. So now it kind of turns into a firewall spell and doesn't seem too much like fireball. Pros of this is you still don't need cooldown timers in the game and it prolongs the dmg output so you can use fireball while it is still doing damage.

Hopefully the skill gets changed in some way. Fire has always felt weaker then frost and shock. I was hoping firestorm would change that but it really hasn't. Fire should be doing more base dmg in general.

Does Firestorm stack? Perhaps that could be benfitial in some situations...like small araes were u get the mobs through and u have 2 or 3 firestorms stacked up there

Mana cost is atrocious though if you try to pull that though.

I made a Firestorm Ranger, because after the skill tree overhaul, the only class with access to the incredibly fun "Skill Duration" passive is Ranger. Everyone else gets Buff Duration (meh), and Templar gets "Buff Effect" which I have no clue as to the effect/purpose.

First, with an extra 45% duration, this skill is useful. Currently I have it with Added Cold and Increased Duration, for 8 meteors. Looking for a correctly colored armour so I can throw in Chaos damage too. I tank stuff, it kills stuff I Temp Chains and Lightning Warp to stay alive.

Now one problem is how I have this nice Ice Spear gem with Multiple Projectiles. It may cost twice as much, but if I wasn't so resolute on being a "Firestorm" Ranger, this spell would be killing everything, even Cold Resist monsters, quicker. It wouldn't have the ranged area of Firestorm, but close range the 100% pierce makes it more efficient unless I'm entirely surrounded, in which case, Lightning Warp.

And the final problem, increased/decreased area. Since both the spread and the meteors scale the same, those can be ignored. The ratio of average monster collision radius to spread radius makes less area more potent, but monster movement makes more area useful. Maybe I should just level two Firestorms, one with +aoe for groups and one with -aoe for bosses... (or just use Ice Spear).

But in the end, I'm enjoying it very much. It's like I'm an Armageddon Druid, but I don't suck. ^^ Can't wait to put Added Chaos, and maybe Faster Cast in it if I ever see 5-linked. If every class had access to skill duration then it'd get more use.

Hm, stupid Rangers with all the good passive access.

But, yeah, apparently Chaos Damage is insane now. It could actually make Fire Rain Worth it if it applies ufll damage to each projectile (I think it will more than double the damage of every hit).

So, Chaos Damage + Increased Duration should be the standard supports. Not sure what will be the best third one.

Concentrate Area for +damage bonus or faster cast speed for more instances of Firestorm?

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konfeta wrote:

Hm, stupid Rangers with all the good passive access.

But, yeah, apparently Chaos Damage is insane now. It could actually make Fire Rain Worth it if it applies ufll damage to each projectile (I think it will more than double the damage of every hit).

So, Chaos Damage + Increased Duration should be the standard supports. Not sure what will be the best third one.

Concentrate Area for +damage bonus or faster cast speed for more instances of Firestorm?

Concentrate Area is a must for firestorm along with duration. I found the payoff of more hits and damage boost very useful. Made it easy to kill a high health monster, and it tore through large monsters like the weaver.

Psssh.. My armageddon druid was quite powerful actually. Hell was no problem

Anyway... firestorm lacks the oomph to match diablo 2's bigger spells. There are actually no spells in this game that have big graphical effects.

Whether this is a cashshop feature waiting to happen or game direction i dont know. I feel its a bit of a shame because i love flashy screenfillers :p

I've used Firestorm primarily since level 1 - it's one of few gems that I've found, so I didn't have much selection (which seems a bit off, as a Templar).

I constantly run out of mana, every fight. It usually takes me about 4 or 5 firestorms to take out a group.