Since playing through the beta a few times as a wizard (and at least once with the other classes) I feel that some abilities and runes have common functions but having drastically different amounts of damage.
Since playing patch 15, and paying closer attention to abilities, here are some comparisons/judgements I have made:
Shock Pulse: Release a medium range pulse of 3 unpredictable charges of electricity dealing 105% weapon damage as Lightning.
Magic Missle: Split: Fire 3 missiles that deal 50% weapon damage as arcane.
Clear differences in damage, and Shock pulse is not even runed for bonuses. They function differently in range, damage type and Shock pulse is unpredictable. But, having used both in beta, Shock pulse feels superior in killing power. Maybe this short range will be less desirable in higher difficulties
Energy Twister: Unleash a twister that deals 360% weapon damage over 6 seconds to everything in its path. 35 arcane power to cast.
This appears to do a lot of damage from the description, but by how it travels the damage is wasted. When cast, it flys out in front of you travelling in a wandering path not tracking monsters. The damage of the spell is spread out over 6 seconds. This means that when a monster is walking towards you and you fire one at it, it may only be damaging the creature for about a second or 2 if you are lucky. That's only 60% weapon damage. So as it keeps flying through monsters it does 60% weapon damage to all of them. I'm slightly exaggerating and it would most likely travel over a monster for more than a second in some cases, but it still is not impressive. One could easily cast 1 Arcane Orb for the same arcane power and deal 175 to 228% damage to many more targets instantly! Energy twister doesn't seem to have a useful application nor enough damage to even consider.
Additional Concerns:
I feel that the wizard has many short range abilities compared to the witch doctor and demon hunter that could pose a lot of problems in higher difficulties and pvp. Although, wizards have access to many defensive abilities against melee combat damage and bonus armor, I feel that it wont be an even trade off.
Comments:
I feel that many runes for signature spells (and others) could be reviewed and changed to offer different damage types other than Lightning damage. When balanced, preferences on range, damage type and function will determine which one will be right for you rather than which signature does more damage.
Sorry for sounding a bit ranty. I understand that the game isn't released yet, this is just my opinion on my experiences in the beta. I'd like to hear some feed back on this stuff and consider other people's perspective on the current state of the game.
Energy twister is absolute trash. You are not exaggerating at all, in fact you might be giving it too much credit, because 90% of the time the only thing it attacks is the wall.
Yah I don't understand that magic missile rune at all. Have you played with it on the beta?
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Nice Post, with some valid concerns. However, I must disagree with your shock pulse-Magic Missile comparison. Firstly, comparing a runed ability against a non-runed one is a bad idea. But the core difference between these (base) abilities is range. The base magic missile does ~145% I think. SO you have short range splash or large range single target damage. These have two very different uses. Using that particular rune on MM and having shock pulse is maybe a bad idea. But one should always have options for how they want to do damage.
Next on to wind and orb. I can see the obvious disadvantage of the wind spell. BUT, I suspect that it would be much more spammable than the orb (which you can only fire three times). Also, wind is a fire and forget. One shot, and it does its damage for 6 seconds. Launch many of these bad boys and you are getting up to orb amonts of damage.
In conclusion, would your ideal char only have 3 abilities " one range, one aoe and one defensive? Obviously not. The very minor differences in some of these skills can create a plethora of different options, suited to different play styles.
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Just from my experience, the magic missile rune is meant to turn the spell into more of a 'spread damage' type skill, rather than a single target skill. I actually really like the rune because it's one of the cases that it almost completely changes the functionality of the spell. And when picking to use it over shock pulse, unless I'm doing a melee type build I always pick the runed MM, it's faster, has got an abundant more range, and is split up more. Idea for taking down a single target? Of course not. But for groups and packs, it's a nice free spell.
As for energy twister, this is the common complaint that I also heard with haunt for a long time; People will compare another skill to either ET or haunt, and say "Look I can do more x more damage, it'l even cost me y less resource, why use it?" And just like haunt I'll answer, it's a fire and forget spell. It's not meant to be your main nuke, it's meant to put out damage on the battle field as a DoT of sorts, while firing off other spells. And just like other spells, it has it's applications. For ET, not too efficient in narrow passageways. But out in the open, with big packs, it's pretty useful. Even for PVP; You're probably not going to want to stand around in pvp, why not throw out a twister every 6 seconds and follow it while trying to fight melee characters, it's just some extra damage.
Just from my experience, the magic missile rune is meant to turn the spell into more of a 'spread damage' type skill, rather than a single target skill. I actually really like the rune because it's one of the cases that it almost completely changes the functionality of the spell. And when picking to use it over shock pulse, unless I'm doing a melee type build I always pick the runed MM, it's faster, has got an abundant more range, and is split up more. Idea for taking down a single target? Of course not. But for groups and packs, it's a nice free spell.
Except for the part where the other rune choices are far better....the game wont be in beta forever. That rune is trash.
As for energy twister, this is the common complaint that I also heard with haunt for a long time; People will compare another skill to either ET or haunt, and say "Look I can do more x more damage, it'l even cost me y less resource, why use it?" And just like haunt I'll answer, it's a fire and forget spell. It's not meant to be your main nuke, it's meant to put out damage on the battle field as a DoT of sorts, while firing off other spells. And just like other spells, it has it's applications. For ET, not too efficient in narrow passageways. But out in the open, with big packs, it's pretty useful. Even for PVP; You're probably not going to want to stand around in pvp, why not throw out a twister every 6 seconds and follow it while trying to fight melee characters, it's just some extra damage.
All spells are fire and forget. Which spell do you guide in again? Or is your definition of fire and forget that you can completely miss and it might still go attack the mobs?
Arcane Orb will pretty much always do more dmg, and its actually reliable. Arcane Twister is obviously shit atm. Maybe one of the other runes will make it useful, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
Just from my experience, the magic missile rune is meant to turn the spell into more of a 'spread damage' type skill, rather than a single target skill. I actually really like the rune because it's one of the cases that it almost completely changes the functionality of the spell. And when picking to use it over shock pulse, unless I'm doing a melee type build I always pick the runed MM, it's faster, has got an abundant more range, and is split up more. Idea for taking down a single target? Of course not. But for groups and packs, it's a nice free spell.
Except for the part where the other rune choices are far better....the game wont be in beta forever. That rune is trash.
As for energy twister, this is the common complaint that I also heard with haunt for a long time; People will compare another skill to either ET or haunt, and say "Look I can do more x more damage, it'l even cost me y less resource, why use it?" And just like haunt I'll answer, it's a fire and forget spell. It's not meant to be your main nuke, it's meant to put out damage on the battle field as a DoT of sorts, while firing off other spells. And just like other spells, it has it's applications. For ET, not too efficient in narrow passageways. But out in the open, with big packs, it's pretty useful. Even for PVP; You're probably not going to want to stand around in pvp, why not throw out a twister every 6 seconds and follow it while trying to fight melee characters, it's just some extra damage.
All spells are fire and forget. Which spell do you guide in again? Or is your definition of fire and forget that you can completely miss and it might still go attack the mobs?
Arcane Orb will pretty much always do more dmg, and its actually reliable. Arcane Twister is obviously shit, and only a fool would use it.
Alright bud no need to start the personal attacks.
I would argue that you have zero proof of any of your opinions. How is MM split rune trash? If you put it up against say shock pulse, it wins with hitting faster, predictability, and range. The obvious counter being if you plan on doing a melee wizard build.
A fire and forget is one that you fire, and don't have to think about again for at least a little bit. Ok yes technically when I use my electrocute, even though I'm using it a couple times a second, you can say 'well your firing and forgetting', but that's not the point of the saying. The point is with ET you can throw one or two down in front right before you pull a pack, and then 'forget' about it as you focus on using other spells until they run out. This adds a, admitedly unpredictable, 'dot' to the field, or a FaF. Again, it's not supposed to be your main attack, but rather something that compliments what main attack you've picked.
I don't know how often I have tried to shock pulse a mob, and it misses like 5 times in a row. With MM, I know where the missile (or splits of it) are going to go.
ET will spread it's damage over a larger area to arcane orb, which is another thing to consider. What is the point of doing 220% damage to enemies when 50% is enough to kill them (these number's are not accurate). Here is where ET might come into it's own.
At the end of the day, the two skills are both viable. If you want a different skills to be different element type "shock pulse" or "arcane orb" type spells, then go play magicka (and even if you don't, go play magicka, its a fun game ).
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I used to shoot people in the knee with arrows, then I took an arrow to the knee.
Support my photography. A hobby, but starting to make some money out of it. Brett Delport Photography
As for the Arcane Missle split vs the Pulse, I get your idea. Still if you're playing a Fire build Pulse has a very good use runed into Fire.
Also if you're splitting your missile anyway I would totally go for Electrocute since it deals more damage to the same amount of targets UNRUNED - and is even more controllable if I get the spell right (did NOT play the beta).
As for the Arcane Missle split vs the Pulse, I get your idea. Still if you're playing a Fire build Pulse has a very good use runed into Fire.
Also if you're splitting your missile anyway I would totally go for Electrocute since it deals more damage to the same amount of targets UNRUNED - and is even more controllable if I get the spell right (did NOT play the beta).
So a level 13 twink killed a lvl 8 boss using a skill. Must be great.
Not to mention the damage from shock pulse was the high numbers.
Still though you can apparently rune it to just sit on the spot, this seems like the only half decent use.
A hydra is a set and forget skill, an arcane mine, an armor, a familiar, a buff.
This is rather tenuously fitting in.
With the inclusions of 30% damage reduction for melee, casters in melee would appear blizzard has admitted non-viable.
So then to would spectral blade be useless and shorter range spells and these random and midrange spells become weaker.
There is a fair bit of weakness to the runes changes on skills, they do seem pretty half-assed.
I can't see a lot of these spells being used with competition for slots. They seem very fringe.
Shock Pulse: Release a medium range pulse of 3 unpredictable charges of electricity dealing 105% weapon damage as Lightning.
Magic Missle: Split: Fire 3 missiles that deal 50% weapon damage as arcane.
Clear differences in damage, and Shock pulse is not even runed for bonuses. They function differently in range, damage type and Shock pulse is unpredictable. But, having used both in beta, Shock pulse feels superior in killing power. Maybe this short range will be less desirable in higher difficulties
One major major thing you're missing is how the skill works and that different People perceive things differently. In reality A base magic missile and a base shock pulse even out eventually. Personally I hate hate hate the randomness of Shock Pulse. Used it a few times and hated it. Many wizard players share my sentiments and I'm sure many other share yours.
So based on that, going from the base magic missile to the split rune where it fires 3 bolts instead of one, it was an awesome upgrade. And it reached almost the length of my screen to hit mobs which was great cos I try to stay far far away from mobs. And since everything in beta was fairly low level, the 50% weapon damage was not a big deal. Might change my tune at later levels but I certainly won't be using Shock Pulse as a replacement.
That's the whole concept of Diablo 3. Viable choices based on play style and preferences. Just because you don't like a spell, don't be short sighted and think its useless. I WILL be using Magic Missile as my main signature spell because I have a personal attachement and preference to it, although I am aiming for the seeking Magic Missile rune as my main damage spell.
Energy Twister: Unleash a twister that deals 360% weapon damage over 6 seconds to everything in its path. 35 arcane power to cast.
This appears to do a lot of damage from the description, but by how it travels the damage is wasted. When cast, it flys out in front of you travelling in a wandering path not tracking monsters. The damage of the spell is spread out over 6 seconds. This means that when a monster is walking towards you and you fire one at it, it may only be damaging the creature for about a second or 2 if you are lucky. That's only 60% weapon damage. So as it keeps flying through monsters it does 60% weapon damage to all of them. I'm slightly exaggerating and it would most likely travel over a monster for more than a second in some cases, but it still is not impressive. One could easily cast 1 Arcane Orb for the same arcane power and deal 175 to 228% damage to many more targets instantly! Energy twister doesn't seem to have a useful application nor enough damage to even consider.
I can't speak for Energy Twister because the few times I tried it, I was not impressed. However I also didn't attempt to master the spell very hard. The higher level spells like Energy Twister and Meteor and Blizzard have high casting costs so they are not meant to be your "main" attack spell, you need something to cast while recharging AP.
I'm guessing that Energy Twister requires more skill and thought into your build before you can see the results. Its not a simple fire and damage spell. Also I really really want to see 2 Energy Twisters combine (one of the rune abilities). And while you might hate the spell, the graphics for it is very unique and there are wizards out there who will use it just for that reason alone. Making a viable Energy Twister build would be 1/2 the fun.
I feel that the wizard has many short range abilities compared to the witch doctor and demon hunter that could pose a lot of problems in higher difficulties and pvp. Although, wizards have access to many defensive abilities against melee combat damage and bonus armor, I feel that it wont be an even trade off.
Comments:
I feel that many runes for signature spells (and others) could be reviewed and changed to offer different damage types other than Lightning damage. When balanced, preferences on range, damage type and function will determine which one will be right for you rather than which signature does more damage.
Electrocute and Magic Missle are not short range. Arcane Orb, Ray of Frost, Arcane torrent, Disintegrate, Energy Twister, Meteor, Blizzard are all at least medium range and most are long rang so I don't quite get your argument. In fact of all the classes, we have the longest range in terms of attack abilities except for perhaps the Demon hunter who I think lacks a wizard's area effect spells.
No comment on runes for spells since I've not tried most of them out. But please don't call spells worthless just because they don't appeal to you.
The only use I can think for energy twister is if you can guarantee it will hit. This happen only where you are surrounded by monsters like the jar of souls event.
We'll see if it happens more often in the full game but in the beta it's pretty bad.
You can't master a random spell. Energy twister is absolute crap. Maybe it will get better with runes but I kind of doubt it.
No, but you can potentially create a build that complements a random spell. I don't disagree that alone, Energy twister is kind of a waste of AP. In D2 for the first year of play almost no one touched the lighting tree and certainly Lighting was considered a useless spell. But later on, people started developing strategies for being a Lighting Sorceress, or a charged boltress.
All I'm saying is none of us have tried out all the spells, or all the runes. And there could be builds that complement it. Also we have no idea how mobs will be coming at us. If a whole bunch of fast teleporting mobs charge us, I think Energy twister might be very useful.
Also does anyone know if it dazes or slows targets when it does hit? Once hit by Energy twister is a mob trapped in it for the entire duration? I seriously can't test it in beta cos when it finally does hit, the mob dies instantly. (and these tests I did were all pre-patch 13).
Remember, Disintegrate has piercing but no where does it say this in the text, you have to test it out for yourself. So Energy twister has to have some hidden benefits too. Same thing goes with Hydra, you can only have 1 hydra at a time? Sounds totally useless especially in the later levels. But doesn't stop me from wanting to get the spell and try it out, especially with the Mammoth Hydra rune.
I do not enjoy skills that have too much randomness in them.
Tornado
Shock Pulse
Frogs
Spiders
%chance runes
You can remove the randomness for the most part. Frogs - just stand close to your target and it's a nuke-spell. Tornado is the same. Stand up close and personal and you blow them away. For each of these, you need to find ways to limit the randomness working against you; that's all. Decide is this ability fits in your playstyle.
If I were making a melee wizard, I'd definitely throw tornado into the mix.
Well after reading all the posts I still feel that energy twister is not a good ability. Sure this is my opinion, but my opinions are based on the fact I could kill creatures way faster and more predictably with a similar spell, Arcane Orb. Same arcane power, more damage, predictable, also does aoe arcane damage so it synergizes the same. I don't think there is much more to argue for that.
As for the comparison of signature spells. I know that Magic Missle and Shock Pulse serve different niches so there will always be use for both. I personally like Magic Missle over the others. And Shock Pulse's unpredictability is quite annoying too, I agree. I just feel that specifically that the Split rune is weak, and should be reviewed.
I agree about energy twister. It's too random for me to ever think about using. I may see how it is with the rune where it doesn't move. But with any of the other runes it seems worthless.
This is all useless speculation until we can see full lategame builds in action. Don't put so much weight into it. Yeah some abilities might be more generally useful while other abilities have much more niche uses, but thats ok and expected.
This is all useless speculation until we can see full lategame builds in action. Don't put so much weight into it. Yeah some abilities might be more generally useful while other abilities have much more niche uses, but thats ok and expected.
You think everything is speculation.... You do know that many of us have thoroughly tested this ability in beta right? Its a bad joke.
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
I do not enjoy skills that have too much randomness in them.
Tornado
Shock Pulse
Frogs
Spiders
%chance runes
You can remove the randomness for the most part. Frogs - just stand close to your target and it's a nuke-spell. Tornado is the same. Stand up close and personal and you blow them away. For each of these, you need to find ways to limit the randomness working against you; that's all. Decide is this ability fits in your playstyle.
If I were making a melee wizard, I'd definitely throw tornado into the mix.
melee wizard would seem admittedly non-viable by melee classes gaining a 30% damage reduction from all sources that wizards will not.
This is also a pretty terrible short range skill as it can just go completely the other way or straight through them barely doing anything.
ok for anyone hating on the energy twister go play D2 Druid Tornadostormer its awesome and thats why i will use this spell
Really? skill behaves very very differently the D2 skill goes in a generally straight line sometimes breaks up or down is based on mana.
This skill has one functional capacity as runed to stay in one place becoming a dot where you are for melee range unfortunately it would seem wizards are not meant to be near enemies.
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Since playing patch 15, and paying closer attention to abilities, here are some comparisons/judgements I have made:
Shock Pulse vs. Magic Missle: Split Link: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ab!!Z
Shock Pulse: Release a medium range pulse of 3 unpredictable charges of electricity dealing 105% weapon damage as Lightning.
Magic Missle: Split: Fire 3 missiles that deal 50% weapon damage as arcane.
Clear differences in damage, and Shock pulse is not even runed for bonuses. They function differently in range, damage type and Shock pulse is unpredictable. But, having used both in beta, Shock pulse feels superior in killing power. Maybe this short range will be less desirable in higher difficulties
Energy Twister: Unleash a twister that deals 360% weapon damage over 6 seconds to everything in its path. 35 arcane power to cast.
This appears to do a lot of damage from the description, but by how it travels the damage is wasted. When cast, it flys out in front of you travelling in a wandering path not tracking monsters. The damage of the spell is spread out over 6 seconds. This means that when a monster is walking towards you and you fire one at it, it may only be damaging the creature for about a second or 2 if you are lucky. That's only 60% weapon damage. So as it keeps flying through monsters it does 60% weapon damage to all of them. I'm slightly exaggerating and it would most likely travel over a monster for more than a second in some cases, but it still is not impressive. One could easily cast 1 Arcane Orb for the same arcane power and deal 175 to 228% damage to many more targets instantly! Energy twister doesn't seem to have a useful application nor enough damage to even consider.
Additional Concerns:
I feel that the wizard has many short range abilities compared to the witch doctor and demon hunter that could pose a lot of problems in higher difficulties and pvp. Although, wizards have access to many defensive abilities against melee combat damage and bonus armor, I feel that it wont be an even trade off.
Comments:
I feel that many runes for signature spells (and others) could be reviewed and changed to offer different damage types other than Lightning damage. When balanced, preferences on range, damage type and function will determine which one will be right for you rather than which signature does more damage.
Sorry for sounding a bit ranty. I understand that the game isn't released yet, this is just my opinion on my experiences in the beta. I'd like to hear some feed back on this stuff and consider other people's perspective on the current state of the game.
Thanks for reading.
Yah I don't understand that magic missile rune at all. Have you played with it on the beta?
Epicurus
Next on to wind and orb. I can see the obvious disadvantage of the wind spell. BUT, I suspect that it would be much more spammable than the orb (which you can only fire three times). Also, wind is a fire and forget. One shot, and it does its damage for 6 seconds. Launch many of these bad boys and you are getting up to orb amonts of damage.
In conclusion, would your ideal char only have 3 abilities " one range, one aoe and one defensive? Obviously not. The very minor differences in some of these skills can create a plethora of different options, suited to different play styles.
As for energy twister, this is the common complaint that I also heard with haunt for a long time; People will compare another skill to either ET or haunt, and say "Look I can do more x more damage, it'l even cost me y less resource, why use it?" And just like haunt I'll answer, it's a fire and forget spell. It's not meant to be your main nuke, it's meant to put out damage on the battle field as a DoT of sorts, while firing off other spells. And just like other spells, it has it's applications. For ET, not too efficient in narrow passageways. But out in the open, with big packs, it's pretty useful. Even for PVP; You're probably not going to want to stand around in pvp, why not throw out a twister every 6 seconds and follow it while trying to fight melee characters, it's just some extra damage.
All spells are fire and forget. Which spell do you guide in again? Or is your definition of fire and forget that you can completely miss and it might still go attack the mobs?
Arcane Orb will pretty much always do more dmg, and its actually reliable. Arcane Twister is obviously shit atm. Maybe one of the other runes will make it useful, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Epicurus
Alright bud no need to start the personal attacks.
I would argue that you have zero proof of any of your opinions. How is MM split rune trash? If you put it up against say shock pulse, it wins with hitting faster, predictability, and range. The obvious counter being if you plan on doing a melee wizard build.
A fire and forget is one that you fire, and don't have to think about again for at least a little bit. Ok yes technically when I use my electrocute, even though I'm using it a couple times a second, you can say 'well your firing and forgetting', but that's not the point of the saying. The point is with ET you can throw one or two down in front right before you pull a pack, and then 'forget' about it as you focus on using other spells until they run out. This adds a, admitedly unpredictable, 'dot' to the field, or a FaF. Again, it's not supposed to be your main attack, but rather something that compliments what main attack you've picked.
ET will spread it's damage over a larger area to arcane orb, which is another thing to consider. What is the point of doing 220% damage to enemies when 50% is enough to kill them (these number's are not accurate). Here is where ET might come into it's own.
At the end of the day, the two skills are both viable. If you want a different skills to be different element type "shock pulse" or "arcane orb" type spells, then go play magicka (and even if you don't, go play magicka, its a fun game ).
Also if you're splitting your missile anyway I would totally go for Electrocute since it deals more damage to the same amount of targets UNRUNED - and is even more controllable if I get the spell right (did NOT play the beta).
As for Energy Twister, well, I've got one thing to say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJ296ZaDPA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.d3unlimited.com
Not to mention the damage from shock pulse was the high numbers.
Still though you can apparently rune it to just sit on the spot, this seems like the only half decent use.
A hydra is a set and forget skill, an arcane mine, an armor, a familiar, a buff.
This is rather tenuously fitting in.
With the inclusions of 30% damage reduction for melee, casters in melee would appear blizzard has admitted non-viable.
So then to would spectral blade be useless and shorter range spells and these random and midrange spells become weaker.
There is a fair bit of weakness to the runes changes on skills, they do seem pretty half-assed.
I can't see a lot of these spells being used with competition for slots. They seem very fringe.
One major major thing you're missing is how the skill works and that different People perceive things differently. In reality A base magic missile and a base shock pulse even out eventually. Personally I hate hate hate the randomness of Shock Pulse. Used it a few times and hated it. Many wizard players share my sentiments and I'm sure many other share yours.
So based on that, going from the base magic missile to the split rune where it fires 3 bolts instead of one, it was an awesome upgrade. And it reached almost the length of my screen to hit mobs which was great cos I try to stay far far away from mobs. And since everything in beta was fairly low level, the 50% weapon damage was not a big deal. Might change my tune at later levels but I certainly won't be using Shock Pulse as a replacement.
That's the whole concept of Diablo 3. Viable choices based on play style and preferences. Just because you don't like a spell, don't be short sighted and think its useless. I WILL be using Magic Missile as my main signature spell because I have a personal attachement and preference to it, although I am aiming for the seeking Magic Missile rune as my main damage spell.
I can't speak for Energy Twister because the few times I tried it, I was not impressed. However I also didn't attempt to master the spell very hard. The higher level spells like Energy Twister and Meteor and Blizzard have high casting costs so they are not meant to be your "main" attack spell, you need something to cast while recharging AP.
I'm guessing that Energy Twister requires more skill and thought into your build before you can see the results. Its not a simple fire and damage spell. Also I really really want to see 2 Energy Twisters combine (one of the rune abilities). And while you might hate the spell, the graphics for it is very unique and there are wizards out there who will use it just for that reason alone. Making a viable Energy Twister build would be 1/2 the fun.
Electrocute and Magic Missle are not short range. Arcane Orb, Ray of Frost, Arcane torrent, Disintegrate, Energy Twister, Meteor, Blizzard are all at least medium range and most are long rang so I don't quite get your argument. In fact of all the classes, we have the longest range in terms of attack abilities except for perhaps the Demon hunter who I think lacks a wizard's area effect spells.
No comment on runes for spells since I've not tried most of them out. But please don't call spells worthless just because they don't appeal to you.
A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
We'll see if it happens more often in the full game but in the beta it's pretty bad.
No, but you can potentially create a build that complements a random spell. I don't disagree that alone, Energy twister is kind of a waste of AP. In D2 for the first year of play almost no one touched the lighting tree and certainly Lighting was considered a useless spell. But later on, people started developing strategies for being a Lighting Sorceress, or a charged boltress.
All I'm saying is none of us have tried out all the spells, or all the runes. And there could be builds that complement it. Also we have no idea how mobs will be coming at us. If a whole bunch of fast teleporting mobs charge us, I think Energy twister might be very useful.
Also does anyone know if it dazes or slows targets when it does hit? Once hit by Energy twister is a mob trapped in it for the entire duration? I seriously can't test it in beta cos when it finally does hit, the mob dies instantly. (and these tests I did were all pre-patch 13).
Remember, Disintegrate has piercing but no where does it say this in the text, you have to test it out for yourself. So Energy twister has to have some hidden benefits too. Same thing goes with Hydra, you can only have 1 hydra at a time? Sounds totally useless especially in the later levels. But doesn't stop me from wanting to get the spell and try it out, especially with the Mammoth Hydra rune.
If I were making a melee wizard, I'd definitely throw tornado into the mix.
/facepalm
you cant compare the two, very different games.
As for the comparison of signature spells. I know that Magic Missle and Shock Pulse serve different niches so there will always be use for both. I personally like Magic Missle over the others. And Shock Pulse's unpredictability is quite annoying too, I agree. I just feel that specifically that the Split rune is weak, and should be reviewed.
Thanks for everyone's feed back.
You think everything is speculation.... You do know that many of us have thoroughly tested this ability in beta right? Its a bad joke.
Epicurus
This is also a pretty terrible short range skill as it can just go completely the other way or straight through them barely doing anything.
Really? skill behaves very very differently the D2 skill goes in a generally straight line sometimes breaks up or down is based on mana.
This skill has one functional capacity as runed to stay in one place becoming a dot where you are for melee range unfortunately it would seem wizards are not meant to be near enemies.