Spellcasters need a little more

I think the intended method for spell scaling is rather the +2/+1 to gem levels mods, which in a way function rather like the physical % and physical local mods in how they scale spells, especially when combined with Empower.

The problem is staffs just not being able to compare to Wands/Sceptres/Daggers and Shields. If staffs were a viable alternative dedicated spellcasters would use those for their great damage bonuses.

Unfortunately staffs simply can't compete. You're losing out on a great deal of block, you gain less powerful and fewer mods and you lose defenses from your shield.

Two solutions come to mind.

1. Spice up chest itemization by adding those two mods. This is easy but'll essentially ruin 2handers forever. Just listing it first since quick number tweaks seem GGG's preferred method of fixing things.

2. Introduce a new item type that can be equipped with 2handers like a quiver with bows. A strap or scabbard or whatever. No gem slots but can similar stats to quivers, excluding the projectile modifiers. Possibly make a second variant, a spell book or something, that can roll spell-based mods instead of attack-based ones.

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Spellcasters need a little more

No melee needs a lot more, GGG please focus on melee not spellcasters.

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Startkabels wrote:

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Spellcasters need a little more

No melee needs a lot more, GGG please focus on melee not spellcasters.

please... try use

-ice nova
-cold snap
-ice spear
-arctic breath
-fireball

in any serious endgame situation and tell me how broken overpowered melee is.

lol, 10/10 troll

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Chundadragon wrote:

please... try use

-ice nova
-cold snap
-ice spear
-arctic breath
-fireball

in any serious endgame situation and tell me how broken overpowered melee is.

There are several skills, both spell and melee, which need adjustment. Some up. Some down. Some are just fine. Not every bad skill can be fixed just by increasing damage numbers, either.

Now that we have echo, spellcasters are just fine.
Well, some skills are good (arc, flameblast, incinerate...) and some are mediocre (ice nova, spark...), but I imagine the latter have their own surprisingly good niche uses.
As for crit, there is a reason there is a %global critical strike chance for spells mod.

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chimpanzee wrote:

Now that we have echo, spellcasters are just fine.
Well, some skills are good (arc, flameblast, incinerate...) and some are mediocre (ice nova, spark...), but I imagine the latter have their own surprisingly good niche uses.
As for crit, there is a reason there is a %global critical strike chance for spells mod.

Echo didn't solve any problems. It's a mimicry of Multistrike (with a LESS damage modifier instead of an increased damage modifier), which has given melee users a significant DPS advantage for ages.

Spellcasters still don't have the DPS multiplier cascade that melee users posses, and Echo didn't solve that. All it's done is boost overall DPS by a 10-20% compared to a Faster Casting and make spellcasting cost less mana overall.

Now, if we starting seeing gems like "more spell damage," "more spell damage on full life," "%spell damage dealt as fire," etc. and auras like hatred, wrath, and anger worked for spells, we'd see a much more powerful cascade that phys builds are able to utilize. Not saying this is the solution, just pointing out that spellcasting is still several multipliers behind phys builds.

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which has given melee users a significant DPS advantage for ages.

It's not about DPS, what do you need DPS for if you cannot hit enemies?

dual spork totem ruined everything and its why we cant have anything nice

First off OP, well written thread imo and quite insightful as well (admittedly, I've never ran a manual spellcaster before, only CoC and a shitty MF totemer at the beginning of ambush).

But someone answer this for me: Why isn't there a gem called "Spell damage" that has something like 50% more spell damage (@lvl 20).

Very interesting point about resists making the effeective damage very low. Never thought about it that way. Also about leech being rather gated for spellcasters.