Skill Effect Duration

http://tinyurl.com/9o5sote - fire totem ranger build

Ranger has the easiest access to +45% skill effect duration. This seems like a big deal, given how many, many major spells in the game (spark, freezing pulse, flame totem, firestorm) have a set duration for each projectile or attack created. Increasing the length of these skills by 45%, even if it's an additive percentage, seems like a huge deal. I haven't attempted to build a Ranger-mage yet, but it makes me wonder as to why the Witch, Templar or Shadow don't have access to increased skill effect near them, even as extraneous nodes. Such a stat seems just as powerful as cast speed and spell damage.

Granted, the Ranger having the easiest access to skill effect duration gives that class more 'personality', and I don't know if such a stat should be available in abundance, but I think the stat is sorely missing from most fire builds, which is in part why perhaps firestorm is so difficult to build around (at least compared to freezing pulse, or even spark/shock nova).

Although I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not, I do think it would be thematically appropriate to give the Templar or Marauder a few nodes which grant increased fire damage and skill effect duration, or at least in the templar's case 'increased spell effect duration' (differentiating it from the ranger's catch-all stat). It would certainly be lovely to see a few notable nodes near the templar or shadow that increase specific elemental damage and the effect duration of spells (ie +6% fire damage, 9% spell effect duration).

I'd be so happy if they added more increased skill duration nodes near the witch area (ie. probably at the templar or the shadow areas). Don't have to be as powerful as the 45% the ranger gets.

Just as an additional option instead of going pure increased damage or crit, or aoe I could also go increased duration.

The aoe ones are 4% with the notables being 12%. (I took most of them.) Since the increase is applied to the radius it's basically a 8% increase to the diameter and slightly more so to the area itself.

8% resp. 24% for increased duration, sprinkled about the tree would be great.


(I want to get a 4sec Firestorm!)

A 4% increase in radius is also a 4% increase in diameter, sure it's double, but the diameter is 2x the radius already.
It is, however, an 8% increase in area.
Increasing the radius by 16 % (12% node + 4% node) will result in a 35% increase in area.

That offtopic aside, an increased spell duration node would indeed be neat.
Though there are some nodes that effect status ailments, so it'd be mostly duration spells.
And for buffs and curses, there's nodes as well.

There's a difference between 'skill effect duration' and 'buff/debuff duration' - I'm pretty sure they don't stack. 'skill effect duration' would make spell projectiles last longer, but I don't think they make your curses last longer on targets.

So would they increase the range of freezing pulse?

Although I haven't tried it, they should. Freezing Pulse travels over a skill effect duration of one second. You should be able to increase that.

It would be best to test using increased duration support gem, first. As I know for a fact that improves firestorm. If that does work with freezing pulse, then you could have a single pulse travel a crazy far distance with +45% to skill effect duration, increased duration support, max quality on the gem, and a faster projectile support.

Yeh, faster projectile would be mandatory; damge drops over time. Though freezing pulse, according to ingame description, isn't actually a projectile...
If you put freezing pulse together with a totem support gem, what duration would be increased?
The skill, the totem, or both?
I suppose the first, but I'm not sure.

Freezing pulse is a projectile. It says in the spell description "creates one projectile".

Well, it just didn't at the top. Darn, that means I should have actually put MP in it.^^

Ah, I can't into math...

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UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

If you put freezing pulse together with a totem support gem, what duration would be increased?
The skill, the totem, or both?
I suppose the first, but I'm not sure.

Both actually. The support gem increases all durations of a skill. Now a totemized skill is basically a new skill with all its old effects intact and the additional totem duration.