so, this is a feedback dedicated to my Battlemage chars with some thoughts about them and Battlemage class in general. I didn’t test Krieg one but I suppose it to be the most balanced/bearable one out of all BM combinations since there are only 3: Spellscourge, said Krieg and 2h Elemental Cadence. So, let’s talk about Spellscourge first.
overall stats are great. fat HP bar, 3600 OA/3200 DA, 5300 armor, block, Maiven, almost permanent Overguard, Stone Form. I’d say most builds would kill to get some of those stats. And I’m gonna say - ye, it’s pretty tanky indeed. You can pull full boss rooms - not all of them but definitely… some, at least.
What’s the problem, then? I think you know the answer. It’s the damage output. Right.
these are videos of both SR and naked ex. and I’ll jump straight to the problems and break 'em down in the same way I want to break my keyboard after playing this build.
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1h BA sucks. Simple as that. you can reach about 120k tooltip on it with Overguard and Ulzaad up but it won’t be doing better things than killing those spiders than can die if you look at them. And you can’t really surprise any Maiden with your huge damage output since you have none. Maybe it’s because of how phys works against armor but the truth is 1h BA sucks while 2h phys one spins the world on that Korvan spear. ah, and yes, that -30% manacost to BA mod does literally nothing. only fight where it can matter is against Ravager but even then Deva is a bigger problem.
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Devastation, despite having seemingly huge mods from the set, is a bad skill by itself. if you misfire it - well, you’re done. Wait another x seconds to place a stationary rain of fire and then move on. It works poorly in both SR and Crucible. SR requires dynamic gameplay so the char is constantly moving so you need to gather up as many mobs as possible (at least in Spellscourge’s case) to finally unload that Devastation on them. In Crucible you also wanna move around fast to kill mobs fast but you guess what? for some stumps it will take forever to get to you and Sister Crimson will jump thru time and space to avoid your golden rocky rain. Also I don’t get it why Devastation doesn’t have 100% fire>phys as well as a mod. Sure, you can get it from set pieces but you need to be very lucky with conversions and get all above average ones.
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Build has zero speeds. I know, it a more complex problem that many snb builds suffer from but it feels bad. 163% AS (with Overguard) and 139% CS result in slow transitions between casting Devastation and swinging BA. also that gloves’ passive could definitely grant CS as well as AS.
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no crit, almost no way to get it. Simple as that. Build has decently high OA but cannot use it to full extent.
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Before one may say “But such tanky build should be fast or it will be broken!!1!11!”, I’ll say this: times, when Spellscourge had exceptional and almost unmatched tankyness, have long gone. I believe top-retals are similar if not better with better damage output, and many other builds, mostly NBs, while being slightly less tanky, have a ton more damage.
Now, let’s move to out second guest - 2h Elemental Cadence.
I recorded only one SR. In naked ex it just doesn’t survive, buffalo is pointless (sorry to all Buffalo citizens and Sabres’ team but that’s it) and not fast as well. And SR is kinda dangerous all in all.
so…
- the main problem - not only for this one, but for all 2h Cadence builds is sustain. Despite having 14% + 6% from medal, this one feels squishy most of the times. Ravager is out of question even with extra LL potion.
- weird dilemma between spirit and cunning investments. in my tests full cunning dump worked the best, since you crit bigger and more often. but at the same time you wanna invest in spirit to increase flat numbers. Split cunning/spirit dump also worked worse than full cunning. Not sure what can be done about it.
- IEE flat kinda sucks.
Let’s take a look at other classes flat passives first.
Solael’s Witchfire has 121 chaos flat and 125 vit with Second rite maxed.
Flame Touched gives 76 fire and ~ 100 phys flat and also gives 330 OA/DA at hardcap - while maxed Overload gives only 220.
Necro has 88 flat aether on maxed Spectral Binding - but also it gives huge flat HP, % damage, OA and an RR aura on top of that. Also maxed Soul harvest gives nearly 300 flat.
Mog’s Pact gives about 100 flat too but greatly boosts regen, and you also gain armor, DA, HP and resists from its nodes.
Now we’re back to IEE.
IEE - 94 ele flat at hardcap, so basically 31 fire/cold/li (and if converted to phys, you guess what happens). 120 energy leech per second - not bad but energy management became way easier now, and the majority of builds run arcane spark anyway. Extra energy regen - cool but also nothing impressive.
Overload - same OA as FT/Temper at 12/12 but 220 instead of 330 at hardcap. DoTs, I guess, are decent? Not sure about them. Aether res - in line with other resists so it’s ok.
Elemental balance I’m not sure one ever took past 8 points, unless you have nothing to invest in.
Ye, I know that the weapon in this particular case gives extra 66 flat which results in 160 flat total - still not that much more compared to other passives.
- another thing I wanna mention - plent of Cadence points on ele gear, no points for DM (guess that bonus on gloves will arrive posthaste, surely it will). Also would be coold to see sth like 100% phys>ele on supporting gear, probably on those gloves as well. Instead of puny 40 ele flat for Bros, for use.
so, what could be done in both these cases? (starting with Spellscourge again).
- change the -30% energy cost bonuses for BA and Devastation for crit. Not necessarily 30, but sth like 20% will be a very nice change. Or add it as a separate 3-piece bonus if one wants to keep those costs low. (but we all know that at least for BA it means nothing).
- change the -1m target area to Devastation to +1 or 1,5m radius for it, so projectiles hit more targets.
- add 100% fire>phys mod for it.
- Speaking of damage: maybe increasing flat RR even more. maybe actually adding sth like 15-20% phys RR reduction to Deva, since phys doesn’t have access to that RR type. maybe buffing %damage on Maiven mod. maybe everything all at once.
- please, add CS to those gloves’ passive.
Now, to the 2h Elemental Cadence one.
- sth has to be done with 2h Cadence overall, it’s too volatile as for now.
- also some phys>ele and DM points on ele gear would be highly welcomed.
- overall, tho, unless FoA introduces some mighty ele cadence set for BM, it will remain sad and unworhty of your time.
some general thoughts, as a conclusion:
- IEE line needs to be looked at. imo, now it really lacks sth, since almost every other passives’ line for other masteries was buffed.
- Devastation needs to be looked at. I know @RektbyProtoss was going to write a feedback about it so he probably has more thought.
let’s discuss it. whoever played Spellscourge, 2h Elemental Cadence or any other BM, let’s hear your thoughts.
If it sees any attention I would, at baseline, ask for numbers readjustment to allow for a shorter cooldown.
) - however, I have farmed / crafted for now enough for a while. If someone one wants to test it, here is the save