The Spellscourge is one of the worst set items on GD.
This set is designed for battlemage and is focused on Blade arc/Devastation. However, this doesn’t work very well.
The last update enhanced the Blade arc a bit better, but the set is still weak.
I write down the problems and improvements of this set here.
Problem:
[li]Flat phys dmg and critical dmg not enough[/li]Deadly Momentum or IEE is needed to accumulate enough flat damage.
However, neither is supported in this set, and IEE converts phys to elemental, thus losing DPS.
Other good builds focused on Phys can accumulate about 20k of flat phys damage. Spellscouge BM, can stack only 60 - 70% of the phy dmg compared to them.
The same is true for% critical dmg. If you try to get it from IEE, you lose phys dmg.
[li]-%rr not enough[/li]This is more of a Battlemage (Arcanist) problem than a Spellscourge problem.
As you know, the - % RR skill in AR is not available for enemies who really need it. OFF is definitely a waste skill, but it can’t be solved at all, so it can’t be helped.
Give a lot of statistics to compete with other x builds? Or add -%Reduced Freeze Duration to OFF to many items? This feels roundabout and a little silly.
[li]+Masteries point not enough[/li]Now, let’s say you invested in a Cadence tree to make it flatter. It will be a stupid result.
You’re forced to use Cadence once every 4 seconds, so you won’t hit a 325% blade arc during that time, so you’ll lose the DPS.
In this case, Cadence needs a bonus to reduce DPS loss opportunities.
There are not enough AS to use cadence efficiently, and there are no extra points to take off WPS.
[li]Resist is not sufficient[/li]Many of the phys builds can stack up to about 30 - 70 phys resists. But the Spellscourge is only a little over 20 - 30.
Also, why is there only one kind of resist on the head and shoulders? Add resistance to the base item rather than to the bonus of the set.
[li]Wasted statistics and missing conversion[/li]% ele dmg is completely useless. This should be a Phys build set. Flat ele dmg is also inefficient. Half is not converted.
Elementary = > Physical should be at least 70%. or a full set of full conversions.
In addition to the set, 2 armors (or ring) or 1 weapon are virtually fixed to achieve 100% conversion.
Why? They are not sets. The same is true for set items other than Spellscouge.
improvement plan:
[li]The first priority is to make -% RR work properly.[/li]I think improving the skills themselves will improve many builds with similar problems, and there’s no reason not to fix them, but that’s a wish that doesn’t come true.
So add “-% Reduced Freeze Duration to OFF” to the set effect.
It’s a bit off the concept of a set, and a bit unnatural, but this should improve Spellscouge considerably.
[li]Add Proc skills.[/li]Give them enough Proc skills to do damage. Add -% Reduced Freeze Duration to this.
[li]add 50 - 100% aether converted to phys and more flat phys dmg and %phys dmg and critical dmg to set item.[/li]Aether to phys converted gives some flat phys from FoR.
i will also need + Masteries points to invest in them.
Finally, I suggest another rough change.
Replace Blade arc with cadence/Devastation.
Replace them with phys AAR/Devastation.
Replace phys with elemental.
Either way, you’ll need more crutches to get the Spellscourge into a decent set.
I hope Spellscourge will be a decent and strong enough set to play with like Warbone and Markovian.
PS:
I tried Mythical Decree of the Circle of Five with Battlemage.
This is garbage. Did you test it well?
High cost, flat aether, Piere Dmg… why?
I tested Spellscouge BM on Cruseble (110) today.
The phys deviation is not as strong, but not as bad as I expected. But everything else is not good enough.
Devastation (physical) would need to reduce target’s armor to make it work. Or rather to make it good. Unfortunately, Crate doesn’t want to bring back armor reduction, so RIP physical casters (if you’re not IT).
As you can see from the Grim tools above, I tested it with a build that also takes Phys dot into account for more damage.
But it cannot be mighty like Octavius.
I remember being very excited when this set was announced. And recently, FX has been updated, and I enjoyed it since it became possible to rain the color of poop.
However, it is weak… I hope it becomes as strong as other Phys builds.
I wonder if IT to Devastation in full set would fix at least some issues with it. I mean, it sounds like it would but then again it’d be just a DoT, so it feels like it doesn’t fit there.
It’s a Battlemage set, so it would be much appropriate to add CT support with conversion and CDR (golden physical CT, it would look hell cool).
Spellscourge has good WD bonus for skill, but WD itself is very low
And because Arcanist doesn’t have some +% to phys damage, Spellscourge Battlemage suffers from low DPS
:eek:
If i want to get something instead of BA, I prefer AAR or Cadence. As an AoE, Devastasion works well, so the other should be for a single target.
Needless to say, Cadence is a good single target dmg.
AAR has recently been pierced and has decreased slightly, but I think AAR + Shield is a very good option for higher SR.
Personally I suggested phys CT spam to complete Devastation. I did this during testing but the idea didn’t catch on it seems
BA is REally bad. I said that even f they go Korba on it and make it 125% WD it will still suck
Not to mention Colossal Grasp conflicts with Oleron gloves, whcih i realllly dislike.
Phys cT would also need some nice mods on a weapon not just the set and then go Beronath again. Set has % elemental to phys but you still go beronath, that’s not very good
Colossal Grasp bonuses are always Bis for Phys shield build. However, since Unchained Might has +% CS, it may be bis for Phys CT. Adding CS to Colossal Grasp Bonus?
I fully agree with Beronath. Most niche physical builds rely on Beronath. There should be other options.
And I prefer a mace to a sword. It also goes well with Rowan’s Scepter.
Does spellscourge still not fully convert fire to phys on devastation? Cause it at least needs that. This eliminates the need for beronath, or at least makes it less necessary. The next thing is to change blade arc to something that can be fully physical. Fluff suggested CT which is neat. Cadence is fine too. Blade arc doesn’t work cause it’s half bleed, which has no way to be converted to phys.
physical BA will likely have a much better option in Targo at that (although i’m not sure the damage type was confirmed - but the set empowers Judgement too, and seems to feature a mace which is the most common weapon for phys buid - looks like a physical set to me).
The set is underperforming because it tries to be a hybrid, those barely work (diviner for example) or just don’t work at all. I’m all for blade arc being removed from this set and replaced with something that relies on cast speed to spam in between devastation. AAR however is a bad choice for this, half the damage will be blocked by armor on trash mobs.
I agree, base aether damage that you can only convert 50% to physical, pierce damage on the skill serves no purpose, and then there’s more aether as well. For a physical skill it sure has a lot of damage that you can do very little with. Underwhelming.
The design of this set is very bizarre indeed given how enemy armour reduces low flat physical sources to 30% of their value.
Blade arc has low flat physical values. Heavily reduced by armour.
22% weapon damage on devastation is equivalent to around 90 flat physical weapon damage. Heavily reduced by armour.
100 flat physical added to devastation. Heavily reduced by armour.
I have not actually got around to playing the set yet but it has these obvious design pitfalls (please don’t tell me I have to play it before feedback; the armour bug is hidden and not eyeballing obvious in this situation)
Personally I would rework the skills to make sense given enemy armour mechanics. It would be nice for the WD% to be respectable (70%+) on devastation so people have the option of stacking weapon damage, going cadence/devastation and possibly taking other devotion routes instead of mandatory time dilation.
Only way to make blade arc aspect decent is to either up the flat values to be decent after enemy armour reductions or just change the item mods into respectable trauma damage.
RR is a big issue for battlemage and makes the armour issue even more annoying so -1-2 seconds cd to war cry and plus skill to break morale would really help out.
The purpose of the WD on Devastation isn’t for damage, it’s to apply effects that only apply through WD via Devastation. ADCTH on Devastation is fairly potent, even at 22% efficiency.
Most of everything else you’ve said is accurate though, yes. The set is absolutely poop-tier for Soldiers. It’s not bad for Arcanists, but Arcanists are bad which makes the set bad.
That is a good point, upping the WD% would have be balanced around adcth. For single target I guess it won’t be that potent but for content like crucible and SR I can see it will be very nice healing. Still, the 100 flat item mod could be increased as much of it gets penalised.
The stats of the weapon might be nice for battlemage but the skill has such bad damage.