I got a few ideas for spellblade passives that put dodge in the game now that the newer passives after the skill tree update can provide some focus on dexterity.
2 Nodes:
Node 1
+1 Dexterity per point
+1 Intelligence per point
Max points: 8
5 point bonus: 3% increased melee Attack speed per 10 total attributes
Node 2
+10 Dodge Rating per point
+3 Ward per second per point
Max points: 8
4 point bonus: 20% chance to gain 10 Ward when you dodge
A 3rd node idea would be something like +health-mana-dodge rating with 5-8 max points, or simply anything that can include dodge rating + bonus stats.
Base Mage - Continue Channeling while moving (could be at a decreased damage amount when actually moving) ((could also be for a limited time say 5 seconds max))
Spellblade exclusive node, increased attack and cast speeds while wielding a 2H weapon. At 5 points, threshold bonus: you can equip a catalyst with a 2 handed weapon.
A node in base mage that reduces the remaining cool down of skills by 30% after 2s of channeling could be an interesting incentive to use channeling skills. Channeling is currently very outdated and hardly used. Arcane momentum, a staple node in many mage builds, benefits rapid casting. There’s no equivalent for channeling.
Base Mage Node - Increased mana gain by 5% per point (affects all sources of mana gain e.g. Mana Strike or Runebolt’s Attuned Recovery node, including mana regen). Max 5 points. 4 point threshold bonus: Gain 1 spell damage per 4 mana gained recently.
This would provide an interesting way of gaining spell damage for the Mage class. Currently there are too few sources of added spell damage resulting in very limited builds that use the Mad Alchemist Ladle (low spell damage) other than with Fragment of the Enigma.
Scale Spreading Flames damage with global Ignite chance (akin to Brand of Trespass). Could be unlocked from Inferno (which enables Spreading Flames themselves) as a way to scale their damage in endgame where currently it is too low without affecting it much in early game.
Node in passive tree or Meteor tree to turn it to cold damage. Would enable alternative builds and provide more use for Star Pact (which currently is usable only with specific item equipped).
Mage nodes:
Node to enable Electrify proc from lightning spells / skills to open more ways to customize lightning builds for all 3 Masteries.
More nodes to convert element of spells (for example other element analogues of Rune of Winter), especially for those that currently don’t have alternative element option like Glacier and Ice Barrage.
Ward Decay Threshold: 40 per point
Maximum 5 points
Bonus at 4 points:
Gain 150% of your Ward Decay Threshold as Endurance Threshold.
The motivation behind this node is actually the Shattered Lance set which makes you build health regen. However, mage does not have any passives to health regen outside of two runemaster passives (the other locked behind runemaster specialization).
But how does health regen tie in with typical spellblade defences? Spellblade uses ward as the first layer defence. Health regen runs counter to ward, because it will sit idle while ward is being generated on a smallish HP pool. If health regen were to work for Spellblade, we can give it more value by regenerating durable HP - the one protected by endurance. It would fit nicely by borrowing some benefits of building ward decay Threshold for endurance threshold - hence this passive!
This probably isn’t anything special, and I searched to see if it was already noted. But the Spreading inferno node on the Fireball tree absolutely needs to add the “damage over time” tag to fireball. It’s clearly adding that damage, both via the tree and items/affixes. Maybe it’s a ui/ux thing, but for clarity’s sake can this be addressed/fixed?
This is the thing with how LE does ailments. Adding an ailment chance doesn’t mean the skill does that damage, so if you get a chance to apply frostbite either from a skill node or equipment/passives/blessings doesn’t mean that that skill now does cold damage or DoT.
If you added the DoT tag to fireball with that node then it would be unable to crit & would do significantly less damage.
