Firestorm

EE procs per fireball, so is fairly terrible with Firestorm. First fireball that connects nerfs the damage of all the others.

Also going far for your main skill is a fair option, assuming the reward is big enough. I haven't really done the math and it would be a late game option most likely as you could probably get better results with fewer points early on, but it's an interesting possibility. It gives access to fairly decent nodes in the middle too, 3x3%castspeed and 10%spell dmg are on the way.

If you use Firestorm with EE, obviously you won't be using Firestorm as your main ability, but instead you would be using Firestorm as your EE proc'er and another cold or lightning damage spell as our main damage ability. Use your imagination...

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EE procs per fireball, so is fairly terrible with Firestorm. First fireball that connects nerfs the damage of all the others.

Update: I don't intend to use EE with firestorm which is my base attack. But with alternate lightning and firebal attacks, lightning 800 dps , fireball 2500dps with full crits. And only on PvP, only in close range with molten and temporal chains, fire pen totem and fire pen gems. Doesn't work well? Some more trading and a total of 3 respecs needed. I have to experiment, as the skill says "-50% resistance for some time", which is ambiguous. Will the immediately next, fire elemental hit reverse the buff for the fire damage? Or will the buff be active for some seconds, based on the type of the 1st elemental attack, until it expires? If the 1st case, it's only useful for very fast alternate elemental attacks. If the 2nd, it is a short-time buff. Eitherway, I will play with it.

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Also going far for your main skill is a fair option, assuming the reward is big enough. I haven't really done the math and it would be a late game option most likely as you could probably get better results with fewer points early on, but it's an interesting possibility. It gives access to fairly decent nodes in the middle too, 3x3%castspeed and 10%spell dmg are on the way.

The ES nodes on the left are more rewarding, with added armour and resistances (plus there are more of them), provide access to strength nodes needed for Molten and fire pen lvl17+, acces to 3-4 nodes of fire damage, 4 nodes of elemental damage, globally reduced mana cost and 40% mana regen. Near the bottom, cast speed and spell damage as you said, on top right 4 nodes of added critical damage and 3 nodes of ES cooldown recovery. Top left, 2 fire and 2 burn nodes. Plus 1 node of 25% crit chance on the very base of the tree. The ES nodes near the centre of the tree are not going to be missed, since I can go up to 9K+ ES with a very decent to godly chestpiece. Right now, with a 220 ES chest (2900 ES total only) I farm easily through Mercilles and kill up to 81 lvl in PvP, being 72. However I have to play more tactically some times, since the actual potentials of this build are 3xES and 3xDPS than what I have now.
The tree node was printed down and sceduled. Correctly as you said, didn't go far early, so I could survive in solo. Around 64lvl, I farmed and traded for a week or so, to get the 20 respecs I needed. The build is heavily gear dependend, not a single passive wasted. Got very lucky finding rings and amulet, the rest are from trading. The final build requires only a better chest and circlet. A godly wand would be a bonus, but not required.

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aryosgr wrote:

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EE procs per fireball, so is fairly terrible with Firestorm. First fireball that connects nerfs the damage of all the others.

Update: I don't intend to use EE with firestorm which is my base attack. But with alternate lightning and firebal attacks, lightning 800 dps , fireball 2500dps with full crits. And only on PvP, only in close range with molten and temporal chains, fire pen totem and fire pen gems. Doesn't work well? Some more trading and a total of 3 respecs needed. I have to experiment, as the skill says "-50% resistance for some time", which is ambiguous. Will the immediately next, fire elemental hit reverse the buff for the fire damage? Or will the buff be active for some seconds, based on the type of the 1st elemental attack, until it expires? If the 1st case, it's only useful for very fast alternate elemental attacks. If the 2nd, it is a short-time buff. Eitherway, I will play with it.

It is the 1st case. The debuff lasts for 5 seconds assuming the mob is not hit by elemental damage. If it does get hit by elemental damage then the debuff is refreshed and gets different properties depending on the elemental damage incurred.

Howdy! I'm still basically brand new to the game (I only just started a couple of days ago), but I think I'm starting to get the hang of the skill and leveling system that PoE offers. It's much more complicated than any other games of this genre, but I wouldn't want it any other way! There's a huge amount of customization! It's wonderful, this system!

Anyway, here are my thoughts on Firestorm from a new players' perspective:

It's brilliant! My favorite skill, no contest; I would hardly change a thing! It has its definite strengths and weaknesses, but playing as a low level Templar, my experience has been nothing short of positive! Its damage output is fantastic, if a bit chance-based at times (but when it hits, it hits just as hard as I'd hope), its coverage is perfect, its mana cost is sustainable enough, and the overall feel and usage of the skill is very rewarding.

As far as improving the "feel" and aesthetics of the spell, the only thing I might recommend is a little bit more *oomph* to the sound of the fireballs striking. When the crit effect sounds, and I get to hear the chunk, chunk, chunk of the boosted fireballs striking, it's a perfect experience. Then it goes back to the fwip and fwup of the normal sound, and it's a bit less so. Adding a slightly more pronounced thunk to the noise levels of the standard firestorm would make it more entertaining, from a sound design standpoint!

For the usage of the skill, I have no complaints to make! It's definitely inefficient at striking small and fast targets (which makes sense, and is as it should be), but this can be easily mitigated with intelligent use of the other abilities you may have on hand, like ice wall, minions, or decoy totems. Anything to slow or corral enemies into the kill zone complements this ability very nicely! I have found that placing a decoy totem, a frost nova, and a firestorm is an awesome combo for chunking large groups of melee enemies. This is intelligent skill design, as it actually encourages chaining combinations of skills to receive the best effect! Kudos!

Firestorm shines brightest against groups and large enemies, however. I've found it an effective and fun boss killer, since their large hitboxes make them easier for the firestorm to strike. However, due to the somewhat slow cast and response time of Firestorm, it may not perform as well for squishier casters. I believe that Firestorm is much better suited to Templar casters than Witches, as you must either be stationary to repeatedly cast the ability, or adhere it to a spell totem to maintain manoeuvrability.


Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm a big fan of firestorm so far! I haven't actually managed to find a spell totem gem yet (dangit :[ ), but I am very much looking forward to, since it will allow me to keep the storm raging without having to stand in one place for it. Either way, from a new player's perspective, I love firestorm!

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Firestorm shines brightest against groups and large enemies, however. I've found it an effective and fun boss killer, since their large hitboxes make them easier for the firestorm to strike. However, due to the somewhat slow cast and response time of Firestorm, it may not perform as well for squishier casters. I believe that Firestorm is much better suited to Templar casters than Witches, as you must either be stationary to repeatedly cast the ability, or adhere it to a spell totem to maintain manoeuvrability.

Firestorm can be made to have enormous AoE, WITH very dense coverage in temrs of the number of balls which fall down, extremely fast casting speed and very big DPS. You have to find the correct items, get the correct passives, use the correct gems, experiment and also each time you make a skill upgrade, plan at least 1-2 passives for +mana and +man regen. This skill can become too mana hungry, plus when it casts with 0.55 seconds speed, it is double the mana / second. You have to find a good balance of sustainable firestorm attacks, with enough high DPS to wipe out everything and everyone, but make sure that with the interval you can perma-cast, this DPS CAN be effective. A very specific thing I have been doing before each Fstorm upgrade or passive, is check its DPS, then go to Solaris safe point and see how many of them I can cast until the mana reaches 0, with how much area coverage, what density and what cast speed. Then go to Sarn city and test on mob packs.

In early levels, this skill may look as a bit of a disappointment. I almost stopped using it around lvl 62. After the end-game upgrades, I can't do without it. So, if you 're building a fire witch, you are going to need this. It may not be your main skill until some point, but you can make it very effective around end-game (which WILL be hard to do). You can dump fireball and choose a different elemental to play with, but you really will not have many options for AoE damage as a fire witch.

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geffreyy wrote:

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aryosgr wrote:

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EE procs per fireball, so is fairly terrible with Firestorm. First fireball that connects nerfs the damage of all the others.

Update: I don't intend to use EE with firestorm which is my base attack. But with alternate lightning and firebal attacks, lightning 800 dps , fireball 2500dps with full crits. And only on PvP, only in close range with molten and temporal chains, fire pen totem and fire pen gems. Doesn't work well? Some more trading and a total of 3 respecs needed. I have to experiment, as the skill says "-50% resistance for some time", which is ambiguous. Will the immediately next, fire elemental hit reverse the buff for the fire damage? Or will the buff be active for some seconds, based on the type of the 1st elemental attack, until it expires? If the 1st case, it's only useful for very fast alternate elemental attacks. If the 2nd, it is a short-time buff. Eitherway, I will play with it.

It is the 1st case. The debuff lasts for 5 seconds assuming the mob is not hit by elemental damage. If it does get hit by elemental damage then the debuff is refreshed and gets different properties depending on the elemental damage incurred.

if this is true wouldnt that make EE completely useless? youre saying everytime theres a diff ele hit it refreshes. which would mean if i hit with cold first to drop fire res then followed up with the fire it would just reset giving them bonus fire res rather than keeping the negative fire

Do the single fireballs of the spell count as "area damage", so that the passive skills Amplify and Blast Radius improve their damage?

yes