Well I didn’t indicate this topic as a bug, but it could be a conception bug…
Any channel skill will see this affixe apply at the end of all others reduction.
It’s not very useful to have a reduction of 30-45 % at this point. I get -0.3 to -.0.45 mana reduction !
I cannot move points skill in warpath because “Unchained” and “Reckless Spin” apply before this reduction. That make this affixe useless lol
Plus, I can’t reach 0, for the last skill point reduction that give -2 mana I get -0.5 mana…
Ok you don’t want us to channel at 0 cost. It’s understandable. But we should be able to save points in the skill by using this affixe at least !
Reduction that gives -2 mana, always gives -2 mana, not otherwise.
You can reach zero, by investing 5 points in Unchained, 1 point in Reckless Spin, and using Inscribed Tablet relic. It’s kinda silly to go below 8 mana cost per second since base mana regen is 8 mana per second, but you do you
% Channel Cost is useful too. T7 helmet would save you ~3 passive points spent in the -2 mana cost passives and achieve the same effect. Not to mention, if you use Warrior’s Fury passive, you will get a huge benefit from % Channel Cost reduction.
There are more than enough points/nodes to get Warpath to 0 channel codt if you wish, plus the relic base that gives -melee cost also works (last time I checked).
It makes very well sense to go below 8 and that is when there is additional cost related to what you are channeling, e.g. Smite (which then may occur further cost).
In any case: I would compare Channel Cost to Mana Regeneration. And below a cost of 12 Mana regeneration “wins” due linear gains. That is for T7 however. Since Channel Cost is very rare I would say it is rather unlikely you will ever see a usable item with T7 Channel cost. Mana Regeneration however is common and you will definitely see usable T7 with mana regeneration.
So in the long run I would only expedct Channel Cost to be more effective than MR around a channel cost of 16 or higher. Which I would say is pretty lame considering its rarity.
At least for war path, though. There may be channeling skills other than warpath with higher base cost and then Channel Cost might be more desireable.
Edit:
I should have phrased this better. They scale both linearly, but MR is independent from the channel costs while Channel Cost is not.
Now you all got me thinking about channeling healing hands/skybeam…