I’ve been playing a Hellhound build recently. It’s pretty nice. Hellhound runs up to enemies and one shots entire packs with Ember Claw.
After adding Infernal Breath to the arsenal I realized I don’t like it. Now my Hellhound runs up to enemies, and spends 2 entire seconds releasing the Infernal Breath. By the time damage is getting done, the enemies have surrounded the Hellhound and moved out of the AoE.
Solution: make Hellhound prioritize Ember Claw when both attacks are off cooldown.
I also don’t like how when the Hellhound switches targets, the fire goes everywhere without doing any damage.
Solution: this one is trickier. I say cut the animation in half. Now the Hellhound moves it’s head back and forth a couple times while spitting fire. Cut it down to just one head movement.
I’d say main issue with infernal breath is that it has very long animation, but does only 1 instance of damage somewhere in the middle of animation. Seems like if your build already has access to enemy damage reduction somewhere else, it’s better to just skip infernal breath entirely because it’s straight up dps loss.
A larger cone of attack would be great. Ember Claw gets increased angle with levels, why not Breath? Or just make it work similar to the breath attack of Korvan Titanovore. Make it spray from side to side instead of mostly forward.
Really, Infernal Breath should be a channeled attack that lasts about 2 seconds and switches between maybe 3 enemies during that time. But I don’t think they’re going to redesign the skill at this point. Shortening the animation is not the best solution, but it’s the most practical.