Glacial Cascade - Calling the Hivemind to think-tank it's usage

Patch just came out a few minutes ago, and the first thing I did was pick up Glacial Cascade.


My 2 cents:

This gem really excited me, and my initial reaction on seeing it was pure awe. However, I now realize that it has a few drawbacks. Namely that it's in game effect is that of a projectile, yet it does not have the affix to benefit from projectile support gems. This severly reduced it's possible usage in my eyes, as it's classified as an AOE but has a very limited area of effect to use that condition effectively. Obviously it will benefit from concentrated effect, but since it doesn't cover much of an area I don't see the reason I would use it over other spells.
On the other hand, it has base scaling physical damage, which gives it several other opportunities to shine, similar to EK, but again due to the lack of projectile modifiers it's drawbacks seem to outweigh this.

What does the Hivemind think?

Concentrated Effect - Lifeleech - Added Chaos Damage - Faster Casting
Seems like a good 5-link for it. It also benefits pretty well from hatred and cold damage passives. Faster Casting should be swapped for Cold Penetration if you're running Hatred. Knockback could also make the target get hit multiple times. It seems like a good levelling skill, but its endgame viability without shotgunning or large AoE power might be lacking.

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nikheizen wrote:

Concentrated Effect - Lifeleech - Added Chaos Damage - Faster Casting
Seems like a good 5-link for it. It also benefits pretty well from hatred and cold damage passives. Faster Casting should be swapped for Cold Penetration if you're running Hatred. Knockback could also make the target get hit multiple times. It seems like a good levelling skill, but its endgame viability without shotgunning or large AoE power might be lacking.

Agreed. That link setup does sound great for it, but because of how the spell operates you'd have to use it as a single target spell. It's AOE aspect does not translate well in game, and without LMP or GMP support it seems to be piss poor for handling anything other than single targeting a boss (or getting mobs that are in a perfect line.)
The actual margin for hitting mobs nearby is incredibly minimal.

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Hypertasty wrote:

It's AOE aspect does not translate well in game, and without LMP or GMP support it seems to be piss poor for handling anything other than single targeting a boss (or getting mobs that are in a perfect line.)
The actual margin for hitting mobs nearby is incredibly minimal.

Well cold was lacking a single target spell, seeing as Ice spear is only effective beyond a certain range. Although the advantage of being a caster is generally range. I could see it being used as a proc spell with Double Strike CoC.

Its range is almost the end of screen (not quite), and you have no way to extend it.

I tried it with Increased Area but hard to tell how much it actually increased, the visual seemed the same.

It can hit multiple times, and with knockback even more potential
However if you freeze the target, then the knockback won't activate

It has a high crit chance, (6%) so might work with crit based skills (melee CoC as someone mentioned)

Potential as a single target skill? how does it compare to shotgun FP? (which can actually achieve a higher range with faster projectiles...)

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Well cold was lacking a single target spell, seeing as Ice spear is only effective beyond a certain range. Although the advantage of being a caster is generally range. I could see it being used as a proc spell with Double Strike CoC.

Well yes and no, Freezing Pulse/Arctic Breath/Ice Spear are all under the umbrella of being technical single target spells. The issue with using this with CoC is the lack of range coverage. Because it does not benefit from LMP or GMP, it receives no benefits from being linked to it, and is only cast in a single straight line which is fairly short, less than half the distance of spells like fireball and arctic breath. As of the moment Arctic Breath has jumped much higher in viability due to it's damage being buffed, so even on a double strike CoC I would choose it over Glacial Cascade.

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wooli wrote:

Its range is almost the end of screen (not quite), and you have no way to extend it.

I tried it with Increased Area but hard to tell how much it actually increased, the visual seemed the same.

It can hit multiple times, and with knockback even more potential
However if you freeze the target, then the knockback won't activate

It has a high crit chance, (6%) so might work with crit based skills (melee CoC as someone mentioned)

Potential as a single target skill? how does it compare to shotgun FP? (which can actually achieve a higher range with faster projectiles...)

It's range is fairly short, from my testing no farther than a 0%FP, and yes because it's not a porjectile it can't be extended it seems.

It can't compare to FP for shotgunning though, due to it not being able to have multiple projectiles. I'm uncertain what the total damage it would have at 20, but it wont receive even close to the same benefits that similar spells with the projectile condition would get.

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Hypertasty wrote:

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Well cold was lacking a single target spell, seeing as Ice spear is only effective beyond a certain range. Although the advantage of being a caster is generally range. I could see it being used as a proc spell with Double Strike CoC.

Well yes and no, Freezing Pulse/Arctic Breath/Ice Spear are all under the umbrella of being technical single target spells.

Ice spear is inadequate at close range. Arctic Breath is inadequate, though perhaps its massive buff will change that. Shotgun FP is the only real contender here. If this outdamages shotgun FP while retaining similar mobility it will retain its niche. Otherwise it will be a second tier skill.

Read the bolded part of my post. As Wooli said, its high crit chance is a definite plus for it, especially considering its physical damage aspect.

Right, Double Strike CoC could possibly use it, but I wouldn't place so much praise on it's 6% critical chance. Considering the average range for spells is 4% to 6%, it's not exactly that much of a game changer.

It doesn't seem like it would out damage FP, ever. It's too heavily buffed by close range multiple hits using LMP or GMP. At best you could put added fire damage on it and concentrated effect to buff it's damage through supports, but that's too much of a drop in gem slots.

In addition, I might be wrong but I was under the impression that double strike CoC was primarily used in conjunction with discharge, so how would this spell benefit that build?
I'm probably way off base, would be interesting to hear about it.

use this with glacial cascade.