ggg needs to take steps to make spells more approachable

I would start with "easier to get" itemisation.Imho problem is hard to get good caster gear.

You can get cast speed, spell damage and <insert element> % damage on ring at once, but how many times see it?

Problem is that 80% of affixes/suffixes are for melee/ranged attackers, then there is like no chance to get items for spell caster.

Easy fix for that can be:
► addition of new spellcaster affixes/suffixes:
- spell penetration
- % max mana with manaregen
- spell damage with elemental dmg

► addition of base items what can roll only spellcaster stats like:
- Orb no ranged attack nor melee attack just spellcasting
- Spellbook

Another fix can be redesign of Intelect so it will give you some spell power.

signed.. completely agree

although my ST+melee scion facerolls everything.

Reflect also punishes casters way harder than it does melee, especially since it's far more common to have elemental reflect than physical.

+9999 from me, been trying to get a good witch build other than summoner, totemer and discharger for months. Man i just wish i started out as a melee build at first, now i only have es gear :/

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Naritzia wrote:

It's simple, to decrease the huge gap between casters and physicals, increase armor on monsters.

In order to increase armor to the levels of resists (75%) for heavy hitters they would need to increase it to such absurb numbers that it would completely annihilate low damage-fast attack speed builds due to how armor works ATM.

In order to balance casters and attack with armor, armor would have to change to physical resist, and that is a whole more work and difficult compared to a simple yet massive buff to spell penetration (which will in effect be the same thing)

P.e. the nodes in the starting witch area that give p.e. lightning damage+lightning resist could be changed to 15% lightning penetration/15% lightning resist.

And yes, the penetration passives NEED to be right next to witch start because witch needs something awesome because ATM she is by far the worse calling to start.

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SL4Y3R wrote:

Penetration gems are some of the best in game right now. No need to buff.

While I do agree with the slow leveling, hard time at finding decent spell gear, etc. I will say most spells are designed to crit. They're base dmg has always been low, and will always be low. You must take into account crit in the tree.

The only spells, i can think of, with shit for base crit are lightning. This is simply because of the shock mechanic.

Except the spells that are designed to crit has a base crit of, at best, 7%. While melee weapons can get up to 10%

With a single hit from puncture I do 100k damage, no spells can ever do that

spells where nurfed since pre 1.0.0 they did too much dmg with some low life RF offhand casting builds.

now all spells should be rebalanced to their old state, so the dmg will be ok again. even spark can get his old crit chance back.

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Zeint wrote:

I just rerolled my level 80 freezing pulse CI witch to a marauder and it's a completely different experience!

I don't get chilled every time a monster does any kind of cold damage.
I don't have to wear Eye of Chayula in order to not get chain-stunned.
I don't have to link life leech to my attack because physical damage can leech through gear and skill points.
I don't have to use my curse slot to remove cold resistance, because monsters just don't have physical resistance.


Why would anyone ever use CI?

CI is only good if you have insane gear. those ppl who have it, love CI ofc

The more I compare my casters to my weapon elemental character, the more I see the gear as a huge factor (along with penetration).

GGG needs to introduce caster only weapons and add mods like:
X% penetration (where x needs to be 5-20)
Adds x damage to spells (where x is the same as weapon elemental mods, like 5-100 lightning)
ES on hit
And etc.

Just with those base items only rolling spell stats and those new stats introduced in the game casters could be fixed without attackers getting overbuffed (since they will be unable to attack with those items since they will have 0 attack mods)

I find it ridiculous that an elemental weapon adds more damage than 3 Lvl 20 supports do (added lightning damage, added cold damage, and the useless for 99% casters added fire damage) yet there is nothing similar for casters.

oops