Mage blizzard should be reworked

The blizzard spell as it sits now has basically no place in pve or pvp, basically an RP spell.
These are the 3 main issues I see with the current blizzard spell:

1. It is an AoE around your character (when should a ranged DPS be diving into a group of enemies?)
2. it does very little damage, I understand the freeze effect procs off the chill it applies however you can do that with hoarfrost and cold cone instantly instead which is much smoother and also ranged.
3. if you cast the skill you are unable to do anything else during the entire animation so you might look cool doing 20 damage per tick however you are a sitting duck and not much of a threat to the enemy in PvP.

Overall the spell just doesn't feel good considering how far it is in the spell tree, you have ball of lightning which is a monster in PvE and it also has good use in PvP, and you get that spell much earlier on. I really can't see a use in any situation for the current blizzard, but feel free to prove me wrong in the comments if I may have looked over something with the spell.

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Noaani

I like the range aspect. A good class should have abilities that require some positioning and thinking.

I'm also not concerned with the 'sitting duck' aspect.

However, these two things combined should see the damage increased.

So, imo, it isn't a case of needing to be reworked, it just needs to be balanced - and it isn't as if we currently expect the classes to be balanced.

rodzor

yea i agree it isnt a priority but just looking at all the other skills i see uses and they feel good within combo rotations however this skill doesnt really have a place at the moment.

BackgroundDust

you could always suicide slow down enemy's advance, or blink to an enemy group and freeze them and let allies to catch up to kill them.

1. cold cone has, well, cone shaped direction, it isn't very far either;
2. if you were to use hoarfrost (which if I remember correctly) can reach a lot farther, then you still need to walk to apply cone of cold

I dont't think it needs rework or buff. but if anything, it could always have a passive upgrade in the future.

Blip

Yhea i dont use it ether it feels bad.

rodzor

BackgroundDust wrote: »

you could always suicide slow down enemy's advance, or blink to an enemy group and freeze them and let allies to catch up to kill them.

1. cold cone has, well, cone shaped direction, it isn't very far either;
2. if you were to use hoarfrost (which if I remember correctly) can reach a lot farther, then you still need to walk to apply cone of cold

I dont't think it needs rework or buff. but if anything, it could always have a passive upgrade in the future.

So, in regards to cone, it is actually a pretty far range even though the cast area starts at the character, also once again both those skills are insta cast and you freeze the player so you can kite away/blink while casting another ability. With blizzard if you begin to cast that you are a sitting duck, it is definitely not worth a suicide in to cast the ability.

rodzor

BackgroundDust wrote: »

I dont't think it needs rework or buff. but if anything, it could always have a passive upgrade in the future.

I do kind of agree with you here though, a couple passives could definitely save this spell, however the base spell would still be almost useless(last spell you would put any points into)

Saabynator

rodzor wrote: »

The blizzard spell as it sits now has basically no place in pve or pvp, basically an RP spell.
These are the 3 main issues I see with the current blizzard spell:

1. It is an AoE around your character (when should a ranged DPS be diving into a group of enemies?)
2. it does very little damage, I understand the freeze effect procs off the chill it applies however you can do that with hoarfrost and cold cone instantly instead which is much smoother and also ranged.
3. if you cast the skill you are unable to do anything else during the entire animation so you might look cool doing 20 damage per tick however you are a sitting duck and not much of a threat to the enemy in PvP.

Overall the spell just doesn't feel good considering how far it is in the spell tree, you have ball of lightning which is a monster in PvE and it also has good use in PvP, and you get that spell much earlier on. I really can't see a use in any situation for the current blizzard, but feel free to prove me wrong in the comments if I may have looked over something with the spell.

DAOC had tons of sieges and stuff like that. Hibernia mages had a PBAE, like blizzard, and it became one of the deadliest spells in sieges, as it went through walls. It can be used it creative ways, and should definetly be in the game imo.

Noaani

rodzor wrote: »

yea i agree it isnt a priority but just looking at all the other skills i see uses and they feel good within combo rotations however this skill doesnt really have a place at the moment.

Where I'd like to see this spell used is as a rotation break. It should be something so situationally powerful that if you see the right opportunity to use it, you drop your rotation, get in to position, cast it and hit big numbers.

To me, any spell that I can look at and think "that fits in a rotation" is a spell that needs to be adjusted, not the other way around.

Pyrolol

Noaani wrote: »

rodzor wrote: »

yea i agree it isnt a priority but just looking at all the other skills i see uses and they feel good within combo rotations however this skill doesnt really have a place at the moment.

Where I'd like to see this spell used is as a rotation break. It should be something so situationally powerful that if you see the right opportunity to use it, you drop your rotation, get in to position, cast it and hit big numbers.

To me, any spell that I can look at and think "that fits in a rotation" is a spell that needs to be adjusted, not the other way around.

Could just make it a placeable aoe?

Noaani

Pyrolol wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

rodzor wrote: »

yea i agree it isnt a priority but just looking at all the other skills i see uses and they feel good within combo rotations however this skill doesnt really have a place at the moment.

Where I'd like to see this spell used is as a rotation break. It should be something so situationally powerful that if you see the right opportunity to use it, you drop your rotation, get in to position, cast it and hit big numbers.

To me, any spell that I can look at and think "that fits in a rotation" is a spell that needs to be adjusted, not the other way around.

Could just make it a placeable aoe?

To me (others may well disagree) the notion of it being a point blank AoE (PBAoE) is what makes this ability.

If it were a placeable AoE, the "skill" is using it would be to have your cursor where you want the spell when it's time to cast it in your rotation.

If it is a PBAoE, the skill is in getting yourself to the most opportune spot as quickly as you can, casting itand getting back. There is skill to be had in ensuring your larger spells are all on cooldown while you are moving, and there could even be build synergy in regards to.taking abilities that can be cast on the run.

I personally will always rather see abilities that take player skill to really use over skills that just kind of don't. A placeable AoE is a small amount more skill than just a nuke, but it is only a small amount more.

Veeshan

Guildie uses it very well tbh blinks in them all pops cone of cold followed by blizzard its quite devastating.

Also who said mages have to be ranged dps? especially when u have secondary archerype with say fighter or rogue down the line. You might even see the opposite where mage mage might give u the ability to make blizzard a ground circle aoe instead

Cadveun

If FROZEN actually made the enemies not be able to attack, instead of just not being able to move, it would be great. The party pulled to many mobs, half died, epic mage moment commence! You leap through the air and cause a blizzard with a hope of freezing all the enemies so the cleric can raise the tank and heal the party! In reality, the three star arsonist immediately one shots you out of the air.

rodzor

Yea it doesnt really work that way in pvp you wont get to hit anyone with blizzard and there are way better rotations in pve farming where blizzard is just trolling to try to work it in. If you hit people with the blizzard they are afk or also casting blizzard.

Arcane circle->magmafield-> hoarfrost->cone of cold-> lightning ball-> laser beam-> chain lighting-> full charge lighting strike-> 3 auto attacks -> lightning strike... rinse and repeat. Casting a blizzard at any point will interrupt the rotation to do less damage and less debuffs, not worth. especially since you can only freeze twice in a short period of time anyways.

Noaani

rodzor wrote: »

Yea it doesnt really work that way in pvp you wont get to hit anyone with blizzard and there are way better rotations in pve farming where blizzard is just trolling to try to work it in. If you hit people with the blizzard they are afk or also casting blizzard.

Arcane circle->magmafield-> hoarfrost->cone of cold-> lightning ball-> laser beam-> chain lighting-> full charge lighting strike-> 3 auto attacks -> lightning strike... rinse and repeat. Casting a blizzard at any point will interrupt the rotation to do less damage and less debuffs, not worth. especially since you can only freeze twice in a short period of time anyways.

This is all true based on the damage Blizzard does right now.

Once we get the full combat system implemented, and we start having groups of players understand each others capabilities better, this is likely to change.

Any tank that has the ability to AoE pull players to them has great synergy with this ability.

Keep in mind as well, we can expect to see at least 24 different augments for Blizzard, each of which could well alter the ability in drastic ways. I'm sure some augments will add CC, some others may make it a placed AoE, some others will increase the damage, or the area of effect. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the augments for this ability made it a PBAoE on a friendly target (ie, you cast this ability on your tank as the center point).

This is why we can't really judge an individual ability right now - all we know for sure about what we are seeing is that it is not the final form of the ability.

Daedrik45

@Noaani I would treat it like how warriors and spirit masters pbaoe in dark age of Camelot, where warrior gets aggro, throws guard on spirit master and they pbaoe away.

I agree with you, it staying a pbaoe skill. I trust the best mages will find a great use for it in sieges and things of that nature in pvp

VampirePeterpan

The other problem of Blizzard is while you casting it in a building, the blizzard fall on the roof instead of the ground which cause 0 dmg and effect to the mobs.

Lash

Some skills having niche uses is fine, especially when augments are not in the game yet.

Smaashley

Honestly, a lot of skills should be AoE targetable. Especially with ranged archetypes.

Pyrolol

Rather see more skillshots then auto hit abilities if you want to bring up skill

raiinyday

rodzor wrote: »

The blizzard spell as it sits now has basically no place in pve or pvp, basically an RP spell.
These are the 3 main issues I see with the current blizzard spell:

1. It is an AoE around your character (when should a ranged DPS be diving into a group of enemies?)
2. it does very little damage, I understand the freeze effect procs off the chill it applies however you can do that with hoarfrost and cold cone instantly instead which is much smoother and also ranged.
3. if you cast the skill you are unable to do anything else during the entire animation so you might look cool doing 20 damage per tick however you are a sitting duck and not much of a threat to the enemy in PvP.

Overall the spell just doesn't feel good considering how far it is in the spell tree, you have ball of lightning which is a monster in PvE and it also has good use in PvP, and you get that spell much earlier on. I really can't see a use in any situation for the current blizzard, but feel free to prove me wrong in the comments if I may have looked over something with the spell.

You're missing one of the strongest synergies with Blizzard - and that's the fact that it spams "Frozen" on enemies, refreshing Conflaguration on the enemy with the Thermal Equilibrium talent.

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