I got a zero LP Fragment of Enigma drop. So that has me googling and youtubing. Pinching Loaf and FrozenSentinel both have Sorcerer builds designed around applying and triggering spark charges. Nalia has a Spark Charge focused Spell Blade build. The 3 guide authors have elaborate Spark Charge application and triggering designs by employing items, skills, passives (Frost Claw and Firebrand).
My question is, would it not be simpler and perhaps more damage to just spam Lightning Blast (LB) instead of relying on an item (Dragorath’s Claw) to proc LB? These elaborate setups look like they are mentally twisting themselves into pretzels, while break dancing through hoops. Also, would it not be simpler to spec and swap into LB once one could equip Enigma? LB is zero mana and I’m pretty sure one could get it to cast more than 2x per second. 4x per sec LB casts with all the chaining and forking should be quite a lot of spark charge applications and triggers. Was LB some how nerfed and crippled such that it is very far out stripped by other skills?
Spark Charge is an ailment that can stack unlimited times, just like Ignite and some other ailments.
Using your example LB, it applies the spark charge 4x per second as you said.
But Nalia’s Firebrand build also applies spark charge 4x per second + frost claw procs apply extra spark charges + lightning blast procs apply even more extra spark charges.
On top of that, Firebrand and Frost Claw also provide other bonuses - spell damage, spell crit multiplier, ward generation and other ailments. You wouldn’t be able to gain all of this by just using Lightning Blast.
Then there are some other anti-synergies, for example Spellblade’s passive Burst of Knowledge, which gives +25 spell damage, but also 25% reduced cast speed, so directly casting Lightning Blast would be slower on the same build than using Firebrand, which is an attack instead.
That doesn’t mean you cannot do a LB Spark Charge build. The three builds you mentioned are not the only builds for spark charge, and you can always make your own build
Asking the question that you did just means that you don’t fully understand the builds you’re looking at. I’m not being an ass here, I’m just pointing out that you need to understand how the builds work, what the interactions are, why some gear/ skill choices are made to choose what build you want to try.
It’s fine to pick a build that looks cool, but if you want to get good results out of it, you need to dig into it and watch the videos/ read the guides, and then modify it to make it your own.
Prime example is the frost claw/ static orb build. If you don’t keep frost claw’s mana cost ABOVE 40, it doesn’t work well at all. So lots of the skills/ passives are choses for specifically that, but if you don’t understand that part, just switching your wand from one with -3 to one with -5 will gimp your spec if you don’t know where to reallocate those points from/ to.
Thank you for the explanation. I’m still learning the game’s mechanics. It looked like the build guide authors were attempting to inflate/boost their damage output by designing around procs and dancing around the mana costs. However, I was wondering if it were possible to approach or exceed their damage output with overwhelming amounts of attack/cast speed. It seems that the proc layering is required.
Yeah its pretty obvious that I lacked a deep understanding of the builds and the game’s mechanics. I’m still learning the games mechanics. After looking at the guides and videos I had further questions which lead to me creating this thread. Thanks for the input.
