Arcane Orb is obviously better when it comes down to Weapon Damage % / Resource (AO deals 5%wd/AP and meteor deals 3%wd/AP, considering the full DoT).
AO AoE = 50*pi (consideraing it hits in semi circle)
Meteor AoE = 144*pi
It deals about the same damage per second, costs about twice, but has around three times the effective AoE. Sounds fair to me.
The 1 second delay is definetly a big burden for soloers, but I think most of it's annoyance fades in case you have a party member and that party member holds his position in the meteor impact area. You can even play that role if you're tanky wizard and do it solo (the same way D2 ES sorcs casted meteors in her feet).
Imo the DoT pool is actually a advantage. The same way monster can get out of the fire pool, other monster will move in, alloing meteor to damage more enemies then the ones inside the initial area. If you, your follower or a allies stand ground inside the fire pool, monster will allways move in and never move out.
I think Blizz just recently realised how AoE is powerful in this game. Look at all big AoE spells in the game and see how low the weapon damage per resource is (Acid Cloud, Seismic Slam, Wave of Light). For every enemy meteor hits and AO don't it deals 180% additional weapon damage. If you're facing a place with high monster density, meteor will much likely hit more enemies, making the 60 AP worth it.
Now if you says Energy Twister is gimped I agree 100%. I"m not denying it might need a buff either. Maybe it should deal 20% weapon damage or cost just 50 AP. But I don't think it's "gimped"... Energy Twister and Arcane Missiles are turelly gimped stuff imo.
Ok, lets examine this further.
Arcane Orb - Arcane Nova - 175% wpn dmg 20 yards
1/2 pi r^2 = 200 pi
Thats 4 times the area of AO, and far more than Meteor.
I guess that means its the best too?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Do you want to get scammed? Perhaps a nice keylogger?
"Just google "diablo 3 gold guide" and magical rainbow covered demons will assault your eyes."
Last rune will be very nice when you have high crits as burning fire will cause new crits fast and all your spell cool downs (with proper passive) should go to 0 very quickly. If you use teleport rune which let you teleport every 8 sec it will be even cooler as mobs can march through fire all the time
All to be checked very very fast when D3 is realeased.
Ok, lets examine this further.
Arcane Orb - Arcane Nova - 175% wpn dmg 20 yards
1/2 pi r^2 = 200 pi
Thats 4 times the area of AO, and far more than Meteor.
I guess that means its the best too?
"Just google "diablo 3 gold guide" and magical rainbow covered demons will assault your eyes."
All to be checked very very fast when D3 is realeased.
You got to compare runed AO to runed Meteor though.
Also... patch 16 shows a buff to meteor and meteor runes.
Exactly, proving the whole point. Meteor in patch 15 is gimp as hell.
You can't just look at area, as that doesnt make sense.
"Just google "diablo 3 gold guide" and magical rainbow covered demons will assault your eyes."