The damage being below tooltip is not a bug.
Aside for the atwill, the encounter and the daily are DOT type, ie they do multiple damage over a few seconds (there is 4 or 5 tic if I recall correctly), you must take the total damage to compare it with the tooltip damage.
And if my memory's good the total damage was around the tooltip on dummies.
As onecoolscatcat said: Feedback: General Paragon Path name
"Masters of Flame" have more Ice powers than flame. It is a little silly. Possibly either rename the paragon path to something more generic like, "Elemental Mastery" or replace all ice based powers with flame.
DITTO THIS.
Bug: Respecialization Options = none On respect the *only* option is Flame Paragon choice. I'm not sure that this is a bug or not, (it feels like one) so I'll explain it as a feedback below.
Feedback: Respecialization Options = none I did a respec on a level 42 Wizzie I copied over from live so I could play with fire (-cough-) What I *expected* to see when the power tree was hidden and I was required to "choose" a Paragon Path was just that: A choice of Paragon paths. There were no choices whatsoever: I was forced to pick Master of Flame because it was the only selection button.
And I report this as feedback because I can understand if this is the intended function for beta-testing purposes (but I don't think so).
Feedback: Encounter Power - Fanning the Flame:
I cant really see this encounter as anything anyone would use besides adding Smolder to the targes. As of today, smolder dosent do enough damage for it to be of any use at all. Damage is also very low for this encounter, it cant see it replacing icy terrain, steal time, sudden storm or shard of the avalanche. POINTS: 0, will never use
So the tricky thing with Fanning the Flames is that it gets a pretty significant damage amp against the primary target if there are smoldering enemies nearby. It's essentially an AoE single target spell. (In that it deals more damage to your target based on the people around said target)
The spell mastery version of it makes said damage amp easier to accomplish, but using normal Fanning the Flame and either of the other Master of Flame powers, lets you take advantage of the extra damage.
So the tricky thing with Fanning the Flames is that it gets a pretty significant damage amp against the primary target if there are smoldering enemies nearby. It's essentially an AoE single target spell. (In that it deals more damage to your target based on the people around said target)
The spell mastery version of it makes said damage amp easier to accomplish, but using normal Fanning the Flame and either of the other Master of Flame powers, lets you take advantage of the extra damage.
i'm actually digging the tabbed fanning the flames combined with conduit of ice to fuel the fire. i'm currently spec'd for thaumaturge taking advantage of crit bonuses, combustive and critical class features with a greater vorpal slotted. i have zero problems soloing the dread mini-dungeons with this set up.
Feedback: Name
First I suggest changing from Master of Flame to Master of Rimefire; flame has distinct assosiations but what's rimefire?
Feedback: General Play
The more I read and look at it the more I suspect the issue is one of expectations and play management. When a tooltip says "4-6" players expect to see those numbers going past, they don't expect that to be the total damage if the enemy survives a full cycle of tics of the dot. This is further compounded by a lack of clarity on how to maximise the dot; you need to figure out what smolder and rimefire are and exactly how to connect them and then run the right powers and play the right combinations. The later is then complicated by long casting times and such.
DoT is also a strange problem in and of itself; on a static immortal target (ie dummies) dot is amazing. It will build massive damage easily. However on a mob of mobile mortal targets dot is far less effective simply because all the other attacks going on will often kill them before the dot manages to finish all its cycles, creating less damage than instant damage powers.
This idea of dot producing less damage is further complicated by control; to maximise dot the CW needs to control what is happening with the enemies; for example steal time stuns opponents for a duration this allows dot to happen without the CW (or other party member) being killed.
This leads to my great confusion with NWO; given the amount of control that a CW can apply their damage is unexpectedly high. The trade off is supposed to be control for dps and so the expected dps for CWs should be in line with DCs and yet the CW will regularly be at the top of the dps charts (ie 1st-3rd) while the DC typically languishes at the bottom typically.
Feedback: Scorching Burst
I would much rather this be an instant burst power or a ground targeted power. As it stands what I've seen happen is you pick a target and start the cycle and that locked target will randomly move away from its mob or it notices you and starts moving while the rest of the mob is left behind. Instant burst applying stacks of dot would help get the dot on targets and apply the dot fast enough that it becomes meaningful.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Put Icy Terrain in tab then drop Icy followed by Scorching. As the mob approaches cycle Cloud 1x apply other Encounters as needed to finish mob. Using Icy on tab does 2 things 1 it applies chill to the mob and 2 it freezes them in place so you can get a full scorching off so that all targets have rimefire. This seemed to generate about 200-300 points of damage per tic as the enemies closed in.
I need to test more but taking advantage of the rimefire means getting it applies asap to as many targets as possible which means chill then smolder, which requires immobilised targets.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
So the tricky thing with Fanning the Flames is that it gets a pretty significant damage amp against the primary target if there are smoldering enemies nearby. It's essentially an AoE single target spell. (In that it deals more damage to your target based on the people around said target)
The spell mastery version of it makes said damage amp easier to accomplish, but using normal Fanning the Flame and either of the other Master of Flame powers, lets you take advantage of the extra damage.
Sounds great in theory, how does the MoF path test in dungeons, any inside data you'd care to share?
i'm actually digging the tabbed fanning the flames combined with conduit of ice to fuel the fire. i'm currently spec'd for thaumaturge taking advantage of crit bonuses, combustive and critical class features with a greater vorpal slotted. i have zero problems soloing the dread mini-dungeons with this set up.
Which companion do you use, how's your health potion-usage and do you have Shield in your power-tray?
____________________________________________
The poster formerly known as LordOfPit, and his blog.
* Dec 2007 (CO)
* Oct 2008 (STO)
Sounds great in theory, how does the MoF path test in dungeons, any inside data you'd care to share?
Which companion do you use, how's your health potion-usage and do you have Shield in your power-tray?
using a cat with ArP focus. health potion usage is minimal as i'm also wearing HV... so the regen is nice in that regard. and no... in my test shard fire mage, i didn't even put any points in shield. i'll post my build here in a bit.
2/5 - controlling action - ap gain
3/3 - weapon mastery - crit chance
5/5 - fight on - encounter cooldowns reduced
3/3 - arcane enhancement - more arcane damage
2/3 - blighting power - more chill damage
5/5 - learned spellcaster - more int damage bonus
paragon feats:
thaumaturge
5/5 - tempest magic - additional damage to targets below 30% HP
5/5 - drifting embers - when using fanning the flames, a chance to spread smoulder to nearby enemies - seems to proc a lot.
5/5 - frozen power transfer - bonus to chilling cloud
5/5 - transcended master - bonuses to SotEA and icy rays
5/5 - elemental empowerment - bonuses to cold and arcane encounters
1/1 assailing force - conduit of ice mitigation
renegade
5/5 - reaper's touch - increased at-will damage when you're within 20ft of your target
at-wills
magic missle 1/3
ray of frost 3/3
chilling cloud 3/3
scorching burst 3/3
funny thing is with magic missle at 1/3, it still does equal if not better damage over scorching burst. if i were to respec to fine tune this build, i would eliminate scorching burst completely.
encounters
chill strike 3/3
conduit of ice 3/3
entangling force 3/3
repel 3/3
shield 0/3
fanning the flame 3/3
icy terrain 0/3
ray of enfeeblement 3/3
icy rays 3/3
steal time 3/3
shard of the endless avalanche 3/3
again, tweaking this build, i would likely increase furious immolation to 3/3.
class features
orb of imposition 3/3 - mostly to put required points somewhere
arcane presence 0/3
chilling presence 3/3
evocation 0/3 - i use my AoEs mostly to control and not to damage
combustive action 0/3 - in a previous post, i said i used this but i was mistaking this for the other new class feature. i don't rely heavily on daily powers and thought this would be wasted points.
critical conflagration 3/3 - finally something to boost my crit severity AND add smoulder damage
swath of destruction 3/3 - increased smoulder damage
slotted for pve:
encounters: fanning in tab, conduit of ice, shard and steal time.
at wills: chilling cloud, ray of frost
daily powers: furious immolation, oppresive force
class features: critical conflagration, swath of destruction
slotted for pvp:
i have only been in one pvp match on the test shard with this build. at the time, i had replaced oppresive force with ice knife and probaby push/entangling force with steal time... and then shard with icy rays. i kept fanning the flames on tab to work together with conduit. but more testing definitely needs to be done.
sharandar boons:
dark fey hunter, fey precision, elven haste, elven ferocity and elven resolve.
didn't really focus too much on the companion active bonuses but i am getting +100 crit from my armored orc wolf and +190 life steal from my skeletal dog
Oppressor Feats; Bitter Cold 5
Renegade Feats; Critical Power 5
Thaumaturge Feats; Tempest Magic 5, Snap Freeze 5, Drifting Embers 5 (could just as easily be Frozen Power Transfer) , Elemental Empowerment 5, Assailing Force 1
Boons; Dark Fey Hunter, Fey Precision
31.9% crit with 90% severity
45.7% recharge
34.4% AP regain.
I have none of the major gear items and no stats above 4k, and only Recovery and Power are above 3k.
I was able to observe that Scorching Burst does about 1k damage to the target on a hit on average (including crits), but the smoldering damage is about 450-550 points each time it tics. Dropping out scorching and then running though entangle, shard and pumping out some chilling cloud is enough to indefinitely sustain the tics basically. So while the initial damage is low the dot is high, quite easily outpacing the initial damage.
I plan to respec to Renegade and resume testing but certainly the damage is there with little problems.
Edit: And indeed a quick respec to Renegade sees the same sort of efficacy with the character.
As mentioned earlier the key seems to be just holding things still long enough for the DoT to take effect. So Entangle, Steal Time, Icy Terrain, Singularity etc all work great for making sure Fanning the Flames and Scorching burst are maximized in effect.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Did some Test with armor pen and the new spells (and old.) the ones listed below are not affected by Armor pen:
Sorching Burst
Fanning the Flame
Smoulder
Magic Missile (final 2 strikes)
Storm Pillar
Repel (normal version only)
Conduit of Ice
Entangling Force
Ray of Enfeeblement
Ice Knife
Also storm fury seems to proc twice, second does not apply ArP. not sure how this is suppose to function though.
I ran more tests With the new paragon too, The more i play with it, the more i like it. BUT it will not be competitive until smoulder can crit, and ofcourse the fixes to fanning the flame.
The main issue is trading sudden storm for fanning the flame, but fanning the flame works great in those boss + adds scenarios.
using a cat with ArP focus. health potion usage is minimal as i'm also wearing HV... so the regen is nice in that regard. and no... in my test shard fire mage, i didn't even put any points in shield. i'll post my build here in a bit.
Your build is very nice but I have a feeling the difference in survivability between our experiences is largely due to your stats rather than active powers useage and selected feats.
____________________________________________
The poster formerly known as LordOfPit, and his blog.
* Dec 2007 (CO)
* Oct 2008 (STO)
I've spend more time with this new paragon path and I really started to like it.
I only hope that they will fix the bugs and do some tweaks before it goes to the live servers!
Here is a video of my current build at the moment in action:
You can also see my gear/stats/feats/boons in there as well!
Feedback: Fanning the Flame
I would really like to see Fanning the Flame animation a bit more visible when NOT TAB-ed! It feels like you are forcing people to set it in "Spell Mastery" on purpose Can you make it like in spell mastery but just with one pulse instead of two? Because as it is now... you can hardly see that you are casting anything at all!
Feedback: Scorching Burst
I did try to like Scorching Burst but I just can't see how this can compete to any of the other At-Will Powers (dmg/casting fx). The animation of this power is just confusing to me... If it was a channeled spell like Ray Of Frost but with some sort of a ripple effect of flames on it (red-yellowish colors of course) That would have been awesome!
Feedback: Furious Immolation
Now... let's talk about the daily power Furious Immolation or in general for the Daily Powers!
I still can't understand why higher tier daily powers are weaker then the lower ones! I just can't really understand it... Furious Immolation and Mealstrom Of Chaos are something that no one ever uses or will ever use! The reason for that is none of them can actually score a CRITICAL HIT... or have a unique mechanic that makes it better then the other ones!
The first tier of "Daily Powers" have a lower base damage then the higher ones, but at least they can score a critical hit! On top of that they have better crowd control mechanics and they look far better in terms of animation!
Here are the three most common daily powers used by Control Wizards.
Arcane Singularity does around 14 000 to 17 000 damage (per target) with critical! You can also bring a pack of adds into designated spot, which will give you better control on the battle field and on top of that... you have a few extra seconds to do what ever you want. (healing/pre-casting/cooldowns/positioning/dancing/just run)
Oppressive Force deals around 20 000 damage (per target) with critical and also dazes the mobs for around 3 to 4 seconds.
Ice Knife critical does around 40 000 damage and knocks your target down!
Now let's see what the higher tier daily power Furious Immolation can do... just keep in mind that this is suppose to be one of the most powerful spells you can have!
Furious Immolation hits for around 5 500 to 6 500 damage per target (5 targets max cap) and cannot crit. If you want to add crowd control effect on it (because apparently it lacks one...), you have to spend 10 feat points to get Twisting Immolation which will daze your affected targets for one second after they land... (OK wait a minute now... Oppressive Force has 3-4 seconds daze effect and do three times the damage! On top of that, I do not really need to spend 10 feat points for it...) But that's not all... It also have one additional effect which gives you increased damage (fire/smolder) for 2.5 sec.(like that will make any difference) if you have Combustive Action on your passive ability slot! Okay... but we have another Class Feature that do the same exact thing and even better! In conclusion... I can slot a lower level daily power and higher tier passive to get the same result 3 times better in terms of CC and damage without spending 10 feat points! But you will say that it adds Smolder... yeah well we have one At-will, one Encounter, one Feat and 2 Class Features that do the same exact thing!
I really like how the Furious Immolation cast-animation is done, but to me the FX of the flames are just to weak... It's not as people would say "Eye Candy" All other daily powers have really strong FX compared to that one!
(I will quote your exact words here with a question mark on it: "Partially for FX budget reasons" ?!? ;p)
I always thought that the most powerful spells should be at the end of the power tree! Considering that this is a "Special Daily Power" it should be awesome... but for now it feels nothing like it and a lot of other Encounter Spells/Daily Powers do a lot more damage then that and have better control mechanics!
Feedback: Smolder
I did not understand why you had to add the Smolder tool tip on every ability from that path... You did not even gave us the exact damage it does and on top of that none of the other ability's who increases smolder damage say's by HOW MUCH! The only thing that I saw is: "Slightly" , " Briefly" or "Increased" and when I check the combat log... most of the time I see no difference at all!
Feedback: Thayan Regent (New CW Set)
I really like the stats on it but my disappointment was from the set bonuses. They are just not as good as High Vizier's or Shadow Weaver ones! I would like the second part bonus to be 450 Life Steal instead of Power. I think that this will work very well with the new Master Of Flame path and Wizards can have a good chunk of their health back because of the burst damage and the ticks from Smolder! This will give us more survivability and less potion usage for once...
About the 4th piece set bonus... We have a chance to trigger something that will do 1250 damage over 10 seconds really?!? This amount of damage is just ridiculous... on top of that is a % chance... for what % are we talking about here? Does it have Internal Cooldown as well? Also whats the % of the secondary effect?
I think this is going to be "Fury Of The Faywild" all over again... None actually wanted the items because of the set bonus! The people who got it (like myself) was entirely for cosmetic reasons only and that's it!
Question of the day:
Why most of our spells are not affected by Armor Penetration?;p That's like the only stat CW's are enchanting into their gear... and is not even working!
After further testing i think better of this new paragon. Maybe i was anticipating it too much and that was the source of my initial disapointment. So here's my actual thought.
Feedback: general feeling The master of flame seems well balanced though a bit of a lackluster compared to the storm mage, a little less powerfull too essentially because of the loss of Eye of the Storm.
And I was expecting more impressive graphic effects
Feedback: smolder/rimefire mechanisms It works well but it's a bit bland. As it is, we only need one source of smolder to maintain it quasi permanently on as much ennemies as we want.
Maybe it would be more interesting to have to maintain rimefire/smolder stacks. And powers/feats that adds smolder would be more appaling.
I think that 5 or 6 stacks seems fine (as per chill stacks) with damage at max stack being 25% to 50% more than what it is now with one. That way, it will be more interesting and more rewarding to maintain smolder/rimefire stacks
Feedback: Encounter Power
Edit: Grr why has it eaten all the text below this point ?
Well, Grimah and Scannjer said most of what I would have anyways
Your build is very nice but I have a feeling the difference in survivability between our experiences is largely due to your stats rather than active powers useage and selected feats.
well... even before i utilized the refinement system to upgrade most of my enchantments to r7, i was able to solo the mini-dungeons. i could always unslot everything and give it a run-through and see what happens.
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pers3phoneBanned Users, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I've spend more time with this new paragon path and I really started to like it.
I only hope that they will fix the bugs and do some tweaks before it goes to the live servers!
Here is a video of my current build at the moment in action:
With that gear and current single target setup + Shard, you would have destroyed the encounter from the video in half that time. Hell, even with full AoE "I clear trash" setup, it would have still taken you less time than this. I can tell since I basically have almost the same gear and tested a few fire builds already all came disappointingly underpowered compared to Storm.
Entangle is lifting large enemies 30 feet in the air... They're so high up it's hard to target them. I saw this multiple times outside in the Dread Ring area and inside the Dread Spire with the end boss.
I feel like I'm sacrificing control power for weak DOTs. Chill has the ability to slow and immobilize enemies but smolder doesn't... Why not? Give enemies affected by smolder a coughing animation that makes them stop every few steps from the smoke and then with enough stacks make them burst into flames causing them to stop and try to put themselves out for a few seconds...
Feedback: Daily power
I do like the new daily though I wish it could crit. Being able to sweep a bunch of mobs into a single spot almost instantly is very useful and I may go into this PP just for this ability. It could definitely stand to be flashier, though. The fire spiral at the end is a pretty effect but I think it could be improved.
Feedback: at-will
The at-will is OK but once again, smolder stacks are comparatively useless and the DOT is negligible. It smolder did more or if it did more damage I might actually use it. Maybe a blinding effect?
Feedback: encounter power
I see no point to the encounter power. Chill strike is practically the same power but it can also slow and immobilize so why would I ever use this?
well... even before i utilized the refinement system to upgrade most of my enchantments to r7, i was able to solo the mini-dungeons. i could always unslot everything and give it a run-through and see what happens.
If we're talking about the mini-dungeons in Sharandar, I soloed those as well with no problems with my Spellstorm CW and R5/R6 enchantments. I have a feeling that I could solo mini-dungeons in the Dread Ring with either my Spellstorm build or a Flames build, but with the Flames build I'd probably use more potions and require Shield in my power-tray which clearly isn't the case for you.
I'd love to see what you think of the Flames path with lowered stats.
____________________________________________
The poster formerly known as LordOfPit, and his blog.
* Dec 2007 (CO)
* Oct 2008 (STO)
Master of Flame seems very misnamed. More like a dabbler of flame instead. Because of the format you are using we only get 3 usable flame powers. It doesn't seem that bad with the other paragon path because some of the ice powers seem to mesh well with the storm theme of the Spellstorm Mage. The fire powers seem very tacked on though.
Perhaps upon choosing a paragon path some of our standard powers fx could be adjusted to fit more into the theme. Even if the actual damage types aren't changed.
Also the 3 powers we do get seem very weak compared to the standard ones. I read through most of the posts and other's went into much more detail. Just adding that I agree.
I can't think of anytime I'd want to use the daily over Oppressive Force or Singularity.
The at-will seems very weak. Needs more up front damage. Needs to be targetted at the ground, not an enemy. I really don't like at-wills that have to be charged up. Generally in the time to charge them I could have cast a different at-will several times. Or an encounter would have come off cooldown.
The encounter, says it does a lot of damage. And it looks cool. But imo it needs to do a heck of a lot more damage than it does to be useful. Why would I want a dot that takes forever to kill stuff when other encounters do all their damage up front.
I've not tested this stuff in detail. Didn't watch the numbers. Just going by my experience playing with it on the preview server.
Master of Flame seems very misnamed. More like a dabbler of flame instead.
Some kid with a match box- more fitting
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
edited November 2013
. . . . . I am in awe of this Paragon Path. I absolutely love it! I just wish I could pull myself to respec my main into a fire mage... but at heart (role-play) he is a master of lightening, so... looks like I'll be rolling another mage! I played it extensively solo and then played along side a guild member specced into this Paragon Path (I was on my cleric). He greatly enjoyed playing it in a group and loved how he was able to keep AoEs around the GF as well as adds. I have yet to try it in a group myself, but from my experience solo and playing along side one, I really do love this Paragon Path. (Still hoping one day to see the Simbarch of Aglarond paragon path though!)
. . . . . My only qualm is the Fanning the Flame, I don't like how it just appears on the target. It should at least look like a small fireball shooting from the wizard's hands. When it is not mastered, it's really hard to see it. When it is mastered though, the effect is more visual. I'd rather see this encounter power become the iconic Fireball spell.
. . . . .If at all possible, just rename this Encounter to "Fireball" and then make it's visual effects as a fireball shooting from the wizard to the target and the burst of hitting the target be the small dot effect it places on surrounding targets. This would be much better and quite frankly I am surprised the iconic Fireball spell was overlooked when introducing this awesome paragon path. There's no need to change it's stats/effects, just it's visual representation and name.
Feedback: General After looking at new TR and CW paragon paths I started to think there is just ONE person in Cryptics responsible for designing new abilities and balancing them amongst the others. No way a GROUP of people could create that and say "Yeah, guys, we think those are pretty cool and balanced paths, people will like them.".
Check the community feedback. Around 95% of it think them are lacklusters. Srsly? Feedback: Daily, At-will, Encounter
Pretty much everything I could say about those already been said. But one more thing: currently Spellstorm Mage path offering us an ability to break/ignore CC and tank some damage through Maelstorm of Chaos. As a pvp player I can't see myslef dropping it for any reason, unless Master of Flame would give me something similiar.
Why are you keep inventing bicycles and not just give us something like that:
Choose a location to toss a powerfull globe of fire, Knocking enemies away from impact center and leaving them briefly Prone. While casting the spell, you take greatly reduced damage, and are immune to control effects.
Canceling this power early will cost half of your Action Points. Feedback: Smolder/Rimefire
Well, Smolder idea in general looks pretty awesome. Realization sucks, though. At least in my opinion. In theory it should act like Storm Spell analogue, right? But in fact it barely can compete with it, even while using Arcane Missles, Ray of Enfeeblement and other spells with terrible SS proc rate.
Rimefire? Is just fail. Currently there is no point using it whatsover, since it has the same damage and you can keep Smolder 100% of time just from class feature + crits. Heavy frost builds like my beloved Oppressor becoming complete trash with this path. Why won't you just buff rimefire slightly, increasing tick rate from 1.5 s to 1 s, for example?
. . . . . My only qualm is the Fanning the Flame, I don't like how it just appears on the target. It should at least look like a small fireball shooting from the wizard's hands. When it is not mastered, it's really hard to see it. When it is mastered though, the effect is more visual. I'd rather see this encounter power become the iconic Fireball spell.
Can't argue with that. Turning it into a fireball spell would be pretty awesome.
Playing around with it some more I figured out what I don't like about the damage. Its the reduced AOE damage when its in tab. I'm use to our spells being AOE or not. This one is a single target that just pretends to be AOE in tab. If I put Chill Strike, Conduit, Shard, or any AOE in tab and use it on a group of weak enemies they will all die. Not so with Fanning the Flame. Even if I stand there and wait for the whole DOT to run its course. Its AOE damage is reduced to the point that it can't even kill powries.
It looks great. I want to use it. Just not sure that the benefits from smolder justifies the damage loss. Especially when other spells get their bonuses (chill, stuns, or am stacks) and still seem to do more damage.
*To elaborate a little, compare it to Chill Strike. Chill Strike is single target unless its put in tab. In tab though it becomes a full AOE. It does full damage to all targets it hits, and spreads chill to all of them. The only thing it doesn't do is stun all of them, like it does the primary target.
Fanning in tab has a slightly longer cooldown than Chill Strike. It does however spread smolder like Chill Strike spreads chill. But with it having reduced AOE damage you're probably better off using your at-will for this, and using a more powerful spell in the Tab Slot.*
Can't argue with that. Turning it into a fireball spell would be pretty awesome.
Playing around with it some more I figured out what I don't like about the damage. Its the reduced AOE damage when its in tab. I'm use to our spells being AOE or not. This one is a single target that just pretends to be AOE in tab. If I put Chill Strike, Conduit, Shard, or any AOE in tab and use it on a group of weak enemies they will all die. Not so with Fanning the Flame. Even if I stand there and wait for the whole DOT to run its course. Its AOE damage is reduced to the point that it can't even kill powries.
It looks great. I want to use it. Just not sure that the benefits from smolder justifies the damage loss. Especially when other spells get their bonuses (chill, stuns, or am stacks) and still seem to do more damage.
*To elaborate a little, compare it to Chill Strike. Chill Strike is single target unless its put in tab. In tab though it becomes a full AOE. It does full damage to all targets it hits, and spreads chill to all of them. The only thing it doesn't do is stun all of them, like it does the primary target.
Fanning in tab has a slightly longer cooldown than Chill Strike. It does however spread smolder like Chill Strike spreads chill. But with it having reduced AOE damage you're probably better off using your at-will for this, and using a more powerful spell in the Tab Slot.*
I do agree there. Fanning the Flame is pretty lackluster in the tab slot having its AOE damage reduced.
With that gear and current single target setup + Shard, you would have destroyed the encounter from the video in half that time. Hell, even with full AoE "I clear trash" setup, it would have still taken you less time than this. I can tell since I basically have almost the same gear and tested a few fire builds already all came disappointingly underpowered compared to Storm.
The idea was to show the synergy between the spells with that build... which is more focused on dungeons.
I was not trying to show you how to kill the boss in 15 seconds with single target spells
The reason I use "Entangled Force" in Spell Mastery is because it gives me instant Arcane stacks which further boost my fire damage! By using that spell I get 3x stacks of High Vizier buff (giving me 1350 defense). I also pack them together which gives me a lot of action points (for daily's) and if I cast Fanning the Flame after that, I can spread smolder and get the extra damage from gathering flames as well!
That being said... I can knock them with Shard of Avalanche easily after and add the 10% defense de-buff from "Elemental Empowerment" feat and keep them close together, so they will still take the extra damage from gathering flames and maybe additional smolder ticks plus the 15% mitigation from Conduit of Ice which also gives me 30% of weapon damage over time from "Elemental Empowerment".
By now I should have my cooldowns ready and I can repeat the whole process over again! If you add Furious Immolation or Oppressive Force daily (which gives 3x stacks of HV de-buff instantly) to that combo, you can have further control and your other spells will keep adding/refreshing - smolder/mitigation/extra damage etc.
I did try with "Fanning the Flame" on spell mastery as well but I had few problems with it... I was not able to keep the mobs together and add the extra damage from the de-buffs, arcane stacks or even spread smolder between them! I also lost my good chunk of action points as well... ;( On top of that "Fanning the Flame" do not gives you 1350 defense buff and also do not add any de-buff stacks from the High Vizier set!
Overall I prefer more control, sustain damage and de-buffing the mobs from which benefit the whole group and not just my personal DPS!
I would actually give it a try since free dot seems like a good thing in terms of dps, but on the downside you lose the ability to charge your dailies which is a huge drawback imo.
just going to put this here as well for those on the test server..
Need some advice: 1 point in shield OK?
Okay so Im trying to make a new build, problem is I want all the new paragon powers maxed and points are getting THIN.
I only put 1 point into shield and it seems to give me a bit of room. Also arcane singularity only has 2 in it, which kind of makes me feel weird.
So, with the new paragon tree in mind, how do you distribute your points? (I think Im going to ignore the new daily)
I have to agree ...ive tested it now for over a week and I really wanted to love the new path and I was looking forward to new powers....with that being said I find it lack luster and under performing in all areas....with SW set I was paper thin before but could kill pretty quick but now im like water and the power don't do near enough damage to make it worth respecting into the new path
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pers3phoneBanned Users, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
The idea was to show the synergy between the spells with that build... which is more focused on dungeons.
I was not trying to show you how to kill the boss in 15 seconds with single target spells
I understand. People play and enjoy the game their own style and I respect that.
The only thing that I was trying to point out was my disappointment that the new flame path doesn't offer at least equivalent damage to what the usual spellstorm path can do, at least from what I've tested. There might be hidden synergies I have not found, dunno.
Comments
Aside for the atwill, the encounter and the daily are DOT type, ie they do multiple damage over a few seconds (there is 4 or 5 tic if I recall correctly), you must take the total damage to compare it with the tooltip damage.
And if my memory's good the total damage was around the tooltip on dummies.
Thanks for the bug headsup!
So the tricky thing with Fanning the Flames is that it gets a pretty significant damage amp against the primary target if there are smoldering enemies nearby. It's essentially an AoE single target spell. (In that it deals more damage to your target based on the people around said target)
The spell mastery version of it makes said damage amp easier to accomplish, but using normal Fanning the Flame and either of the other Master of Flame powers, lets you take advantage of the extra damage.
i'm actually digging the tabbed fanning the flames combined with conduit of ice to fuel the fire. i'm currently spec'd for thaumaturge taking advantage of crit bonuses, combustive and critical class features with a greater vorpal slotted. i have zero problems soloing the dread mini-dungeons with this set up.
First I suggest changing from Master of Flame to Master of Rimefire; flame has distinct assosiations but what's rimefire?
Feedback: General Play
The more I read and look at it the more I suspect the issue is one of expectations and play management. When a tooltip says "4-6" players expect to see those numbers going past, they don't expect that to be the total damage if the enemy survives a full cycle of tics of the dot. This is further compounded by a lack of clarity on how to maximise the dot; you need to figure out what smolder and rimefire are and exactly how to connect them and then run the right powers and play the right combinations. The later is then complicated by long casting times and such.
DoT is also a strange problem in and of itself; on a static immortal target (ie dummies) dot is amazing. It will build massive damage easily. However on a mob of mobile mortal targets dot is far less effective simply because all the other attacks going on will often kill them before the dot manages to finish all its cycles, creating less damage than instant damage powers.
This idea of dot producing less damage is further complicated by control; to maximise dot the CW needs to control what is happening with the enemies; for example steal time stuns opponents for a duration this allows dot to happen without the CW (or other party member) being killed.
This leads to my great confusion with NWO; given the amount of control that a CW can apply their damage is unexpectedly high. The trade off is supposed to be control for dps and so the expected dps for CWs should be in line with DCs and yet the CW will regularly be at the top of the dps charts (ie 1st-3rd) while the DC typically languishes at the bottom typically.
Feedback: Scorching Burst
I would much rather this be an instant burst power or a ground targeted power. As it stands what I've seen happen is you pick a target and start the cycle and that locked target will randomly move away from its mob or it notices you and starts moving while the rest of the mob is left behind. Instant burst applying stacks of dot would help get the dot on targets and apply the dot fast enough that it becomes meaningful.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Put Icy Terrain in tab then drop Icy followed by Scorching. As the mob approaches cycle Cloud 1x apply other Encounters as needed to finish mob. Using Icy on tab does 2 things 1 it applies chill to the mob and 2 it freezes them in place so you can get a full scorching off so that all targets have rimefire. This seemed to generate about 200-300 points of damage per tic as the enemies closed in.
I need to test more but taking advantage of the rimefire means getting it applies asap to as many targets as possible which means chill then smolder, which requires immobilised targets.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Which companion do you use, how's your health potion-usage and do you have Shield in your power-tray?
The poster formerly known as LordOfPit, and his blog.
* Dec 2007 (CO)
* Oct 2008 (STO)
using a cat with ArP focus. health potion usage is minimal as i'm also wearing HV... so the regen is nice in that regard. and no... in my test shard fire mage, i didn't even put any points in shield. i'll post my build here in a bit.
2/5 - controlling action - ap gain
3/3 - weapon mastery - crit chance
5/5 - fight on - encounter cooldowns reduced
3/3 - arcane enhancement - more arcane damage
2/3 - blighting power - more chill damage
5/5 - learned spellcaster - more int damage bonus
paragon feats:
thaumaturge
5/5 - tempest magic - additional damage to targets below 30% HP
5/5 - drifting embers - when using fanning the flames, a chance to spread smoulder to nearby enemies - seems to proc a lot.
5/5 - frozen power transfer - bonus to chilling cloud
5/5 - transcended master - bonuses to SotEA and icy rays
5/5 - elemental empowerment - bonuses to cold and arcane encounters
1/1 assailing force - conduit of ice mitigation
renegade
5/5 - reaper's touch - increased at-will damage when you're within 20ft of your target
at-wills
magic missle 1/3
ray of frost 3/3
chilling cloud 3/3
scorching burst 3/3
funny thing is with magic missle at 1/3, it still does equal if not better damage over scorching burst. if i were to respec to fine tune this build, i would eliminate scorching burst completely.
encounters
chill strike 3/3
conduit of ice 3/3
entangling force 3/3
repel 3/3
shield 0/3
fanning the flame 3/3
icy terrain 0/3
ray of enfeeblement 3/3
icy rays 3/3
steal time 3/3
shard of the endless avalanche 3/3
daily powers
ice storm 1/3
arcane singularity 3/3
oppressive force 3/3
ice knife 3/3
furious immolation 2/3
again, tweaking this build, i would likely increase furious immolation to 3/3.
class features
orb of imposition 3/3 - mostly to put required points somewhere
arcane presence 0/3
chilling presence 3/3
evocation 0/3 - i use my AoEs mostly to control and not to damage
combustive action 0/3 - in a previous post, i said i used this but i was mistaking this for the other new class feature. i don't rely heavily on daily powers and thought this would be wasted points.
critical conflagration 3/3 - finally something to boost my crit severity AND add smoulder damage
swath of destruction 3/3 - increased smoulder damage
slotted for pve:
encounters: fanning in tab, conduit of ice, shard and steal time.
at wills: chilling cloud, ray of frost
daily powers: furious immolation, oppresive force
class features: critical conflagration, swath of destruction
slotted for pvp:
i have only been in one pvp match on the test shard with this build. at the time, i had replaced oppresive force with ice knife and probaby push/entangling force with steal time... and then shard with icy rays. i kept fanning the flames on tab to work together with conduit. but more testing definitely needs to be done.
sharandar boons:
dark fey hunter, fey precision, elven haste, elven ferocity and elven resolve.
didn't really focus too much on the companion active bonuses but i am getting +100 crit from my armored orc wolf and +190 life steal from my skeletal dog
high resolution
This is the set up I'm running;
Active Powers; Entangling (Tab), Shard, Fanning, Steal Time, Chilling Cloud, Scorching Burst, Arcane Singularity and Ice Knife as the default.
Heroic Feats; Controlling Action 5, Weapon Mastery 3, Wizard's Wrath 3, Blighting Power 3, Arcane Enhancement 3, Learned Spellcaster 3
Oppressor Feats; Bitter Cold 5
Renegade Feats; Critical Power 5
Thaumaturge Feats; Tempest Magic 5, Snap Freeze 5, Drifting Embers 5 (could just as easily be Frozen Power Transfer) , Elemental Empowerment 5, Assailing Force 1
Boons; Dark Fey Hunter, Fey Precision
31.9% crit with 90% severity
45.7% recharge
34.4% AP regain.
I have none of the major gear items and no stats above 4k, and only Recovery and Power are above 3k.
I was able to observe that Scorching Burst does about 1k damage to the target on a hit on average (including crits), but the smoldering damage is about 450-550 points each time it tics. Dropping out scorching and then running though entangle, shard and pumping out some chilling cloud is enough to indefinitely sustain the tics basically. So while the initial damage is low the dot is high, quite easily outpacing the initial damage.
I plan to respec to Renegade and resume testing but certainly the damage is there with little problems.
Edit: And indeed a quick respec to Renegade sees the same sort of efficacy with the character.
As mentioned earlier the key seems to be just holding things still long enough for the DoT to take effect. So Entangle, Steal Time, Icy Terrain, Singularity etc all work great for making sure Fanning the Flames and Scorching burst are maximized in effect.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Sorching Burst
Fanning the Flame
Smoulder
Magic Missile (final 2 strikes)
Storm Pillar
Repel (normal version only)
Conduit of Ice
Entangling Force
Ray of Enfeeblement
Ice Knife
Also storm fury seems to proc twice, second does not apply ArP. not sure how this is suppose to function though.
I ran more tests With the new paragon too, The more i play with it, the more i like it. BUT it will not be competitive until smoulder can crit, and ofcourse the fixes to fanning the flame.
The main issue is trading sudden storm for fanning the flame, but fanning the flame works great in those boss + adds scenarios.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
The poster formerly known as LordOfPit, and his blog.
* Dec 2007 (CO)
* Oct 2008 (STO)
I only hope that they will fix the bugs and do some tweaks before it goes to the live servers!
Here is a video of my current build at the moment in action:
Phantasmal Fortress - Zulkir Baltreyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUyCyt6z98A
You can also see my gear/stats/feats/boons in there as well!
Feedback: Fanning the Flame
I would really like to see Fanning the Flame animation a bit more visible when NOT TAB-ed! It feels like you are forcing people to set it in "Spell Mastery" on purpose
Feedback: Scorching Burst
I did try to like Scorching Burst but I just can't see how this can compete to any of the other At-Will Powers (dmg/casting fx). The animation of this power is just confusing to me... If it was a channeled spell like Ray Of Frost but with some sort of a ripple effect of flames on it (red-yellowish colors of course) That would have been awesome!
Feedback: Furious Immolation
Now... let's talk about the daily power Furious Immolation or in general for the Daily Powers!
I still can't understand why higher tier daily powers are weaker then the lower ones! I just can't really understand it...
Furious Immolation and Mealstrom Of Chaos are something that no one ever uses or will ever use! The reason for that is none of them can actually score a CRITICAL HIT... or have a unique mechanic that makes it better then the other ones!
The first tier of "Daily Powers" have a lower base damage then the higher ones, but at least they can score a critical hit! On top of that they have better crowd control mechanics and they look far better in terms of animation!
Here are the three most common daily powers used by Control Wizards.
Arcane Singularity does around 14 000 to 17 000 damage (per target) with critical! You can also bring a pack of adds into designated spot, which will give you better control on the battle field and on top of that... you have a few extra seconds to do what ever you want. (healing/pre-casting/cooldowns/positioning/dancing/just run)
Oppressive Force deals around 20 000 damage (per target) with critical and also dazes the mobs for around 3 to 4 seconds.
Ice Knife critical does around 40 000 damage and knocks your target down!
Now let's see what the higher tier daily power Furious Immolation can do... just keep in mind that this is suppose to be one of the most powerful spells you can have!
Furious Immolation hits for around 5 500 to 6 500 damage per target (5 targets max cap) and cannot crit. If you want to add crowd control effect on it (because apparently it lacks one...), you have to spend 10 feat points to get Twisting Immolation which will daze your affected targets for one second after they land... (OK wait a minute now... Oppressive Force has 3-4 seconds daze effect and do three times the damage! On top of that, I do not really need to spend 10 feat points for it...) But that's not all... It also have one additional effect which gives you increased damage (fire/smolder) for 2.5 sec.(like that will make any difference) if you have Combustive Action on your passive ability slot! Okay... but we have another Class Feature that do the same exact thing and even better! In conclusion... I can slot a lower level daily power and higher tier passive to get the same result 3 times better in terms of CC and damage without spending 10 feat points! But you will say that it adds Smolder... yeah well we have one At-will, one Encounter, one Feat and 2 Class Features that do the same exact thing!
I really like how the Furious Immolation cast-animation is done, but to me the FX of the flames are just to weak... It's not as people would say "Eye Candy"
(I will quote your exact words here with a question mark on it: "Partially for FX budget reasons" ?!? ;p)
I always thought that the most powerful spells should be at the end of the power tree! Considering that this is a "Special Daily Power" it should be awesome... but for now it feels nothing like it and a lot of other Encounter Spells/Daily Powers do a lot more damage then that and have better control mechanics!
Feedback: Smolder
I did not understand why you had to add the Smolder tool tip on every ability from that path... You did not even gave us the exact damage it does and on top of that none of the other ability's who increases smolder damage say's by HOW MUCH! The only thing that I saw is: "Slightly" , " Briefly" or "Increased" and when I check the combat log... most of the time I see no difference at all!
Feedback: Thayan Regent (New CW Set)
I really like the stats on it but my disappointment was from the set bonuses. They are just not as good as High Vizier's or Shadow Weaver ones! I would like the second part bonus to be 450 Life Steal instead of Power. I think that this will work very well with the new Master Of Flame path and Wizards can have a good chunk of their health back because of the burst damage and the ticks from Smolder! This will give us more survivability and less potion usage for once...
About the 4th piece set bonus... We have a chance to trigger something that will do 1250 damage over 10 seconds really?!? This amount of damage is just ridiculous... on top of that is a % chance... for what % are we talking about here? Does it have Internal Cooldown as well? Also whats the % of the secondary effect?
I think this is going to be "Fury Of The Faywild" all over again... None actually wanted the items because of the set bonus! The people who got it (like myself) was entirely for cosmetic reasons only and that's it!
Question of the day:
Why most of our spells are not affected by Armor Penetration?;p That's like the only stat CW's are enchanting into their gear... and is not even working!
As Grimah mentioned above
Feedback: general feeling
The master of flame seems well balanced though a bit of a lackluster compared to the storm mage, a little less powerfull too essentially because of the loss of Eye of the Storm.
And I was expecting more impressive graphic effects
Feedback: smolder/rimefire mechanisms
It works well but it's a bit bland. As it is, we only need one source of smolder to maintain it quasi permanently on as much ennemies as we want.
Maybe it would be more interesting to have to maintain rimefire/smolder stacks. And powers/feats that adds smolder would be more appaling.
I think that 5 or 6 stacks seems fine (as per chill stacks) with damage at max stack being 25% to 50% more than what it is now with one. That way, it will be more interesting and more rewarding to maintain smolder/rimefire stacks
Feedback: Encounter Power
Edit: Grr why has it eaten all the text below this point ?
Well, Grimah and Scannjer said most of what I would have anyways
well... even before i utilized the refinement system to upgrade most of my enchantments to r7, i was able to solo the mini-dungeons. i could always unslot everything and give it a run-through and see what happens.
With that gear and current single target setup + Shard, you would have destroyed the encounter from the video in half that time. Hell, even with full AoE "I clear trash" setup, it would have still taken you less time than this. I can tell since I basically have almost the same gear and tested a few fire builds already all came disappointingly underpowered compared to Storm.
Entangle is lifting large enemies 30 feet in the air... They're so high up it's hard to target them. I saw this multiple times outside in the Dread Ring area and inside the Dread Spire with the end boss.
I feel like I'm sacrificing control power for weak DOTs. Chill has the ability to slow and immobilize enemies but smolder doesn't... Why not? Give enemies affected by smolder a coughing animation that makes them stop every few steps from the smoke and then with enough stacks make them burst into flames causing them to stop and try to put themselves out for a few seconds...
Feedback: Daily power
I do like the new daily though I wish it could crit. Being able to sweep a bunch of mobs into a single spot almost instantly is very useful and I may go into this PP just for this ability. It could definitely stand to be flashier, though. The fire spiral at the end is a pretty effect but I think it could be improved.
Feedback: at-will
The at-will is OK but once again, smolder stacks are comparatively useless and the DOT is negligible. It smolder did more or if it did more damage I might actually use it. Maybe a blinding effect?
Feedback: encounter power
I see no point to the encounter power. Chill strike is practically the same power but it can also slow and immobilize so why would I ever use this?
I'd love to see what you think of the Flames path with lowered stats.
The poster formerly known as LordOfPit, and his blog.
* Dec 2007 (CO)
* Oct 2008 (STO)
Master of Flame seems very misnamed. More like a dabbler of flame instead. Because of the format you are using we only get 3 usable flame powers. It doesn't seem that bad with the other paragon path because some of the ice powers seem to mesh well with the storm theme of the Spellstorm Mage. The fire powers seem very tacked on though.
Perhaps upon choosing a paragon path some of our standard powers fx could be adjusted to fit more into the theme. Even if the actual damage types aren't changed.
Also the 3 powers we do get seem very weak compared to the standard ones. I read through most of the posts and other's went into much more detail. Just adding that I agree.
I can't think of anytime I'd want to use the daily over Oppressive Force or Singularity.
The at-will seems very weak. Needs more up front damage. Needs to be targetted at the ground, not an enemy. I really don't like at-wills that have to be charged up. Generally in the time to charge them I could have cast a different at-will several times. Or an encounter would have come off cooldown.
The encounter, says it does a lot of damage. And it looks cool. But imo it needs to do a heck of a lot more damage than it does to be useful. Why would I want a dot that takes forever to kill stuff when other encounters do all their damage up front.
I've not tested this stuff in detail. Didn't watch the numbers. Just going by my experience playing with it on the preview server.
. . . . . My only qualm is the Fanning the Flame, I don't like how it just appears on the target. It should at least look like a small fireball shooting from the wizard's hands. When it is not mastered, it's really hard to see it. When it is mastered though, the effect is more visual. I'd rather see this encounter power become the iconic Fireball spell.
. . . . .If at all possible, just rename this Encounter to "Fireball" and then make it's visual effects as a fireball shooting from the wizard to the target and the burst of hitting the target be the small dot effect it places on surrounding targets. This would be much better and quite frankly I am surprised the iconic Fireball spell was overlooked when introducing this awesome paragon path. There's no need to change it's stats/effects, just it's visual representation and name.
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After looking at new TR and CW paragon paths I started to think there is just ONE person in Cryptics responsible for designing new abilities and balancing them amongst the others. No way a GROUP of people could create that and say "Yeah, guys, we think those are pretty cool and balanced paths, people will like them.".
Check the community feedback. Around 95% of it think them are lacklusters. Srsly?
Feedback: Daily, At-will, Encounter
Pretty much everything I could say about those already been said. But one more thing: currently Spellstorm Mage path offering us an ability to break/ignore CC and tank some damage through Maelstorm of Chaos. As a pvp player I can't see myslef dropping it for any reason, unless Master of Flame would give me something similiar.
Why are you keep inventing bicycles and not just give us something like that:
Range: 20' burst
Damage type: Fire Damage
Description:
Canceling this power early will cost half of your Action Points.
Feedback: Smolder/Rimefire
Well, Smolder idea in general looks pretty awesome. Realization sucks, though. At least in my opinion. In theory it should act like Storm Spell analogue, right? But in fact it barely can compete with it, even while using Arcane Missles, Ray of Enfeeblement and other spells with terrible SS proc rate.
Rimefire? Is just fail. Currently there is no point using it whatsover, since it has the same damage and you can keep Smolder 100% of time just from class feature + crits. Heavy frost builds like my beloved Oppressor becoming complete trash with this path. Why won't you just buff rimefire slightly, increasing tick rate from 1.5 s to 1 s, for example?
My videos
Can't argue with that. Turning it into a fireball spell would be pretty awesome.
Playing around with it some more I figured out what I don't like about the damage. Its the reduced AOE damage when its in tab. I'm use to our spells being AOE or not. This one is a single target that just pretends to be AOE in tab. If I put Chill Strike, Conduit, Shard, or any AOE in tab and use it on a group of weak enemies they will all die. Not so with Fanning the Flame. Even if I stand there and wait for the whole DOT to run its course. Its AOE damage is reduced to the point that it can't even kill powries.
It looks great. I want to use it. Just not sure that the benefits from smolder justifies the damage loss. Especially when other spells get their bonuses (chill, stuns, or am stacks) and still seem to do more damage.
*To elaborate a little, compare it to Chill Strike. Chill Strike is single target unless its put in tab. In tab though it becomes a full AOE. It does full damage to all targets it hits, and spreads chill to all of them. The only thing it doesn't do is stun all of them, like it does the primary target.
Fanning in tab has a slightly longer cooldown than Chill Strike. It does however spread smolder like Chill Strike spreads chill. But with it having reduced AOE damage you're probably better off using your at-will for this, and using a more powerful spell in the Tab Slot.*
I do agree there. Fanning the Flame is pretty lackluster in the tab slot having its AOE damage reduced.
The idea was to show the synergy between the spells with that build... which is more focused on dungeons.
I was not trying to show you how to kill the boss in 15 seconds with single target spells
The reason I use "Entangled Force" in Spell Mastery is because it gives me instant Arcane stacks which further boost my fire damage! By using that spell I get 3x stacks of High Vizier buff (giving me 1350 defense). I also pack them together which gives me a lot of action points (for daily's) and if I cast Fanning the Flame after that, I can spread smolder and get the extra damage from gathering flames as well!
That being said... I can knock them with Shard of Avalanche easily after and add the 10% defense de-buff from "Elemental Empowerment" feat and keep them close together, so they will still take the extra damage from gathering flames and maybe additional smolder ticks plus the 15% mitigation from Conduit of Ice which also gives me 30% of weapon damage over time from "Elemental Empowerment".
By now I should have my cooldowns ready and I can repeat the whole process over again! If you add Furious Immolation or Oppressive Force daily (which gives 3x stacks of HV de-buff instantly) to that combo, you can have further control and your other spells will keep adding/refreshing - smolder/mitigation/extra damage etc.
I did try with "Fanning the Flame" on spell mastery as well but I had few problems with it... I was not able to keep the mobs together and add the extra damage from the de-buffs, arcane stacks or even spread smolder between them! I also lost my good chunk of action points as well... ;( On top of that "Fanning the Flame" do not gives you 1350 defense buff and also do not add any de-buff stacks from the High Vizier set!
Overall I prefer more control, sustain damage and de-buffing the mobs from which benefit the whole group and not just my personal DPS!
Need some advice: 1 point in shield OK?
Okay so Im trying to make a new build, problem is I want all the new paragon powers maxed and points are getting THIN.
I only put 1 point into shield and it seems to give me a bit of room. Also arcane singularity only has 2 in it, which kind of makes me feel weird.
So, with the new paragon tree in mind, how do you distribute your points? (I think Im going to ignore the new daily)
Think it would look like this (obviously sub in new paragon paths):
http://nwcalc.com/cw?b=m1b:4c94s:b8j...u0uv:b0000&h=0
I understand. People play and enjoy the game their own style and I respect that.
The only thing that I was trying to point out was my disappointment that the new flame path doesn't offer at least equivalent damage to what the usual spellstorm path can do, at least from what I've tested. There might be hidden synergies I have not found, dunno.
I just had higher expectations...