Been seeing a lot of these types of threads pop up so I figured I’d aggregate all of them into one post for ease of access. I obviously can't include every single suggestion, but I'll try to put some cool ones I've found along with some of my own ideas.
I'm going to use the term "special powers" as the orange text that go with legendary items or abnormally high numbers like 30% melee reduction from String of Ears. Many legendary items come with properties that do not naturally roll on those types of items. But there's something about the orange text that makes an item seem much more special.
Current wizard legendary items with no special powers:
Broken Crown (helm) - IAS the only unique property Mempo of Twilight (helm) - IAS the only unique property Profane Pauldrons (shoulders) - 4-6 pickup radius the only unique property Vile Ward (shoulders) Corruption (crafted shoulders) Gungdo Gear (bracers) - life bonus and crowd control reduction, kind of special, but not really Steady Strikers (bracers) - IAS the only unique property, unnecessary with the existence of Lacuni Prowlers Slave Bonds (bracers) - movement speed and life after kill unique properties, kind of meh Lacuni Prowlers (bracers) - IAS and movement speed unique properties, good for raw stats, but not really special Kethryes' Splint (crafted bracers) Stone Gauntlets (gloves) - high chance to immobilize, but that's it Penders Purchase (crafted gloves) Vigilante Belt (belt) - will have cooldown reduction in 2.1, but still not much going for it Saffron Wrap (belt) - crowd control reduction the only unique property Angel Hair Braid (belt) Hellcat Waistguard (belt) - IAS and measly elite damage the only unique properties Fleeting Strap (crafted belt) - IAS the only unique property, unnecessary with the existence of Hellcat Waistguard and The Witching Hour Skelon's Deceit (crafted pants) Hammer Jammers (pants) - movement speed the only unique property Board Walkers (crafted boots) Boj Anglers (boots) The Crudest Boots (boots) Squirt's Necklace (amulet) Rondal's Locket (amulet) - Pickup and globes the only unique properties Ouroboros (amulet) Skull Grasp (ring) Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac (ring) - extra main stats the only unique property Broken Promises (ring) Band of Untold Secrets (ring) - movement speed the only unique property Stolen Ring (ring) - pickup radius the only unique property Manald Heal (ring) - bonus resources the only unique property
NOTE: I did not include items that are known to be updated in Patch 2.1, such as Depth Diggers (pants) and Eternal Union (ring).
Now let's take a look at some existing wizard items with special powers, but are rather underwhelming or unexciting.
Current wizard legendary items with very meh special powers:
Archmage's Vicalyke (wizard hat) - Mirror Images have a chance to duplicate when killed; this hat simply rarely ever works
Storm Crow (wizard hat) - lightning bonus and fireball proc are unique and the latter is very throwback to vanilla; the lightning bonus could use some more work given the existence of Andariel's Visage
Fragment of Destiny (wand) - high Spectral Blade bonus, but with the removal of signature spells from 2.1's Depth Diggers, the weapon is less attractive
Gesture of Orpheus (wand) - players use this for the arcane bonus, not the Slow Time cooldown reduction
Slorak's Madness (wand) - the Disintegrate bonus is nice, but the laughing part is arguable, much like the Pig Sticker squealing, The Paddle's slap, etc.
Triumvirate (source) - attractive triple elemental bonus, but at 10% and the ineffectiveness of maintaining multiple elemental damage sources, few players focus on Triumvirate over other offense-oriented sources like Mirrorball and Firebird's Eye
With all of those items in mind, items without anything truly unique and memorable about them, let's see what we can do to make them interesting. I won't use all of the items since this thread will focus mainly on wizard skills and item properties.
First things first, let's take a look at The Swami, Starfire, Blackhand Key and Ruinstoke because they have absolutely nothing going on for them.
THE SWAMI
What does The Swami remind you of? The flavor text reads: "Bestows upon the wearer both formidable power and an unsurpassed statement of fashion."
Okay, so it has no special powers and the text doesn't really tell you much. So this item is pretty much left wide open for customization. When an item is left wide open like this, I feel like it should truly be customizable, which is why I think items like the Swami should have multiple random special powers.
This means when you loot The Swami, it can come with one of several different orange text powers. It's a generic wizard hat, so perhaps it can come with powers that deal with the different elements.
One of 4 Random Legendary Properties (varies):
- Enemies damaged by Ray of Frost become enveloped by Black Ice that deals 575-625% weapon damage as Cold to nearby enemies over 3 seconds.
- Disintegrate deals Fire damage instead of Arcane.*
- Critical hits from your lightning resource spenders pull in all enemies within 25 yards toward your target and stun them for 2 seconds.
- Arcane damage you deal slows enemy movement speed by 60-80% and attack speed by 25-40% for 2 seconds.
*As soon as I posted this, I just realized Blizzard already made one of the Disintegrate runes Fire for 2.1's PTR.
The first random property, cold, gives Black Ice lovers the gameplay they want in multiplayer. Given Black Ice's current state, it's virtually useless in multiplayer because you have to be the one landing the killing blow in order to get the on-kill proc. Now that you can proc a weaker form of Black Ice (arguable, because Black Ice can stack) with any Ray of Frost rune, you get the AOE carnage and the synergy with Light of Grace.
The second random property, fire, has always been a popular one. Where are the Fire-based channeling spells? Where, there you go. Disintegrate now deals Fire damage instead of Arcane, which can pave the way to some new Fire-based builds with all these existing Fire items.
The third random property, lightning, feeds on the stun element and takes a bit from The Ess of Johan. This will be more of a support/crowd control property wizards can use in group play. If Arcane Orb - Spark ever gets some more love, there could be something cool in the making with such a power. Lightning Bind lovers could get a kick out of the pull effect, too.
The fourth random property, arcane, is basically a form of Temporal Flux. I know there are a lot of players out there who wish to utilize Temporal Flux in their Arcane builds, but are unable to because of other passives such as Blur, Audacity, Unwavering Will, etc. that are prioritized. In addition, many Arcane users enjoy the benefits of Moonlight Ward, which means it's a struggle to pick up the new Hellfire Amulet for the extra passive. Having a Temporal Flux-like ability on gear can allow Arcane wizards, especially those who run channeling spells, a more range-focused type gameplay.
STARFIRE
There's an ongoing discussion about the... rather uselessness of Starfire. It's a wand that just screams the time and space theme. The flavor text reads: "Crafted around a shard that fell from the sky during the Festival of Lights."
A shard that fell from the sky? What does that mean?
METEORS, BABY!
Starfire really needs to be the Meteor wand.
There's a problem, though. There are too many Meteor runes to choose from and many players prefer one rune over the other. Some like to rain Meteor Shower down without end. Some prefer Comet and Lightning Bind for their respective elements and their crowd control. Some prefer periodically dropping a bomb with Molten Impact. Some prefer spamming Star Pact for the lower AP cost.
That said, I think we can go the multiple random powers route like The Swami.
One of 5 Random Legendary Properties (varies):
- Increases the freeze duration of Comet to 3 seconds and the freezing mist damage to 390% weapon damage as Cold over 3 seconds.
- Meteor Shower projectiles home in on nearby targets.
- Molten Impact has a 50-70% chance to cast twice.
- Lightning Bind releases a Static Pulse on impact, dealing 351% weapon damage as Lightning. Damaged enemies take 15% increased damage from Lightning for 2 seconds.
- Removes the resource cost of Star Pact.
The Comet property is straightforward. I believe most players use Comet because 1. they like the Cold element and 2. they like the crowd control. So let's make the damage a little more competitive (for the stacking DoT) and increase the freeze duration. It's just a little flavor.
The Meteor Shower property has been a very popular one. A lot of players wonder just how powerful Meteor Shower can be if every single one of the seven mini-Meteors land on a single target. This would make Meteor Shower a neat AOE and single-target DPS skill.
The Molten Impact property was something I debated about. Some players wanted the cooldown to be outright removed. Depending on how Meteor damage in general is addressed in 2.1 or later in the future, that could be a little wild for just one item. So I figure having a chance to double drop a Molten Impact Meteor could be neat, especially if you're already running a cooldown reduction spec.
The Lightning Bind property is something that I've always envisioned with Meteor. The impact is strong enough to release a shockwave. And when I thought about shockwaves, I thought about Wave of Force. So there's Static Pulse, and the new one restores AP per enemy hit. I like the old one that buffs lightning damage, so...
And for the Star Pact property, it's already designed to be a more spam-friendly Meteor rune with no other special property. Why not just make it 100% spam-friendly? Purple light show FTW!
BLACKHAND KEY
Blackhand Key is a spine. It's a chunk of bone. The flavor text reads: "The spine of the urdar is known to possess unique magical properties that unlock arcane secrets for those brave enough to wield it."
The urdar is a monster from Diablo II. They're big and bulky, kind of like ogres. Actually, they probably are based on ogres. Blackhand Key itself is a weapon from Diablo II, albeit for the necromancer, not the sorceress.
Anyway, with that in mind, what can we do with Blackhand Key that fits the flavor text and the wizard?
I think in order to recognize the history of this weapon, it has to do something with draining effects. It's a bone. It was a necromancer weapon. Now it's in the hands of a wizard.
- Each enemy slain within 20 yards restores 6-8 Arcane Power.
It's not APoC, which I know a lot of players want back on wands, but it's a way to promote spamming spenders under the right conditions. It may not be optimal against a single target (actually, it's not), but it's something that could see a lot more use in speed farming sessions. I specifically worded it as "each enemy slain," not "AP on kill" because we know how much on-kill effects suck in multiplayer games.
I've thought about what the game would be like if there was a single wand in the game that retained the 10 APoC found on legacy wands. Would players choose such a wand over others?
ATROPHY
Atrophy and Ruinstoke are both crafted wands, the former being level 70 and the latter level 60. They're stat sticks with nothing much going for them. Actually, Ruinstoke comes naturally with elite bonus, but it's not like other weapons can't roll the same. The flavor text simply reads: "Crafted by demonic hands."
Welp. That means a lot.
Basically, this wand is wide open for any and all sorts of unique powers.
Energy Twister? Arcane Orb? Signature spells?
Anything!
- Energy Twisters periodically pull in nearby enemies and projectiles, trapping them for 2 seconds.
I think that's an idea that's come up quite often. They're twisters, right? Kind of like tornadoes? So how come they don't suck up everything along their path like real tornadoes? I can tell this would be a hassle to code, but since we see the effects of the witch doctor's Piranhado, this could work a similar way.
Sounds familiar? That's what Depth Diggers did at the start of 2.1's PTR. Not sure if this would make witch doctors happy as they were left alongside the wizard being the only two classes unable to utilize the new Depth Diggers.
One thing I'm concerned about is the ease of access for this wand. It's easily craftable for such insane power. Might be better to move this power somewhere else... maybe Fragment of Destiny in place of its Spectral Blade bonus?
Well, since we're done with the wizard items without any properties, why not move on to the wizard items with underwhelming powers?
FRAGMENT OF DESTINY
I'm just going to talk about Fragment of Destiny first because of the whole signature spells bonus thing I mentioned with the new Depth Diggers and Atrophy suggestion. The power is strong, we all know that, so it might not be the best idea to make it so easily accessible through crafting. Perhaps Fragment of Destiny, which already sports up to 30% Spectral Blade bonus, can be the item to pick.
Like that. 80-100% additional damage from signature spells instead of the 30% Spectral Blade bonus. While the Spectral Blade bonus is a familiar one from vanilla D3, it's not a popular one. With the flat bonus to signature spells, Spectral Blade users can still use Fragment of Destiny, but the wand will also open up doors to other signature spell lovers, like Magic Missile users, Electrocute users, etc.
Speaking of vanilla D3 Fragment of Destiny, remember what it used to come with? The legacy Fragment of Destiny came with up to 25% skill bonus to Cold, Fire and Lightning. That's insane! But that job has more or less been relagated to the new Triumvirate (up to 10% for Fire, Lightning, Arcane).
But what if it retained the elemental nature of the weapon?
- Your spells take on the element of your highest elemental bonus.
This has also been a popular power. I've seen various forms of such a power in the wizard forum over the last couple of months, especially after Vyr's Amazing Arcana allowed Archon to take on the form of your highest elemental bonus. Since we know it's technologically possible for something like this to happen, why not allow players who don't want to use Archon have the ability to focus their spells into one particular element?
I wonder how this would work with The Swami suggestion I made earlier (the one that turned Disintegrate damage to Fire)? Hmm... which one would override the other? Interesting.
SLORAK'S MADNESS
Slorak's has always been a rather popular item. It's the go-to weapon for Disintegrate wizards, but we know how much trouble channeling spells are in right now so it's tough to say what can or cannot work down the line.
Anyway, Slorak's increases Disintegrate damage by 15-30% and will laugh at you when you die. The former is a respectable bonus and the latter is just flavor. But even with the bonus, with the ramp-up damage for channeling spells, the wand isn't too competitive. Keeping in mind the powers suggested earlier, Slorak's needs a little more oomph.
- Disintegrate no longer ramps up in damage and instead deals its maximum damage by default. The wand also finds your death humorous.
In the first 2.1 PTR update, Disintegrate now starts off at 360% weapon damage and ramps up to over 800% after channeling a few seconds. With this Slorak's suggestion, say Disintegrate skips the ramp up and fires at 800%+ damage right off the bat. For the Entropy rune, it starts off at 1100%+ damage.
The bonus range for Disintegrate should also close up a little bit. 15-30% seems a little far apart. Even 20-30% looks a lot better. In addition, we'll keep the sinister laugh because Slorak's wouldn't be Slorak's without it.
GESTURE OF ORPHEUS
A frequent suggestion for bonuses deals with Arcane Torrent. Perhaps this is because there are items focused on Disintegrate (Slorak's Madness) and Ray of Frost (Light of Grace), the other two channeling spells. Arcane Torrent has none.
Gesture of Orpheus is already a neat weapon that comes with up to 20% arcane bonus. However, its legendary power that reduces the cooldown of Slow Time is... very much wasted. With Illusionist and Mirror Image, no one really cares about Slow Time's cooldown.
So let's make Gesture of Orpheus the Arcane Torrent item.
- Death Blossom seeks out enemies, but its resource cost is doubled.
Death Blossom has always been an interesting Arcane Torrent rune. Its randomness keeps you on edge, but the damage it deals is colossal. Oftentimes, players have suggested making a legendary item that allows you to aim Death Blossom, but that seems kind of boring. it's be the same as all the other runes, just stronger. So why not channel the skill, but allow the projectiles to seek out its own targets? It's still a bit random, but at least you're guaranteed to deal damage. It'll be a little more reliable for AOE and will be really strong against a single target. How will the player adjust to the doubled resource cost? It'll make for interesting gearing strategies.
- Critical hits from Arcane Torrent lays an Arcane Mine.
Arcane Mines is strong, but its drawback is that it takes time to arm and explode. There's also a built-in limit to how many Arcane Mines you can have out on the field with new ones overwriting the oldest if the oldest have yet to explode. It's possible with this power to have extra Arcane Mines on the field to supplement the damage you're dealing. Easy and straightforward.
There are many ways Gesture of Orpheus can cater to Arcane Torrent users. So many suggestions are out there, ranging from ones similar to those I've suggested, in addition to:
- Arcane Mines explode instantly (a la Bolas and Emimei's Duffel). - You may have limitless Arcane Mines active at a time. - Power Stones also replenish the resources of your allies. - Removes the resource cost of Arcane Torrent. - Arcane Torrent no longer ramps up in damage and instead deals its maximum damage by default (like the Slorak's Madness suggestion). - Arcane Torrent gains the effect of the Disruption rune. - Etc.
ARCHMAGE'S VICALYKE
This wizard hat makes me mad. The first problem is that Mirror Images are mentally handicapped. They are. Their first action upon being summoned is usually running away. How are they supposed to get killed and used by Archmage's Vicalyke? The second issue is that they are horribly tame and aren't nearly as aggressive as they could be.
If images were more aggressive and did more damage, then perhaps it's worth having them multiply. With Illusionist and cooldown reduction, sometimes it really doesn't matter if the images multiply or not. You'll just resummon them and they'll do what they need to do and go away.
Either the Mirror Image skill needs to be redesigned or the wizard hat needs something else on it to make it more attractive.
- Mirror Images deal your full damage and last until they die. Mirror Image gains a 60 second cooldown.
This has been a frequent suggestion. It turns Mirror Image into a pet-like skill. However, in order for such a power to see any use (or be balanced), the skill itself will require necessary changes.
First of all, no one in their right mind would use Mirror Mimics (20% damage) over Duplicates (four images). No one would use Extension of Will (increase duration to 10 seconds) given the hat will allow them to last until they die. The 100% life boost to Extension of Will is also useless with Simulcrum (200% life).
Second of all, pet items like Tasker and Theo will have to apply to the images. The gloves apply to witch doctor pets like Zombie Dogs and Fetishes, demon hunter Sentries and Companions, barbarian Ancients, wizard Hydras, and crusader Phalanx avatars.
Third, the images are naturally fragile outside runes like Simulcrum. They're super squishy and they probably won't last the 60 seconds as suggested.
Sounds like a headache.
- Your Mirror Images cast the same spells whenever you do.
This one is more simple and gives a nod to the witch doctor's Carnevil (Fetishes shoot Poison Darts whenever you do). However, the problem is now damage. How much damage can these images dish out? Again, who would use runes outside Duplicates? More images dealing damage means more damage overall. It's a no brainer. Since they don't last forever, why bother trying to keep them alive if you can just slot in Illusionist and add cooldown reduction to have more uptime?
Also, what about channeling skills? It's already known that images cannot cast channeling spells. What if they were allowed to do so? Can you imagine multiple images fire off Arcane Torrent with you at the same target? Hmm.
That said, it's an easier item to synergize with others, especially if signature spell boosters like the previous iteration of Depth Diggers on the PTR (or the skill bonus I suggested on Fragment of Destiny) return to the wizard's arsenal.
OUROBOROS
Just a bonus. I wanted to put this here before I forget later on. The Ouroboros is based on an image of a serpent eating its own tail. The amulet's flavor text also reads: "'All energy flows from and returns to the eternal source.' —Archmage Kang"
Okay, so its serpent-based. The flavor text includes an archmage. So... why not make it a wizard-based item? Why not base it on Hydra? It's so clear.
- Your Hydra’s damage is increased by 10-15% for each enemy within 10 yards of its summoned location for 5-10 seconds.
This bonus plays into the whole energy flow and serpent theme. You cast Hydra and it feeds on the energy of nearby enemies, empowering it for a short period of time. At first I wondered if it'd be better for the bonus to remain dynamic, meaning if you drop a Hydra in a tight group of 10 enemies, it gains up to 150% additional damage. But as enemies drop one by one, the bonus keeps dropping until the Hydra stands alone and it simply deals its base damage.
I threw out the fixed life on hit roll for the amulet because Hydras, like all pets, do not benefit from life on hit stats.
There are other items that can use more work like I mentioned all the way in the first post.
Storm Crow needs to stand apart from Andariel's Visage. Even something simple like changing the bonus to 30% like the monk's Eye of the Storm could let it see more use. With Velvet Camaral and Andariel's Visage, there currently is no real purpose for Storm Crow. The fireball proc? For Elemental Explosure? Eh.
Triumvirate looks good on paper, but the effectiveness of multielemental builds take a back seat in favor of concentrated builds in the likes of pure Fire, pure Arcane... and dare I say pure Lightning and pure Cold.
As for all the other items that currently have no special affixes tied to them, there's room for more creative powers, not just limited to the wizard class.
Considering I've been working on this post for a few hours already, I'm going to stop right here. If anyone sees creative ideas, please link the threads or just post them here. I know there are suggestions everywhere, but because they're everywhere, it's hard to collect and pinpoint the sources. Hopefully with a thread like this, it'll be easier for the community team and developers to pick up some ideas or use any existing suggestions as inspiration for future items.
Brilliant topic. We need this for every single class now. P:
Among others, Ouroboros legendary attribute would be better if it played of the theme of cyclicality which is what the ouroboros represents. It's kinda hard to think up something about that though.
That Gesture of Orpheus though. I like the Arcane Mines version because it actually feels like your planting blossoms on the ground.
Atrophy making twisters like the final Falling Sword rune of the Crusader would be bonkers. It would be a serious crowd control contender.
i like the whole removes resource cost bit for starfire.....but imo an item removing a resource cost is kinda...no offence...dumb makes it a tad op look at gyrfalconsfoote lmao
the bit for molten impact 2 times awsome i love molten impact and wish it had more uses tbh..i could get down with more signature spell damage =p energy twister is the kinda spell that needs reworked something feirce a weird lumbering tornado that doesnt do much damage :<
Heh, I picked a good time for this post because a lot of items have received updates in the latest PTR patch, like the Swami (apparently retains Archon's damage buffs for X seconds after Archon's expiration).
Awesome topic! And some awesome suggestions you got there. Can I request something? Can we talk about sets as well?
I wanted to post a loooong "rant" thread but somehow can't find the time to write it all, plus much of the draft might now be obsolete until we know how the current PTR iteration plays out. But one of my beefs with the wizard's set right now is that none of them are "build-changing", "game-breaking" legendaries. Vyr's makes Archon stronger, but doesn't *change* your gameplay. Tal's requires you to take on additional elements (which is counter-intuitive to endgame gearing, where you want to gear/spec for one single element). And Firebird's requires you to take one and only one element (fire), and it only adds something that makes it very worthwhile if enemies live long enough to burn for the 3000% damage. Both the Firebird's and Tal's set do not open up new gearing possibilities, they constrain the way we have to spec/gear our wizard even further. They're not game-changing, but build/gear-limiting.
In particular the Tal's set is something I'm really mad about. Why not give us something like the Inna's set? 4 piece bonus: gain the base effect of all 3 armors. Or, if you want to keep it the way it is, add something to the 3 or 4 piece bonus: 50% of your elemental bonus damage are transferred to all other elemental damage types. That way you could *really* spec for Elemental Exposure, Triumvirate would really make sense, and you wouldn't need to rely on stuff like Sparkflint just to proc the Meteors. One could also put this effect on Triumvirate. Well, it would make the Tal's offhand even more undesirable and useless, though...
But in general I think the Tal's set needs to be changed to something more than just a roughly 20% damage buff. Furthermore, both the Tal's and Firebird's set are completely useless if enemies die too fast (Firebird's will never ramp up and Tal's Meteors will just hit dead bodies). In that sense, I was really disappointed with the Firebird's set... why not give it some really game-changing behavior? If you directly compare it to the Marauder set, it could be something like "Hydra casts your equipped AP spenders" (it would still be much weaker as we can only have 1-2 Hydras, DHs can get up to 7 Sentries; but it would at least be something that's fun and build-changing). My other issue is that I don't understand why it needs to be fire-based, just because of the name. Then freaking rename it. There could be so much cool stuff. For example, with 2.1 it seems that they want to reinforce the usefulness of channeling spells. However, we can't channel for as long as we'd like to because we have no defense, especially not when channeling as we can't do anything while we're channeling. If we could get something that would allow us to channel for more than 0.2 seconds before getting one-hit by any mob, that'd be great! What about this for a 6 piece Firebird's: "While channeling, you occasionally cast a Black Hole on enemy hit". It would at least give us a chance to keep channeling, keep stuff away, and add some bonus damage (so get rid of the 3000% thing if you like). To keep it fire-based, make it always a Blazar Black Hole. Oh and btw: this would also make the Black Hole bonus on shoulders more useful!
Where are all the creative people? Let's make some more suggestions! We need some more "meaningful" legendaries besides just plain damage buffs. Share your ideas :-)
Triumvirate IMHO should do something like:Increase the elemental damage of all elements (fire, cold, lightning, arcane or maybve just the 3 ones of triumvirate) with 1/4 (or 1/3 depend on number of elements involved) of the sum of his elements damage (to a minimum of 5%)
For example (with the 4 elements):
-Fire 20%
-Lightning 15%
-Arcane 45%
-Cold 20%
Total of elemental damages: 100%
With triumvirate all 4 elements should increase up to +25%
-Fire 20% - up to 45%
-Lightning 15%- up to 40%
-Arcane 45%- up to 70%
-Cold 20%- up to 45%
Example 2 with the same total elemental damage:
-Fire 100%
-Lightning 0%
-Arcane 0%
-Cold 0%
Total of elemental damages: 100%
With triumvirate +25%
-Fire 100% - up to 125%
-Lightning 0%- up to 25%
-Arcane 0%- up to 25%
-Cold 0%- up to 25%
This will synergize pretty well with Tal-Rasha and will empover this item greatfully!
Sounds like a nice idea but I think they should rather rework the 2PC Bonus with something like "Your other elemental bonuses have the same amount as your highest" This would actually allow people with Tal-Rasha to play how they want without sacreficing to much.
^
This, and some other ideas are really nice, like the fragment of destiny and starfire would bring wizards more in line with other classes.
As Bagstone mentioned sets kinda need some love also, and since tal'rasha would be awesome with that triumvirate and/or fragment of destiny i won't touch it for now, vyr needs to reduce archon's cd by 10-20 secs and firebird i recently made a suggestion for it that absolutely got smashed by ppl voting on the thread, up to this point i still can't understand why ppl didn't like it, so i'll post it here also
Firebird's Finery Has been renamed Elemental bird's Finery (6) Set Bonus
Has been redesigned
Dealing Elemental damage causes the enemy to take the same amount
of damage over 3 seconds, stacking up to 3000% weapon damage per second.
After reaching the 3000% cap the enemy will take damage until they die.
PS: i'm not asking for a buff to the set,
The damage overtime effect would not exceed the 3000% cap.
You could remain full fire and nothing would change for you,
this change would simply make other elements able to take advantage of the set.
Your magic missile now does up to XXX% more damage depending on how low you are on arcane power. For example, 0 AP = 400% increase in MM damage.
Electrocute continues to jump to all enemies within 20 yards of the initial target until that target is dead. This effect can be applied to multiple enemies.
Spectral blade has a chance to deliver a crushing blow (similar to furnace).
Shock Pulse now casts 8 bolts in all directions.
Ray of Frost occasionally summons blizzard on the target.
Arcane Orb-Orbit no longer consumes orbs when they explode.
Arcane Torrent no longer has a ramp-up time.
Enemies hit by Disintegrate gain the chaos nexus effect for X seconds.
Frost Nova can now be cast on click location.
Diamond Skin now reflects projectiles back at the shooter.
Slow Time’s duration is double and the bubble now follows enemies when targeted.
All teleport runes gain the wormhole effect. Wormhole has its uses increased by 1-2.
Wave of Force now sends an additional ripple that deals the same damage as the original cast.
Energy Twisters now spawn another twister on each critical hit.
Your hydras now follow you.
All Meteor runes have a chance to summon a black hole at the impact point.
Blizzard can now stack.
Ice armor gains the effect of all runes.
Storm armor gains the effect of all runes.
Magic weapon gains the effects of all runes.
Your familiar's attacks have a XX% chance to summon all familiars to fight alongside of you for XX seconds.
Energy armor gains the effect of all runes.
Explosive Blasts is also cast at your follower when used.
Mirror Images are immune to damage and attack constantly, dealing 100% spell damage.
Archon’s duration is doubled.
Enemies killed by Black Hole have a chance to spawn a new black hole.
1. Using an armor grants you 15-25% toughness.
2. You can now use up to 2 armors at once.
3. Enemies hit by spectral blade have a 50% chance to be blinded for 2 seconds.
4. Arcane mines hone in on the closest enemy once they have been armed.
5. Mirror Images now creates clones of your follower. This effect can stack with Asheara's set.
Passive:
1. Power of the Coven: You gain X% more damage and toughness for each Wizard in your party.
- A passive where you can use multiple armors at once. The reason I think this would be the best option is because you're using up to 3 skill slots as offensive/defense/utility, and only have 3 slots left. It wouldn't be as overpowered as one may think, it sacrifices a passive slot as well.
- Chunk of Space Debris
wizard source
effect: The pools caused by your Meteor spell now deals damage twice as fast. This changes up the gameplay entirely, where you now care more about your DoT pools than you do the impact damage. The faster ticks also means double the proc ratio uptime!
Scepter of the Sky
1 hand mace
effect: reduces the cost of meteor by 10. This one (while bland) is much needed imo. The old SoJ+Tal Rasha's Source meteor 5/meteor 5 reduction is no longer possible, and the Smoldering -Bore- is the only meteor item right now and is absolutely horrible for obvious reasons. This item would be a mace for better resource conservation, higher base damage and the heaviness of maces fit the heaviness of meteors. Resource Cost reduction only takes you so far for a non primary meteor spam build, and is waaaay too taxing on your stat allocation. It also makes us hate attack speed.
Armaggedeon
wizard hat
effect: When your Meteor spell deals impact damage, it also drops 2 meteorites of the same element that deal (1/3rd meteor damage) in the same location. Besides doing more active damage, this effectively also means a couple extra hits per impact hit, more area damage procs, more life on hit (new LoH).
Meteor's proc ratio is raised. It's WAAAAY too low right now, holy krap. It's frustrating when items or shocking aspect barely procs, and only multiple successive casts of an expensive AP spender with a small radius and a falling delay can proc it averagely. it's frustrating. It's also sad that APoC isn't valuable if you're doing this kind of setup.
Sorry for all the meteor talk, < meteor wiz here not satisfied with the testing I've done.
You're right about it being part of the flavor, but it probably isn't fun because it doesn't feel rewarding when it lands. It's essentially a skill shot that doesn't feel good, which needs to change. I personally like the delay and the small radius, though, I feel like it just needs to be better supported or stronger.
On another note, I think Blizzard needs to be stackable as well. It shouldn't just be a support damage skill, there should be an option for it to be a main spender. The fact that successive casts don't stack force it into a support skill.
I'd really like to see an arcane orb legendary, because when frozen orb was introduced alot of wizards enjoyed it very much. Could be something like: Release 3 arcane orbs instead of one or make it generate arcane power (like kridershot) or per enemy hit.
as 2handers were buffed, wizards need some cool stuff for channeled spells. As they are 2handers and you cant equip a source they can be kinda op (like all runes etc., full ramped dmg).
Agreeing with setchanges but no ideas in that direction (sth. wizard unique not an adaption of crus/dh/wd).
I was kind of sad that Scorch wasn't more popular, I thought a Scorch/Mammoth Hydra build would have been quite good considering they're both similar mechanics (Lines of ground damage-over-time). I agree that Arcane Orb in general needs more overall love, it's a basic cool spell that is just overall "meh". The skill might just lack some buffs rather than needing it's own leg, but I definintely agree that it should also have it's own item.
- Arcane orb, could be an item that grants all of them a scorch effect (would be flat out improving the dmg from scorch ofc or make it wider). Otherwise, they could make one where the orbs when exploding sends out smaller versions of the original orb.
Another, maybe too strong, grant it a chance to proc black hole (absolute zero for frozen orb, blazar for scorch, spellsteal or Event horizon for Obliteration). Not sure how i would make it work for arcane orbit, but maybe something like it could proc wave of force? Arcane version that knockbacks, seeing how its in melee that might be useful.
Really Think a lot of people nailed the armor thing, but one i personally find as a cool idea would be Familiar.
It might be too much like marauder, but i dont think that should exclude it!
Familiar summons all Familiar types to your side
Magic weapon Enchants your weapon in any ways possible (Dmg% dont stack, force weapon 20% is the dmg increase)
I dont think we need more signature changers, but i think there could be some really cool ideas by making an item that allows you to use 2 runes instead of just 1. In regards to shock pulse, no idea. dont like the ability in most of its runes.
Ray of frost Gains the effect of Sleet storm
You can now channel Ray of frost: Sleet storm while moving.
In general more items a la Cosmic strand granting a rune effect more to spells.
The Evocator (or blackhand key) Wand
effect: Every AP spender cast will reduce the cost of your next AP spender spell by 20%, stacks up to 5 times. Resets to 0% after the 5th cast.
-Your spectral blade spell can now be cast at a location up to 40 yards away
-attacking an enemy will cast a random spell. This can only occur once every 6 seconds.
-Frost Nova now gains the Frozen Mist rune.
-Hydra now summons a hydra beast that fights for you. Each Rune summons a different element Hydra Beast. (infinite hydra that moves with you)
-Turns your disintegrate into a flash ray, and no longer needs to be channeled. (turns a channel into a direct damage spell)
-Your arcane torrent becomes it's own being and channels itself from the location up to 40 yards away.
-successive meteor casts on the same enemies have a chance to crush them, dealing 8% of their maximum HP.
The Evocator (or blackhand key) Wand
effect: Every AP spender cast will reduce the cost of your next AP spender spell by 20%, stacks up to 5 times. Resets to 0% after the 5th cast.
-Your spectral blade spell can now be cast at a location up to 40 yards away
-attacking an enemy will cast a random spell. This can only occur once every 6 seconds.
-Frost Nova now gains the Frozen Mist rune.
-Hydra now summons a hydra beast that fights for you. Each Rune summons a different element Hydra Beast. (infinite hydra that moves with you)
-Turns your disintegrate into a flash ray, and no longer needs to be channeled. (turns a channel into a direct damage spell)
-Your arcane torrent becomes it's own being and channels itself from the location up to 40 yards away.
-successive meteor casts on the same enemies have a chance to crush them, dealing 8% of their maximum HP.
Touching on your arcane torrent one...you cast your arcane torrent-death blossom on click location. Damage originates from the click location and casting lasts 10-15 seconds.
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Been seeing a lot of these types of threads pop up so I figured I’d aggregate all of them into one post for ease of access. I obviously can't include every single suggestion, but I'll try to put some cool ones I've found along with some of my own ideas.
I'm going to use the term "special powers" as the orange text that go with legendary items or abnormally high numbers like 30% melee reduction from String of Ears. Many legendary items come with properties that do not naturally roll on those types of items. But there's something about the orange text that makes an item seem much more special.
Current wizard legendary items with no special powers:
The Swami (wizard hat)
Starfire (wand)
Blackhand Key (wand)
Atrophy (crafted wand)
Current legendary items with no special powers:
Broken Crown (helm) - IAS the only unique property
Mempo of Twilight (helm) - IAS the only unique property
Profane Pauldrons (shoulders) - 4-6 pickup radius the only unique property
Vile Ward (shoulders)
Corruption (crafted shoulders)
Gungdo Gear (bracers) - life bonus and crowd control reduction, kind of special, but not really
Steady Strikers (bracers) - IAS the only unique property, unnecessary with the existence of Lacuni Prowlers
Slave Bonds (bracers) - movement speed and life after kill unique properties, kind of meh
Lacuni Prowlers (bracers) - IAS and movement speed unique properties, good for raw stats, but not really special
Kethryes' Splint (crafted bracers)
Stone Gauntlets (gloves) - high chance to immobilize, but that's it
Penders Purchase (crafted gloves)
Vigilante Belt (belt) - will have cooldown reduction in 2.1, but still not much going for it
Saffron Wrap (belt) - crowd control reduction the only unique property
Angel Hair Braid (belt)
Hellcat Waistguard (belt) - IAS and measly elite damage the only unique properties
Fleeting Strap (crafted belt) - IAS the only unique property, unnecessary with the existence of Hellcat Waistguard and The Witching Hour
Skelon's Deceit (crafted pants)
Hammer Jammers (pants) - movement speed the only unique property
Board Walkers (crafted boots)
Boj Anglers (boots)
The Crudest Boots (boots)
Squirt's Necklace (amulet)
Rondal's Locket (amulet) - Pickup and globes the only unique properties
Ouroboros (amulet)
Skull Grasp (ring)
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac (ring) - extra main stats the only unique property
Broken Promises (ring)
Band of Untold Secrets (ring) - movement speed the only unique property
Stolen Ring (ring) - pickup radius the only unique property
Manald Heal (ring) - bonus resources the only unique property
NOTE: I did not include items that are known to be updated in Patch 2.1, such as Depth Diggers (pants) and Eternal Union (ring).
Now let's take a look at some existing wizard items with special powers, but are rather underwhelming or unexciting.
Current wizard legendary items with very meh special powers:
Archmage's Vicalyke (wizard hat) - Mirror Images have a chance to duplicate when killed; this hat simply rarely ever works
Storm Crow (wizard hat) - lightning bonus and fireball proc are unique and the latter is very throwback to vanilla; the lightning bonus could use some more work given the existence of Andariel's Visage
Fragment of Destiny (wand) - high Spectral Blade bonus, but with the removal of signature spells from 2.1's Depth Diggers, the weapon is less attractive
Gesture of Orpheus (wand) - players use this for the arcane bonus, not the Slow Time cooldown reduction
Slorak's Madness (wand) - the Disintegrate bonus is nice, but the laughing part is arguable, much like the Pig Sticker squealing, The Paddle's slap, etc.
Triumvirate (source) - attractive triple elemental bonus, but at 10% and the ineffectiveness of maintaining multiple elemental damage sources, few players focus on Triumvirate over other offense-oriented sources like Mirrorball and Firebird's Eye
With all of those items in mind, items without anything truly unique and memorable about them, let's see what we can do to make them interesting. I won't use all of the items since this thread will focus mainly on wizard skills and item properties.
First things first, let's take a look at The Swami, Starfire, Blackhand Key and Ruinstoke because they have absolutely nothing going on for them.
THE SWAMI
What does The Swami remind you of? The flavor text reads: "Bestows upon the wearer both formidable power and an unsurpassed statement of fashion."
Okay, so it has no special powers and the text doesn't really tell you much. So this item is pretty much left wide open for customization. When an item is left wide open like this, I feel like it should truly be customizable, which is why I think items like the Swami should have multiple random special powers.
This means when you loot The Swami, it can come with one of several different orange text powers. It's a generic wizard hat, so perhaps it can come with powers that deal with the different elements.
One of 4 Random Legendary Properties (varies):
- Enemies damaged by Ray of Frost become enveloped by Black Ice that deals 575-625% weapon damage as Cold to nearby enemies over 3 seconds.
- Disintegrate deals Fire damage instead of Arcane.*
- Critical hits from your lightning resource spenders pull in all enemies within 25 yards toward your target and stun them for 2 seconds.
- Arcane damage you deal slows enemy movement speed by 60-80% and attack speed by 25-40% for 2 seconds.
*As soon as I posted this, I just realized Blizzard already made one of the Disintegrate runes Fire for 2.1's PTR.
The first random property, cold, gives Black Ice lovers the gameplay they want in multiplayer. Given Black Ice's current state, it's virtually useless in multiplayer because you have to be the one landing the killing blow in order to get the on-kill proc. Now that you can proc a weaker form of Black Ice (arguable, because Black Ice can stack) with any Ray of Frost rune, you get the AOE carnage and the synergy with Light of Grace.
The second random property, fire, has always been a popular one. Where are the Fire-based channeling spells? Where, there you go. Disintegrate now deals Fire damage instead of Arcane, which can pave the way to some new Fire-based builds with all these existing Fire items.
The third random property, lightning, feeds on the stun element and takes a bit from The Ess of Johan. This will be more of a support/crowd control property wizards can use in group play. If Arcane Orb - Spark ever gets some more love, there could be something cool in the making with such a power. Lightning Bind lovers could get a kick out of the pull effect, too.
The fourth random property, arcane, is basically a form of Temporal Flux. I know there are a lot of players out there who wish to utilize Temporal Flux in their Arcane builds, but are unable to because of other passives such as Blur, Audacity, Unwavering Will, etc. that are prioritized. In addition, many Arcane users enjoy the benefits of Moonlight Ward, which means it's a struggle to pick up the new Hellfire Amulet for the extra passive. Having a Temporal Flux-like ability on gear can allow Arcane wizards, especially those who run channeling spells, a more range-focused type gameplay.
STARFIRE
There's an ongoing discussion about the... rather uselessness of Starfire. It's a wand that just screams the time and space theme. The flavor text reads: "Crafted around a shard that fell from the sky during the Festival of Lights."
A shard that fell from the sky? What does that mean?
METEORS, BABY!
Starfire really needs to be the Meteor wand.
There's a problem, though. There are too many Meteor runes to choose from and many players prefer one rune over the other. Some like to rain Meteor Shower down without end. Some prefer Comet and Lightning Bind for their respective elements and their crowd control. Some prefer periodically dropping a bomb with Molten Impact. Some prefer spamming Star Pact for the lower AP cost.
That said, I think we can go the multiple random powers route like The Swami.
One of 5 Random Legendary Properties (varies):
- Increases the freeze duration of Comet to 3 seconds and the freezing mist damage to 390% weapon damage as Cold over 3 seconds.
- Meteor Shower projectiles home in on nearby targets.
- Molten Impact has a 50-70% chance to cast twice.
- Lightning Bind releases a Static Pulse on impact, dealing 351% weapon damage as Lightning. Damaged enemies take 15% increased damage from Lightning for 2 seconds.
- Removes the resource cost of Star Pact.
The Comet property is straightforward. I believe most players use Comet because 1. they like the Cold element and 2. they like the crowd control. So let's make the damage a little more competitive (for the stacking DoT) and increase the freeze duration. It's just a little flavor.
The Meteor Shower property has been a very popular one. A lot of players wonder just how powerful Meteor Shower can be if every single one of the seven mini-Meteors land on a single target. This would make Meteor Shower a neat AOE and single-target DPS skill.
The Molten Impact property was something I debated about. Some players wanted the cooldown to be outright removed. Depending on how Meteor damage in general is addressed in 2.1 or later in the future, that could be a little wild for just one item. So I figure having a chance to double drop a Molten Impact Meteor could be neat, especially if you're already running a cooldown reduction spec.
The Lightning Bind property is something that I've always envisioned with Meteor. The impact is strong enough to release a shockwave. And when I thought about shockwaves, I thought about Wave of Force. So there's Static Pulse, and the new one restores AP per enemy hit. I like the old one that buffs lightning damage, so...
And for the Star Pact property, it's already designed to be a more spam-friendly Meteor rune with no other special property. Why not just make it 100% spam-friendly? Purple light show FTW!
BLACKHAND KEY
Blackhand Key is a spine. It's a chunk of bone. The flavor text reads: "The spine of the urdar is known to possess unique magical properties that unlock arcane secrets for those brave enough to wield it."
The urdar is a monster from Diablo II. They're big and bulky, kind of like ogres. Actually, they probably are based on ogres. Blackhand Key itself is a weapon from Diablo II, albeit for the necromancer, not the sorceress.
Anyway, with that in mind, what can we do with Blackhand Key that fits the flavor text and the wizard?
I think in order to recognize the history of this weapon, it has to do something with draining effects. It's a bone. It was a necromancer weapon. Now it's in the hands of a wizard.
- Each enemy slain within 20 yards restores 6-8 Arcane Power.
It's not APoC, which I know a lot of players want back on wands, but it's a way to promote spamming spenders under the right conditions. It may not be optimal against a single target (actually, it's not), but it's something that could see a lot more use in speed farming sessions. I specifically worded it as "each enemy slain," not "AP on kill" because we know how much on-kill effects suck in multiplayer games.
I've thought about what the game would be like if there was a single wand in the game that retained the 10 APoC found on legacy wands. Would players choose such a wand over others?
ATROPHY
Atrophy and Ruinstoke are both crafted wands, the former being level 70 and the latter level 60. They're stat sticks with nothing much going for them. Actually, Ruinstoke comes naturally with elite bonus, but it's not like other weapons can't roll the same. The flavor text simply reads: "Crafted by demonic hands."
Welp. That means a lot.
Basically, this wand is wide open for any and all sorts of unique powers.
Energy Twister? Arcane Orb? Signature spells?
Anything!
- Energy Twisters periodically pull in nearby enemies and projectiles, trapping them for 2 seconds.
I think that's an idea that's come up quite often. They're twisters, right? Kind of like tornadoes? So how come they don't suck up everything along their path like real tornadoes? I can tell this would be a hassle to code, but since we see the effects of the witch doctor's Piranhado, this could work a similar way.
- Signature spells deal 80-100% additional damage.
Sounds familiar? That's what Depth Diggers did at the start of 2.1's PTR. Not sure if this would make witch doctors happy as they were left alongside the wizard being the only two classes unable to utilize the new Depth Diggers.
One thing I'm concerned about is the ease of access for this wand. It's easily craftable for such insane power. Might be better to move this power somewhere else... maybe Fragment of Destiny in place of its Spectral Blade bonus?
Well, since we're done with the wizard items without any properties, why not move on to the wizard items with underwhelming powers?
FRAGMENT OF DESTINY
I'm just going to talk about Fragment of Destiny first because of the whole signature spells bonus thing I mentioned with the new Depth Diggers and Atrophy suggestion. The power is strong, we all know that, so it might not be the best idea to make it so easily accessible through crafting. Perhaps Fragment of Destiny, which already sports up to 30% Spectral Blade bonus, can be the item to pick.
Like that. 80-100% additional damage from signature spells instead of the 30% Spectral Blade bonus. While the Spectral Blade bonus is a familiar one from vanilla D3, it's not a popular one. With the flat bonus to signature spells, Spectral Blade users can still use Fragment of Destiny, but the wand will also open up doors to other signature spell lovers, like Magic Missile users, Electrocute users, etc.
Speaking of vanilla D3 Fragment of Destiny, remember what it used to come with? The legacy Fragment of Destiny came with up to 25% skill bonus to Cold, Fire and Lightning. That's insane! But that job has more or less been relagated to the new Triumvirate (up to 10% for Fire, Lightning, Arcane).
But what if it retained the elemental nature of the weapon?
- Your spells take on the element of your highest elemental bonus.
This has also been a popular power. I've seen various forms of such a power in the wizard forum over the last couple of months, especially after Vyr's Amazing Arcana allowed Archon to take on the form of your highest elemental bonus. Since we know it's technologically possible for something like this to happen, why not allow players who don't want to use Archon have the ability to focus their spells into one particular element?
I wonder how this would work with The Swami suggestion I made earlier (the one that turned Disintegrate damage to Fire)? Hmm... which one would override the other? Interesting.
SLORAK'S MADNESS
Slorak's has always been a rather popular item. It's the go-to weapon for Disintegrate wizards, but we know how much trouble channeling spells are in right now so it's tough to say what can or cannot work down the line.
Anyway, Slorak's increases Disintegrate damage by 15-30% and will laugh at you when you die. The former is a respectable bonus and the latter is just flavor. But even with the bonus, with the ramp-up damage for channeling spells, the wand isn't too competitive. Keeping in mind the powers suggested earlier, Slorak's needs a little more oomph.
- Disintegrate no longer ramps up in damage and instead deals its maximum damage by default. The wand also finds your death humorous.
In the first 2.1 PTR update, Disintegrate now starts off at 360% weapon damage and ramps up to over 800% after channeling a few seconds. With this Slorak's suggestion, say Disintegrate skips the ramp up and fires at 800%+ damage right off the bat. For the Entropy rune, it starts off at 1100%+ damage.
The bonus range for Disintegrate should also close up a little bit. 15-30% seems a little far apart. Even 20-30% looks a lot better. In addition, we'll keep the sinister laugh because Slorak's wouldn't be Slorak's without it.
GESTURE OF ORPHEUS
A frequent suggestion for bonuses deals with Arcane Torrent. Perhaps this is because there are items focused on Disintegrate (Slorak's Madness) and Ray of Frost (Light of Grace), the other two channeling spells. Arcane Torrent has none.
Gesture of Orpheus is already a neat weapon that comes with up to 20% arcane bonus. However, its legendary power that reduces the cooldown of Slow Time is... very much wasted. With Illusionist and Mirror Image, no one really cares about Slow Time's cooldown.
So let's make Gesture of Orpheus the Arcane Torrent item.
- Death Blossom seeks out enemies, but its resource cost is doubled.
Death Blossom has always been an interesting Arcane Torrent rune. Its randomness keeps you on edge, but the damage it deals is colossal. Oftentimes, players have suggested making a legendary item that allows you to aim Death Blossom, but that seems kind of boring. it's be the same as all the other runes, just stronger. So why not channel the skill, but allow the projectiles to seek out its own targets? It's still a bit random, but at least you're guaranteed to deal damage. It'll be a little more reliable for AOE and will be really strong against a single target. How will the player adjust to the doubled resource cost? It'll make for interesting gearing strategies.
- Critical hits from Arcane Torrent lays an Arcane Mine.
Arcane Mines is strong, but its drawback is that it takes time to arm and explode. There's also a built-in limit to how many Arcane Mines you can have out on the field with new ones overwriting the oldest if the oldest have yet to explode. It's possible with this power to have extra Arcane Mines on the field to supplement the damage you're dealing. Easy and straightforward.
There are many ways Gesture of Orpheus can cater to Arcane Torrent users. So many suggestions are out there, ranging from ones similar to those I've suggested, in addition to:
- Arcane Mines explode instantly (a la Bolas and Emimei's Duffel).
- You may have limitless Arcane Mines active at a time.
- Power Stones also replenish the resources of your allies.
- Removes the resource cost of Arcane Torrent.
- Arcane Torrent no longer ramps up in damage and instead deals its maximum damage by default (like the Slorak's Madness suggestion).
- Arcane Torrent gains the effect of the Disruption rune.
- Etc.
ARCHMAGE'S VICALYKE
This wizard hat makes me mad. The first problem is that Mirror Images are mentally handicapped. They are. Their first action upon being summoned is usually running away. How are they supposed to get killed and used by Archmage's Vicalyke? The second issue is that they are horribly tame and aren't nearly as aggressive as they could be.
If images were more aggressive and did more damage, then perhaps it's worth having them multiply. With Illusionist and cooldown reduction, sometimes it really doesn't matter if the images multiply or not. You'll just resummon them and they'll do what they need to do and go away.
Either the Mirror Image skill needs to be redesigned or the wizard hat needs something else on it to make it more attractive.
- Mirror Images deal your full damage and last until they die. Mirror Image gains a 60 second cooldown.
This has been a frequent suggestion. It turns Mirror Image into a pet-like skill. However, in order for such a power to see any use (or be balanced), the skill itself will require necessary changes.
First of all, no one in their right mind would use Mirror Mimics (20% damage) over Duplicates (four images). No one would use Extension of Will (increase duration to 10 seconds) given the hat will allow them to last until they die. The 100% life boost to Extension of Will is also useless with Simulcrum (200% life).
Second of all, pet items like Tasker and Theo will have to apply to the images. The gloves apply to witch doctor pets like Zombie Dogs and Fetishes, demon hunter Sentries and Companions, barbarian Ancients, wizard Hydras, and crusader Phalanx avatars.
Third, the images are naturally fragile outside runes like Simulcrum. They're super squishy and they probably won't last the 60 seconds as suggested.
Sounds like a headache.
- Your Mirror Images cast the same spells whenever you do.
This one is more simple and gives a nod to the witch doctor's Carnevil (Fetishes shoot Poison Darts whenever you do). However, the problem is now damage. How much damage can these images dish out? Again, who would use runes outside Duplicates? More images dealing damage means more damage overall. It's a no brainer. Since they don't last forever, why bother trying to keep them alive if you can just slot in Illusionist and add cooldown reduction to have more uptime?
Also, what about channeling skills? It's already known that images cannot cast channeling spells. What if they were allowed to do so? Can you imagine multiple images fire off Arcane Torrent with you at the same target? Hmm.
That said, it's an easier item to synergize with others, especially if signature spell boosters like the previous iteration of Depth Diggers on the PTR (or the skill bonus I suggested on Fragment of Destiny) return to the wizard's arsenal.
OUROBOROS
Just a bonus. I wanted to put this here before I forget later on. The Ouroboros is based on an image of a serpent eating its own tail. The amulet's flavor text also reads: "'All energy flows from and returns to the eternal source.' —Archmage Kang"
Okay, so its serpent-based. The flavor text includes an archmage. So... why not make it a wizard-based item? Why not base it on Hydra? It's so clear.
- Your Hydra’s damage is increased by 10-15% for each enemy within 10 yards of its summoned location for 5-10 seconds.
This bonus plays into the whole energy flow and serpent theme. You cast Hydra and it feeds on the energy of nearby enemies, empowering it for a short period of time. At first I wondered if it'd be better for the bonus to remain dynamic, meaning if you drop a Hydra in a tight group of 10 enemies, it gains up to 150% additional damage. But as enemies drop one by one, the bonus keeps dropping until the Hydra stands alone and it simply deals its base damage.
I threw out the fixed life on hit roll for the amulet because Hydras, like all pets, do not benefit from life on hit stats.
There are other items that can use more work like I mentioned all the way in the first post.
Storm Crow needs to stand apart from Andariel's Visage. Even something simple like changing the bonus to 30% like the monk's Eye of the Storm could let it see more use. With Velvet Camaral and Andariel's Visage, there currently is no real purpose for Storm Crow. The fireball proc? For Elemental Explosure? Eh.
Triumvirate looks good on paper, but the effectiveness of multielemental builds take a back seat in favor of concentrated builds in the likes of pure Fire, pure Arcane... and dare I say pure Lightning and pure Cold.
As for all the other items that currently have no special affixes tied to them, there's room for more creative powers, not just limited to the wizard class.
Considering I've been working on this post for a few hours already, I'm going to stop right here. If anyone sees creative ideas, please link the threads or just post them here. I know there are suggestions everywhere, but because they're everywhere, it's hard to collect and pinpoint the sources. Hopefully with a thread like this, it'll be easier for the community team and developers to pick up some ideas or use any existing suggestions as inspiration for future items.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Among others, Ouroboros legendary attribute would be better if it played of the theme of cyclicality which is what the ouroboros represents. It's kinda hard to think up something about that though.
That Gesture of Orpheus though. I like the Arcane Mines version because it actually feels like your planting blossoms on the ground.
Atrophy making twisters like the final Falling Sword rune of the Crusader would be bonkers. It would be a serious crowd control contender.
the bit for molten impact 2 times awsome i love molten impact and wish it had more uses tbh..i could get down with more signature spell damage =p energy twister is the kinda spell that needs reworked something feirce a weird lumbering tornado that doesnt do much damage :<
Heh, I picked a good time for this post because a lot of items have received updates in the latest PTR patch, like the Swami (apparently retains Archon's damage buffs for X seconds after Archon's expiration).
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Awesome topic! And some awesome suggestions you got there. Can I request something? Can we talk about sets as well?
I wanted to post a loooong "rant" thread but somehow can't find the time to write it all, plus much of the draft might now be obsolete until we know how the current PTR iteration plays out. But one of my beefs with the wizard's set right now is that none of them are "build-changing", "game-breaking" legendaries. Vyr's makes Archon stronger, but doesn't *change* your gameplay. Tal's requires you to take on additional elements (which is counter-intuitive to endgame gearing, where you want to gear/spec for one single element). And Firebird's requires you to take one and only one element (fire), and it only adds something that makes it very worthwhile if enemies live long enough to burn for the 3000% damage. Both the Firebird's and Tal's set do not open up new gearing possibilities, they constrain the way we have to spec/gear our wizard even further. They're not game-changing, but build/gear-limiting.
In particular the Tal's set is something I'm really mad about. Why not give us something like the Inna's set? 4 piece bonus: gain the base effect of all 3 armors. Or, if you want to keep it the way it is, add something to the 3 or 4 piece bonus: 50% of your elemental bonus damage are transferred to all other elemental damage types. That way you could *really* spec for Elemental Exposure, Triumvirate would really make sense, and you wouldn't need to rely on stuff like Sparkflint just to proc the Meteors. One could also put this effect on Triumvirate. Well, it would make the Tal's offhand even more undesirable and useless, though...
But in general I think the Tal's set needs to be changed to something more than just a roughly 20% damage buff. Furthermore, both the Tal's and Firebird's set are completely useless if enemies die too fast (Firebird's will never ramp up and Tal's Meteors will just hit dead bodies). In that sense, I was really disappointed with the Firebird's set... why not give it some really game-changing behavior? If you directly compare it to the Marauder set, it could be something like "Hydra casts your equipped AP spenders" (it would still be much weaker as we can only have 1-2 Hydras, DHs can get up to 7 Sentries; but it would at least be something that's fun and build-changing). My other issue is that I don't understand why it needs to be fire-based, just because of the name. Then freaking rename it. There could be so much cool stuff. For example, with 2.1 it seems that they want to reinforce the usefulness of channeling spells. However, we can't channel for as long as we'd like to because we have no defense, especially not when channeling as we can't do anything while we're channeling. If we could get something that would allow us to channel for more than 0.2 seconds before getting one-hit by any mob, that'd be great! What about this for a 6 piece Firebird's: "While channeling, you occasionally cast a Black Hole on enemy hit". It would at least give us a chance to keep channeling, keep stuff away, and add some bonus damage (so get rid of the 3000% thing if you like). To keep it fire-based, make it always a Blazar Black Hole. Oh and btw: this would also make the Black Hole bonus on shoulders more useful!
I will shamelessly bump this:
Where are all the creative people? Let's make some more suggestions! We need some more "meaningful" legendaries besides just plain damage buffs. Share your ideas :-)
@ Jaetch,
/GolfCalp /Highfive
You continue to give me hope that Wizards will have the diversity that the class deserves.
I might take some time to post my ideas for staves later today.
This, and some other ideas are really nice, like the fragment of destiny and starfire would bring wizards more in line with other classes.
As Bagstone mentioned sets kinda need some love also, and since tal'rasha would be awesome with that triumvirate and/or fragment of destiny i won't touch it for now, vyr needs to reduce archon's cd by 10-20 secs and firebird i recently made a suggestion for it that absolutely got smashed by ppl voting on the thread, up to this point i still can't understand why ppl didn't like it, so i'll post it here also
Firebird's Finery Has been renamed
Elemental bird's Finery (6) Set Bonus
Has been redesigned
Dealing Elemental damage causes the enemy to take the same amount
of damage over 3 seconds, stacking up to 3000% weapon damage per second.
After reaching the 3000% cap the enemy will take damage until they die.
PS: i'm not asking for a buff to the set,
The damage overtime effect would not exceed the 3000% cap.
You could remain full fire and nothing would change for you,
this change would simply make other elements able to take advantage of the set.
Those Who Do Not Know True Pain Cannot Possibly Understand True Peace...
The Smoldering Core
Maloth's Focus
1. Using an armor grants you 15-25% toughness.
2. You can now use up to 2 armors at once.
3. Enemies hit by spectral blade have a 50% chance to be blinded for 2 seconds.
4. Arcane mines hone in on the closest enemy once they have been armed.
5. Mirror Images now creates clones of your follower. This effect can stack with Asheara's set.
Passive:
1. Power of the Coven: You gain X% more damage and toughness for each Wizard in your party.
- Chunk of Space Debris
wizard source
effect: The pools caused by your Meteor spell now deals damage twice as fast. This changes up the gameplay entirely, where you now care more about your DoT pools than you do the impact damage. The faster ticks also means double the proc ratio uptime!
Scepter of the Sky
1 hand mace
effect: reduces the cost of meteor by 10. This one (while bland) is much needed imo. The old SoJ+Tal Rasha's Source meteor 5/meteor 5 reduction is no longer possible, and the Smoldering -Bore- is the only meteor item right now and is absolutely horrible for obvious reasons. This item would be a mace for better resource conservation, higher base damage and the heaviness of maces fit the heaviness of meteors. Resource Cost reduction only takes you so far for a non primary meteor spam build, and is waaaay too taxing on your stat allocation. It also makes us hate attack speed.
Armaggedeon
wizard hat
effect: When your Meteor spell deals impact damage, it also drops 2 meteorites of the same element that deal (1/3rd meteor damage) in the same location. Besides doing more active damage, this effectively also means a couple extra hits per impact hit, more area damage procs, more life on hit (new LoH).
Meteor's proc ratio is raised. It's WAAAAY too low right now, holy krap. It's frustrating when items or shocking aspect barely procs, and only multiple successive casts of an expensive AP spender with a small radius and a falling delay can proc it averagely. it's frustrating. It's also sad that APoC isn't valuable if you're doing this kind of setup.
Sorry for all the meteor talk, < meteor wiz here not satisfied with the testing I've done.
We have a lot of "do this skill twice" legendaries, that, while powerful, aren't particularly fun.
On another note, I think Blizzard needs to be stackable as well. It shouldn't just be a support damage skill, there should be an option for it to be a main spender. The fact that successive casts don't stack force it into a support skill.
Another, maybe too strong, grant it a chance to proc black hole (absolute zero for frozen orb, blazar for scorch, spellsteal or Event horizon for Obliteration). Not sure how i would make it work for arcane orbit, but maybe something like it could proc wave of force? Arcane version that knockbacks, seeing how its in melee that might be useful.
Really Think a lot of people nailed the armor thing, but one i personally find as a cool idea would be Familiar.
It might be too much like marauder, but i dont think that should exclude it!
Familiar summons all Familiar types to your side
Magic weapon Enchants your weapon in any ways possible (Dmg% dont stack, force weapon 20% is the dmg increase)
I dont think we need more signature changers, but i think there could be some really cool ideas by making an item that allows you to use 2 runes instead of just 1. In regards to shock pulse, no idea. dont like the ability in most of its runes.
Ray of frost Gains the effect of Sleet storm
You can now channel Ray of frost: Sleet storm while moving.
In general more items a la Cosmic strand granting a rune effect more to spells.
The Evocator (or blackhand key) Wand
effect: Every AP spender cast will reduce the cost of your next AP spender spell by 20%, stacks up to 5 times. Resets to 0% after the 5th cast.
-Your spectral blade spell can now be cast at a location up to 40 yards away
-attacking an enemy will cast a random spell. This can only occur once every 6 seconds.
-Frost Nova now gains the Frozen Mist rune.
-Hydra now summons a hydra beast that fights for you. Each Rune summons a different element Hydra Beast. (infinite hydra that moves with you)
-Turns your disintegrate into a flash ray, and no longer needs to be channeled. (turns a channel into a direct damage spell)
-Your arcane torrent becomes it's own being and channels itself from the location up to 40 yards away.
-successive meteor casts on the same enemies have a chance to crush them, dealing 8% of their maximum HP.