So, I’ve finally dipped my toes into trying out FoI via the Voidsoul set and in both chaos and vitality forms. And one issue I’ve found is that it’s range is a bit lacklustre, but compared to AAR it seems worse at dealing with mobs. Where as AAR tends just to carve through them as I rotate the beam. Or in the case of my Physical AAR build, get eaten by the AoE I have bound to AAR
Noticed it more today with this build:
Tons of RR, over 380K sheet dps for FoI, but unlike a Paladin doing Chaos it’s more prone to getting ganked in SR85-86 if you don’t draw them into a choke point or constantly retreat… And it’s all because FoI + AoM gives you better ability to deal with crowds than FoI alone. And yes, if I had more points I’d have boosted Bone Harvest, but FoI is very points hungry. And Voidsoul doesn’t support Necromancer.
There’s a couple of ways I can see to fix this:
Firstly add more DoT to the base skill could help, though that’s mainly a gearing thing…
A passthrough effect that allows FoI to penetrate mobs better,
Make the cone of attack wider as you invest more points in it.
Lastly, add effectively a spreading effect to the DoT damage, which is probably not possible But let’s face it, it would be awesome lawl. Or even as a skill modifier on a bit of gear.
Anyhow, back to the mad idea’s mine, just came up with a Elemental AAR Mage Hunter, because I like pain and suffering. Also has elemental Devastation lawl:
Hopefully no issues occur with renaming the tester file with the Vit FoI build. So I can test the above madness.
How many meta folks do you see using FoI or DE, for that matter? Can’t really blame them. I don’t even remember those 2 ever appearing on any meta lists. Like, right now I’m going through Black flame Deceiver, and 2 guides for it just ditch FoI entirely for relic skill.
I personally love FoI, but it is what it is. A point-hungry short range skill.
like i mentioned earlier, as far as i glanced, it was because dmg output was decent, while providing better overall tankiness and leech compared to AAR
since AAR has suffered numerous nerfs leech and dmg has dropped, which meant glassy setups wasn’t as viable survival wise, and more sustainable setups then dropped significant in dmg, Foi suffering from neither. And with the more active playstyle in general meta has become moving into shorter range not really that big of a deal, since the wider aoe still meant surround clear was ok. Where AAR’s only benefit is distance reach; which is negated rather quickly in ex SR or Celestials
(You’d have to ask the others, Roman etc, if my above perception of their mentions is accurate)
Personally i feel AAR is better than foi during levelling, because the situations are reversed, the reach is good, and there is no dmg or sustain issues there compared to how endgame/SR AAR might fare.
I have to disagree as well, played cold DE and fire FoI and it’s miles above my chaos AAR, ofcourse the testing was limited to these, so wouldnt call it very representative
Speaking from personal experience, I played aether AAR, trielemental FoI and cold DE as proper builds, and dabbled in converted variations. I’ll take AAR’s range over other skills any day - it’s an utterly incredible advantage. FoI is good (yes, even as trielemental build), but it lacks range. DE can go and get fucked, even with recent buffs.
There’s still a variety of conversion builds for AAR, sets and setless, and they function decently fine for how memey they get. FoI doesn’t come anywhere close to the same variety , objectively. Neither does DE. For me that’s a mark of a well-performing skill, where you can convert it into cold with mishmash of items and still see it work.
True, and I haven’t seen any new FoI focused builds for quite some time, simply because you get better returns on skill point investment in other skills. Single target damage can be insane at times, but single target wont help in SR, even in the boss room if you get Zantarian or Moo.
And Ch’thon help you if Solael’s Witchblade etc procs and draws in multiple mobs
Hmmmn, maybe if FoI had a longer range that would help significantly.
As for DE - Eh, it can be very strong once converted, but it’s also very much still a single target spell when instead it should have a small AoE effect on top of it’s chance to affect other enemies outside that area. It’s also still very, very energy hungry.
