So I just reached the top of the sorcerer mastery not too long ago and was super excited for the synergy of Meteor and Black hole. Up to this point Meteor had been the aoe version of fireball with slightly less dps and WAY HIGH mp cost. Given the lack of necessity of that kind of aoe damage, Elemental Nova was a far better option; navigating a sweet spot of kill speed and mp efficiency.
I briefly looked through the black hole nodes. I saw there was a cast meteor node and assumed that the true power of the skill would come from specializing in both skills. So when I finally unlock black hole I look at this node again and realize that unlike ALL other nodes where you cast another of your spells, it DOES NOT gain any synergy from specializing in both skills.
So while I was incredibly disappointed, I figured that the top tier Sorcerer skill with a large MP cost and a large cooldown must be very powerful…Boy was I wrong.
I specced black hole up to level 18 mastery 3 times, one time building toward binary system, then another time building toward meteor, and another time building towards creating multiple black holes. Except for meteor spec, damage was worse than elemental nova, a level 4 ability from the base class. Its’ utility was negligible, why would I need to gather my enemies in an area for 5 seconds when I could kill them in 2 seconds with 1/3rd the MP cost. Meteor spec, while able to compete in damage, had major down time and insane cost that didn’t justify the slight increase in damage from elemental nova.
I feel like the only way for Black Hole to be worth its cost and cooldown is for the meteor node to act like all other linked spell casting nodes, where all (if not most) of your specialization factors into black hole.
The only other exception to this is teleport doesn’t cast elemental nova if it has a cooldown, which is fine cuz it means you just can’t use one spec. However not having any of Meteor’s specialization affect black hole makes it feel like such a waste of skill. If black hole was truly powerful on its own I would understand why this synergy was forbidden but honestly its such a useless skill by the time you get it.
I was really disheartened that my build from base class was truly the optimal build over my entire mastery class.