In addition to six new acts and more than a dozen new support gems, The Fall of Oriath will bring several new skill gems. For today's news post we have prepared a brief mechanics preview and have created a video with a demonstration of one of these new skills. We're happy to introduce the new skill: Storm Burst.

Storm Burst is a new channeled lightning skill. The skill fires bolts of piercing lightning while you channel, doing small amounts of damage. When you stop channeling, the bolts detonate, dealing a large amount of area damage around them.

The skill is very flexible, having high single target damage at close range if used in short bursts, or covering a large area if held down over a long time.

Additional projectiles will be added sequentially, letting you fire a much denser stream of projectiles when using Greater Multiple Projectiles. Increasing the skill's area increases the size of the explosions, which will then overlap for even more damage. Slowing the projectile speed also results in more overlapping damage, while reducing the speed that the skill reaches further targets.



As demonstrated in the video, careful positioning and timing can let you control the areas of detonation… Or you can spin around wildly, firing projectiles all over the area for maximum spread.

The skill also has interesting synergies with Cast while Channelling, letting you double down on Lightning Projectiles or letting the projectiles trigger Elemental Equilibrium alongside cold or fire projectiles to tear away enemy resistances.