Analysis and critique of the intellect passive setup.

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overpowdered wrote:

Well that i do not understand. If it works like you describe it and lightning enables you to kill mobs fast enough to be some sort of safe from them, then why would you bother at all with cold or fire. You do not need abilitys like panic and freeze to be safe.

Lightning taking greater risks and dealing more damage is fine but the price you have to pay is not beeing forced to kill faster. That's an advantage.
Lightning is about movement, about the ability to battle randomness.

well thats what I am saying lightning do not have the ability to panic and freeze so they have to kill faster to make it viable. Take out the kill faster (ie more damage per second) and no one will spec into lightning. That is the defining feature of the lighning spec.

The randomness part is integral to the crit system and the charges system ... in all classes not only the int class.

It is just that crit is intimately related to the 3 spec of the witch class because the different effect of each spec (ie burning, frozen and shocked) occurs on crit.

And power charges being a +3% crit bonus per charge ultimately accentuates the above different effects since they occur on crit. So therefore it further accentuates the difference between the specs.

The problem is, if lightning kills way more enemies per hour, it's just better, and everything else sucks in comparison.

Enemies need to be challenging enough to slow lightning down in other ways. So maybe you have super high DPS but have to run a lot more than cold, which lowers your kills per hour. But that's sort of hard to balance.

You can see why giving something much higher DPS is problematic though. Every element needs to have similar kills per hour.

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You have enough points right now to spec into both power charges and any of the elemental tree you like (fire, cold, light). And you would still have points to spare and get other things.

You DO NOT from levels 27-50. This is FALSE. Do it out yourself. You only have enough points if you chose lightning. Cold is SO GIMPED. Fire is only medium gimped. Shock nova is 50% too power cold is underpowered and far from porbs. its very not fair. and you do not have enough points to spec both.

Fun fact: You can still use cold spells as a lightning witch for the control. I frequently gather mobs up while walling them in with frost wall then spam nova on the whole screen and kill everything.

ALSO:
need a panic button? spamming nova costs a SHIT LOAD of mana let me introduce you to the most overpowered thing ever.
+ Always use the knockback potion while spamming nova = never get hit by mellee. Ever. Crit enough? Never run out of mana.

Awesome. It's nice to have feedback in video form.

In my experience, shock nova can easily take you through merciless with no power orbs.

On your level 40 witch do you find that the power orbs help your cold skills much? Or do you not have enough points in the orbs/cold masteries due to the tree setup to tell?

I have all of my points in power orbs and dex.. Im level 40 and havn't hit cold. I go SO FUCKING SLOW. It's not worth leveling without someone else compared to my shock nova witch. My level 32 nova witch hits for far more with shittier gear. It's just like LAWL.

/edit it honestly makes me question how shock nova and the passive tree got out of alpha. like to me the flaws in the system are so apparent that.. how did someone not notice it was going to be OP? I just don't understand, I can't be smarter than the devs. Perhaps they balanced it for late game? I'm gonna be lightning damage capped (realistically) and crit chance maxed and aoe maxed by level 61... What the fuck. I honestly can work towards getting endurance charges eventually I guess?


/edit 2 http://i.imgur.com/Nnhyq.png
Something like this would be much better.

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wickedhood wrote:

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You have enough points right now to spec into both power charges and any of the elemental tree you like (fire, cold, light). And you would still have points to spare and get other things.

You DO NOT from levels 27-50. This is FALSE. Do it out yourself. You only have enough points if you chose lightning. Cold is SO GIMPED. Fire is only medium gimped. Shock nova is 50% too power cold is underpowered and far from porbs. its very not fair. and you do not have enough points to spec both.

you want to spec both power charges and one elemental at L27 ? Let me guess you are the impatient type ? sure you wont have enough points at L27 to complete both. But come L40 and you do if you choose to do so.

and you dont have to get every point in the spec to have a viable spec build either nor is it desirable to do so.

I can play to l50 and only spec partially (ie not every passive in the spec) into power charges and minions and have no elemental spec at all in the passive tree and just with items I find and bought from vendors not those specific items that you show.

As for those flasks they can be used by every class and spec not just a specific one. Every class use flasks to manage mana levels and it is their intended purpose. duelist flickering with 2h ? rangers with split arrow and 3 support gems on it ? 2h marauders sweeping ? they dont spam avengers and surgeons and knockback ?

Dont you think GGG didnt want the crit system to synergize with on crit flasks or knockback ? The mod just happened by accident ?

Even if the intended purpose is right, if GGG finds those flasks glitchy then it is right to adjust/tune the power of those flasks not go into exaggerations and hyperboles and calls for buff/nerf of specific classes.

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But come L40 and you do if you choose to do so.

Show me a power orbs / cold spec by level 40 with 109 dex for multi proj / faster proj / and added cold dmg.

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aimlessgun wrote:

Every element needs to have similar kills per hour.

If every spec had similar kill speed and cold can freeze and fire can burn ... then all witches will switch to cold or fire.

If the duelist could kill large groups quickly and also have way superior ablities in boss killing and PVP then all will switch to the duelists.

If the marauder could kill as quick as the witch and have high HP and damage reduction then why go witch at all ?

Who says that every class should kill at the same speed or even that it is desirable ?

Does it not go against the intended goal of class differentiation which is inherent in the fact that GGG put in 6 different classes and not only 1 class ?

I am not the dev but those are the fundamental questions that should be asked when approaching this and I would think that GGG already answered them internally before class design.

Aaricia you are wrong.

http://i.imgur.com/knoxp.jpg

I get level 48... and you wouldn't have more than 5% crit and you wouldn't have a lot of FCR.... sooo id say level 55 to be actually decent.


Every spec doesn't need to have similar kills but cold should only be 80% or 90% of the best. and fire should be a little under the best, maybe 90, 95%

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wickedhood wrote:

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But come L40 and you do if you choose to do so.

Show me a power orbs / cold spec by level 40 with 109 dex for multi proj / faster proj / and added cold dmg.

Well that answers the question .... why dex ? why multi projectile ? why faster projectile or added cold dmg ?

And you still want to add endurance charges to that build as well ? I guess you think GGG should rework the passive system so that you can spawn passive points at will so you can have every passive possible ? and not only that I bet you would want all of it by L27 ?

I also bet you are running out of mana often with all those support gems weighing down on you. Right ?

Question :
Is the multi proj / faster proj / and added cold dmg really necessary for you to be a viable witch at L40 or at L50 and beyond ?

You answer the question yourself by trying it out in game ... so maybe the next logical step for you is

1) hmmm my build didnt work ? why ?
2) can it be because it was a bad build in the first place ?
3) then maybe I can try another build or another approach/philosophy ?


Instead your mind works like this :

1) hmmm my build didnt work ? why ?

2) It IS OBVIOUSLY a good build ! how can it not work ? the system is obviously unfair and unbalanced somehow.

3) wait I see those lightning witch killing faster than me! how can this be ? Why that is the reason my build is not working ... the lightning skills are high dmg and seemingly closer to power charges! How unfair !

4) Ok Lets complaint and make posts and videos to the dev so that they change everything so that my build will work.