Another one of those spells that sounds mad cool, only to end up being lack luster at best.
RoF is essentially a disintegrate that has no pierce… So why would anyone occupy a precious slot with it? Why would anyone use a single target skill in a game that’s based around slaying thousands of enemies per run? Oh right! Nobody uses it.
So… Before we even discuss runes we have to address the core mechanics of this skill. Given that drops from bosses are so lame, there is really no reason behind single target dps regardless of how hard the skill hits, so I feel like it needs some form of AOE.
What I suggest is that in its un-runed form, ray of frost should have a AOE effect upon impact, slowing and damaging al enemies within a small radius plus a chance to freeze. (since disintegrate with temporal flux already pierces AND slows)
First rune could grant a 100% chance to freeze the target for x seconds (remember enemy resistance to CC effects grows over time so this wont be OP)
Second rune could make it so that if target dies whilst being hit by RoF it explodes in a sort of frost nova that damages and slows enemies.
Third rune could make RoF bounce from enemy to enemy, kind of like a chain lightning of frost only that you have to channel it (keep the button pressed)
Fourth rune could transform RoF into a sort of frozen orb that explodes on impact (cooldown might be needed for this, or extra arcane cost)
Fifth rune could make RoF single target dps again, but make it deliver insane damage, say 300% dps or more.
By writing this I realize that many of these runes would make frost nova kind of pointless (fourth rune is a castable frost nova) so… here comes the new nova.
My first lvl 99 character in D2 was a nova sorc designed to mow down the cow lvl, and boy was it fun! Teleport into a mass of angry bovines and spam nova so fast that everything was dead before the first creature hit the ground. (waaaaay before windforce poison zons)
Back in the day, nova had no cooldown, but it costed gobs of mana, and since it was electric damage and didn’t freeze, you had to be carefull not to get surrounded, or you were a dead sorcie!
I suggest bringing the old nova back, being the base damage physical with a chance to knockback targets. No cooldown.
First rune could change damage type to electric and a high chance of stun.
Second rune could be fire with chance to burn nearby enemies. (not the ones hit by the nova, those further away, spreading like rabies from druid)
Third rune could be arcane based with a chance of enemies exploding if killed by nova.
Fourth rune could be frost based, working like the skill we have now, but with a chance to freeze, not guaranteed.
Fifth rune could be physical again, with increased dps and knockback chance.
No… No poison nova. IMHO poison has nothing to do in a wizard and should be a damage type reserved to DH and WD.
--------------------------------------------
That being said… I believe that cooldowns have little meaning for a Wizard in a ARPG (except for skills like archon). I mean… You are THE ONE, you are NEO, you are the manifestation of destiny! How can you be stuck waiting for a skill to be available??
Every wiz build I know of runs with Critical Mass. Even archon! Therefore I believe that cooldowns should be removed whenever possible, and just increase the arcane power cost in order to avoid spamming of powerful spells.
Instead of critical mass, I suggest a new passive called Elemental Synergy.
-------------------------------------------
Elemental Synergy (passive)
Elemental Synergy is a new passive meant to promote builds based on the combination of two or more elements, where a type of elemental damage is increased if used after its synergy.
To me, a frozen enemy should receive more electrical damage. Since the freeze effect condenses water around the target, and water is a good conductor (not distilled water, just cope with me) a frozen or slowed enemy could receive x% extra electrical damage when under the effects of a cold skill.
Frozen enemies should receive an extra damage from physical attacks too (think of Terminator2 shattering of the frozen T1000)
Enemies under a burning effect could receive extra arcane damage… etc.
As we all know, every skill has 5 runes that can be applied to it, changing its mechanic. The design concept is to allow for a huge build diversity, which is very far from what is really happening in the game, especially late game.
The idea behind this thread is to help Blizz improve the rune system by suggesting variations or even new runes to complement the ones we have, by opening a place to collect all the suggestions we can think of.
Not to disencourage discussion, but please refrain from commenting on the viability or "fun" of other peoples suggestion. Something may seem (and be) totally impossible to implement, yet it may spring someone else´s mind into action... Let’s stay positive! If you don’t agree with someone, just make a better suggestion!
1
Another one of those spells that sounds mad cool, only to end up being lack luster at best.
RoF is essentially a disintegrate that has no pierce… So why would anyone occupy a precious slot with it? Why would anyone use a single target skill in a game that’s based around slaying thousands of enemies per run? Oh right! Nobody uses it.
So… Before we even discuss runes we have to address the core mechanics of this skill. Given that drops from bosses are so lame, there is really no reason behind single target dps regardless of how hard the skill hits, so I feel like it needs some form of AOE.
What I suggest is that in its un-runed form, ray of frost should have a AOE effect upon impact, slowing and damaging al enemies within a small radius plus a chance to freeze. (since disintegrate with temporal flux already pierces AND slows)
- First rune could grant a 100% chance to freeze the target for x seconds (remember enemy resistance to CC effects grows over time so this wont be OP)
- Second rune could make it so that if target dies whilst being hit by RoF it explodes in a sort of frost nova that damages and slows enemies.
- Third rune could make RoF bounce from enemy to enemy, kind of like a chain lightning of frost only that you have to channel it (keep the button pressed)
- Fourth rune could transform RoF into a sort of frozen orb that explodes on impact (cooldown might be needed for this, or extra arcane cost)
- Fifth rune could make RoF single target dps again, but make it deliver insane damage, say 300% dps or more.
By writing this I realize that many of these runes would make frost nova kind of pointless (fourth rune is a castable frost nova) so… here comes the new nova.---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frost Nova
My first lvl 99 character in D2 was a nova sorc designed to mow down the cow lvl, and boy was it fun! Teleport into a mass of angry bovines and spam nova so fast that everything was dead before the first creature hit the ground. (waaaaay before windforce poison zons)
Back in the day, nova had no cooldown, but it costed gobs of mana, and since it was electric damage and didn’t freeze, you had to be carefull not to get surrounded, or you were a dead sorcie!
I suggest bringing the old nova back, being the base damage physical with a chance to knockback targets. No cooldown.
- First rune could change damage type to electric and a high chance of stun.
- Second rune could be fire with chance to burn nearby enemies. (not the ones hit by the nova, those further away, spreading like rabies from druid)
- Third rune could be arcane based with a chance of enemies exploding if killed by nova.
- Fourth rune could be frost based, working like the skill we have now, but with a chance to freeze, not guaranteed.
- Fifth rune could be physical again, with increased dps and knockback chance.
No… No poison nova. IMHO poison has nothing to do in a wizard and should be a damage type reserved to DH and WD.--------------------------------------------
That being said… I believe that cooldowns have little meaning for a Wizard in a ARPG (except for skills like archon). I mean… You are THE ONE, you are NEO, you are the manifestation of destiny! How can you be stuck waiting for a skill to be available??
Every wiz build I know of runs with Critical Mass. Even archon! Therefore I believe that cooldowns should be removed whenever possible, and just increase the arcane power cost in order to avoid spamming of powerful spells.
Instead of critical mass, I suggest a new passive called Elemental Synergy.
-------------------------------------------
Elemental Synergy (passive)
Elemental Synergy is a new passive meant to promote builds based on the combination of two or more elements, where a type of elemental damage is increased if used after its synergy.
To me, a frozen enemy should receive more electrical damage. Since the freeze effect condenses water around the target, and water is a good conductor (not distilled water, just cope with me) a frozen or slowed enemy could receive x% extra electrical damage when under the effects of a cold skill.
Frozen enemies should receive an extra damage from physical attacks too (think of Terminator2 shattering of the frozen T1000)
Enemies under a burning effect could receive extra arcane damage… etc.
Just imagine a pair for every elemental type.
1
=====================================================================================
As we all know, every skill has 5 runes that can be applied to it, changing its mechanic. The design concept is to allow for a huge build diversity, which is very far from what is really happening in the game, especially late game.
The idea behind this thread is to help Blizz improve the rune system by suggesting variations or even new runes to complement the ones we have, by opening a place to collect all the suggestions we can think of.
Not to disencourage discussion, but please refrain from commenting on the viability or "fun" of other peoples suggestion. Something may seem (and be) totally impossible to implement, yet it may spring someone else´s mind into action... Let’s stay positive! If you don’t agree with someone, just make a better suggestion!