Is The Searing Touch worth using end game in a fire caster spec?

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Sony_Black wrote:

haven't they changed how the +lvl to gems work - so you could have lvl 22 fire gems in it

Yes they have, that's why I think it's a viable option now.

Before that it wasn't very good.

Some Awesome info here, thanks all very much. I really wanted a Searing touch for a few reasons. I'm already a little different as a Blood magic templar caster. Almost all casters run about with wand/shield so even the visual difference is nice to me. Heck, I won't use a wand even now. Sceptres all the way(Nice to have a usable leap slam in a tight spot as well) But also I did actually want two 5L skills. Fire storm and Fireball. Most just roll with a 4/5L fireball but a Firestorm(Quality 17 atm)/concentrated effect/Increased AoE/Iron Will/Faster casting is actually a fair bit of fun lol.

That is exactly what I was thinking. Sure, you can get a wand with 100-140 total fire damage bonus and faster casting etc(Mana/regen etc means nothing to me....yet. Currently BM) and a shield for another couple hundred ES/Health and another 100 spell damage again. Absolute top end you're getting what? 240 ish fire spell damage maybe? You might also get lucky with +2 fire gems but then it's 3L max. In counter you have at best 90 fire damage bonus. The question is does a guaranteed +2 to main skill, guaranteed 10% faster casting, possible 5/6L and bonus 70% burn damage make up for that? Considering Fire casting is really all about the burn anyhow, it @Sounds@ like it might.

I'm not in a position to test yet, hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks I will be. The bonus ES and top end 70-90 hp from shield do not sway me too much either way. I have a metric crap ton of life already from being templar, down to marauder tree for goodies and then Blood magic + regens life nodes in the area. Thanks for the replies everyone!

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gabora wrote:

It's great if you use a fire trap centric build.

I do actually quite enjoy fire trap and invested in a quality 18 one. Firetrap/Increased duration/Concentrated Effect(Makes the initial blast HUGE DPS...no effect on burn though) + increased AoE makes firetrap VERY strong actually. Fun times :)